Serbia is preparing for a nuclear power plant: it is not Rosatom that helps

Serbia plans to build the country's first power plant and is already carrying out preparatory work. However, French companies are involved in this.

"The world is striving to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. If we act responsibly and remain committed, our first reactors will be able to be put into operation soon after 2040," said Minister of Energy Dubravka Jedovic Handanovic.

The department said that the capacity of the station can range from 1 to 1.65 GW and everything will depend on the technology. In the meantime, the Government is creating a National body for the development of the nuclear program.

According to the head of the Serbian Energy Ministry, the government is cooperating with the French EDF in preparing for a possible project.

It is known that in February the head of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, visited Serbia and met with Serbian President Alexander Vucic.

"Currently, the Serbian leadership is considering the possibility of building the country's first nuclear power plant. Rosatom State Corporation offers Serbian partners comprehensive cooperation. Nuclear energy for Serbia is an opportunity to ensure energy sovereignty and security for decades to come. Rosatom is the largest player in the market of foreign NPP construction, occupying a share of more than 90% of the world market. We are ready to offer Serbia the full range of our nuclear power projects, from small to large capacity," the head of the Russian state corporation said at the time.

Obviously, the decision on who will build a nuclear power plant in Serbia, will be largely political. At the same time, the process itself is already called opaque.

"The preliminary study was completed last summer, but to this day, six months later, it is not available to the public. In response to our requests for information of public importance, for the third time we received only a response that the ministry is in the "harmonization process", after which the study will be submitted to EDF "for approval", and only then it will finally become available to the public," writes the expert edition Nuklearna Perspektiva.

The Russian RealAtomInfo noted back in September last year that the Serbian scientific community has a controversial attitude towards Russian participation, and referred to the opinions in the Serbian edition expressed by the Energy Council of the Serbian Academy of Sciences.

"At first glance, academicians give recommendations favorable for Rosatom. The first Serbian nuclear power plant needs proven technologies. The supplier must be able to build turnkey or according to the BOOT model, and must also take SNF. But we are in no hurry to assume that Rosatom has the Serbian contract in its pocket. There are nuances. For example, academics are concerned about the possible impact of Western sanctions and insist that Rosatom does not have a majority stake in the station. Also, academics hint that it is not necessary to build under this Serbian government, which leads to the conclusion that the issue of nuclear power plants in Serbia will be very politicized," RealAtomInfo added.