Russia fuel resources

Comprehensive reviews of energy sources are pubflshed by the World Energy Conference, formerly the World Power Conference at six-year intervals (83). The 1986 survey includes reserves and also gives total resources. In 1986 the total proven reserves of recoverable soHd fuels were given as 6 X 10 metric tons. One metric ton is defined as 29.2 x 10 MJ (27.7 x 10 Btu) to provide for the variation of calorific value in different coals. The total estimated additional reserves recoverable and total estimated additional amount in place are 2.2 x 10 and 7.7 x 10 metric tons, respectively. These figures are about double the 1913 estimates, primarily because significantly increased reserves have been indicated for Russia. 

Research and development activities for thorium fuel cycles have been conducted in Germany, the USA, India, Japan, Russia and the UK during the last 30 years at a much smaller scale than uranium and uranium-plutonium cycles. Nowadays, India, in particular, has made the utilisation of thorium a major goal in its nuclear power programme, as it has ambitious nuclear expansion plans and significant indigenous thorium resources. 

Little use was made of the earth s capital energy until the nineteenth century, and now 5 to 8 percent of that resource may have been consumed. Yet even though most of the fossil fuels remain, there are increasing problems with their extraction and distribution and the pollution that is incidental to their use. The demand for energy is increasing as the world continues to industrialize. In 2002, the annual per capita consumption in the United States was 340 million Btus versus 190 million in Russia, 47.7 million in Brazil, and... 

Sparse industrial entities and residential settlements in the far north and far east regions of Russia are traditional customers of small sized power applications. These regions altogether constitute two thirds of the country s territory and are characterized by relatively small power loads concentrated within singular consumption points, by difficulties in the supply and high costs of fossil fuel, and by lack of qualified local personnel needed to maintain complex power equipment. Though only 8% of the population of Russia lives in these regions, more than 60% of the prospected inventory of hydrocarbon fuel and mineral and raw material resources of the country are concentrated there. 

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