RUSSIA - Nuclear Power/Renewables.

The government has stated that it intended to expand the role of nuclear and hydro-power generation in the future to allow for greater export of fossil fuels. Russia has an installed nuclear capacity of 21.2m KW, distributed across 31 operational nuclear reactors at 10 locations, all west of the Ural Mountains. However, Russia's nuclear power facilities are ageing. Roughly half of the country's 31 nuclear reactors use the RBMK design employed in Ukraine's ill-fated Chernobyl plant.

Nuclear power generation is 100% controlled by the Ministry of Atomic Energy, through its federal atomic energy agency RosEnergoAtom which operates the country's nuclear power plants. These plant's total capacity is over 41m t/yoe but most of them are very old and some are grossly inefficient.

The normal working life of a reactor is 30 years: nine of Russia's plants are between 26-30 years old, and six are between 21-25 years old. Investment in the nuclear sector in 2008 was expected to double to $960m. Gazprom has also expressed interest in building nuclear stations to free up natural gas for export.

The first floating nuclear power plant in Russia will be commissioned in 2010. This will supply electricity to all of the Severodvinsk region. Construction of seven power plants of this kind for the Extreme North and the Far East is planned. A number of foreign countries have shown interest in such floating plants.

The government has made hydro-electric generation a priority, particularly in the country's Far East, where provision and delivery of electricity supply can be problematic. Hydro-power generation has risen from 14m t/yoe in 1987 to more than 40m t/yoe in 2007.

The Russia's gross theoretical potential of hydro resource base is 2,295 TWh per year, of which 852 TWh is regarded as economically feasible. Most of this potential is located in Siberia and the Far East. Hydro generation (including pumped-storage output) in 2005 was 175 TWh, which represents 5.8% of world's total hydro-power generation. Russia ranked as the fifth hydro-power producer in the world. At the end of 2005 installed hydro-power generating capacity was 45.7 GW.

Geothermal energy, used for heating and electricity production in some regions of the Northern Caucasus and the Far East, is the most developed renewable energy source in Russia. Geothermal resources have been identified in the Northern Caucasus, Western Siberia, Lake Baikal, and in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. In 1966 a 4 MWe single-flash plant was commissioned at Pauzhetka (currently 11 MWe) followed by a 12 MWe geothermal power plant at Verkhne Mutnovsky, and 50 MWe Mutnovsky geothermal power plant. At end of 2005 installed capacity for direct use amounted to more than 307 MWt.

The main peat areas are located in the north-western parts of Russia, in West Siberia, near the western coast of Kamchatka and in several other far-eastern regions. The Siberian peat-lands account for nearly 7 % of Russia's total reserves of 186 bn tons, second only to Canada's. About 5% of the exploitable peat deposits (1.5m t/y) are used for fuel production. Although peat was used as industrial fuel for power generation in Russia for a long period, its share has been in long-term decline, and since 1980 has amounted to less than 1%.]