by Marina KHALIZEVA, journalist In June of 2012 the 4th International Forum Atomexpo was held in the Grand Exhibition Hall "Gostiny Dvor" in the heart of Moscow near Red Square. The sponsor, Rosatom state corporation, brought together above 2,000 delegates representing around 500 companies from 53 countries to declare its development strategies and key priorities of the nuclear industry as well as demonstrate new trends and opportunities. IN THE WAKE OF THE FUKUSHIMA ACCIDENT The focal point of the meeting was the present situation in nuclear power engineering a year after the tech-nogenic disaster that occurred in the spring of 2011 at one of the 25 major atomic power stations (APS) in the world, Fukushima-1 (Japan). Because of the violent tsunami with its tidal wave three times higher than predicted, the APS cooling system was broken down, which caused the meltdown of the fuel cores of three out of six boiling light-water reactors and radiation leakage to the atmosphere and seawater. 140,000 people had to be evacuated. Owing to the high contamination level a number of districts posed a life hazard. Experts say elimination of the aftermath and dismantling of the reactors will take at least 40 years. Countries which had launched their nuclear programs (like Thailand) shelved their plans just after the Japanese disaster. Italy and Germany canceled them, though many countries (about 130, including Vietnam, Turkey, Bangladesh, Belarus) confirmed their policy in building new APS since they found investments in power technologies profitable. Those countries constituted a major part of the forum. The plenary session was attended by the below key persons of the world atomic industry. Those were President and Chief Executive Officer of Areva Luc Oursel (France), Minister of Energy of the Republic of South стр. 15 Africa Elizabeth Dipuo Peters, Minister of Energy of Belarus Alexander Ozerets, Undersecretary of the Ministry of ... Читать далее