MOSCOW, May 31 (Itar-Tass) —— He was echoed by a member of the Federation Council’s Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, Bato-Zhargal Zhambalnimbuyev. “Such active support for the nuclear power industry in Russia is quite legitimate. Successful operation of the state corporation Rosatom, which constantly develops technologies and improves safety systems at nuclear power plants, bears fruit,” he said.
He believes that this has also been achieved due to the use of proper information policy that allows the corporation to inform the population about all of its measures and plans. “People come to understand that necessary conclusions have been made in our country after Chernobyl, and special attention is paid to safety,” the MP added.
According to Zhambalnimbuyev, “Many Russians understand that their comfort depends on the use of atomic energy because the operation of nuclear power plants ensures stable supply of electricity.”
“People understand that nuclear power engineering is the best way to obtain electricity and it is safer and more environmentally friendly than coal-powered plants,” he said.
Russian specialists have called for improving international nuclear safety documents to ensure that certain rules stop being recommendations and become mandatory requirements.
Professor Leonid Bolshov, Director of the Institute for Safe Development of the Nuclear Power Industry (IBRAE) told Itar-Tass that the Fukushima-1 accident in Japan a year ago had provoked a global discussion on compliance by the countries that use atomic energy with a certain set of rules, including emergency response and awareness.
“The purpose is to broaden the safety convention. Some of its provisions should have the nature of mandatory requirements not of commendations. Stricter rules are needed to avoid situations where emergencies would simply not be considered and to ensure that all countries, not just a handful of nations, are prepared for a possible accident,” Bolshov said.
MGIMO University Analytical Department senior researcher Leonid Gusev believes that people take all these factors into account and support the nuclear power industry.
But he understands sceptics who tend to have more faith in hydropower plants. “However hydropower plants have problems too, as we could all see at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP where an accident resulted in the death of people and seer destruction. Besides, opponents of atomic energy largely ignore the fact that increased attention is paid to safety of nuclear power plants today, especially in Russia,” he said.
According to Gusev, the absence of serious incidents at Russian nuclear power plants is vivid proof that the industry has learned the hard lesson of Chernobyl. He also recalled that additional safety measures were taken at Russian nuclear power plants after Fukushima.