Alexander Krutov, State Duma deputy

– Nuclear energy does have future

When people say that nuclear energy is dangerous, they should know that nuclear reactor is not an electric kettle. Today, nuclear power plants are the safest power plants in the world. Now that oil and gas reserves are growing meager and will sooner or later end, we must develop nuclear power as ecologically safe and cheap source of energy.

The decision of the Government to unite the civil and military sectors of the nuclear industry will benefit the economy. We need to bring all our knowledge, capacities and funds together. The nuclear power industry is closely related to space and military industries. So, this unification will help the industry to put many of its projects into practice.

As you may know, Prime Minister of Russia has visited Elemash, a big producer of fuel for nuclear power plants. This visit has shown that the Government gives high priority to the nuclear power industry. Recently, Elemash, jointly with AREVA, launched a production of fuel for nuclear power plants of western design. Elemash is one of the few in the world who makes fuel from regenerated uranium. Almost 100 tons of fuel will be supplied to European NPPs a year under the Elemash-AREVA project. 10 European reactors are already working on this fuel.

In the last years Russia has been intensively developing its nuclear power industry. So, no surprise, that today our nuclear power companies have entered the world market.

The first time I learned what nuclear energy is was Apr 1986 when we all witnessed Chernobyl accident. We all understood that one could not longer joke with nuclear energy. Many people began distrusting or fearing it. But others realized that it had just to be made safer. Since then our nuclear power technologies have become one of the best in the world. Today, they are worthy rivals to their western analogues and are even better in some parameters. Presently, our reactors are in high demand: not only because they are cheaper than their western counterparts, simply, they are very safe – and our last contracts abroad have proved that. Along with space and military technologies, our nuclear technologies are the best of what we have in our country and this is exactly the sector where we can successfully complete with developed western countries.