The Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is opening up a dedicated research and development center at Skolkovo.
The facility, known as NucLab, is to be based at the Skolkovo Innovation Center just outside Moscow and will begin operations next year, Alexander Tuzov, Rosatom’s deputy director for innovations, told sk.ru.
“NucLab will act as a single window for receiving orders for research and development,” Tuzov said.
Tuzov was speaking Wednesday on the sidelines of a conference at the Hypercube titled Rosatom Knowledge Management.
Rosatom brings together over 350 nuclear companies and R&D institutions that operate in the civilian and defense sectors. It works internationally to provide services ranging from uranium enrichment to nuclear waste treatment.
The NucLab project is good news for Skolkovo’s nuclear cluster of startups, which stand to benefit from knowledge sharing and potential commercial partnerships with Rosatom, one of Skolkovo’s key partners.
“It’s an important step forward,” said Igor Karavaev, the executive director of Skolkovo’s nuclear cluster. “At the start of 2015 we expect to sign a lease contract with the NucLab legal entity that is being created, and by the end of next year they will have employees there and the center will begin regular operations,” he said.
NucLab will have three main functions: hosting lab facilities, consulting, and as an open forum for promoting innovations.
The Rosatom Knowledge Management conference at the Hypercube on Wednesday. Photo: sk.ru
According to the corporation’s website, Rosatom has 40 percent of the global uranium enrichment market and 17 percent of the nuclear fuel market. It is No. 2 globally in uranium reserves and third in annual uranium extraction.
Rosatom provides about 18 percent of total power generated in Russia, and over 40 percent in European Russia.
The corporation boasts more than 250,000 employees, with at least 10,000 engaged in research and development.
“That’s a huge target audience of developers,” Karavaev said. “We should align the services we provide at Skolkovo with the possibilities that Rosatom offers.”