RUSSIA - Feb. 7 - Moscow To Build 25 Nuclear Reactors.

Atomic Energy Deputy Minister Bulat Nigmatulin says Moscow hopes to complete five nuclear reactors that have been under construction since the 1980s and to build 25 new ones over the next 20 years. He adds: "The country will face dramatic energy shortages if we fail to build new reactors on time". He argues that fast-depleting coal and gas reserves and rising demand for electricity in the heavily populated western regions give the government no choice but to increase its reliance on nuclear energy. He says this winter's massive power cuts in the Far East has given further urgency to the project. He says the new reactors would meet international safety standards. Most will be enhanced versions of the VVER 1000 model of pressurised water reactor, which was tested for the first time at the end of the 1970s. However, he says Russia plans also to complete the construction of a new version of an RBMK reactor - the type that exploded in Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. He says significant modifications have been made to make it safer. (Russia now operates 29 nuclear reactors in nine locations, all west of the Ural mountains. Nuclear power accounts for 12% of the country's electricity). Nigmatulin says the Ministry of Atomic Energy would finance most of the $1.5 bn necessary to complete the construction of the five reactors by 2005. He adds: "We are going to raise our prices and perhaps take out a loan to pay for the construction of the new reactors". (Western nuclear experts express doubts as to whether Russia could finance the construction of 25 additional reactors from scratch. But the Ministry of Atomic Energy is expecting significant revenues from contracts to build six VVER 1000 reactors in neighbouring countries - two in Iran, two in India and two in China).