OREANDA-NEWS. According to the Information and PR Department of Smolensk NPP, the first meeting of Rosenergoatom Council for Investment Programs and Investment Monitoring took place at Smolensk NPP Sept 12-13, 2007. Representatives of Rosenergoatom, research institutes and other organizations took part in the conference.

The Council was set up on June 22, 2007. While welcoming the conferees, the Chairman of the Council and the head of Rosenergoatom’s Department for the Management of Investment Programs G.Sakharov said that the name of the Council fully reflected its mission: to draft investment programs and monitor the efficiency of capital investments. The Council was supposed to aggregate the huge experience of the investment specialists of the REA nuclear power plants and research companies. “We must work in a team,” Sakharov said. The Council involves many experienced specialists: among them the experts of the Economic Department of Moscow State University, who have taken an active part in the corporization of many companies and perfectly know how to form prices and structure organizations. Sakharov told the audience about the first steps of his Department to solve the urgent problems in the field of capital construction.

It was not a coincidence that the first meeting of the Council took place at Smolensk NPP. Sakharov pointed out that SNPP is one of the REA leaders in performance and capital construction and is actively involved in the Concern’s investment programs. According to the Concern’s Investment Program 2008-2010, in the coming three years Smolensk NPP will get 18.6 bln RUR in capital investments and will spend the money on extending the lives of its units and building radioactive waste treatment and spent nuclear fuel storage facilities. Besides, Smolensk NPP is involved in the Federal Target Program for the Development of the Nuclear Power Industry of Russia in 2007-2010 and up to 2015 and will get 125 bln RUR under that program. “The personnel of the plant are people who know how to work and want to work. That’s exactly why we have come here,” Sakharov said.

The director of Smolensk NPP A.Petrov and the deputy director for capital construction V.Grebeshev welcomed the guests and wished them fruitful work. They expressed hope that the conference would be a good start for the Council.

On the first day, the conferees elected the secretary of the council (A.Stepanov) and vice chairmen (the heads of the capital construction departments of Smolensk and Novovoronezh NPPs V.Nozdracheva and D.Pavlov, respectively). They also heard the report of Sakharov about Rosenergoatom’s capital construction expenses in Jan-Aug 2007 and his proposals for improving the system of investment planning and reporting. The deputy head of the Directorate for the Information Support of the Investment Program Management System Y.Moiseyev reported on the construction of unit 2 of Rostov NPP, unit 4 of Kalinin NPP and Novovoronezh NPP-2. The conferees also heard reports about pricing methodology and the use of software in project evaluation.

On the second day, the conferees visited Smolensk NPP and its construction department. In conclusion, they outlined their plans for the future.