THE INTERVIEW | MIKHAIL CHUDAKOV
A vision for a nuclear future
Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Director General of the International
Atomic Energy Agency and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy since 2015, talks to NEi about the changing role of nuclear power and what is needed to make progress around the world.
By Judith Perera
NEI: What would you say was the most important thing that has happened in the past decade in the nuclear industry? During my 10 years the Agency, the most important development has been the growing interest in nuclear power in many countries. Even at climate conferences, we are talking now about nuclear power. It was not like this five years ago. So, the situation is changing, and many countries are now thinking about adding nuclear power to their energy mix. The first reason is the need for energy for many developing countries, and they would like to have clean energy. But many countries don’t have even coal and they need to start with something. Energy security is important. They need a source of energy that can supply them for many years at a predictable cost. The second reason, if we are talking about clean energy, is the need to avoid fossil fuels such as coal and gas and oil. Fossil fuels represent two-thirds of world energy supply especially for baseload power. The only alternative is nuclear – solar and wind cannot replace this. More than 30 countries have confirmed that they
are going to triple their nuclear energy in by 2050 and have signed agreements to that effect at recent climate conferences – first in Dubai and then in Baku, and now in Belém. We see that more and more countries understand that without nuclear power, they cannot address their growing energy needs using clean sources of energy.
Above: Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
APPOINTED AS THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Energy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in February 2015, Mikhail Chudakov previously served as the Director of the Moscow Centre of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) since 2007. He has also held a number of senior managerial positions in the nuclear industry including as the Deputy Director General of Russia’s Rosenergoatom and Director of Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant in April 1999. Between 1983 and 1993, he worked in a variety of roles at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, including Senior Reactor Operator and has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering.
30 | January 2026 |
www.neimagazine.com
NEI: But for poor countries nuclear is an expensive technology. The up-front cost is expensive, but you need to look at the cost per kilowatt hour over the whole life of the plant. New NPPs have a design life of 60 years and can extend this for another 30 years – almost a century. Over this period the cost per kilowatt hour will be comparable with hydro, one of the cheapest energy sources. Of course, the up-front investment is the biggest, but the operating cost is lower. There are a lot of fallacies about the economics
of energy sources. Solar and wind claim to be the cheapest but the cost of modernising the grid is not taken into account. These sources produce direct current, and they need inverters in order to convert direct current to alternating current. They also need storage systems. Their lifetime is very short, 14 years
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