Boris Gabarayev, Director of NIKIET

– Nuclear industry is a locomotive pulling construction, heavy machine building and other sectors

The construction of nuclear power plants in Russia will not be curtailed despite the crisis, Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said while speaking at the international public forum dialogue “Nuclear Energy, Society, Security” in St.Petersburg. During a conference on nuclear energy development at Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant earlier this month Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin supported Kiriyenko’s proposal for allocation of additional 50bln RUR for Rosatom’s additional capitalization.

The fact that the Government is allocating additional money for the development of nuclear energy despite the financial crisis proves that it strongly relies on this sector. The construction of nuclear reactors is a time- and labor-intensive process. It involves lots of constructors, installers and workers and thereby creates lots of new jobs. In fact, today nuclear industry is acting as a locomotive pulling construction, heavy machine building and other sectors out of the crisis. So, this money is being invested not only in nuclear energy but in the plants manufacturing equipment and construction materials for nuclear reactors.

Our Government is acting very wisely by financing nuclear energy today and thereby preventing the possibility of energy crisis tomorrow. The point is that the construction of one nuclear reactor takes an average of seven years. The crisis will not last for so long: in some two years the industry will start to revive, energy consumption will grow and we will face an energy crisis we will be able to overcome only if we have new power plants. So, we must start building them already today.

It is obvious that fast-breeder reactors are the future of nuclear power engineering: unlike other reactors using only uranium-235, they also use uranium-238. 99% of natural uranium is uranium-238. That is, by using fast reactors we will be able to increase our fuel resources by as many as 100 times and we will be able to produce much more energy if we use natural uranium.

The only operating commercial fast reactor is the potassium-cooled BN-600 unit of Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant in Ural. This reactor has already proved its efficiency and today many countries are beginning to develop exactly potassium-cooled reactors. There are also lead-cooled reactors. These two projects have both their strong and weak points and it is early yet to say which one is better. But I believe that lead-cooled reactors are more appropriate for large-scale use. We also have lead-bismuth reactors: they are good for plants with a capacity of no more than 100MW. They can be built in places where there is no need for big 1,000MW reactors. All the three types have their right of existence and each of them will play its role in due time and place.

I would also like to point out gas-cooled reactors generating hydrogen. Many scientists believe that hydrogen is the fuel of the future as it is very safe for ecology.