OREANDA-NEWS. June 26, 2012.  In Moscow an exclusive program for foreign nationals on exchange of experience in the field of public communications in the nuclear industry “The Open Dialogue” has started at ROSATOM.

The first foreign students are citizens of the Republic of Turkey. They are employees of the project company Akkuyu NPP JSC.

It is commonly known that in 2010 the Russia-Turkey agreement concerning the construction of a nuclear power plant on the southern coast of the Mediterranean was signed. The plant, which is to be built in Mersin Province, will have four nuclear power units with VVER-1200 reactors of AES-2006 design of a total capacity of 4,800 MW. To this end the Russian side has established Akkuyu NPP JSC in Turkey. The company plans to open an Information Center in the city of Mersin. The center’s main function is further information of the population on the project implementation.

During five days the Turkish employees of the Akkuyu NPP Information Center will meet with the Russian specialists in the field of nuclear power and will have an opportunity to ask questions of their interest. They will also visit the specialized information center in St. Petersburg to find out features of its operation and will tour to an operating NPP. Having an understanding of the importance of the work with the population, all organizational work on the visit has been done by Akkuyu NPP JSC. The program was drafted and is implemented with support provided by Russian enterprises: ROSATOM, Rosenergoatom, Kalinin nuclear power plant, and the Russian Nuclear Information Center.

Addressing the Turkish colleagues, Director of the ROSATOM Communications Department Sergey Novikov, in particular, said: “The Russian nuclear industry enterprises have gained a great experience in the interaction with the population. We are ready to share this experience with representatives of any country, which has decided to pursue the path of nuclear industry development. The main principle of the Russian nuclear enterprises is full information openness. Ignorance and understatement create rumors, wrong interpretation and, as a consequence, fears. Most of Russians accept without agitation and support the nuclear industry development. I hope that the Turkish colleagues will build up relations of trust with their target audiences in their country, which will be able to share already its own experience in future.”