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Moscow - Nuclear power is needed to meet the climate change targets set at the recent Cop21 climate summit in Paris, Jacques Regaldo, chairperson of the World Association of Nuclear Operators said at the opening of the AtomExpo in Moscow on Monday.
Referring to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster held in the Ukraine in April, Regaldo said safety is the first priority to promote nuclear energy as an acceptable power option to the public.
The AtomExpo is an annual international nuclear conference now in its eighth year, and this year it attracted 4 500 people from 55 countries.
Rosatom, the Russian nuclear power company and main organiser of the event, is particularly putting in extra effort to woo countries like South Africa and India that are considering new nuclear power programmes, or countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana that are for the first time considering nuclear to generate power.
KB Komarov, deputy director general for development and international affairs of Rosatom, said they want to support green and clean energy worldwide.
Martin Uhlir, a representative of the Czech electricity company CEZ, said in a panel discussion that the Czech government recently announced a new energy plan to boost the amount of power the Czech Republic generate from nuclear from the current 32% to 50% by 2035.
Uhlir admitted it will be very difficult to achieve, because, due to the country’s "very tough" legislation, it takes about 22 years from the initial decision to the time when the first power is generated. The nuclear expansion will thus not be easy, he said.
CEZ currently operates six nuclear reactors at two nuclear power stations, which run on Rosatom's VVER (pressurised water reactor) technology. Construction on the one power plant started in 1974 and it became operational in 1985. The second one's construction began in 1987 and it started to generate electricity in 2001 and 2002, said Uhlir.
* Francois Williams is a guest of Rosatom in Moscow.
