Russia's nuclear industry - Medvedev casts some doubts...

 
This week, President Medvedev met with leaders of the United Russia Party at Barvikha, a village on the banks of the Moskva river, home to the Presidential sanitorium, and noted for its Ferrari and Harley Davidson dealerships. At this meeting, the President concentrated on the support that the ruling party has given him in his work, and its contribution to helping him to pursue his agenda by supporting his political initiatives.  The many issues covered reflected the positive nature of the Medvedev administration, and confirmed his optimistic and progressive style. He was open about the lack of confidence in the financial sector expressed by many ordinary Russians as a result of the economic crisis, which again shows us how the new President is distancing himself from his predecessor, who as Prime Minister has responsibility for the economy.
One comment that should raise eyebrows in Europe, however, concerned Russia's Nuclear industry. The President stated; 'Yesterday there was a meeting of the Commission for Modernisation and Technological Development of Russia's Economy. We talked about nuclear industry sector and supercomputers development. Russia has a great deal of experience in these areas. In the field of atomic energy we are perhaps up there among the leaders. Nevertheless, if we do not build on this advantage, if we do not invest money and intellectual resources in this area, we will quickly lose our lead'.
Europe has allowed Russia to take a leading role in its future plans for nuclear power generation. Russia is financing projects such as that at Beline, in Bulgaria, and its state controlled companies are major stakeholders. The politically sensitive issue of nuclear waste disposal is also being dealt with by Russia. Now we learn that Russia is merely  'perhaps up there among the leaders' in the nuclear field. Medvedev's comments suggest not only that Russia may not be the right choice of partner for Europe in this field, but that it is in danger of losing ground to other players, possibly the French, when he acknowledged that Russia could potentially lose its position in this industry.
I have questioned the political wisdom of allowing Russia to become so heavily involved in Europe's nuclear industry, give the problems of gas supply that we have experienced since January 2006. After all, if we are to be honest with ourselves, the real reason we are so keen to diversify our power generation sources is Europe's distrust of Russia's political motives. Now we might also start to question the technical aspects of this matter, and maybe in the light of Medvedev's comments we should ask ourselves if we should keep this one a little closer to home.