Stanislav Antipov, director of Rosenergoatom, the federal company responsible for nuclear power, said outstanding conditions included an agreement between the governments, adoption of a national nuclear power program, and a decision on a pricing formula. He declined to outline a timetable for the deal.
The project includes the laying of a high-voltage cable across the bottom of the Gulf of Finland. The 150-km (93-mile) cable will start near the village of Kernovo in the Leningrad Region around St. Petersburg, and supply up to 8.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year to the Mussalo peninsula near Kotka in Finland.
The recoupment period is estimated at six to nine years. Revenues will be invested in the construction of replacement capacity facilities at the Leningrad nuclear power plant.
The project is not the first attempt made by Russian electricity producers to build an underwater line. An idea for a similar cable linking Russia's Pacific island of Sakhalin to Japan was put forward in 1998. However, the $9.6-billion project remains on the drawing boards.
