ive and much-needed energy resources, the potential for poor management, inadequate maintenance, and insecure operation is a cause for concern.
The purpose of this report, therefore, is to examine the geographic and other contexts in which nuclear power in the former Soviet Union is now positioned. The danger and challenges that arose with the collapse of the Soviet Union will be examined, specifically with regard to what Lee (20030 identified as a very real potential for such materials to fall into the "wrong hands" and be used against the United States or other Western countries. Indeed, leaving WMD aside, as Greek (1996) reported, standards at nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe are still far lower than their Western counterparts; experts believe that some reactors pose a serious threat to
regional and international stability and safety.
In 1990, Schoenfeld (1990) reported that disclosures from officials in the Soviet Union demonstrated that the total insulation from public scrutiny which the Soviet nuclear industry enjoyed for some many decades had left a legacy of pollution and lax management practices. Indeed, there were concerns that the entire region was being transformed into a nuclear waste dump. As Schoenfeld (1990) reported, the Soviets reported in 1989 (the first year in which their government published monthly statistics and an annual report on nuclear-power-plant performance) that there were 118 unplanned shutdowns and 100 unscheduled reductions of capacity. A quarter of all the stoppages occurred in the Balakovo nuclear plant, located near a branch of one of the largest water reservoirs in the USSR.
Additionally, Schoenfeld (1990) stated that throughout the Soviet Union, negative health and environmental effects linked to nuclear testing, poor power plant management and maintenance, and inadequate nuclear waste disposal had been ongoing for decades. Contamination of water resources and arable...