Alexander Zhukov said: "[Expenditure on nuclear energy] in 2008 will be triple the amount in 2007, and more than 150 billion rubles ($5.75 billion) will be spent on the nuclear energy program in 2009-2010."
In addition, he said, the three-year budget envisages financing electric power grid networks in Russia and reducing cross subsidizing in the power sector.
"The budget stipulates substantial funds for economic growth," Zhukov said.
To illustrate his idea, the official said that 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) of motor roads would be built and more than 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles) of roads modernized in 2008-2009.
He added that aviation, shipbuilding and space exploration programs, as well as a global navigation project would be funded extensively.
In January, the lower house of Russia's parliament passed a presidential bill to reform the country's nuclear power sector and to facilitate its development.
In mid-March Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the Russian government would review its energy strategy in April to increase the share of nuclear power, hydroelectric and coal industries in power generation.
Russia has 31 operating power reactors at 10 nuclear power plants (NPPs) with a total installed capacity of 23.2 MWe. The average current share of NPPs in electricity generation is 16.5 percent.
Ivanov, who recently was entrusted with the supervision of the country's nuclear power and defense industries, said a new state-owned holding company, Atomenergoprom, would be set up to handle activities ranging from uranium extraction, fuel fabrication and electric power generation, to the construction of nuclear power plants, both domestically and abroad.
A 2006 report, Uranium 2005, jointly compiled by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), placed Russia ninth on the list of countries that possess the largest reserves of uranium ore, with 172,000 tons (over 3% of the global supply).
