Moscow, Apr 18 (IANS/RIA Novosti): The chief of Russian nuclear reactor design bureau Gidropress, a subsidiary of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, has been detained on suspicion of an 18-million-ruble ($600,000) fraud.

Viktor Mokhov was appointed Gidropress head in August 2011, just two months after the company's top managers died in a plane crash in Russia.

Mokhov is suspected of illegally cashing money allocated for an economy modernisation programme, a source in the company said.

The fraud was uncovered in the later part of 2011 during an internal audit in the company. In March, a criminal case was opened against Mokhov and his deputy, Sergei Sitsky, who together are suspected of cashing 26 million rubles (around $900,000).

Gidropress was unavailable for comments.

The design bureau, established 66 years ago, produces nuclear reactors used in 18 nuclear power plants in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and China.