Electricity in Eastern Europe

Lutz Mez/Felix Chr. Matthes (eds.) 1997:
Electricity in Eastern Europe -
10 Years After The Chernobyl Disaster,
Second revised Edition, Berlin 1997, 275 S.
Heinrich Böll Stiftung in cooperation with
Öko-Institut and Forschungsstelle für Umweltpolitik (FFU).

Preface: Electricity in Eastern Europe

Without a doubt, the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine has influenced discussions and decisions about environmental issues and energy policy throughout the world. On April 26, 1986, the hypothetical case of a bad reactor accident with large areas of radioactive fallout and unforeseen consequences for health, nature, and the economies of surrounding countries became reality.

In the years following the Chernobyl disaster, new political protagonists established themselves in the western political arena. The political makeup of other parties has in turn changed radically. Even well-established political and economic leaders have since ceased to promote nuclear energy. Chernobyl also contributed in many western states to the founding of new institutions (ministries) which are devoted to the improved protection of the environment.

In North America and Europe, the vision of massive development of the nuclear sector has largely failed to take hold ten years after the Chernobyl catastrophe. Political controversies about nuclear energy are now almost exclusively limited to existing facilities. Energy saving as well as new, more efficient and environmentally safe systems of energy production (such as combined heat and power systems, regenerative energy resources, etc.) play a much greater role now than they did ten years ago. And if many developments - even against the background of global climate change - still move very slowly, it may be assumed that the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986 has sensitized the public, politics, and even economics to the extent that increasingly a new energy policy was demanded and - to different degrees in different countries - initial approaches to such a policy could be implemented.

The Chernobyl disaster thus acted as a true water-shed in the discussion of the environment and energy policy. For this reason, the development of the environmental and energy debate in North America and Western Europe has been extensively documented and analyzed.

For the former socialist block countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as the former Soviet Union (referred to here simply as Eastern Europe), the decade since 1986 is largely characterized by the opening of previously closed societies.

Within the fields of energy and nuclear power production of East European states, the concepts of "glasnost" and "perestroika" remained unknown longer than in other areas. Particularly in the initial phases after this process of opening, which were mostly characterized by a completely new quality of social communication, a key role was played by ecological topics and naturally also the energy sector and its considerable effects on the environment. The tension between the source of problems and lack of transparency quickly led to loss of credibility. The treatment of information about the course and consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe contributed significantly to the loss of legitimation of the socialist regime.

However, the opening up of Central and Eastern European states and the breakup of the former Soviet Union did not lead only to greater freedom and latitude for individuals. The transition process of the economic system, social institutions and the elite classes, which accompanied the change, led to considerable problems in almost all spheres of society.

Problems related to the economy were particularly dramatic. The beginning of structural changes, the rupture of markets by the disintegration of the East European economic block, and the tough competition on the world market led to an initial economic breakdown in all East European states. It is probable that in 1996, none of the East European countries will be able to regain the economic power they had in 1990, and in some cases economic performance has been halved during the years since 1990 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Development of the GDP in various groups of countries

This economic crisis has dramatically changed the perception of the energy industry. There are many indications that at the start of the reform process, the energy industry only perceived the ecological problems it had caused directly (such as radioactive fallout, air pollution, water dams, etc.). During the economic crisis which was transferred to many countries by the shift of the relative cost of energy to the world market level and by a crisis in energy prices, this perception changed substantially into concern for the security of supply and energy costs.

Given such a situation, controversial discussions about future strategies of electricity production were ignited in all Eastern European countries. Understandably these debates were initiated first and most intensely by questions about the future use of nuclear power.

After the Chernobyl catastrophe happened, ambitious nuclear power development programs nearly came to a stop, including those in Eastern Europe (Figure 2). In almost all countries of Eastern Europe, however, right after they were opened up, new nuclear power programs were conceived or are already being implemented. The predilections of the local elite as well as the massive interests of West European, Russian or Czech reactor construction companies play a significant role in this matter. As many discussions and confrontations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Ukraine, or Russia have shown, the economic logic of many of these projects is extremely questionable.

Discussions about the electricity industry extend even further, however. Conscientious and goal-directed energy conservation and the creation of the necessary guidelines and instruments in various countries are thus of great importance. Not least, the restructuring and privatization strategies for electricity production are a hotly contested battlefield.

Within this context, an effort was made in this reader to undertake

an initial survey of alternative analyses and concepts,

a description of the old and new figures in energy policy, and

the development of new perspectives for the future.

Figure 2. Startups of nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe.

We have thus endeavored to find authors from the individual Eastern European states who can contribute an analysis and perspectives on power production from the point of view of their own country and the context of their particular activity, based on available materials.

Due to the highly different situations among the individual states, very different contributions were submitted, which - as can be seen in retrospect - convey a fairly accurate impression of the discussions and controversies. The contributions in this volume are meant only to throw a spotlight and cannot claim to be comprehensive descriptions or analyses. However, they have begun a process of mutual cooperation which the editors hope will continue and be further developed in the future.

The only case study which this volume lacks is Poland (where the end of the nuclear program was essentially brought about by a popular election), a regrettable omission which could not be avoided.

A major obstacle to understanding the events in Eastern European states is often the lack of or incompleteness of factual material. Therefore in the second half of this reader, a few facts and references were put together which the editors felt were necessary. Supplemental information will remain necessary here as well, but an attempt was made to present data in a comparable fashion which were previously not available in this form.

Felix Chr. Matthes

Lutz Mez

Berlin, April 1996/September 1997

Acknowledgements

This volume would not have been possible without the help of numerous organizations and colleagues. The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, which financed the main parts of the publication, deserves first mention. This funding was supplemented by additional money and resources of the Öko-Institut and the Environmental Policy Research Unit at the Free University of Berlin.

Francesca Rogier (Berlin) edited the texts submitted in English and translated the preface. Mirjam Müller, Lena Prentz, Marino Petrioli and Wolfgang Tietz collected and analyzed many statistics and made initial conclusions. They also tirelessly reworked the layout and resolved translation problems among German, English, and Russian texts. Ursula Roenius helped solve many organizational problems in the printing of the reader.

Antonia Wenisch produced a special review of the data base on nuclear power incidents and thereby contributed significantly to the value of the information presented in the factual section of this reader.

Many of our colleagues helped us to contact potential authors, a task which in the face of the sometimes very unstable structures of Eastern European countries is often linked with considerable difficulties. It would be impossible to name all of them here, but we nevertheless offer them our heartfelt thanks.

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