Leonid Grigoryev, president of Institute of Energy and Finance

– Nuclear energy is prestigious

“Azerbaijan will get much more profit from selling oil and gas abroad than from burning them at home. That’s why the initiative of the Azeri leadership to build a nuclear power plant is quite logical. Like any country wishing to develop nuclear energy, Azerbaijan seeks to reduce the load on its export and to ensure comfortable life for its people.”

As was earlier reported, during the 51st IAEA General Conference in Vienna the director of the Radiation Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan Adil Garibov said that his country would like to build a nuclear power plant. If supported, this project may start in 2009 and be finished by 2025. Experts say that Azerbaijan’s oil and gas resources will end in some 25–30 years. So, the country will have to pass to other sources of energy.

“Today, Azerbaijan is coming out of crisis and is showing impressive economic growth. So as to keep up this pace, that country needs cheaper energy – namely, nuclear energy. In the last years, nuclear energy has become not just profitable, it has become prestigious. To have nuclear power plant means to have high status in the world.”

“Russia might bid for the project and be worthy rival to the French or Japanese. But still it will be a tough fight.”