ROSATOM considers ASEAN one of the key regions for nuclear power development

At the ongoing Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2015, being held in Singapore from 26 to 30 of October, 2015 the Head of ROSATOM in Southeast Asia Egor Simonov told about prospects of the development of peaceful atom in the region in the frame of the roundtable “Is Southeast Asia ready to atomic energy?”, hosted by the S. Rajaratnam’s School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). 

The discussion brought together the international experts and representatives of the state and public organizations of ASEAN countries. In particular, Former Deputy Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Dr. Olli Heinonen, the Deputy Chairman of National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN) Dr. Taswanda Taryo and the President of the Singapore National Academy of Science Prof. Andrew Wee Thye Shen took part in the round table.

The representative of ROSATOM in his presentation outlined the number of main benefits of nuclear energy for ASEAN countries with actively growing demand for electricity. Along with such primary benefits of the NPPs as the affordable and pure electric power, Egor Simonov also pointed out that nuclear technologies were able help newcomer countries to reach a new level of socio-economic development. 

“The construction of nuclear power plants serves as an impulse for development of the whole branches of economy – the nuclear industry contributes to the creation of new workplaces, prosperity of engineering and construction, development of R&D and education”, the speaker noted.

Egor Simonov also highlighted the main challenges which are facing ASEAN countries and constraining development of the national nuclear programmes. Among them are financing of projects, the development of infrastructure and education, safety concerns, as well as the public acceptance of nuclear energy. 

According to the speaker, the role of the responsible vendor is to give support to the newcomers in finding solutions for these tasks. One of the examples of such work is the communication support provided by ROSATOM to the Vietnamese partners in the preparation for a construction of Ninh Thuan NPP. Since the negative attitude towards nuclear power is mostly caused by the lack of knowledge, ROSATOM has opened in Vietnam the Information Center on Nuclear Energy (ICONE) to advance basic knowledges about nuclear technologies. The similar centers are being run in 22 cities of Russia and the world, and, according to statistics, more than 80% of people change their attitude to nuclear energy after their visit.

Speaking about safety of technologies, Egor Simonov noted that modern Russian VVER reactors of generation 3+ take into account the Fukushima lessons learned, and able to withstand various external influences - from earthquakes and floods to aircraft crash. 

In Southeast Asia ROSATOM implements projects for the construction of two nuclear power units with VVER reactors in Vietnam, and also develops the Centre of Nuclear Science & Technologies.  Also this year the Russian-Indonesian consortium with participation of ROSATOM won the tender for the preliminary design of the experimental 10 MW reactor in Indonesia. ROSATOM company is also supplying isotopes to that country.  Furthermore, the framework agreements on cooperation signed with the Government of the Union of Myanmar and the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology.