Valentin Luntsevich, member of State Duma Committee on Natural Resources

— This year was successful for the nuclear power industry

This year we have been actively negotiating on the establishment of a uranium enrichment center in Russia. I believe that this project is a pledge of successful development for the countries wishing to develop nuclear energy and a guarantee against political force majeures. Today, nuclear energy is a strong alternative to gas and oil. The gas and oil prices are constantly growing – in some, 30–50 years the gas and oil reserves will come to an end and nuclear energy will prevail. I think everybody in the world knows that and presently the world powers are beginning to fight for influence on the uranium market.

This year we have adopted a very big investment program. The Government has decided to actively develop nuclear energy. Today, unlike the 1990s, we have money for building nuclear power plants and developing nuclear power production.

In the 1990s we stopped many construction projects and now we need to restart them. This is a big expensive project but we are moving in the right direction. As deputy of State Duma, I am ready to actively support this process.

We continue our international cooperation on liquid radioactive waste and stored fuel. This problem is very important and must be solved if we want to have safe and efficient nuclear power industry.

As you may know, today, the newly appointed prime minister of Russia Viktor Zubkov is paying his first official visit to one of the key companies of the sector Elemash. Zubkov is not a specialist in nuclear power engineering but he seems to well understand that nuclear energy is important. His visit shows that he wants to know more about nuclear energy and the situation in the sector.