Nuclear dreams and realities in contemporary Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the nuclear enterprises in Russia and Ukraine after the break-up of the USSR in 1991 to the present and contributes to better understanding of interrelation between large-scale technologies and politics. It compares how economic crises and recovery, political considerations, and nuclear imaginaries – visions of the role that nuclear power will play in conceptions of a national future – have determined the direction of nuclear energy policy. It explores institutional, legal, and other developments surrounding the 34 operating power reactors in Russia and 15 in Ukraine including promotion and regulation; operation; license life extension; decommissioning and spent fuel and waste handling. Russia and Ukraine are connected by history, Soviet reactor technology, and nuclear fuel and waste disposal agreements that shape and constrain the countries’ behavior, and leave great uncertainty for the future given the ongoing conflict between the two nations. Yet both nations hope for some grand nuclear ‘renaissance.’