Russia is prepared to sell stakes of up to 49% in its civilian nuclear projects to foreign investors, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom, has announced.
Russia has resurrected its atomic assets and capabilities after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, and is looking to build new projects - two new reactors a year from 2012 to almost double the share of atomic energy to 30% by 2030.
"We'd rather make billions of dollars together than hundreds of millions alone," Kiriyenko told an audience of nuclear executives and government officials from around the world at the opening of the nuclear conference Atomcon in Moscow.
The Soviet Union developed an extensive nuclear programme and built plants across its hegemony but when a reactor at Ukraine's plant in Chernobyl in 1986 exploded most projects were placed on hold.
But Prime Minister Vladimir Putin aims to revive Russia's atomic reputation and formed a new company called Atomenergoprom, which owns the civilian sector of the Russian nuclear industry.
Rosatom controls Atomenergoprom - which encompasses the full nuclear cycle, from mining to processing to power - and the military sector.
"The majority stock should be owned by Russians but foreign companies can buy up to 49%," Kiriyenko said of projects being developed by Atomenergoprom, which has sales of around $8bn a year.
"Previous thinking was that the nuclear industry is closed in Russia. We need to change that."
Atomstroiexport, part of Atomenergoprom, is building a nuclear reactor in Iran which the US suspects is in fact designed for military use.
Earlier this year Russia signed a $1bn deal with China and another, smaller deal with former-Soviet Armenia.
By James Kilner, Reuters
