In the village of Bolshiye Ugony, Lgovsky district, Kursk NPP Public Information Centre employees held a field presentation of the project “Atomic Information Boards – to the Libraries of Kursk NPP Region”. This special project has been being implemented since 2010. The events take place in the format of the meetings with readership attended by representatives of local government, school pupils, students and media.

The project is aimed at sharing of the detailed information about the plant’s activities, safety and reliability of the nuclear industry enterprises and industry development with residents of the closest to Kursk NPP regions, as well as attracting of young people’s attention to the nuclear industry and formation of confidence of the younger generation to it.     
The central rural library of Bolshiye Ugony village has become the fifteenth place visited by representatives of the Public Information Centre with the presentation of the “Atomic Information Board”. The regional library named after Aseyev, large libraries of Kurchatov, Lgovsky, Rylsky and Octyabrsky districts already have such information boards.

The “Atomic Information Board” placed on the special module with symbols of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosenergoatom Concern OJSC and Kursk NPP has more than 30 publications meant for the broad community and different age audience. This includes specialized educational literature, art books, which tell the history of Kursk NPP through the lives of people, and various educational brochures and booklets, including for children. Such publications as “Nuclear Power Plants of Russia. Semicentenary Anniversary” and “Nuclear Power Plants of Russia” will tell the readers on the history and present of the Concern Rosenergoatom and ten Russian nuclear power plants, which are a part of it. Readers can learn on the degree of Kursk nuclear power plant’s environmental impact from the environmental safety report of the enterprise, which is published annually. And the best proof that Kursk NPP is not only non-hazardous, but also has beneficial effects on the environment, is the unique encyclopedia “Biological Variety of Technogenic Landscapes of Kursk NPP” published in association with Kursk Central-Black Earth Biosphere Reserve named after V.V. Alekhin. This encyclopedia is popularly called as “the Red Book” of Kursk NPP, because it includes rare representatives of flora and fauna living on the separate spit of the plant’s cooling pond. Readers may get the most recent news about the nuclear industry from the periodical publications “For the Peaceful Atom”, “Rosatom Country”, “Rosenergoatom” and “The Nuclear Industry News”. No doubt, the books “NPP Located at the Ancient Seim” and “Kursk NPP – My Youth” of Valentin Gerasimenko (Kursk NPP chronographer), author’s editions of the poet and nuclear power plant’s employee Yevgeny Latayev, “The Song of Kursk NPP” of the writer Ivan Ziborov, collections “The Atom of Confidence”, “A Source of Light and Heat” and many others, will decorate the library. 



At the presentation of the “Atomic Information Board” in Bolshiye Ugony, representatives of Lgovsky district Administration, local government, management of the secondary school of Bolshiye Ugony, teachers, pupils and active readers of the rural library – in total about 50 persons – on that day received comprehensive information on the safety and reliability of the nuclear power plant. 

The bright, interesting presentation of the “Atomic Information Board” fascinated the people attended the meeting. From their part, residents of Bolshiye Ugony gave back as good as one gets: the performance of local amateur artists accompanied by accordion subdued the guests from Kurchatov.

The readers’ meeting participants also were grateful to representatives of the clerisy – Viktor Fesenko, poet and employee of Kursk NPP TAI shop, Ivan Ziborov, well-known Kurchatov poet and writer, and Lyubov Silina, member of the Veteran Council of Kursk NPP, who remarkably reads poems dedicated to Kursk nuclear power plant and Kurchatov satellite city. Their performances have become a real decoration of the presentation of the “Atomic Information Board”.
 “Objectivity, honesty and openness – this to my opinion are the main components of the project “Atomic Information Boards,” marked Chief of the Department of Organizational Work and Personnel Management of Lgovsky district Administration, Alexander Semenyakin. “Now thanks to these publications, the objective data are available to people living near the nuclear power plant, and this is especially of high priority for our Lgovsky district. Accurate, proven, evidence-based information, which is contained in the publications about Kursk nuclear power plant and the nuclear industry, - this is what today is so necessary for all of us.”

Oksana Sotnikova, Acting Head of the Rural Council of Bolshiye Ugony, also agreed with the opinion of A. Semenyakin:
“I’m very grateful to Kursk NPP for such a required gift. Now we will have an atomic information board too, where everyone will be able to quickly learn the most comprehensive information about the nuclear industry. Unfortunately, we know a lot from the “word-of-mouth advertising”, and this “information” then acquires even more rumors. All honor to the enterprise, which not only generates power, provides our houses with heat and light, pays the lion’s share of taxes to the regional budget, but also enlightens.”  

Yelena Mamzina, Acting Director of Bolshiye Ugony secondary school, gave esteem to the project:
“Informational transparency, safety and reliability of Kursk NPP – these are three postulates, which we have learned from the today’s event,” considers she. “I’m personally impressed with openness, when the company strives to get the truth about its activities across to ordinary people. This once again says about the reliability, which, in its turn, shows stability and confidence.” 

Nikolay Cherkasov, resident of the village Bolshiye Ugony and history teacher, gratefully said about the “Atomic Information Board”:

“I’m just delighted from the today’s presentation! And the selection of the name is quite precise and correct – the “Atomic Information Board”. As a teacher, I can say that for the career guidance of our school leavers, this could not have come at a better time: at the end of the presentation some senior high school students have already told me that they would be glad to become nuclear engineers. And this is worth its weight in gold. Thanks a lot to Kursk nuclear power plant for such a gift.”
“Everyone knows that rural libraries, unfortunately, cannot boast of a rich fund. They are more deficient in the scientific and technical literature – modern, interesting and readable one,” said the head of the Central Rural Library of Bolshiye Ugony named after Orest Duginov. “All this is gifted by our nuclear power plant, and we are thankful to it for all this. It is a noble gesture to contribute to promotion of awareness, education and even career guidance. I am happy, because now we have an opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the nuclear giant that is directly on the spot, and I can offer this wonderful literature to my readers.”

The final of the presentation of the “Atomic Information Board” in Bolshiye Ugony was a tea-party, where the library readers and residents of the village, could closely interact with PIC representatives and Kurchatov poets, and ask them questions in the warm informal atmosphere. All the event participants received memorable gifts from Kursk NPP.

 At the present time, Kursk NPP operates the power units No.1, 2, 4. The units work at the capacity rated by the dispatch schedule. Unit 3 has been being under the scheduled thorough overhaul since September 1 of the current year.

The radiation background at the nuclear power plant and the adjacent territory corresponds to the level of power units’ normal operation and does not exceed the natural environmental values.

On line detailed data on the radiation environment near nuclear power plants in Russia and other nuclear facilities are provided on website russianatom.ru