A new government holding, Atomenergoprom, could be established in May-June 2007, an official at the Russian Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom) said Wednesday.
Vladimir Travin, Rosatom's deputy head, said that by then the government should have prepared all the relevant documents, some of which are currently being drafted by Rosatom itself and coordinated with various departments.
"The list of companies to be included in Atomenergoprom should be ready by April," Travin said.
Atomenergoprom, which will be wholly controlled by the government, is expected to be a large full-cycle corporation engaged in activities ranging from uranium extraction, fuel fabrication and electric power generation, to the construction of nuclear power plants, both domestically and abroad.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was recently promoted from defense minister and charged with the task of supervising the country's nuclear power and defense industries, said last week that the new executive body will be formed to take centralized control over the civilian nuclear power sector following the merger of four existing nuclear power "dinosaurs" - TVEL, Techsnabexport, Rosenergoatom and Atomstroyexport.
He also said last Friday that Russia could expand its uranium ore production and become third in the world in terms of identified uranium ore reserves in the future.
A 2006 report, Uranium 2005: Resources, Production and Demand, jointly prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), estimates the world's identified amount of conventional uranium resources to be about 4.7 million tons.
The report places Russia ninth on the list of countries that possess the largest reserves of uranium ore, with 172,000 tons (over 3% of the global supply).
SOURCE: RIA Novosti
DATE: Mar 25, 2007