Russia currently has at least 18 operating nuclear power plants. they are scattered around Russia's major population centers: Here is a list of these nuclear power plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinin_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obninsk_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novovoronezh_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostov_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ural_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloyarsk_Nuclear_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilibino_Nuclear_Power_Plant and they are building many more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akademik_Lomonosov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloyarsk_Nuclear_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novovoronezh_Nuclear_Power_Plant_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novovoronezh_Nuclear_Power_Plant_II do these nuclear power plants put Russia at risk, say for an extremist terrorist attack? should these plants be shut down so they cannot be used as a target for a terrorist attack, say by an organized group or a lone-wolf attack?
Everything is a risk. Life is a risk by itself. I worked in Rosenergoatom for half a year. And the level of security and safety at russian NPPs is huge and great. A plane attack (like 9.11) or an assault wouldn't make a problem. It is an incredibly tough task to blow the NPP reactor, which can be performed by a genious only and such risks are also counted by russian secret services. In order to blow Chernobyl they shut off two separate security systems and had a sophisticated sequence of actions which only by chance led to a nuclear blow. The easier task is nuclear pollution of the territory by a 'dirty bomb'. It is cheaper and it can't be controlled at the level the NPPs are controlled. Terrorists would like to be estimated as such a big threat. But there is nothing worse than performing the demands of terrorists. The absolutely insane idea to shut something down just because it can be a target for terrorism doesn't make any sense... Every citizen in Russia can become a victim of terrorists. But commiting a national suicide is not any way out. Nuclear energy in future will take a bigger share of the energy market. With the exhausting fossil fuel there is no other reliable and cheaper alternative to it.
soo many nuclear plants in Russia, soo many enemies of Russia. how long till Chechen terrorists strike?
Somehow I doubt the Russians would allow that to happen, and I also suspect the Chechens aren't that insane. You don't play around with nuclear if you don't want to get stomped hard in return.
The Chechens &/Or the US backed Muslim terrorist groups (such as the CIA run al Qaeda) may well target Russian Nuclear plants in a "black ops" / "false flag" terrorist attack. if they don't the Putin led-United Russian Government may do it themselves. For their own purposes. Neither option would surprise me at all.
wont belong before Chechens target Russian nuke plants. and they are all over the place. very good target
the chechens had a huge dirty bomb placed in Gorki park during Jelcin Era. but they want not to detonate, just threated to do if the russians use ABC weapons... Muslims is forbidden to use escalating weapons at first.
Mostly the territory of neighboeing Belarus is contaminated. The radiation in Chernobyl in general is fine. But some objects in the locked territory can be deadly and will remain so for decades. So it is dangerous for the people who live there (they do) and the power plant itself (that is either still working or had been working until the latest time). The danger of Nuclear energy is very much exaggerated for a number of political reasons. In fact less people died of nuclear power plants comparing to usual electricity from every house sockets. The amount of people died in road accidents is just incomparably higher. But noone refuses of cars and electricity for the same reason which used to make countries to refuse of nuclear power.