OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2011.  TerraPower, an American company, which has Bill Gates as one of its founders, proposes Rosatom partnership in development of a fast neutron reactor of new generation.

Though Russian State Corporation left Bill Gates’ company behind in technological developments, some experts suppose that the collaboration with foreign partners will be of much use to Rosatom.

Rosatom acknowledged that TerraPower was interested in common projects in this field. But they refused to disclose the details of the negotiations. “Our aim is to continue working on acceleration of scientific research indispensable for creating secure, accessible and energetic output free of harmful emissions”, — Laura Herman, the official representative of TerraPower.

TerraPower’s activity lies in the field of engineering of reactors of average (under 300 МW) and high (1000 МW) capacity. But up to the present Russia has been the only state possessing an efficient fast neutron reactor (FNR). Already in 1980, Rosatom created a FNR with power capacity of 600 МWt that is still operated at Beloyarsk NPP. Moreover, the State Corporation is about to produce a more powerful BN-800 reactor. Together with Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group, Rosatom is manufacturing a FNR of lesser power — 100 МW. The prototype model can already appear in 2016—2017.

According to foreign mass media, TerraPower has already invested several billion dollars into development of the nuclear reactors of new generation. The amount of Russia’s expenditures connected with these developments is approximately the same. Last year Russian Government ratified the Federal Target Program, among others aiming at advancement of technologies aimed at developing of a fast neutron-based reactor. According to the program 128.3 billion rubles will be appropriated for innovations in the nuclear power energy up to 2020. 17.8 billion of this sum will be provided by private investors.

TerraPower claimed that they were consulting “experts in the field of power industry” all over the world. Besides the negotiations concerning collaboration with Rosatom, Bill Gates’ company discusses with Japanese Toshiba the opportunity of cooperative development of a new generation reactor.

According to Andrey Rozhkov, an analyst of Metropol Investment Financial Company, the collaboration with Americans could help us advance the technologies of reactor production. “The technologies based on fast neutrons are just being tested. Actually, we have no industrial reactors that produce energy. And collaboration with other companies would be useful both for Rosatom and its partners”, — the expert states. In the opinion of Anastasia Sosnova, an analyst of Investcafe, this partnership with the Americans is of great imaging importance for Russia.

In addition to that, the USA and Russia have recently ratified Agreement 123, which allows performing joint activities in the field of different projects in nuclear power industry, including those of “fast” reactors. The Agreement simplifies the process of creating Russian-American joint ventures and the process of selling of nuclear materials and equipment both to the Russian Federation and the USA.