MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatiana Sinitsyna). The history of Russia's nuclear industry has many heroic and tragic episodes. Suffice it to recall the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl blast that shocked the world.
It seemed that the nuclear industry would never recover from that disaster of huge proportions. Fortunately, Russia managed to cope with the "Chernobyl syndrome" and choose a pragmatic sectoral development strategy.
In 2003 the Government of Russia noted the need for the nuclear industry's sustainable development as a stabilization factor. Moreover, the nuclear industry would more effectively protect Russia from any future energy crises. "We must face the facts: There exists no economically and environmentally sound alternative to the civilian nuclear industry in regards to human civilization's sustainable development," Alexander Rumyantsev, full-time member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, said.
Russia now has ten nuclear power plants that annually generate up to 150 billion kWt/hr of power. This makes up for only 16% of national power-generation volumes. Hydroelectric stations and thermal power plants that have already attained peak capacity provide the rest. And the national energy strategy calls for generating 230 billion kWt/hr per year by 2020. Consequently, Russia will have to build at least ten new nuclear power units.
Right now, I would like to say a few words about the history of the Russian nuclear program. It began in 1942, that is, when Hitler's divisions were approaching Stalingrad. The program received top-priority status, after the crews of American B-29's dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. At that time, the USSR's State Defense Committee established the top-secret First Main Department responsible for developing the atomic bomb. Subsequently, on August 29, 1949 the first Soviet atomic bomb was tested successfully . The A-Bomb project also created civilian spin-offs. In 1954 the Russians commissioned its first nuclear power plant in Obninsk near Moscow. Three years later the first nuclear-powered submarines and icebreakers made their appearance .
The First Main Department was reorganized more than once and is now called the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, or Rosatom. Today the Russian nuclear industry consists of 100 enterprises employing 335,000 workers in different parts of the country. These enterprises produce and process uranium and specialized nuclear materials. They also turn out nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel, as well as enriched-uranium products. These enterprises also prospect for new uranium deposits. The Russian nuclear industry builds NPP-s and loads fuel inside nuclear reactors. It also extracts spent nuclear fuel and subjects it to radio-chemical processing. Moreover, sectoral entities bury all radioactive waste. This powerful science-and-engineering complex boasts an impressive intellectual potential. The nuclear industry has 305 full-time members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as several thousand doctoral candidates.
Rosatom implements a large-scale export program and builds NPPs in other countries. Russia builds its advanced VVER-1000 water-cooled and water-moderated reactors in India, China and Iran. Moreover, Rosatom delivers NPP fuel to Eastern and Western Europe and CIS countries. It also offers uranium-enrichment services.
Rosatom favors both state and private partnership in conditions of market economics. For instance, it buys heavy-duty NPP equipment, such as turbine generators and turbines, from the Silovye Mashiny (Power Machines) holding in St. Petersburg. Rosatom also boasts two shareholding enterprises with 100% state capital that operate at a profit. They are the TVEL corporation which manufactures NPP reactor rods and the Tekhsnabexport trading house that sells all Rosatom products on the world market.
"Subsequent market operations are an involved issue because all nuclear materials and nuclear facilities are federal property under the Law on Nuclear Energy ," Rumyantsev admitted. The Rosatom chief prefers shareholding companies to unitarian enterprises.
Rosatom implements conversion problems worth $140 million each year. These programs are financed on a fifty-fifty basis by Russia and the international community. According to Rumyantsev, the Russian Navy's North and Pacific Fleets annually scrap up to 20 submarines. Rosatom coordinates all these operations, and is responsible for unloading, transporting and radio-chemical processing of nuclear fuel. All in all, 195 submarines have been phased out to date. Russia has scrapped 121 submarines by mid-2005. Eighty more submarines must be dismantled. Work is now proceeding to dismantle 34 of them.
"Speaking of our entire nuclear industry, one should not doubt the fact that Russian nuclear weapons have ensured global parity and global peace for the last 60 years. And this is its main achievement," Rumyantsev stressed.
