Alexander Perov, senior expert of the National Energy Security Foundation

– Nuclear energy is state contracts and long-term money

In 2009 the financing of the production of equipment for nuclear reactors at St.Petersburg plants will total 20.2bln RUR, Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said while visiting Baltiysky Zavod in St.Petersburg Apr 21 2009. The amount of contracts concluded with seven machine building companies of St.Petersburg in the last three years totaled 94.4bln RUR: 1.3bln RUR was paid in 2007, 12.8bln RUR in 2008. Kiriyenko said that in the future the financing will be increased as Rosatom needs additional equipment for its nuclear power plants.

Rosatom is one of the biggest consumers of Russian machine building companies and this is quite natural considering the scale of Rosatom’s development program.

For many years already we have tried to consolidate the machine building assets of our nuclear industry: just remember OMZ and Emergomash. Investors believe that the production of equipment for nuclear power plants is one of the most promising sectors.

Nuclear energy is state contracts and long-term money – stable orders for 10 and more years ahead. That’s why Rosatom is quite a good partner for our machine builders.

The crisis has curbed lots of investment projects in the traditional energy sector. It is not clear what the state will do with the energy tariffs: some experts say that it is necessary to liberalize the market, others – that the tariffs must not be raised in the near future. Investors need clarity. That’s why many of them have turned their faces from the energy sector towards nuclear power engineering.

The large-scale construction of nuclear power plants is good news not only for machine builders but also for producers of cement and other construction materials. Many investors are now planning to build cement factories near NPP construction sites.