Espionage, bombs, science – Russia celebrates nuclear energy
Published: Thursday, Aug 15th 2024, 09:10
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While Switzerland has decided to gradually phase out nuclear energy, Russia is really turning up the heat. Moscow is celebrating nuclear science with a new technology museum, providing insights into espionage and the future.
The huge glass palace with the large letters Atom is the latest attraction in Moscow's mega leisure and exhibition park WDNCh. Russia is currently celebrating the 85th "birthday" of the site with its pavilions in the style of Soviet classicism. WDNCh stands for Exhibition of National Economic Achievements - there are large space shows and architectural temples reminiscent of former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The latest craze, however, is the Atomic Pavilion with seven floors, four of which are underground, in which Russia celebrates its love of the atom and nuclear energy as a great scientific achievement of mankind.
It is a journey through time from the beginnings with nuclear espionage and uranium mining in East Germany, with the construction and testing of the first bombs, through disasters such as the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986, to the present and the future. Visitors can see how nuclear scientists use technology today to make food more durable, seawater usable and medicine more advanced. The multifaceted propaganda exhibition of the nuclear holding company Rosatom also presents the new nuclear icebreaker "Leader", which effortlessly digs its way through the Arctic on the video - and is set to make the Northeast Passage one of the most frequently used shipping routes.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of a "grandiose demonstration of the role of nuclear technologies" in scientific progress and energy security for humanity during a tour with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in July. "I am sure the exhibition will inspire many young people to delve into the realm of nuclear energy and technology for the benefit of future generations and our planet," he wrote in the book for guests of honor. Russia, Modi made it clear, is a key partner in the use of nuclear energy in India.
Material for Soviet atomic bombs came from abroad
The Indian guest also sees great "entertainment value" in the pavilion, which begins deep underground with bunker-like halls in dim light. There is a replica of a loading station with uranium barrels. It is a reminder of a mining company - but not of the serious consequences for the health of the miners and for the environment.
The hall is intended as a kind of tribute to the GDR's role as a supplier of fissile material during the Cold War. "Tens of thousands of people were involved in the work, producing around 100 tons of uranium a year," reads a plaque. This is how the atomic bomb was created in a very short time.
The first halls on the lowest floor of the museum are also dedicated to the beginnings. A room set up like a laboratory for the analysis of spy photography tells the story of the great Soviet agents who extracted information from the West. Immortalized here is Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist and communist who worked on the nuclear project in the USA and handed over documents to the Soviet agents that enabled scientists in the country to speed up their work.
Nuclear bomb test as a spectacle for visitors
Replicas of living spaces show how people lived in the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. One area is dedicated to the first Soviet nuclear test in Kazakhstan - 75 years ago on August 29, 1949, around 170 kilometers from the city of Semipalatinsk. Visitors look through a concrete slit onto a steppe landscape from which a huge mushroom cloud rises into the sky after the explosion.
The nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov, who, like the US physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who is also honored, warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons, also has his say in detail. An interview with Sakharov, who went from being one of the inventors of the Soviet hydrogen bomb to one of the country's most important human rights activists, is shown in a small movie theater. A model of the Tsar Bomb, a hydrogen bomb with unprecedented explosive power at the time, hangs in the center of one room.
However, the largest nuclear power after the USA also reminds us in one room of numerous nuclear disarmament treaties that are now history. In his conflict with the West over the war in Ukraine, Kremlin leader Putin repeatedly refers to Moscow's potential for weapons of mass destruction in a threatening tone. At the same time, he warns of a new arms race and calls for new international security treaties. However, talks with the USA are not in sight.
Advertising show for nuclear energy
Pride in the weapons comes through in many places in the show - there are also models of missiles and a walk-in model of a nuclear submarine. Above all, however, it is clear that Russia is promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the construction of new power plants and the future city of Atomgrad, which is already available here as a model, including a pop song with the line "Our nuclear love, our nuclear love".
In addition to new nuclear power plant models, the old visions of a nuclear-powered car and helicopter are given space. Russia also presents itself here as a partner for other countries for the construction of nuclear power plants. More than a dozen countries receive nuclear fuel from Russia, which is one of the largest producers of uranium.
The nuclear pavilion, which took six years to build, says Alexander Novak, the deputy head of government responsible for energy issues, shows Russia's great future. Rosatom boss Alexei Likhachev has to speak almost ex officio of the "best technology museum on the planet", which is expecting millions of visitors in its first year alone. There are laboratories, a library, science competitions and internships for schools. And the pavilion includes conference halls for scientific meetings, an ultra-modern cinema hall where a science film festival is currently being held and a large rooftop restaurant with a terrace overlooking part of the huge WDNch site.
©Keystone/SDA
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