Country Report for Russia

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general information

activities

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General information about the national YG network

YDRNS aims to:

• involve the Russian young generation in the life of the nuclear society;

• promote the use of nuclear technologies in different fields of human activity; · communicate the benefits of nuclear power;

• encourage knowledge transfer to the next generation; and

• extend the international co-operation of nuclear specialists.

YDRNS has branches in 32 Russian cities. In the European region these include: Electrostal, Moscow, Electrogorsk, St. Petersburg, Sosnovyi Bor, Obninsk, Sergiev Posad, Nizhniy Novgorod, Sarov, Dimitrovgrad, Novovoronezh, Dubna, Kurchatov, Desnogorsk, Udomlya, Balakovo, Volgodonsk, Polyarniye Zory, and Glazov. In the Ural region: Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Zarechnyi, Snezhinsk, Ozersk, Trekhgornyi, and Lesnoy. In Siberia: Tomsk, Zheleznogorsk, Seversk, Zelenogorsk, Angarsk, and Krasnokamensk.

On 21 November 1995 YDRNS was established in Obninsk, the city where the world's first NPP was commissioned. The nuclear youth movement is supported by the Nuclear Society of Russia, the Ministry for Atomic Power of the Russian Federation (MINATOM), the State NPP operating company: ROSENERGOATOM, the Obninsk city administration, the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (INPE), Beloyarsk NPP and many others - all of which recognise a future in nuclear engineering. YDRNS publishes a regular newsletter called ‘MOYA GAZETA’, or ‘My Newspaper’ in English.

The main internal activities of the YDRNS are described below.

In the spring of 1999 a large delegation of YDRNS members, sponsored by MINATOM and the Nuclear Society of Russia (NSR), toured the closed nuclear cities of Russia: Sarov, Ozersk, Snezhinsk, Novouralsk, Seversk, Zheleznogorsk and Zelenogorsk. Young nuclear activists also visited the Beloyarsk NPP. For the first time, the youth was able to visit the largest nuclear centres in the country. Until then, such an event had simply been impossible due to the secrecy and the closed character of those sites. The YDRNS members were pleased to find many nuclear advocates in each city.

However, the youth movement did not rest on its laurels. On 6 August 2000 the YDRNS conducted a tour called ‘Nuclear Geography of Russia: Past, Present and Future’. Over two weeks, young people visited eight NPPs, from those in the Kola peninsula to the Beloyarsk NPP in the Ural region. The representatives of YDRNS were acquainted with the problems that NPPs encounter, as well as their solutions. Within the framework of the mass media, they discussed the positive aspects of NPP operations, but also criticised the areas in which improvement is necessary. The tour ended in Zarechny city, in the Sverdlovsk region, with the concluding conference – YDRNS’s first independent all-Russia conference.

On 20-25 August, the conference participants discussed what they had seen and learnt during the tour, debated with colleagues in round table discussions, and went on several technical tours to nearby facilities: the reprocessing plant ‘MAYAK’ in Ozersk, the Ural electrochemical enrichment plant in Novouralsk, and the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (ITP) in Snezhinsk.

One year later, in October 2001, the YDRNS organised the third tour around Russian nuclear research institutes. Young people from 14 universities and enterprises involved in the nuclear field and located in eight cities, participated in the event. During this tour, young people visited 15 institutes: Tomsk University, Seversk State Technical Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk), the Research and Development Institute of Atomic Reactors (Dimitrovgrad), the Experiment and Design Office for Mechanical Engineering (Nizhniy Novgorod), Nizhniy Novgorod State University, the Radium Institute (St. Petersburg), Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (Gatchina), the Experimental Scientific Research Center of NPP Safety (Elektrogorsk), Scientific Production Company ‘Luch’ (Podolsk), the Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering (Obninsk), the United Institute of Nuclear Research (Dubna), Kurchatov Institute (Moscow), the Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Techniques (Moscow), and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. Students and young specialists participating in the tour became familiar with the work of the leading scientific centres of the country, learned about advanced nuclear research achievements, and had the opportunity to talk with top scientists. Meetings held with young people studying and working at the visited institutes and with the local mass media were found interesting and useful. The tour was one more step forward in the activity of the YDRNS and the young generation commission of MINATOM of Russia - directed at attracting young people to the nuclear field and at promoting knowledge transfer across the industry. These crucial tasks will significantly influence the future of nuclear science and industry.