BRICS countries establish nuclear power alliance to promote trade, projects

A group of countries, members of the BRICS+ group, have established a Nuclear Energy Platform — a project started to facilitate development of nuclear energy companies and projects within the bloc — Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear company, said in a statement.

The first meeting of the Nuclear Energy Platform has been held in Moscow, gathering top executives of the largest nuclear companies and organizations from Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa, Iran, Ethiopia, and Bolivia, Rosatom said Oct. 17 on its website.

While not a member of BRICS, an intergovernmental organization of growing economies, Bolivia is included on the list of the bloc's close partners that form an unofficial grouping known as BRICS+.

Rosatom explained that the project will promote "best practices and advanced nuclear energy and other nuclear technologies in the BRICS and BRICS+ markets, providing incentives and models for nuclear projects in the BRICS member countries."

BRICS members will account for half of global energy generation and consumption by 2050, with nuclear power playing an important role in meeting the growing energy demand, Rosatom said, citing unnamed Russian experts.

Rosatom said that, by 2030, at least two-thirds of global nuclear energy growth will come from BRICS countries.

Virtually all BRICS members have projects in the nuclear field underway in their countries, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said in the statement.

"Today, many BRICS members are the technological drivers of the international nuclear market. The common experience can and should be used and replicated throughout the BRICS space and on the planet as a whole," Likhachev said.

Likhachev described the project as "a voluntary alliance of companies, professional nuclear communities, and NGOs" in the nuclear industry.

The Nuclear Energy Platform will not include countries, but only companies and organizations, Likhachev said in a follow-up statement that Russian state news outlet Tass published Oct. 17.

Brazil can reap benefits from taking part in the Nuclear Energy Platform, Orpet Peixoto, deputy chairman of the supervisory board of the Brazilian Association for the Development of the Nuclear Industry, said in the Oct. 17 statement. Brazil already has a diversified nuclear energy industry, but needs further support and financing and hopes to source them through cooperation within the BRICS bloc, Peixoto said.