Environmental, economic and social risks of nuclear power engineering (the case of the southern part of the Ob-river basin)

• Published in: International Journal of Environmental Studies
• Main Authors: Kirpotin, Sergey N., Nemceva, Galina G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Обь; река; бассейны рек; ядерная энергетика; радиоактивные отходы; ob river; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2015.1027589; https://openrepository.ru/article?id=277088

The Siberian Chemical Combine, the largest nuclear plant not only in Russia but also in the world, which afforded ‘heat and electricity to our houses’, was built in 1954 in the south-east of Tomsk Oblast. Tomsk is in close proximity (10–12 km) to this plant located in the closed city of Severesk; hence the radiological situation in Tomsk may be estimated as potentially dangerous. The Russian Federation’s Ministry for Atomic Energy tries to continue developing the nuclear power industry in the region and suggests new projects including a plant for nuclear fuel production and development reactor BREST-OD-300, calling this an ‘innovative project’, a ‘breakthrough’. Where will this breakthrough lead us? Is the nuclear power industry really innovative and hi-tech? The paper focuses on the analysis of economic, ecological and social risks of the nuclear power industry; it also discusses whether it is worth developing in Siberia with its huge resource potential.