Nikolay Tonkov, Vice Chairman of the FC Committee on Local Self-Government, Chairman of the RUIB Committee on Nature Management and Ecology

— Nuclear energy development poses no threat to ecology

The development of nuclear energy in Russia poses no threat to the country’s ecology, says Nikolay Tonkov, Vice Chairman of the FC Committee on Local Self-Government, Chairman of the Committee on Nature Management and Ecology of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Businessmen. “Presently, we are reforming the country’s nuclear power industry, and the people that have come into the sector are quite professional,” says Tonkov.

He notes that in developed European countries the share of nuclear energy in total energy production is much bigger than in Russia (16%). “There are no alternatives. Wind power plants are just being tested. We can’t endlessly exploit our rivers and TPPs, can we? So, we do need nuclear energy,” says Tonkov.

It is extremely important that Russia has won the tender for building Belene NPP in Bulgaria and is constructing nuclear power units in India. This proves that they in the west are interested in Russian nuclear technologies. As regards safety, it is necessary to make technologies so effective that they cause no accidents and radioactive emissions. “Nuclear energy is not dangerous for the environment,” says Tonkov. He notes that they in Europe often use the criticism of nuclear energy for political rather than ecological purposes.