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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia to build Â’nuclear GazpromÂ’ for world market
2006-06-29
MOSCOW - Russia will merge its civilian nuclear companies into one state company -- along the lines of gas giant Gazprom -- to help it compete on the world nuclear market, the countryÂ’s nuclear chief said on Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin this month approved a revamp of the nuclear industry which nuclear officials say is aimed at boosting nuclear energy production and increasing the global clout of RussiaÂ’s major nuclear companies. Under the plan, a single state company called Atomprom will be created on the base of the many smaller, sometimes overlapping, state-controlled companies in the sector.
Because we all know how efficient giant, state-controlled Russian enterprises are.
“It is not by chance that the preliminary name of this single Russian company evokes the name Gazprom,” Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom, said in a speech according to a Rosatom statement.

State-controlled gas giant Gazprom GAZP.MM, the worldÂ’s biggest natural gas company by reserves, has made major acquisitions inside Russia, helping Putin the Kremlin boost control over the energy sector. Gazprom also plans further expansion abroad, aiming to boost its share of the European market, for example, to about 30 percent from about 25 percent by buying into gas storage projects, gas marketing and power firms.

Russia’s Atomprom would compete on the world market not with national, but with transnational companies such as Germany’s Siemens SIEGn.DE and Japan’s Toshiba Corp. 6501.T, RIA quoted Kiriyenko as saying. “We need to create a single structure, which would be comparable with them and which could surpass them,” he said.
The Russian collosus is unmatched in so many ways on world markets as we all know ...
A source in the nuclear industry with knowledge of the plan told Reuters on Tuesday Atomprom would unite all nuclear power generation, uranium production and enrichment as well as the building and export of nuclear products. If the plan is implemented, Atomprom would include nuclear power company Rosenergoatom -- which controls RussiaÂ’s nuclear power stations -- and the civilian units of Rosatom: Tekhsnabexport (Tenex), the state owned uranium trader, TVEL, the state owned-nuclear fuel producer and trader, and Atomstroiexport, the state controlled builder of nuclear reactors abroad.
And one ring to rule them all ...
Posted by:Steve White

#10  That'll work about as well as, oh, say Atomash!

Soviets engineers built a factory, Atommash, at Volgodonsk, to build pressure vessels and associated equipment for these reactors in a series, 8 per year. Atommash never produced as intended. Like the USSR, it literally collapsed into the muck -- in this case of the Tsimlianskoe Reservoir, and has been mothballed. The VVER reactors still operating in East Central Europe have been upgraded and modernized, in part to meet the requirements of joining the European Union, although many people worry about their safety compared to non-Soviet reactors owing to their original construction, their age, and the difficulty in maintaining them. Engineers at Paks in Hungary dreamed of another 8 to 10 reactors in this 1,000 MW model.
Posted by: 11A5S   2006-06-29 22:26  

#9  Say what you will about Russia, this move is still a shrewd one. The world economy is going nuclear and Russia stands to profit big time.

We, on the other hand, have leftocrats to deal with, and all they want is to camp in the woods and chew tree bark, free from the evils of cars, air conditioning, flushing toilets and modern medicine.
Posted by: Iblis   2006-06-29 15:01  

#8  You're right - and the "consolidation" of wealth and "government" continues apace, too.

I had very high hopes for Russia once, incredible potential in an educated workforce, fantastic resources, etc, etc, but that faded very quickly.

I understand from some comments I've read that there used to be quite a cheering section here, sharing my high hopes I guess. But I haven't seen many optimistic comments since I arrived - seems we're all appropriately subdued, now. Watching Pooty consolidate power via his pet Duma and simply jailing or disappearing those who have what he wants or get in his way, such as the Yukos guy, has that effect.

The poeple at the bottom are drinking / drugging themselves to death, it seems. I don't think Russia can sustain the current trends and survive. Sad, very sad.

Sorry for the harsh-sounding response - I didn't really mean for it to be directed toward you, honest. I guess you can tell how pissed off disappointed I am. :}
Posted by: Crolump Glereper5426   2006-06-29 14:06  

#7  Didn't mean to say it was a paradise for all, just paradise for a few. Now that they had a taste, you think they're all gonna give it up for the sake of communism? The people at the bottom of the pyramid might long for it, but these guys? not likely.
Posted by: Groger9698   2006-06-29 13:47  

#6  It's a throwback to robber-baron days, perhaps?

Yep, Russia's a real paradise of, um, something.

Tsar Putty has done a bang-up job.
Posted by: Crolump Glereper5426   2006-06-29 13:14  

#5  If you're thinking this is a throwback to the ol' communist days, you're wrong. One of the reasons that communism collapsed in Russia is that some people realized that more money could be made without the ideological handcuffs. Moscow now enjoys the world's biggest collection of billionaires and multi-millionaires. Coincidence? Don't think so.
Posted by: Groger9698   2006-06-29 13:07  

#4  Note that the step where the "state" buys the "civilian" companies is missing.
Posted by: Unavising Tholugum6632   2006-06-29 11:27  

#3  Merging companies into one state "company" for the sake of "efficiency". What a great idea - after all, didn't the Soviets have great success with this model?
Posted by: HV   2006-06-29 11:05  

#2  Wanna buy a slightly used Ukrainian reactor?...
Posted by: mojo   2006-06-29 01:10  

#1  And the model you get will be even safer than the one used at Chernobyl.
Posted by: grb   2006-06-29 01:08  

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