Sergei Kiriyenko: “The necessity of nuclear energy development is understood by the majority of states”
Today the regular in Seoul begins the next world summit on nuclear security, which will be attended by heads of delegations and countries active in the field of nuclear energy. The timing of the summit coincides with the anniversary of the tragic earthquake in Japan, which led to the man-made disaster at a nuclear plant in Fukushima. This event triggered a lively debate about the efficacy and safety of nuclear power worldwide, as well as prospects for its development.
On the eve of the summit Russian experts discussed the same problems in the frames of a round-table discussion.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom
Summing up this year’s results, and they will be summed up also at the summit in Seoul, today we can safely say that one year after the events in Fukushima the understanding of the necessity to develop nuclear power remains in most countries. Just a few countries froze their programs or abandoned them. The key countries in the development of nuclear energy, such as Russia, USA, China, France, Britain, India and South Korea where we are gathering have not only stopped their programs, but rather, launched large-scale nuclear energy development programs. Of course all of these development programs require a very rigid understanding of security requirements. As you know, in Russia all the stations did not only undergo internal inspection in accordance with the decisions of the government, but were also inspected by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), as well as by the IAEA. That is why I am convinced that in Seoul we will be talking about it. There definitely will be a discussion of necessary amendments to legislation. You probably remember that last year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed a number of Russia’s major regulatory initiatives regarding the changes to the international law in order to guarantee the safety of nuclear energy not only in a particular country, but world wide. Russia's proposals were adopted at a special conference last year and at the IAEA General Conference, as well as were included in the Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. They are now being actively discussed by the convention participants at the IAEA. We expect that this subject will also be discussed in Seoul. Of course, it is important also from the perspective of bilateral contacts. All of our key partners will be in Seoul. We propose a series of bilateral meetings with counterparts at a summit in Seoul on the level of heads of countries and industries.
It is important to us also because the year has been exemplary. After Fukushima Russia was afraid that the volume of contracts in the nuclear field was going to decrease. In the end, Russia almost doubled the volume of orders for the construction of nuclear plants abroad, before Fukushima, in February of the last year we had orders only for the construction of 12 objects abroad. The start of the Bushehr plant in Iran is on its way and we've got 11. By January 1 of this year we had orders for 21objects. The income of Rosatom from orders within Russia has also increased over the last year and amounted to almost 500 billion rubles, while Russian nuclear power plants produced a record amount of electricity - 172.7 billion kw / h. The volume of production of natural uranium increased by 35%, and the volume with the prime cost of less than $ 80 per kg has also increased. The total income of Rosatom from the international orders, signed for the next 10 years, amount to more than 50 billion rubles.
It was the year when we launched the maximum number of objects. The number of nuclear power plants launched over the past year matches with the numbers from the Soviet time, which were reported at a similar level to last only in 1984 Thus, in 2011 the Bushehr NPP in Iran was launched, the start-up and commissioning of the joint facility with Chinese partners, a fast research reactor in China, built by Russian technologies with participation of Russian specialists took place. The fourth block of the Kalinin nuclear power plant. And as you know, the first block of the Kudamkulan in India was actually completed and we were ready to launch it last year, but it was was postponed for this year due to political discussions, which took place in India. To our delight, these controversies seem over and that is why we expect the launching to take place in the nearest future.
I would like to bring your attention to the fact that four ignitions during this year, which we were ready for, or even three ignitions in one year... In all previous years, in the past eighteen years we have brought only three objects to completion and here we had three launches in one year.
