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Soviet Union [USSR] Uranium
In 1988 little was known specifically about the Soviet uranium
industry. Nevertheless, foreign observers did know that the country
possessed large, varied deposits that provided fuel for its
fast-growing nuclear power program.
POWER ENGINEERING
Traditionally, generation and distribution of electrical power
have been a high priority of Soviet industrial policy. The main
generators of power, in order of importance, were thermoelectric
plants burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, and peat),
nuclear power plants, and hydroelectric stations. The power
industry has been one of the fastest growing branches of the
economy; in 1985 power production reached 58 percent that of the
United States. But the complexity and size of the country has made
timely delivery of electricity a difficult problem. Huge areas of
the northwestern Soviet Union, Siberia, the Soviet Far East, and
Soviet Central Asia remained unconnected to the country's central
power grid. Because the largest power-generating fuel reserves are
located far from industrial centers, geography has limited the
options of Soviet policy markers. In the early 1980s, power
shortages were still frequent in the heavily industrialized
European sector, where conventional fuel reserves were being fully
used. Soviet policy depended heavily on large generating plants
operating more hours per day than those in the West.
Data as of May 1989
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