Russia Doubles Nuclear Exports

(RFE/RL) — The head of Russia’s nuclear monopoly has said the country doubled foreign orders to build nuclear reactors last year and has a $50 billion order book for the next decade.

Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko spoke on March 23 to journalists in Moscow, ahead of a nuclear-security summit in Seoul next week.

He said the company’s profits reached almost 500 billion roubles ($17 billion) last year.

The volume of contracts to build nuclear plants abroad almost doubled in 2011 thanks to demand from Asia, and despite jitters over atomic power following reactor meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima plant, triggered by a tsunami last March.

Rosatom is building plants in China, Vietnam, India, Iran, and Turkey.

In January, Kiriyenko said, Rosatom had 21 deals to build reactors, compared to 12 at the same time a year earlier.