Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and the head of a French nuclear power company discussed in Paris Friday the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in the Caucasus nation, Georgia's ambassador to France said.
Georgia is looking to build a nuclear reactor to reduce its dependence on imported fuel, especially in light of its increasingly strained relations with Russia.
Saakashvili met with Anne Lauvergeon, the head of French nuclear power company AREVA, on a working visit to France June 13-14 at the invitation of the country's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
"The sides discussed bilateral cooperation and possibility of building a nuclear power plant [in Georgia]," Mamuka Kudava said. "The groundwork for the project will begin in the near future."
Meanwhile, parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze, who is accompanying Saakashvili on his visit, said Georgia's future nuclear reactor would serve only civilian purposes.
"Naturally, the nuclear power plant will have only civilian use," she told reporters. "Nobody plans to build a nuclear bomb in Georgia."
Power supplies have been a major problem for Georgia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, with the South Caucasus nation's derelict energy sector covering only 40% of its domestic needs.
Russia remains Georgia's main energy supplier, and sporadic disruptions in Russian supplies seem to deepen the rift between the two post-Soviet countries.
The potential threat of Russia using energy as a political weapon has forced Georgia to look for alternative sources of power generation and to seek help in the West.
Some of European countries, including France, have already expressed an interest in helping Georgia build its first NPP.
France's AREVA NP is one of the world's leading designers and builders of nuclear power plants.
SOURCE: RIA Novosti
DATE: June 16, 2007