Nuclear Power Plants in Russia

The experience of the past shows that for the replacement of some energy sources by others it takes about a century. So, the tree was replaced with coal, coal - oil, oil - gas, and nuclear fuel was replaced by chemical fuels. The starting point for the history of mastery of the last type of energy can be considered 1939, when they discovered the fission of uranium. It was then that IV Kurchatov substantiated the need to conduct research related to atomic energy.

Seven years later in Rho Ssia built and launched the first nuclear reactor, then still experimental. The uranium mining industry began to develop, with the goal of producing plutonium-239 with uranium-235 (nuclear fuel, which nuclear power plants required).

In 1954, they launched a nuclear power plant in Obninsk. About what nuclear power plants are, the world did not yet know.

Three years later the legendary icebreaker "Lenin" was launched, which became the world's first nuclear ship.

It took only a decade and a half for large-scale development of nuclear power. Now nuclear power plants are built around the world.

Energy is the engine, the basis of the fundamentals. Almost all the goods created by civilization, from an elementary light bulb to devices exploring outer space, require a certain expenditure of energy. And the cheapest energy today is supplied by nuclear power plants. The energy of the atom is ultimately used by absolutely all branches of the modern economy. It is used in biology, medicine, agriculture, metallurgy, engineering, etc.

Almost all nuclear power plants in Russia are built in densely populated areas. In operation now 10 such power stations (32 power units, in plan - construction of 26 more reactors, and two - floating). In the 30-kilometer zone adjacent to them, about 5 million people live.

The strength of the undeniable advantages of nuclear power plants is great, but one can not ignore the disadvantages.

For operation, hydropower requires the creation of large reservoirs that flood huge tracts of fertile land off the banks of rivers. Water stagnates, loses its quality, and, in turn, other problems related to water supply, fisheries, leisure industry are aggravated. But the main thing here after all - environmental problems. Heat power plants gradually destroy the natural environment of the Earth, the biosphere. It would seem that accident-free operation of an NPP excludes various kinds of pollution. But for some reason they keep silent about the heat, because it is also a kind of pollution. Over 100 nuclear power plants have been built around the world, with only 10% of nuclear power plants in Russia, and several reactors at each power plant. The product of the reactor operation is radioactive waste, potentially hazardous. Of course, the volume of waste is small, stored "working off" in special containers, which seem to exclude leakage. And some countries (Russia including) even recycle these wastes, but the risk still remains, and therefore remains a cause for concern.

Since the launch of the first nuclear power plant, more than a hundred and fifty different incidents have been recorded. Although the term "different severity" here, perhaps, is inappropriate, - any, even a minor malfunction in the work of nuclear power plants can have irreversible consequences ...