Russian government and the nuclear industry
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Charles Digges/Bellona |
Moscow and the nuclear industry have shared an almost symbiotic relationship since the Soviet Union Developed the atom bomb. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the decay of the nuclear industry, Moscow still, by and large, gives the industry free reign. There is little government accountability for Rosatom and regulatory structures, and Moscow is pressing hard to build new reactors that will generate more spent nuclear fuel even as it takes western funds (some of which are abused) for nuclear clean-up and security. Moscow views its nuclear programme as integral to fulfilling its future energy needs and securing its international prestige.
Turkey will put a project to build the country's first nuclear power plant up for bid again after it cancelled a bid it already accepted from Russia's Atomstroieksport, Power Engineering International reported.
Russia's Atomstroiexport, the only bidder in a tender to build Turkey's first nuclear plant, has revised its bid after initially offering to sell power at three times the current rate, Turkey's Energy Minister said on January 19th.
Sergei Kiriyenko was relieved of his post as head of Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom on Monday, but officials were quick to say that it was a cosmetic change prior to Kiriyenko taking the reigns of Atomenergoprom, Russia’s new all encompassing nuclear industry monopoly.