Vladimir Putin's opening address:
Let's get down to business. Our task is to analyse the situation in the nuclear power industry, one of the critical sectors of the national economy, with a focus on power plant construction.
The Rostov power unit, which began operating today, is the first in a series under the new national programme for the development of the nuclear power industry.
Let me remind you that the federal targeted programme for the development of the nuclear power industry in 2007-2010 and through 2015 was adopted in 2006.
The action programme developed by the Rosatom government corporation on the basis of this targeted programme was adopted in 2008.
As you know, we have set ambitious targets, which I've just mentioned. When we meet them, nuclear energy will make up 20% and eventually even 25-30% of gross national energy production, as compared to the current level of 16%. This figure has reached 70% in certain European countries, in France for instance, where it is approaching 80%, if I am not mistaken.
We know full well that expanding the nuclear power industry will reduce energy costs, save oil and gas, and spare the environment.
We are planning to build roughly as many nuclear power units as were built during the entire history of the Soviet nuclear industry. About thirty major units were built in the Soviet Union within several decades, while we intend to build 26 in the very near future.
Significantly, we did not shelve these plans even when the crisis was at its peak. This long-term goal should not depend on the current situation because it is future-oriented. Today's opening of unit two at the Rostov nuclear plant is the best possible proof of that point.
As for funding, more than 68 billion roubles have been earmarked in this year's federal budget alone as targeted allocations for the construction of nuclear plants. All told, the Rosenergoatom investment programme calls for 175 billion roubles to be allocated this year.
It is a sizable sum, even by the standards of the nuclear power industry, and it must be spent as efficiently as possible. I want to hear reports today on what is being done to contain costs.
Ten generating units and the "Academician Lomonosov", the world's first floating nuclear plant, are under construction. Russia is designing or building 15 units at home and abroad. This includes units one and two at Novovoronezh Power Plant 2; units 1 and 2 at Leningrad Power Plant 2; and units 3 and 4 here at the Rostov [or Volgodonsk] plant. We have just seen the construction site.
Again, their opening should coincide with the development of the grid infrastructure. Otherwise, the new units will have to reduce capacity due to grid problems. This would be unacceptable.
I am ordering the Ministry of Energy to arrange this coordination.
Nuclear safety demands special attention. The IAEA regards reactors of Russian design and manufacture as among the safest in the world, and we should strive to meet the highest standards in the future, as we are now.
We are launching the Federal Targeted Programme for Nuclear Technology this year. This will form the foundation for the Russian energy industry to shift to next generation reactors that are more efficient and conserve more.
We need to become even more competitive globally and to fully realise the Russian potential in civilian nuclear energy. This requires cutting-edge technology, experience working on major projects, and a reputation as a reliable partner.
The two-year guarantee period came to a successful close last year at the Tianwan nuclear plant in China. Built using the latest Russian technology, it is the most powerful plant of its kind in China.
Preparations to build units three and four are beginning this year.
As you know, when our government delegation visited India last week, we coordinated plans to build twelve or more nuclear generating units there. Unit one at the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran will open this summer. Construction of the Belene nuclear plant is ongoing in Bulgaria, and negotiations with our partners in Turkey and elsewhere are underway.
In short, we have a sizable number of contracts but there is ample room for progress. I think Russia has the capacity to handle 25% or even more of the world's nuclear plant construction and operating needs. Currently, we provide just 16%. We must continue to make progress, both on the domestic and global markets.
We can and must offer our partners services in nuclear plant construction and comprehensive technical maintenance, modernisation of existing plants, and the supply and recycling of nuclear fuel. We have done much in this field. Even now, Rosatom accounts for 40% of the world uranium enrichment market, which is very good, and 17% of the nuclear fuel supply market.
We are prepared to invest in the construction of nuclear plants in countries that have amended their laws to allow foreign shareholders. We are conducting negotiations with Turkey, Armenia and some other countries on this issue, as I've mentioned.
Russia welcomes foreign investment, too. The Baltic nuclear plant project provides a precedent for this. Foreign and domestic retail investors can finance up to a half of the project for up to 49% of its stock.
We will naturally continue to provide government support to Russian companies working internationally.
In particular, we will provide targeted export loans, which we do currently, and increase capital in companies to improve their chances in international auctions. This is essential. Russian bids must be attractive, both technologically and financially.
Many projects are underway, as I've mentioned, and now let's hear what their managers have to say on the current situation.
