Russian Support for Nuclear Power Weakens as Chernobyl Anniversary Nears

March 24, 2011

A general view of the sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant February 24, 2011. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia will mark the 25th anniversary of the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl, the place where the world's worst civil nuclear accident took place, on April 26

Japan’s nuclear accident comes as Russia prepares for the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. This combination may weaken support for nuclear energy in Russia, long a major nuclear advocate.

A Soviet official hysterically bellowing that there is no accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is not the face the Russia nuclear power industry would like to project to the world at this time of Japan’s nuclear leak in Fukushima.

But the scene is featured in

Innocent Saturday

, a docudrama about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that opened in movie theaters across Russia one month before the 25th anniversary of the explosion and fire at the Soviet power plant.

The movie is banned in Belarus, the country that most suffered from the Chernobyl disaster. Last week, Belarus authorities signed a $9.4 billion deal with neighboring Russia to build two nuclear reactors.

The export deal is part of a drive to make Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear-power company, the leading builder of nuclear reactors around the world. Building plants in Turkey, Bulgaria, India, China and Iran, Rosatom says it is building one quarter of the 60 nuclear power plants under construction worldwide.