Putin seeks to form state nuclear major

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to give state companies the right to own the nation’s nuclear assets and have power to form joint ventures with foreign operators, making the industry more efficient, an official said. Putin’s draft law, proposed to parliament on Thursday, would let the companies group together under a new state-controlled holding and try to put Russia’s atomic energy industry on a commercial footing, in the manner of Paris, France-based Areva SA. The holding company would compete in all markets related to nuclear energy. “We need to have the organisational structure in place as soon as possible,’’ said Viktor Opekunov, head of the subcommittee for nuclear energy at Russia’s lower house of parliament. Russian law currently forbids enterprises to hold nuclear assets, with companies like state fuel monopoly TVEL operating merely as trustees. The bill would allow all Russia’s nuclear companies and institutes to be collected under the aegis of a full-cycle atomic energy holding, preliminarily named Atomprom. Russia plans to increase its dependence on nuclear power to 25% of its total electricity needs by 2030, freeing more gas for exports. The country seeks to reorganise its atomic sector, mostly run by state organisations that are not joint-stock companies, into simpler, corporate structures. Atomprom, devised along the lines of gas-export monopoly Gazprom, would provide a broad brand name for the country’s nuclear products and services in direct competition with Areva and Toshiba’s Westinghouse Electric Co Atomprom would be one of a select number of companies permitted by the president to own Russia’s nuclear assets.The holding could be registered before the end of this year, by which time Putin’s bill is expected to enter into law, said Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia’s nuclear energy agency. “If all goes to plan, without too many corrections, then the bill could be approved by parliament within this year,’’ Opekunov said.Head of the nuclear energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, who acts as the president’s adviser on the bill, has said he wants all nuclear activities to be self-sufficient and run like businesses, not as part of the state.Although Atomprom will be fully controlled by the state, the companies in its holding will be free to form joint ventures with private businesses, Novikov said. Financial investors will also be allowed to hold minority stakes in Russia’s uranium mining companies, Kiriyenko said on Thursday.The draft law also allows for foreign companies to own nuclear material on Russian territory. This would allow mining companies such as Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd to send uranium ore to Russia for processing and enrichment, and then re-export.Russia, which has the world’s ninth-largest uranium reserves, wants to buy the ore from Australia, which has the world’s biggest reserves of the element, although laws in both countries currently prevent this, said Vladimir Smirnov, head of Technsabexport, Russia’s nuclear fuel trader. Russia supplies 50% of the world’s low-enriched uranium, which is then processed as fuel for nuclear power plants. “As soon as any nuclear material crosses the Russian border it becomes Russian property,’’ Novikov said. “Of course, this makes the sending of Australian uranium to Russia for enrichment a problem.’’ Among state enterprises to be collected in the Atomprom holding are nuclear generation company Rosenergoatom, machine-maker Atomenergomash, power plant builder Atomstroyexport, TVEL and Techsnabexport. – Reuters