Russia's nuclear chief sees state atomic corporation set up Q1 '08

The State Corporation for Atomic Energy, or Rosatom, will be set up sometime in January-March 2008, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters Monday.

The bill introducing the corporation is expected to be signed into law by the end of this year, he said.
To become law, the bill must be approved by the State Duma, the parliament's lower house, in three readings and by the Federation Council, the upper house, in one reading before being signed by the president.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma by President Vladimir Putin earlier this month.

The State Corporation for Atomic Energy will replace the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, which is also known as Rosatom, the bill read.

Rosatom will belong to the recently established type of government-controlled companies known as "state corporations."
The executives of such corporations are appointed and supervised directly by the president, while other state-controlled companies are supervised by the government.

Russian business daily Kommersant reported in July that the State Corporation for Atomic Energy was expected to get control of state-owned civilian nuclear company Atomenergoprom, as well as of all state-controlled military nuclear companies.

Atomenergoprom was set up earlier this year and is expected to take over all state-controlled civilian nuclear companies, including nuclear fuel producer TVEL, nuclear fuel exporter Techsnabexport, uranium and precious metals producer Atomredmetzoloto, nuclear power utility Rosenergoatom and nuclear engineering company Atomstroyexport.