16.3 per cent of electricity in Russia is nuclear

Moscow -- The production of electricity by Russia's nuclear power plants from the beginning of 2003 accounted for 16.3 per cent of all electricity produced in the country, an ITAR-TASS correspondent learnt at the Rosenergoatom concern recently.

According to an official representative of the concern, "during the reporting period, Russian nuclear power plants produced 107.8bn kWh of electricity, while the total of electricity generated by the enterprises of the Russian Energy Ministry amounted to 661.0bn kWh."

According to official information provided by IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], the official said, "in the world there are 441 nuclear power plants in service at present, which provide 16 per cent of the total world electricity production".

The Rosenergoatom representative added, "this year the share of Russia's nuclear energy industry has reached the world average level".

Rosenergoatom also stressed that "in the European part of Russia the share of nuclear power plants in electricity production has long since exceeded the world average and amounts to 21.5 per cent of total electricity production.

ITAR-TASS