OREANDA-NEWS. On April 04, 2007 the municipal library of Angarsk held a forum on the ecological safety of the town. Attending the event were ecologists, representatives of the local administration, Angarsk Electrolytic Chemical Combine, school-leavers and veterans, reported the press-centre of  AECC. The head of the Information Center of Rosatom Fedor Drogunov briefed about Rosatom’s activities, its structure and geography, its personnel and their qualification. He noted that there is certain information vacuum around the companies of the nuclear power industry and outlined the urgent tasks of his center: “The future of the industry is aimed at the peaceful use of nuclear energy, at the development and improvement of the nuclear fuel cycle. The mission of our center is to explain to the residents of our town what they have to do, to tell them about the prospects and risks of nuclear power engineering. Our key task is to strengthen relations with the public and the mass media, to timely inform people about things happening in the sphere”. Drogunov is surprised that none of the ecological NGOs supporting the project of International Uranium Enrichment Center have so far applied to the Center for information.


Drogunov said that the agreement between the administration of Irkutsk region and Rosatom is being considered by the experts of the Agency and is expected to be signed in the first half of May.  Concerning the International Uranium Enrichment Center, the deputy chief engineer of AECC, ecologist Alexander Kozlov said that no nuclear fuel processing is possible at Angarsk: “The sanitary zone of our combine – Russia’s only spent nuclear fuel processing facility - covers an area of 20-30 sq km. If we build such a facility near the combine, we will have to resettle the whole Angarsk and half of Irkutsk as no people can leave in a sanitary zone. This is a very complex technology requiring much bigger space than the territory of our combine”. Kozlov explained that AECC covers an area of 8 sq km and consists of sublimate, separation and repairs works as well as instrument making and repairs workshops, networks and sub-stations. The first 500 KV power transmission line in the USSR was laid from Bratsk to Angarsk, exactly to AECC. We have almost 6,500 workers; with families inclusive, this number amounts to 30,000. In conclusion, the sides thanked each other for constructive dialogue and cooperation.