Nikolay Kuzelyov, Director General of VNIIA

– One can’t achieve big results without big investments

In 2009 the Government of Russia will allocate almost $4.5bln for the support of the national nuclear industry, Vice Premier of Russia-Head of the Staff of the Government of Russia Sergey Sobyanin said during Atomexpo forum. He said that nuclear energy was one of the key priorities of the Russia-Europe cooperation. Director General of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko said that despite its focus on national equipment Rosatom was open for international partnership and was ready to take part in international projects on parity basis. Rosatom supposes that the demand for electricity will be restored in no earlier than two years and, therefore, is revising its NPP construction plans: now, we are planning to start building two reactors a year in 2014–2015.

We have undertaken a big program and it requires big money. Money has always been a problem for us and we have always achieved as much as we could afford. One can’t achieve big results without big investments. So, we must be happy that so much money has been allocated for our domestic industry.

The reform is over, which means that, from now on, we will have to work really well. We will no longer be able to say that we can’t do something because we are not reformed. Today, we are encountering lots of new concepts we need for being competitive. It is obvious that we need state support because we are a state corporation. But, in order to receive it, we must be transparent and efficient in spending the budgetary funds. We must be no less efficient in our social activities as we work in a sector needing strong public support.