Russia’s new civil nuclear energy giant, Atomenergoprom, is seeking partners so it can take part in the replacement of the UK’s ageing reactors. The company, which already supplies fuel to the UK nuclear programme, is keen to play a significant role in any moves to build and operate new plants, said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Russia’s Atomic Energy Agency in Moscow.

Mr Novikov said Atomenergoprom viewed the UK as one of several promising international opportunities. “It’s a big market for us and we are keen to enter it,” he told The Times.

He said the group was exploring different ways to engage in the UK’s widely expected new-build programme. The most likely scenario would be to forge a partnership with an international group such as French nuclear energy giant Areva or Germany’s Siemens, one of the world’s largest electrical engineers.

One of Atomenergoprom’s subsidiaries, TVEL, is active in the UK. It is working with Areva to supply nuclear fuel pellets for Sizewell B, the country’s newest nuclear power station.

A decisive announcement on the UK government’s intentions to back construction of a new generation of nuclear plants is expected next month. All but one of the ten nuclear power stations currently operating in the UK, which between them provide approximately 20 per cent of the nation’s electricity needs, are due to be retired from service by 2023.

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said that all credible bidders would be considered. “If the Government concludes its preliminary view, it would be for energy companies to come forward to build new nuclear power stations,” the spokesman said. “The Government would scrutinise any such application against our own very stringent national regulations covering health, safety, planning and competition.”

He added that no official expression of interest had been received from a Russian company.

So far, four applications for generic nuclear reactor designs have been submitted for use in the UK. They were from Areva, AECL of Canada, Japan’s Toshiba-Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi, a US-Japanese joint venture.

Mr Novikov said Atomenergoprom was involved in a string of international projects, including construction of two nuclear power plants in each of China, India and Bulgaria and one in Iran.

Kirill Komarov, the deputy director of Atomenergoprom, said recently: “If Russia forms a strategic partnership, then that partnership will become the leader of the world atomic market.”

Mr Novikov added that Atomenergoprom aims to win a 25 per cent share of every major global nuclear market, including Western Europe and the UK.

Russia’s President Putin is consolidating all of the country’s civilian nuclear assets, from uranium mining and enrichment to the design and construction of power stations, into a single company.

Atomenergoprom is poised for a period of rapid growth, boosted by plans to build two nuclear power stations every year in Russia. The programme, due to start in 2012, could eventually nearly double the country’s share of nuclear energy capacity from 16 per cent to 30 per cent.

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