Viktor Opekunov, Chairman of State Duma Committee on Energy, Transport and Communication

— The adoption of the law on nuclear reforms will allow us to start forming a big integrated corporation as soon as Feb 2007

The adoption of the law on the reformation of the nuclear power sector now means that it will be considered by the Federation Council as early as this month and by the end of Jan it may already be ratified by the President. This means that in Jan the law will take force and in Feb we will already be able to start forming a big integrated corporation, which will cover the whole production cycle of our energy industry, i.e. everything that concerns the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
 
This will be a really historic event for Russia’s nuclear power sector. During the Soviet times, under planed economy, the whole system was concentrated in one complex: first, it was Minsredmash, then, Atomic Energy Ministry, presently, Industry and Atomic Energy Ministry. It was a system fully owned and managed by the state. It was a vertical system controlled by one ministry.

Now that we are under market economy, the nuclear power sector and the economy, in general, function under quite different conditions. However, the nuclear power sector is still living in uncertainty: part of its enterprises, particularly, big companies like TVEL, Tekhsnabexport, have been corporized, while many enterprises, particularly, those enriching uranium and producing electricity are still owned by the state.

The very structure of the Ministry has changed. Today, it can no longer control the whole sector. Today, it is extremely hard to manage the whole nuclear power sector — to effectively optimize the work of its enterprises and to distribute the profit among them — as they all have different ownership statuses and different management systems. Moreover, the state has lost its influence over some enterprises: they were privatized in such a way that the state has lost its controlling interests therein.

Today, our task is to bring all the enterprises together into a new configuration under new management system. I am sure that this task will be effectively implemented and our nuclear power sector will receive a big corporation that will be as big and as competitive as the biggest trans-national companies, such as Areva, Westinghouse, Toshiba, Urenco. In fact, we are creating a corporation that will be able compete not only in Russia but also abroad.

It will be fully owned by the state. Any operation with its shares will be carried out under the Federal Law: neither the government nor the President will have power over the shares. The list of the enterprises that will be incorporated into the system and transformed from federal state unitary enterprises into joint stock companies will be determined by the President.

The law sets very tough safety requirements and provides for all measures necessary to protecting the state interests and ensuring the safe operation of the nuclear power sector.