Russian civil nuclear reorganisation proceeds
12 August 2008
Russia has announced that its nuclear power generation organisation has been reconstituted and renamed. Rosenergoatom becomes simply Energoatom.
It remains under State Corporation Rosatom, which took over from the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (also known as Rosatom) in 2007. SC Rosatom is a non-profit company holding all nuclear assets on behalf of the state. AtomEnergoProm (AEP) was created last year as a vertically-integrated holding company for the civil nuclear sector, and it will hold all the Energoatom shares. A new company charter has been approved and a new five-member board appointed. The shares are to be transferred to AtomEnergoProm by the end of 2008.
During 2008, there has been a major reorganisation or "privatisation" of nuclear industry entities involving a change from Federal State Unitary Enterprises (FSUE) to Joint Stock Companies (JSC), with most or all of the shares held by AtomEnergoProm. So far, 38 of 55 civil nuclear FSUEs had been reformed. Some renaming occurred due to new restrictions on the use of "Russia" or derivatives (e.g. "Ros") in JSC names.
JSC Energoatom board members are Vladimir Sinitsyn (Chairman), the head of the department of nuclear power and industry complex of SC Rosatom; Vladimir Travin, the director of AEP; Alexander Apkaneev, the deputy director of AEP; Sergey Obozov, the Rosenergoatom director general and AEP deputy director; and Alla Arkhangelskaya, the head of department of prices, tariffs and cost management at AEP.
FSUE Rosenergoatom is operating 31 nuclear power reactors at ten sites in Russia with a total installed capacity of 23.24 GWe (gross). It provides 16% of Russia's electricity.
In 2006, Putin approved a reorganisation of the country's nuclear industry in order to boost nuclear energy production and strengthen Russia's presence in the global nuclear market. The head of Rosatom, Sergei Kirienko has said that the changes were called for "to provide conditions for a massive development of nuclear power in the country as well as active participation of Russia’s nuclear power in the world’s developing markets."
In February 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a federal bill on the management and disposal of the property and shares of organizations operating within the country's nuclear energy sector. The law allowed for the formation of a state-owned holding company for all enterprises involved in the civilian nuclear sector. The bill was adopted by the State Duma on 19 January and approved by the Federal Council on 24 January.