-Could you talk about what would be different about this summit from the previous one. Or will it be just a regular “check of hours”? And what new proposals Russia is ready to introduce? And if possible, could you elaborate the subject of cooperation with China.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom
“Certainly, there will be definitely some “check of hours.” No wonder that the country holders of all of today's nuclear technology, and therefore liability for the security of the world have determined to held this summit on a regular basis. The reason for this is that one needs a certain periodicity to compare notes. For that reason I believe that there will be a summing up of those plans that have been identified by participants of the last summit in Washington. This is certainly true. The peculiarity of the summit is related to the fact that it will be dedicated to the physical safety, first of all, to the physical security of facilities. This a characteristic objective. The reason is also clear. It is certainly associated with events in Fukushima, but it is a logical continuation of the previous summit. That by means of successive gatherings country leaders are discussing all the key aspects of the safe development of the world, issues relating to the nuclear industry - its military and civilian application. The subject of this summit is a logical continuation of the previous one. I have already said, that we have not prepared anything special to "take out of our pocket" at the summit. Russia's position in matters of nuclear safety is open and transparent. And we do not keep our proposals in secret until the summit, we introduce them as we work together. Therefore, the initiatives of Russian President were voiced last year regardless the summit, and they are already being implemented - it is right, we should not put them aside. The same applies to issues of physical safety. We are actively cooperating with the IAEA, first of all on the basis of IAEA. As I have said, regarding the issues of physical security in the past year we had 19 oversight inspections made by control bodies. In addition, 28 instruction evens and 1383 trainings with the participation of law enforcement agencies were held. 1381 only in this year at the Russian nuclear power plants. The total number of professionals involved amount to 47,000 people and to 900 vehicles.
I would like to say that the question of physical, nuclear and conventional security is something which can not be touched upon from summit to summit, it is something you have to deal with on an every day basis. Therefore, in this sense, we have not prepared anything special, but we have something to offer in terms of the fact that all the obligations that Russia assumed previously were fully executed, and we are working very hard in order to assist our partners. Special position of Russia lies in the fact that we are offering to our partners not only commercial contracts. When we say that we have signed a contract to build at station, we built the station, and everything else - is not our business. No, we are talking about the fact that such countries like Russia, USA and France have a particular responsibility and that we must help our partners to comprehensively solve their problems. In cooperation with our partners, we always say that we are ready to build nuclear power plants, but that we are ready to help them together with international experts to develop a national law, if they do not have it yet. That we are ready to train their staff. Today at our national research university MEPI 195 foreign students are studying at the moment. And every year this number grows. They are from all our key partner countries: Turkey, Vietnam, Jordan and Mongolia. And we will expand this field.
We say that we are ready to assist through enforcement agencies.The "Rostekhnadzor" is doing a great and very important work in this direction in the field of training specialists and exchanging experiences, as well as organizing internships. We are saying that we are ready to enter into long-lasting contracts with local businesses and try to expand the order for the local businesses as much as possible so that the construction of a nuclear power plant prompts the development of national industry and provides appropriative maximum use of local producers. We say that we are ready to build also everything which is associated with the whole infrastructure of the fuel cycle including processing and disposal of waste. Actually, we are ready to provide all services to develop the entire system related to the creation and development of nuclear energy in a given country. This is an important thing. I believe that this is an important approach, supported by Russia. We offer to consolidate the variety of similar requirements as binding international requirements. Actually, it is also one of Russia's initiatives. As I have said, we have not "dragged" specifically for the summit. We've been doing this for a long time and very consistently. And we are very pleased that it is supported by our key partners. As I said, it has been supported by the G8, and at the summit of the G20, and the IAEA General Conference, at bilateral contacts with our American partners, and in the agreement which was signed by the heads of Russia and France, one of our key partners.
Regarding China, we are satisfied with the level of cooperation progress. Last year was very rich. Like I have said, we have jointly launched an experimental high-velocity neutron reactor, with the participation of Russian specialists and Russian technologies. This is the most important thing, which included China in the group of four countries with fast active research reactors. The second theme: we have launched the plant on uranium enrichment based on Russian technologies in China. The operation of the first two blocks of the Tianwan station has been very successful, and we have signed the contract for the construction of the third and fourth block, that is, the second stage of Tianwan station. This is an important indicator for us. That is, in this case our Chinese partners are buying not a flyer when we advertise something and they agree without even touching it. There are two blocks built, and we are ordered to build two additional blocks on the basis of operation of the first two. It is very important, because it means that the first two blocks have shown good results.”
