Atomic energy for peaceful purposes in the Warsaw pact countries

Abstract

MUCH has been said in the West about Soviet nuclear developments in the military sphere and the nuclear arsenal at the disposal of the Warsaw Pact countries, but less attention has been given to the peaceful applications of atomic energy in these countries.1 Although up to the mid-195os the Soviet nuclear programme was overwhelmingly dominated by military considerations, since that time atomic energy has been increasingly harnessed to economic uses, and the USSR has also decided to pass on some of this technology to other Warsaw Pact countries for peaceful applications. It is not generally realized that several nonmilitary uses of atomic energy were pioneered in these countries and that in some fields they are ahead of the most advanced capitalist nations. In this article we shall examine the considerations which have prompted the Warsaw Pact countries to turn to atomic energy for peaceful purposes, the cost of nuclear power, the extent of nuclear power developments, nuclear power reactors and equipment, other peaceful uses of atomic energy, Soviet nuclear aid and diplomacy and the implications for the capitalist world. Special attention is given to comparisons with Western countries and to the latest and prospective developments.