Structure of the fuel-energy balance and the market prices of energy sources. Oil dominates the world's fuelenergy balance (40%), followed by coal (30%) and gas (20%); the rest is hydroelectric and nuclear. As a result, the world price of energy is based on the price of oil, the dominant source, and significant price changes for petroleum affect the price level for other sources, such as gas (with a year's delay, as shown by analysis of the world market in the 1970s and 1980s). Gas dominates the Russian energy balance (62% in 1996) followed by oil and coal (close to 30% and 10%, respectively). Therefore, gas should dictate ~,e price of other organic energy sources in Russia's internal market.From international practice, we know that the price for gas is higher than for coal (by 30% on the average) because of its consumer qualities. However, in the transition to a market economy, the Russian government regulates the product prices of fuel and energy enterprises like the presidents of natural monopolies, with different degrees of regulation for different sources. Today coal prices are free and are at the market level for poor-quality domestic coal, so that restructuring unprofitable coal production requires large subsidies and financial support. Government regulation makes gas prices artificially low; now $50 per ton of standard fuel, which is lower than for domestic coal and 1.5 to 2 times less than prices abroad.Also, price predictions for Russian gas should consider the necessity of developing new hard-to-reach deposits in the Far North, not only to accommodate planned growth, but also to support production at today's levels. The combination of these factors, and also the tightening of ecological standards for producing and transporting gas, lead to the conclusion that Russian gas prices will rise substantially in the near future.The world history of energy development shows a continuous transition to fuel with a higher energy content: wood, coal, oil, gas, and nuclear, and this list will continue. Here an energy source which has "exhausted" its dominant role does not disappear completely, but gradually occupies a specific --and as a rule a more civilized --niche in the energy balance and industry. Retrospective analysis shows that the future is high technology, which includes nuclear power.Energy conservation, ecology, and competitiveness. As paradoxical as it sounds, nuclear power satisfies all the requirements of an energy-conservative technology: minimum energy requirements for its own production (less than 4% for the nuclear fuel cycle), as well as the fundamental ability to use its own "wastes, ~ i.e., spent fuel can be used as a secondary source to regenerate fuel. If we introduce the concept of fuel-cycle efficiency, then nuclear power in Russia is no worse than gas, in spite of the relatively high efficiency of gas-fueled thermal power plants. The problem is the large energy costs for pumping gas from its main deposits beyond the Urals to industrial regions in European areas: -20% of all organic energy ...
