Alstom And Atomenergomash Invest In Power Plants

French company Alstom signed a deal on a joint investment in nuclear plant building with Russian company Atomenergomash.

Alstom will have 49 percent of the share in the investment in the building of a larger part of a nuclear power plant, with the exception of the reactor, and the partners will invest more than 200 million euros in cash and property. 

This is the first joint investment of the kind in Russia. It comes as part of Moscow's new initiative, with the goal to expand civilian use of nuclear energy, more than 20 years after the disaster at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl pointed to the shortcomings of the Soviet nuclear technology.

This agreement has exceptional strategic and operational importance, said Alstrom's chairman and chief executive Patrick Kron at the signing ceremony in Moscow. – It opens the doors to the market in Russia, one of the three leading countries for the future development of atomic energy production, alongside China and the United States, he added. 

By 2030, Russia plans to double its nuclear capacities and hopes to increase its uranium reserve, which now amounts to almost a million tons, to be the third biggest in the world, said assistant prime minister Sergei Ivanov. The headquarters of the joint investment will be in Podolsk, not far from Moscow. 

This provides us with a privileged access to the growing Russian market. This partnership will strengthen our position as technology leader on the growing market of nuclear energy, said Kron.