Jun 04 - BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

It has been decided to build a fourth power-generation unit at the Kalinin nuclear power plant by 2011, the head of Russian Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom), Sergey Kiriyenko, said while visiting the plant in Udomlya, Tver Region.

"I believe that the decision to build a fourth power-generation unit at the Kalinin nuclear power plant has been made. The unit should be built by 2011. The total volume of the construction is more than 1bn US dollars," Kiriyenko was quoted as saying in a RIA Novosti report at 1010 gmt.

"We have a task of ensuring energy security of the country's largest megapolises, including Moscow, St Petersburg and Tyumen. The launch of the fourth power-generation unit at the Kalinin nuclear power plant in 2011 will be the atomic energy sector's contribution to Moscow's energy security," the report quoted him as saying.

In addition, there is a preliminary plan to build "a fifth, sixth, seventh and perhaps eighth power-generation unit of the nuclear power plant in Tver Region, on a separate site," Kiriyenko was quoted as saying in an ITAR-TASS report at 1015gmt. However, Kiriyenko noted that the issue of building four additional power- generation units would be "decided in the future". "As regards the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth power-generation units, we need to do a serious appraisal," the RIA report quoted him as saying.

Sources: RIA Novosti, Moscow, in Russian 1010 gmt 4 Jun 06

ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1015 gmt 4 Jun 06

(c) 2006 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.