Investments in atomic industry to be $23.57bn

Some 750bn rubles ($23.57bn) are planned to be spent on the development of the atomic industry through 2020, Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Andrey Malyshev declared at a press conference in Moscow today. According to an optimistic scenario, Russia will produce up to 330bn kilowatt/hour at its nuclear power plants annually by 2020. The minimal volume of generated energy is expected to be 290bn kilowatt/hour in 2020. The strategy of development of the atomic industry envisages an increase in the dynamics of energy production growth up to 8bn kilowatt/hour annually.

The deputy minister pointed out that it was planned to put into operation new production facilities that generate about 1gigawatt annually until 2010 and 1.2-1.3 gigawatt per year in the period from 2010 to 2020. The total energy production of Russian nuclear power plants in 2002 will amount to 140bn kilowatt/hour. The combined capacity of Russian nuclear power plants is 22.5 gigawatt at present.

Malyshev noted that the strategy of development of the atomic industry stipulates 162bn rubles ($5.09bn) in investments to upgrade equipment through 2020. Some 152bn rubles ($4.78bn) are planned to be invested in social infrastructure.