ST. PETERSBURG, November 2. /TASS/. The Russian Ministry of Energy believes that the share of nuclear energy in the country will reach 24-24.5% by 2042 due to the construction of new nuclear power plants in the Far East, Siberia, and the European part of Russia. Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov told TASS.

"Yes, we are considering placing nuclear power plants in the Far East, Siberia and the Central part of Russia to ensure an increase in the share of generation, but at the level of 24-24.5% by 2042. At the same time, we need to take a lot into account, as we need flexible generation," he said.

Earlier Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said that he expects nuclear energy to grow in Russia's energy balance to 30%. In turn, Shulginov noted that the structure of the energy balance is a serious analytical work that should take into account a number of factors: the growth of electricity consumption, the economy, structural changes in generation, its service life.

"All these issues are not being resolved on the fly, so loud statements about the growth of one direction of generation without taking into account all these factors are not entirely correct. For example, at first, they talked about increasing the share of nuclear energy to 25%, now figures such as 30% are already mentioned. I think it is unrealistic to reach this by 2042," he emphasized.