Source: Bloomberg                       Date: 11 April, 2011

Mongolia will take its cue from the global reaction to Japan’s nuclear disaster before continuing with plans to build atomic power plants, according to the deputy chairman of state-owned nuclear company Monatom. “It will depend on how the world community reacts” to the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station that occurred last month, Mr. T. Gombo said in an interview in Singapore. “We don’t think it’s a big problem for the industry as a whole. It may be a little setback in the timeframe.”

Mongolia, which has at least 1 percent of the world’s uranium resources, was planning to start operating its first nuclear power plant by 2020 and build a nuclear fuel center, Mr. Gombo said. Russia’s Rosatom Corp. last year set up a venture with Monatom to mine uranium, used to make nuclear fuel. Rosatom agreed also to help Mongolia develop its nuclear industry strategy.

Japan’s situation is unlikely to dampen interest in Mongolian uranium deposits or stop the nation from working with Japanese nuclear companies, Mr. Gombo said. “Currently there is not much foreign investment in the uranium sector, but we expect there would be huge investments because the superpowers -- U.S, Russia and China -- are all interested and competing with one another,” Mr. Gombo said. Mongolia would favor developing its nuclear industry together with the U.S., France and Japan, as opposed to its two neighbors Russia and China to “balance” its interests, he said.