Rosatom makes progress at talks on reactor construction in UK - First Deputy PM

Russian national nuclear corporation Rosatom has a good chance of participating in the construction of nuclear reactors in Britain in conjunction with Rolls-Royce, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.

"Rosatom is in talks and has made significant progress in dialog with the British authorities in order to participate in this work to build reactors in Britain," Shuvalov said following a meeting of the Russian-British inter-governmental trade and investment committee, on Tuesday.

Shuvalov said the committee discussed cooperation between Rosatom and Rolls-Royce in the construction of power generating units in Britain during the meeting.

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He said Britain had major plans to develop a new generation of nuclear reactors and to replace old reactors with new ones. Britain, he said, had an open doors policy for investors, if they prove, above all, the reliability of their technology and competitive project costs, he said.

"We were assured that they won't be restricting investors by national principle and that if this partnership between Rosatom and Rolls-Royce does take place, it has every opportunity to obtain, on a competitive basis, the right to build such reactors," Shuvalov said, adding that for Russia this would not just be appealing from an investment point of view but also symbolic.

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