In a short but galvanizing speech, Kurchatov outlined plans for an ambitious program of experimental reactor technology and a futuristic Communist empire crisscrossed by atomic-propelled ships, trains, and aircraft. He predicted that cheap electricity would soon reach every corner of the Union through a network of giant nuclear power stations. He promised that Soviet nuclear capacity would reach 2 million kilowatts—four hundred times what the Obninsk plant could produce—within just four years.
