The Russian government approved in February a general scheme for new nuclear build until 2020, to be reviewed approximately every three years. The document was published on Wednesday.
The scheme envisions that overall domestic demand for electricity will increase 4% per year, and outlines plans to construct at least four nuclear plants in the Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl or Kostroma regions.
Russia currently operates ten nuclear power plants with total capacity of 23.242 GW.
Under the base scenario, output from the nuclear sector will double by 2020 and output from hydroelectric stations will increase 60%.
At the same time, Russia will need to invest over $282 billion in the construction of power plants by 2015, and $204 billion in 2016-2020.
Russia's electric power sector has undergone radical changes in recent years. The changes have been aimed at increasing the efficiency of power plants and developing the industry by attracting investment.
During the restructuring process, specialized structures have been created in place of the old vertically integrated companies.
By the end of the reforms, potentially competitive units of the industry - generation, sales and repair companies - will become mainly private and will compete with each other. However, natural monopoly functions - power transmission and dispatching - will remain state-controlled.
