MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Nuclear generation serves as a price stabilizer in Russia, with nuclear power plants (NPPs) helping keep electricity prices in the country below European levels, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said in a comment on rising energy prices in Europe.

"Events in February-March of this year in the Middle East, which limited gas supplies to Europe, triggered a price shock in the continent’s key wholesale electricity markets. In Germany, which relies on gas-fired generation and renewables, the price in March stood at 102.4 euro per MWh. In Italy, where the generation structure is similar, the price reached 141.82 euro per MWh. The Russian wholesale electricity market demonstrates a fundamentally different model. In our case, nuclear generation performs the function of a price stabilizer. Thanks to nuclear power plants, electricity prices in Russia - particularly in the first price zone - remain incomparably lower than in Europe," the head of Russia’s nuclear industry emphasized.

He recalled that in the cost structure of a "nuclear" kilowatt-hour, the cost of uranium itself accounts for only about 5%. By contrast, in a kilowatt-hour generated from natural gas, the fuel component can reach up to 80%. "Even in the context of rising prices for uranium raw materials and enrichment services, nuclear power plants arguably remain the most economically efficient method of electricity generation available to humanity," Likhachev said.