ABSTRACT
In 1984 the USSR's nuclear power plants generated 142,000 million kWh of electricity, 9.5 per cent of the country's total, and the proportion is planned to exceed 15 per cent in 1991. Some projections indicate that by the year 2000 there might be 100,000 MWe of nuclear power capacity in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and the USSR plans to obtain half its electrical energy from nuclear power stations by then. The relationships between the USSR and the other Council for Mutual Economic Aid (CMEA) countries in energy matters are not always simple and straightforward. The USSR prefers to sell its oil and gas for hard currency rather than increase its oil exports to Eastern Europe, and so the need for a new power source is clearly evident in some of the CMEA countries. Time differences between Eastern Europe and the various time zones of the USSR offer scope for covering peak loads on either side by trading electricity.
