The global energy price spike has renewed wider interest in nuclear energy and Rosatom is experiencing increased enquiries from countries across the world mainly due to nuclear plants’ stable operating costs, supply reliability, and lower emissions, an executive at the Russian state company said. Rosatom is also developing renewable energy technologies and plans to offer that to India and other countries, he said.
“We have seen and experienced that interest (in nuclear energy) is growing in several countries,” said Vadim Titov, president, Rusatom International Network, a unit of Rosatom. The Russian nuclear energy company is currently present in 50 countries, constructing 35 nuclear power plants around the world. It employs 290,000 people and accounts for 17% of the global nuclear fuel market, as per the company’s website.
Nuclear energy is beginning to gain attention of governments that earlier planned to mainly use natural gas, solar and wind to replace coal in electricity generation and meet new power demand as part of climate change strategy. Natural gas prices have been sky-high for a year, making electricity extremely expensive in many markets, especially in Europe. Some countries have even reversed course, replacing pricey gas with coal.
Gas, oil and coal prices have surged on the back of strong economic recovery from Covid and sluggish supply amid uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine.
The contribution of fuel cost in the final electricity price in case of nuclear plant is just about 10%, very low compared to a gas or coal-fired power plant, Titov said. “So any turbulence happening with uranium, for example, is not so crucial in final price. Therefore, a nuclear power plant is the best solution to cover the peaks of energy prices,” Titov said, adding that Europe was witnessing a “nuclear renaissance”, with many countries considering to build new nuclear generation units.
Increased interest in nuclear energy has also set off intense competition among nuclear power technology providers such as Russia, the US and France. “We are fully prepared for (the competition),” Titov said. “The future of energy mix is a combination of nuclear and renewables,” Titov said, adding that energy storage too would be a key solution for future. Rosatom is developing several storage projects in Russia.
