Alexander Petrov, head of expert department of Ecolife center, Chelyabinsk

– We urgently need new power plants in Ural

Ural is one of the most dynamically developing regions of our country and in order to preserve this growth we need new power plants. The only question is what to build. New thermal power plants are a problem for ecology. Water power plants can hardly be built in our region – we have no conditions for them. So, the only alternative is nuclear power plant.

The stoppage of South-Ural NPP project in 1989 was a strong blow on the ecology of Chelyabinsk region. The plant was supposed to solve not only energy but also ecological problems related to the treatment of nuclear waste of Mayak Production Association.

Today, we are planning to build four reactors 1,200 MW each on the basis of NPP-2006 project. The plant will certainly solve our energy problems and I hope that its construction will not be delayed.