On April 21, 2011 a meeting of specialists of Smolensk nuclear power plant and public representatives of Smolensk city, called “Bleacherful. Smolensk NPP – Region’s Ecology”, was held in the Smolensk Regional Universal Library named after A.T.Tvardovsky.

It engaged more than fifty representatives of Smolensk ecological and environmental institutions, students and teachers of educational institutions and mass media.

The main subject of discussion was the issues of safety of the modern nuclear power engineering and Smolensk NPP in particular, its influence on environment and population as well as perspectives for further nuclear industry development.

Nuclear veteran Gennady Skovoroda talked about measures, taken by Smolensk NPP authorities and personnel, that are aimed at further improvement of all NPP safety systems and equipment modernization, about ecological state of the region, environmental impact of the plant and radiation monitoring at SNPP and control area.

Professor of Smolensk Energy Institute, Yuri Bozhin, Cand.Sc. (Engineering), drew participants’ attention to economical aspects of nuclear power industry development and modernization of plant design features that increase reliability and safety of equipment operation. The main idea of his speech was absence of an alternative to nuclear power industry.

“Today we’ve got information about operating and development principles of Smolensk NPP,” one of the forum participants Vladimir Kovalev - Assistant Professor of the Technosphere Safety Department of Smolensk branch of Moscow State University of Lines of Communication (MIIT) said. “But the most important thing is that we have seen that safe operation of the nuclear power plant is an absolute priority for Smolensk nuclear scientists. Smolensk NPP provides the required safety level and we, Smolensk citizens, can live in peace.”