Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant. As a nuclear technology, nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Generating electricity from fusion power remains at the focus of international research. This article mostly deals with nuclear fission power for electricity generation.
Sillamäe (known also in Germanized version as Sillamäggi or Sillamägi, is a town in Ida-Viru County in the northern part of Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It has a population of 13,666 and covers an area of 10.54 km². Sillamäe is located at the mouth of Sõtke River.
Rosatom, stylized as ROSATOM and also known as the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, or the Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy. Established in 2007, the organization comprises more than 360 enterprises, including scientific research organizations, the nuclear weapons complex, and the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet.
Environmental issues in Tajikistan include concentrations of agricultural chemicals and salts in the soil and groundwater, poor management of water resources, and soil erosion. Additionally, because of inadequate sanitation facilities, untreated industrial waste and sewage combine with agricultural runoff to cause water pollution in the Aral Sea Basin. Soviet-Era mining operations in Tajikistan extracted and processed uranium, gold, antimony, tungsten, mercury, and molybdenum, each of which is known to leave toxic waste that also threatens water quality. Pockets of high air pollution caused by industry and motor vehicles have resulted in Tajikistan ranking 133rd in the world in greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution is a particular problem during times of the year when atmospheric conditions hold industrial and vehicle emissions close to the surface in urban areas. In summer, dust and sand from the deserts of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan cause air pollution across the entire southwestern lowland region.
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2015 amounted to 60,496 tonnes. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 70% of world uranium production. Other important uranium producing countries in excess of 1,000 tons per year are Niger, Russia, Namibia, Uzbekistan, China, the United States and Ukraine. Uranium from mining is used almost entirely as fuel for nuclear power plants.
TENEX is Rosatom's overseas trade company. It supplies nuclear fuel cycle products developed by the organizations of Russia's nuclear industry under the trademark TENEX.
Kazakhstan owns large reserves of energy resources, and therefore the energy policy of Kazakhstan has influence over the world's overall energy supply. Although Kazakhstan has not described itself as an energy superpower, Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev has claimed Kazakhstan will become a factor of energy security in Asia and Europe. Kazakhstan has a strategic geographical location to control oil and gas flows from Central Asia to East (China) and West.
Nuclear power is the fifth-largest source of electricity in India after coal, gas, hydroelectricity and wind power. As of March 2018, India has 22 nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants, having a total installed capacity of 6,780 MW. Nuclear power produced a total of 35 TWh and supplied 3.22% of Indian electricity in 2017. 7 more reactors are under construction with a combined generation capacity of 4,300 MW.
The industrial firm Auergesellschaft was founded in 1892 with headquarters in Berlin. Up to the end of World War II, Auergesellschaft had manufacturing and research activities in the areas of gas mantles, luminescence, rare earths, radioactivity, and uranium and thorium compounds. In 1934, the corporation was acquired by the German corporation Degussa. In 1939, their Oranienburg plant began the development of industrial-scale, high-purity uranium oxide production. Special Soviet search teams, at the close of World War II, sent Auergesellschaft equipment, material, and staff to the Soviet Union for use in their nuclear weapon project. In 1958 Auergesellschaft merged with the Mine Safety Appliances Corporation, a multinational US corporation. Auergesellschaft became a limited corporation in 1960.
Peak uranium is the point in time that the maximum global uranium production rate is reached. After that peak, according to Hubbert peak theory, the rate of production enters a terminal decline. While uranium is used in nuclear weapons, its primary use is for energy generation via nuclear fission of the uranium-235 isotope in a nuclear power reactor. Each kilogram of uranium-235 fissioned releases the energy equivalent of millions of times its mass in chemical reactants, as much energy as 2700 tons of coal, but uranium-235 is only 0.7% of the mass of natural uranium. Uranium-235 is a finite non-renewable resource. Some have wildly speculated, using technology that does not yet exist, that future advances in breeder reactor technology could allow the current reserves of uranium to provide power for humanity for billions of years. As such technology does not exist the idea that nuclear power can be considered sustainable energy is more science fiction than science. Consequently, in 2010 the International Panel on Fissile Materials said "After six decades and the expenditure of the equivalent of tens of billions of dollars, the promise of breeder reactors remains largely unfulfilled and efforts to commercialize them have been steadily cut back in most countries."
The mineral industry of Russia is one of the world's leading mineral industries and accounts for a large percentage of the Commonwealth of Independent States' production of a range of mineral products, including metals, industrial minerals, and mineral fuels. In 2005, Russia ranked among the leading world producers or was a significant producer of a vast range of mineral commodities, including aluminum, arsenic, cement, copper, magnesium compounds and metals, nitrogen, palladium, silicon, nickel and vanadium.
Tajikistan has rich deposits of gold, silver, and antimony. The largest silver deposits are in Sughd Province, where Tajikistan’s largest gold mining operation also is located. Russia’s Norilsk nickel company has explored a large new silver deposit at Bolshoy Kanimansur. More than 400 mineral deposits of some 70 different minerals have been discovered in Tajikistan, including strontium, tungsten, molybdenum, bismuth, salt, lead, zinc, fluorspar, and mercury. These minerals have been found suitable for mining. Uranium, an important mineral in the Soviet era, remains in some quantity but is no longer extracted. The Tajikistan Aluminium Company (TALCO), an aluminium smelter, is the country's only large-scale production enterprise in the mining sector. Tajikistan hosts the annual Mining World Tajikistan, an international exhibition on mining in Dushanbe.
President Adly Mansour announced on 7 November 2013 that Egypt was restarting its nuclear power program in El Dabaa; a deal was reached with the residents in which it was agreed that a residential area will also be built. The Egyptian minister of electricity, Ahmed Emam, has called the project "necessary" because of a small amount of renewable energy sources and not enough fuel.
ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. is a Russian uranium mining company. It is wholly owned by Atomenergoprom, a part of Rosatom.
Oskemen or Ust-Kamenogorsk is the administrative center of East Kazakhstan Region of Kazakhstan. It is served by Oskemen Airport. Population: 303,720 ; 310,950.
Mexico is one of the few countries which has technical capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons. However it has renounced them and pledged to only use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes following the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1968. In the 1970s Mexico's national institute for nuclear research successfully achieved the creation of highly enriched uranium which is used in nuclear power plants and in the construction of nuclear weapons. However the country agreed in 2012 to downgrade the high enriched uranium used on its nuclear power plants to low enriched uranium, the process was realised with the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. It is unknown if Mexico ever created or possessed nuclear or any other kind of mass destruction weapons.
Uranium mining in Namibia is of considerable importance to the national economy. In 2011, Namibia was ranked as the 4th largest producer of uranium worldwide, behind Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia. When Uranium prices fell after the Fukushima incident production was reduced. In 2012, Namibia produced 7.1% of Uranium oxide worldwide, trailing behind Niger as well.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to nuclear power:
COMINAK is a national uranium mining company of Niger.
