So how many nukes are there in Europe and more importantly Russia...

Total worldwide?

Anyone have any numbers?

-- Anonymous, October 29, 1998

Answers

Here's the count I found:

Number of Reactors in Operation in 1997:

USA 107; France 59; Japan 54; UK 35; Russian Fed. 29; Germany 20; Canada 16; Ukraine 16; Korea Rep. 12; Sweden 12; India 10; Spain 9; Belgium 7; Bulgaria 6; Switzerland 5; Czech Rep. 4; Finland 4; Hungary 4; Slovak Rep. 4; China 3; Argentina 2; Lithuania 2; Mexico 2; South Africa 2: And one each in Armenia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania and Slovenia.

Source: http://www.iaea.or.at/programmes/a2/oprconst.html

-- Anonymous, November 01, 1998

By the way, that's just nuclear reactors. I remember reading early this summer about a y2k discussion at a G8 meeting where it was mentioned that NO ONE has a list of all the world's "nuclear facilities" and it was proposed that perhaps an attempt should be made to compile one. I remember the article because I thought at the time that creating such a list would surely be an interesting challenge.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 1998

See Ticking Time Bombs: East Bloc Reactors

It begins with this--

Alexei Yablokov, Boris Yeltsin's environmental adviser, said of Soviet-style reactor safety in 1992: "It's impossible to deliver [our] power stations by missile to some other country, but in reality, they are no less dangerous than nuclear weapons."

Later on there's this--

The former Soviet Union has 15 RBMK (graphite-moderated) reactors, the most dangerous type, still in operation. It was an RBMK that exploded at Chernobyl. Two RBMKs operate in Lithuania, two at Chernobyl, and 11 others in Russia. These reactors lack containment, emergency core cooling systems, modern fire protection systems or design features, and their electrical and control systems are dangerous. The United States has studied the RBMK's safety problems and a Swedish firm has been making some safety improvements at the Ignalina plant in Lithuania.

And further on--

Basically, all of the 58 reactors operating in the region have serious technical and operational flaws that require immediate modification or shutdown, although some of the 230s and RBMKs have shorter fuses than others. Still, since 1989 this growing crisis has fallen through the cracks -- the Western response has been negligent at the national, multilateral, and international level.

I read lately that Russia only this summer began to think about Y2k remediation. Since the government has no money, this probably won't get very far. No one seems to know how much these old designs depend on embedded systems. Or what sort of software their controls use

It might be a good idea to include a sensitive radiation meter in the bugout bag. The wind blows all around the world....

...for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

(Matt. 5:45)

-- Anonymous, November 13, 1998