A Russian nuclear electric power company plans to increase its investment in a Jiangsu Province nuclear power plant.

　　AtomStroyExport will contribute 40 percent of the investment of the second-phase construction. The 10 million kilowatt plant, which will be operated by a company from Jiangsu Province, will ease the power shortage in the region, company officials revealed yesterday.

　　As a practice of the power industry, those who contribute to the construction of a power plant could share its future revenue.

　　The firm, under the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, invested in the first-phase construction, in coastal Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, for which it provided two 1-million kilowatt nuclear generators.

　　The first phase cost more than US$3 billion, in which the company and the Russian government contributed 60 percent investment in the form of loans and technology. The rest is provided by Chinese partners.

　　"China is a big market for our business with its demand for energy growing," said Dr Viktor Kozlov, senior vice president of the firm, in Shanghai yesterday.

　　The firm expects the contract to be sealed in the second half of this year, said Kozlov.