Sergey Kondratyev, senior expert of Institute for Energy and Finance

– The purchase of Nukem Technologies will allow the Russian nuclear industry to increase its share on the European market

NUKEM GmbH, Alzenau, has signed a contract to sell its subsidiary company NUKEM Technologies GmbH to the Russian ZAO Atomstroyexport, the world’s leading uranium trader said in a press release on August 14. NUKEM Technologies is active worldwide in engineering, management of radioactive waste and decommissioning nuclear facilities, and with these activities is “an outstanding match” for the portfolio of Atomstroyexport. The management of NUKEM GmbH is certain that it has selected a viable and strategic future investor for its subsidiary. CFO Dirk Martens said, “Atomstroyexport offers our colleagues in the engineering business the chance to further develop their activities and markets. So jobs at NUKEM Technologies are secured and can be expanded in connection with the global renaissance of nuclear energy.”

In the last years Russia has carried out a large-scale reformation of its nuclear industry and has established Rosatom, a state corporation consolidating all facilities of the sector and managing them according to the market principles. These measures have substantially enhanced the efficiency of the sector. Due to active state financing, Rosatom has created a multi-sector corporate structure of the international level covering all segments of the nuclear industry – from uranium mining to radioactive waste treatment and storage.

The purchase of Nukem Technologis GmbH by Atomstroyexport, a company incorporated into Rosatom’s system and responsible for NPP construction abroad, is part of this strategy. This contract will help us to enlarge our presence on the strategically significant European market and to offer the European customers a full package of services: from engineering of NPPs to storage of spent nuclear fuel and decommissioning of nuclear reactors. We will also get access to new technologies, which will help us to enhance the efficiency of our enterprises. In the last years, given the growing oil and gas prices and the toughening ecological restrictions, the EU has shown an increasing interest in nuclear energy. The purchase of Nukem Technologies will allow the Russian nuclear industry to increase its share on the European market.