For instance, the opening of unit four at the Kalinin nuclear plant promises to provide another 423 jobs, an extra billion roubles in Tver regional tax revenues, and at least 6.5 billion kW of electricity a year.
Let's hear a report on how the job is going. Mr Leonid Martynovchenko, the Kalinin plant director, has the floor.
Leonid Martynovchenko: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Leonid Martynovchenko. I am the director of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant. This is Igor Kruz, the chief foreman.
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.
Leonid Martynovchenko: Mr Prime Minister, all three units are operating normally. Much has changed, particularly at the fourth unit, since your visit a year ago.
A protective shield was constructed above the reactor room, and the engine room has been assembled and built. A total of 21.31 billion roubles were spent on this.
All the necessary equipment has been delivered to the construction site. Engineering companies have received quite a lot of orders from us, totaling 28 billion roubles, since construction of the unit began. We placed orders with over 100 Russian companies, including the Power Machines Company, the Podolsk Engineering Plant and the Belgorod Plant of Energy Engineering. We have placed quite a lot of orders with them.
A total of 21 billion roubles have been appropriated for 2010. All projects are funded on time and in full. This is what we've done at the generating unit this year: We've installed the reactor vessel and the first steam generator out of a total of four. We are preparing to install the next one. The welding of the main circulation pipeline is scheduled for March 25.
In August, the generating unit will start producing electricity for our needs. The full launch of the unit is scheduled for 2011.
As you've mentioned, tax revenues in the Tver Region will increase by almost one billion roubles. They currently stand at some 1.5 billion roubles.
I would like to invite you again, Mr Prime Minister, to the opening ceremony at the Kalinin station. I believe that this is a notable event for the region and for the country as a whole. And I'll close on that note. Thank you.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. Operations at the fourth unit of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant were suspended in 1991, just like here, at the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant. Operations were resumed in 2007. The launch of the station's generating units is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2011 or the first quarter of 2012. Mr Martynovchenko, do you think this schedule is realistic?
Leonid Martynovchenko: We have everything we need to launch the unit in 2011. These terms, the fourth quarter, are absolutely practical.
Vladimir Putin: Good. I will definitely visit your plant to see everything firsthand. Thank you. The image on the right shows what is happening at the plant in real time, correct? Good.
Leonid Martynovchenko: Yes, it is broadcast from a camera at the unit.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Good luck!
Let's turn our attention to Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant 2 and hear from the station's director Sergei Petrov. Mr Petrov, please.
Sergei Petrov: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to report on the progress made in the construction of the main AES-2006 (Nuclear Power Plant 2006) units with a capacity of 1,200 MW at the future site of Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant 2.
Construction of the reactor's underground facilities at the first generating unit was completed in 2009. Over 27,000 cubic metres of concrete were used in the construction of the foundation, walls and casing.
A protective shield is being constructed above the reactor room of Unit No. 1, which goes from the zero mark to the 6.5-metre mark.
We finished pouring the foundation of the reactor room and the auxiliary reactor room, and we're preparing to assemble the turbine's metal frame.
Over 15 kilometres of roads have been built to allow access to the construction site.
The number of workers at the construction site has been increased to 4,000, with over 200 machines in use there.
We have placed orders for all the main equipment.
The reactor vessel will be assembled at the Izhora Works by August 2010. ZiO-Podolsk, the Central Design Bureau of Machine Building and Power Machines Company will supply steam generators, circulator pumps, and a turbine and a generator respectively by November.
A total of 33.5 billion roubles have been appropriated for 2010. All projects have been funded on time and completely.
We plan to finish construction of a 38-metre thick protective shield at the first generating unit by the end of 2010, which will allow us to assemble a polar crane. A metal frame is being constructed above the turbine room, which will allow us to start assembling the main equipment in late 2010.
That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Petrov. I wish you every success. The launch is scheduled for between 2013 and 2015. You must monitor the work of equipment suppliers and stay in touch with them. I hope this work will go on uninterrupted.
If you have any problems or questions related to the supply of machines and equipment, please let us know about them promptly, and keep the company's management and the government updated on these issues. We will respond to them if necessary, providing support and assistance to you and your contractors.
Sergei Petrov: Thank you for your kind words, Mr Prime Minister.
Vladimir Putin: I wish you every success! Now let's hear from the director of Leningrad Nuclear Power Station 2, Oleg Lebedev. You are free to begin.
Oleg Levedev: Mr Putin, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Oleg Lebedev, director of Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant 2, which is presently under construction.
