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By Dave Brown – Exclusive toUranium Investing News
The nuclear industry has had its share of challenges as we approach the fifty-seventh anniversary of the first electrical grid connection in the Russian city of Obninsk, outside of Moscow on June 26, 1954. The first nuclear reactor used to generate electricity heralded Obninsk’s new role as a major Soviet scientific city, a status it retains in the Russian Federation where it carries the sobriquet of First Russian Science City.
Obninsk currently hosts a population of 108,000, and boasts 12 scientific research institutions and a technical university. The city claims Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a sister city, which served as the production site for the massive U.S. government operation Manhattan Project that was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. As with Obninsk, scientific development still plays a crucial role in the Oak Ridge’s economy and culture in general.
The Obninsk reactor was graphite moderated, water cooled and had a capacity of 5 megawatts (MW), enough to power approximately 2,000 homes. Since the nuclear plant opened in 1954, most of the industrialized west, along with countries like India and China, have embraced nuclear power which now accounts for around 14 percent of the global electricity demands. There are now approximately 420 reactors installed in 31 countries around the world. More than sixty percent of the reactors are in the top 5 producing countries including the USA, France, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
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