Rosatom launches global charm offensive

Financial Times (subscription)

Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic power corporation, has launched an international charm offensive as the country’s most secretive and controversial industry attempts to come in from the cold.

Russian atomic agency looks to diversify - Aug-24.Lex: Obamatomic - Jan-29.Areva and EDF spat shows nuclear tensions - Jan-19.Areva eyes pact with GDF-Suez on reactors - Jan-27.Power struggles tarnish France's nuclear showcase - Jan-20.S Korea eyes wider nuclear exports - Jan-21..In a rare meeting with foreign media last week, Sergei Kiriyenko, a former Russian prime minister and now president of Rosatom, outlined plans for the company to become a leading international player as nuclear power enjoys a surge in demand.

“We want to double in size,” he told reporters in Toronto.

Like the Gazprom and Russian Railways monopolies, Rosatom is a former ministry, converted into a state corporation in 2007. If the Kremlin achieves its ambitions, Rosatom could become to global nuclear power what Gazprom is to the natural gas industry.

But as it looks outwards, Rosatom is burdened by the forbidding legacy of its Soviet past, including the catastrophic Chernobyl accident that cast...