YAKUTSK, June 18. /TASS/. Development of small nuclear plants will make it possible to save on fuel deliveries to remote settlements in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), head of the region Aisen Nikolaev said at the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Concerning the ultra-small capacity nuclear plants, Soviet-time developments have already been brought to meet, so to say, modern safety requirements," Nikolaev said. "Should it be possible to start their actual industrial production within a certain time period, this will dramatically change operations in hard-to-reach areas. We are spending huge funding to bring fuel to small settlements, delivering for 2-3 years ahead. Costs are exorbitant. These [small nuclear power plants] can exactly solve all that," he added.

Small nuclear plants are ideal for such settlements because of their relatively small heat and power generation capacity, 10 MW for each kind, Nikolaev noted.