Russia to spend over $1 bln building nuclear power plant: Putin

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the government would spend 53 billion rubles (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) on construction of new nuclear power plants, Russian news agencies reported.

"I have signed a resolution today to allocate 53 billion rubles for the construction of nuclear power plants," Putin was quoted as saying at a meeting on energy investment in Siberia.

The premier criticized Russian electric power companies for ineffectively spending 66 billion rubles (2.2 billion dollars) out of 450 billion rubles (14.9 billion dollars) allocated from state coffers for investment projects in the electric power sector.

Putin also said that electric power consumption in Russia had resumed to the level recorded before the country was hit by the global economic crisis in 2008. "In January, electric power consumption returned to the pre-crisis level and equaled 103 billion kilowatt hours."

He said the increase in power consumption was due to the unusually cold winter and the rebounding industrial output.

Putin urged the electric power sector to prepare for the country's growing demand for electricity.

Source: Xinhua