TACIS to support Russian nuclear power plants

The TACIS program on nuclear security will function in Russia at least until 2006, the press center of Rosenergoatom told RosBusinessConsulting commenting of the results of the meeting of the supervisory council of the European Commission and the Russian Atomic Energy on the TACIS nuclear security program. The main part of the program will be aimed at implementing large-scale projects on modernizing Russian nuclear power stations with at least a EUR10m budget each. The press center noted that the first project on introducing the information and computing system was implemented at the Balakovo nuclear power plant recently. The project's estimated cost was about EUR10m.

On the whole, 145 programs on security totaling EUR124m have been implemented within the TACIS framework in Russia since 1991. Some 77 foreign companies have taken part in these projects including EDF (France), British Energy (Great Britain), Tractebel (Belgium) and RWE (Germany). Moreover, 24 Russian enterprises and organizations have taken part in them as contractors.

TACIS programs on nuclear security at Russian nuclear power stations amount to 40 percent of the total volume of international programs of the Rosenergoatom concern. The share of international financial assistance aimed at increasing nuclear and radiation security at nuclear power plants in Russia is 10-15 percent of Rosenergoatom's total expenses for this purpose.