OREANDA-NEWS. AKME-Engineering signed a lease agreement with the regional administration of the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) in the Ulyanovsk Region in the presence of representatives of the administration of the Region. Under the agreement, the company will lease a site for constructing a nuclear power plant with a 100 MW pilot power generating unit which includes a lead-bismuth fast-neutron reactor (SVBR-100). This is a separate land plot whose area totals 15 hectares and which is located to the south-east of Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (RIAR) in Dimitrovgrad (the Ulyanovsk Region).

Under the agreement, the land plot is leased for a 10-year period, and its cadastral value totals RUB 2.479 mln.

Comments:

Vladimir Petrochenko, CEO of OJSC AKME-Engineering:

- Now it may be stated that the pilot power generating unit has a specific location. However, we will continue cooperating with both the regional administration of Rosimushchestvo and the administration of the Ulyanovsk Region and Dimitrovograd. In the future, we will need sites for placing production and construction facilities which will be used for building this pilot unit. I am convinced that when mass production starts, we will be able to optimize the area of the site on which nuclear power plants based on SVBR-100 are located.

Vitaly Zvonkov, head of the administration of Rosimushchestvo in the Ulyanovsk Region:

- Under the existing rules and regulations, within the 10-year period stipulated by the agreement, the pilot power generating unit is to be constructed, while the site itself has been selected based on a land allocation certificate. After the power generating unit and all infrastructure facilities are constructed and transferred to the customer, we will conclude a new agreement with AKME-Engineering on leasing the same land plot.

Sergey Morozov, Governor of the Ulyanovsk Region:

- The SVBR-100 project will obviously promote social and economic development of the Ulyanovsk Region. For instance, operation of the pilot power generating unit itself requires staff recruitment and training, including people from other regions of Russia. Consequently, they should be provided with housing and appropriate infrastructure. Besides, as part of the project, AKME-Engineering has already undertaken to construct a road to the power generating unit about 3 kilometers long and two automated concrete plants. The project also involves creating up-to-date production facilities, infrastructure and equipment for constructing power plants. The agreement signed today enables AKME-Engineering to actually start implementing the project on the sites. At the same time, as a customer, the company obviously has to tackle a large number of issues. The administration of the Ulyanovsk Region will make every effort to assist the company in dealing with them.

OJSC AKME-Engineering (Nuclear Power Complexes for Small and Medium-sized Power Generation) is a joint venture of SC Rosatom and OJSC Irkutskenergo, a coal and power company (controlled by En+ Group), which have equal stakes in it. AKME-Engineering was established in 2009 as a public-private partnership to design and roll out nuclear power plants with a new 100 MW lead-bismuth fast-neutron reactor (SVBR-100). The launch of the pilot power generating unit with the SVBR-100 reactor unit in Dimitrovgrad (the Ulyanovsk Region) is scheduled for the end of 2018.