Let me give you the highlights from last year. We received a license for construction of unit two in July. In November, we started assembling the equipment to contain reactor core meltdowns in unit one. Construction is being carried out by eight major subcontractors employing an average of 2,000 construction workers, with 1,650 of these working on site. We are using 220 construction machines.
We have ordered all the equipment for this year with long manufacturing cycles. Total supplies for 2010 will cost 5.4 billion roubles. Funding has been provided in the full amount. We are to use up 22.1 billion roubles of capital investment during the year. Our main goals for the year are to prepare the reactor building for the assembly of a circular polar crane, finishing the first cooling tower at unit one, and laying the foundation of the unit two reactor building.
As for longer-term objectives, we plan to begin assembling the reactor vessel at unit one in August 2011, and the unit is scheduled to be operating in autumn 2013.
That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Right, I have the deadline in my reference pack. It's autumn 2013. Construction work is supposed to employ a total of eight thousand workers. That's for the peak load, as far as I know. What have you just said? Two thousand against the eight I have in my pack?
Oleg Levedev: Yes, there are only two thousand now but we will have about eight thousand on site by 2011-12.
Vladimir Putin: So everything is on schedule, right?
Oleg Levedev: Yes, quite right.
Vladimir Putin: Good, thank you.
Now let's turn to the Beloyarsk Power Plant. Its director, Mr Yury Noskov, has the floor.
Yury Noskov: Mr Putin, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Yury Noskov, director of Beloyarsk Power Plant 2, which is currently under construction.
My report is on the construction of a unit with a BN-800 fast reactor.
The central building was erected up to the +12 metre mark last year, and the reactor vault up to the +16 metre mark. The vault was prepared for assembling the reactor vessel, and the initial stage of physical protection has been reached.
At present, the unit is employing 2,600 construction workers with all the necessary machines. More than forty Russian companies are manufacturing our equipment, primarily the ZiO Podolsk, Power Machines, Baltiiisky Zavod, Electrosila, Uralkhimmash and SverdNIIkhimmash engineering plants.
This key event in our construction work this year will be the assembly of the reactor vessel in its vault. The reactor's bottom plates were brought in and installation began in February. Financing for 2010 will total 14.5 billion roubles. The money for the fast reactor unit construction has been coming in on schedule and in full.
We plan to finish the main building circuit, build the central room dome and assemble internal installations next year; finish construction and assembly, and begin testing and commissioning in 2012; fill in the primary and secondary reactor circuits with sodium; and bring the unit into operation in 2014.
That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you, Mr Noskov.
The Beloyarsk Power Plant will employ 880 workers to produce 6.16 billion kW a year-a spectacular contribution to the national energy industry.
I want to stress one thing that energy experts are well aware of: the Beloyarsk plant is one of a kind. It operates the world's only powerful BN-600 fast reactor. The next unit, which will start work in 2014 and which Mr Noskov has told us about, will have a BN-800 reactor.
I would like Rosatom's management to keep this job under its close supervision.
Mr Anatoly Kozlov of the Baltic Power Plant now has the floor.
Anatoly Kozlov: Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Anatoly Kozlov, director of the Baltic plant, which is currently under construction.
The construction of the Baltic Power Plant began in the Niemen District of the Kaliningrad Region on February 25. We will employ roughly 400 construction workers by the year's end. The year's assignments are as follows: building railways and highways, internal and external electric, thermal and water supply grids for construction needs, and starting work on the foundation pits for the main buildings and unit one.
We will receive 3.62 billion roubles this year. February 2011 is the deadline by which we must begin to lay concrete. Unit one is scheduled to go into operation in 2016, and unit two in 2018. The plant will put an end to energy shortages in the Kaliningrad Region, with an export potential of one GW of installed capacity.
That concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. We all know about the Kaliningrad Region's energy problems. We won't discuss the entire energy complex because it's all interlinked with electric and gas supply. There truly are many problems to resolve, and we are monitoring all of them. In light of this, the nuclear plant is of critical importance to the Kaliningrad Region, neighbouring countries, and that entire part of Europe.
I'm assuming that deadlines will be met and the units will be put into operation in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
You have said more than three billion roubles have been earmarked for this year-slightly above three and a half. How is the financing going?
Anatoly Kozlov: According to schedule.
Vladimir Putin: No blips?
Anatoly Kozlov: No problems at all.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Best of luck. Thank you.