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Russia Confronting Energy Shortage
June 21, 2002
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is confronting its growing energy shortage with an ambitious program of refurbishing old nuclear reactors and building at least four new ones, top government nuclear officials said Friday.
The country also is competing with companies from the United States, Germany and France to build a reactor in Finland, Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Valery Lebedev said.
The expansion of Russia's nuclear program comes after years of stagnation resulting from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, when a reactor at the Ukraine plant exploded, sending a radioactive cloud over much of Europe. The explosion, the world's worst nuclear accident, is believed to have killed thousands from radiation-related illnesses.
The catastrophe in the former Soviet Union caused a public backlash against nuclear power and forced nuclear officials to shelve plans for expanding the industry.
``We are going to make a big surge forward after a long period of stagnation,'' said Oleg Sarayev, the head of the Rosenergoatom consortium in charge of Russia's nuclear power plants.
Regional authorities throughout Russia are welcoming the construction of new plants, which now generate little public protest. Sarayev claimed Russia's nuclear safety standards were tougher than the West's.
Reactor No. 3 at the Kalinin power plant in western Russia is nearing completion and three reactors at the Kursk, Balakovo and Rostov power plants will follow, Sarayev said Friday.
Rosenergoatom also is modernizing the oldest of Russia's 30 existing nuclear reactors to extend their lifetime, Sarayev said.
In March 2001, Russia opened its first new nuclear reactor since the Chernobyl catastrophe at a plant in the southern Rostov region.
The new 1,000-megawatt reactor uses pressurized water to cool its fuel rods instead of the less-stable graphite used in the Chernobyl reactor.
Russia also has signed contracts to build nuclear power plants in China, India and Iran, and is optimistic it will land the Finland contract.
``There is a good chance that we will win, taking into account the fact that the Soviet Union built a nuclear reactor in Finland which is considered one of the safest in the world,'' Lebedev said.
Russia's $800 million reactor deal with Tehran has vexed the United States, which fears it could help Iran build atomic weapons. But Russia has said Iran will not acquire weapons grade material from the project.
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