In the context of the European energy strategy focused on reducing the carbon footprint and curbing the global temperature rise, nuclear generation is an essential part of the European energy mix, said top experts at the 10th European Atomic Energy Conference held recently.
The conference was attended by Agneta Rising, Director General of the World Nuclear Association, Massimo Garribba, Head the European Commission Energy Directorate for Nuclear Safety and Fuel Cycle, Jean- Pol Poncelet, Director General of European Atomic Association-FORATOM, representatives of major nuclear companies, including Russia’s ROSATOM, Areva of France, Westinghouse from USA, Fennovoima from Finland and others.
According to the experts say half of the European reactor fleet is approaching its 30-year operation milestone. As a result issues of extending the service life of existing nuclear power plants, decommissioning of old plants and as well as commissioning of new power units have become important.
In his speech, the Head of ROSATOM France, Andrey Rozhdestvin said that Russia’s state nuclear corporation- ROSATOM is ready to offer its European partners reliable and efficient solutions in construction, upgrading and decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
“We are already successfully implementing NPP construction in Finland, Hungary and Turkey. We are participating in the upgrade of the Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria as a partner of the consortium with France’s EDF. We have unique backend competence and expertize”, said Andrey Rozhdestvin.
Speaking on the funding for nuclear power projects, he said that Rosatom utilizes a variety of funding solutions for its projects like inter-governmental loans for Hungary and Belarus, co-investment, for Finland and Turkey.
The conference was organized by the Platts international independent news agency and Rosatom International Network was the general partner of the event.
