Putin signs decree on Russian nuclear giant -RIA

MOSCOW, Apr 27 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to reorganise Russia's nuclear sector by creating a state nuclear firm with global clout, sources told RIA news agency today.

The Kremlin press service said Putin had signed a decree ''On the Restructuring of Russia's Atomic Energy and Industrial Complex'', but gave no other details.

Russia's is overhauling its nuclear sector to boost energy production and strengthening Russia's presence on the expanding world nuclear market.

Under the Russian plan, a state-owned company called Atomenergoprom will be created on the base of the smaller, sometimes overlapping, civilian nuclear companies in the sector.

''By Jan. 1, 2008, the creation of Atomenergoprom will be concluded,'' the nuclear source told RIA. ''Atomenergoprom will be unique.'' Climate change and high oil prices have prompted many countries to look more favourably on nuclear energy as a cheap source of power. Russia already builds nuclear power stations around the world and wants to position itself to win more contracts.

Nuclear officials compare Atomenergoprom to state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company by reserves, which has become a big geopolitical instrument for the Kremlin.

Companies such as Tekhsnabexport (Tenex), Russia's state-owned uranium trader, and TVEL, the state-owned nuclear fuel producer and trader, will be folded into Atomenergoprom, RIA said.

Competitors include French state-owned nuclear energy group Areva , European enriched uranium firm Urenco Ltd, and US-based Westinghouse, which is owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp .

As part of Russia's nuclear reorganisation, a state corporation, called Rosatom, will be created by January 2008, to more effectively manage Russia's nuclear sector and replace Russia's atomic energy agency, which has the same name.

Atomenergoprom, Russia's military atomic sector and nuclear institutes will all come under the control of the corporation. A special law will be drafted later this year for the creation of the Rosatom corporation, the source told RIA.

The source told RIA that Russia had the third largest uranium reserves in the world. Data on Russian uranium reserves is a state secret.

Reuters AGL GC2322