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Soviet Union [USSR] The Balance among Energy Sources
The Twelfth Five-Year Plan called for a period of intense
construction of thermal and nuclear plants. By 1990 nuclear
capacity was to reach almost 1.5 times its 1985 level. By the year
2000, most large thermal stations were to be capable of burning the
abundant but low-quality coal mined east of the Urals. Berezovka,
the largest Soviet thermoelectric station yet built, was scheduled
to open at the Kansko-Achinsk fuel and power complex by 1990. The
Unified Electrical Power System (see Glossary), which is the
centralized energy distribution grid and the showpiece of the
Soviet energy program, was to be connected with the Central Asian
Power System by 1990, bringing 95 percent of the country's power
production into a single distribution network.
Despite the presence of some of the world's largest
hydroelectric stations, such as Krasnoyarsk, Bratsk, Ust'-Ilimsk,
and Sayano-Shushenskoye, reliance on hydroelectric power is
decreasing. All large, untapped rivers are east of the Urals--in
the Kazakhstan, East Siberia, and Far East economic regions--and
few major hydroelectric projects are planned west of the Urals.
Although hydroelectric power is renewable and flexible, water
levels are subject to unpredictable climatic conditions. Plans
called for ninety new hydroelectric stations to be started between
1990 and 2000. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan called for nuclear power
to displace hydroelectric power by 1990 as the second largest
electricity source in the Soviet Union. The planned share of
nuclear power in the national power balance for 1990 was 21
percent, while hydroelectric power was already below 15 percent in
1985. By comparison, nuclear generation represented a smaller
percentage--15.5 percent--of power production in the United States
in 1985. An estimated sixteen nuclear plants (forty-five reactors
total) were operating in 1988.
The Soviet Union has led the world in magnetohydrodynamic power
generation. This highly efficient method directly converts the
energy of conventional steam expansion into power, using
superconductor magnetic fields. The first magnetohydrodynamic plant
in the world was built at Ryazan' in the mid-1980s.
Data as of May 1989
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