The first Festival of Science and Atom in Uzbekistan, aimed at popularizing science and innovation, lasted from November 14 till November 15. It was held with the support of ROSATOM.
NTIC, National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek and Tashkent State Technical University named after Islam Karimov were the venues of the Festival of Science and Atom. In total more than 600 schoolchildren and students attended the Festival.
The opening ceremony was held on November 14 in the Nuclear Technology Information Center (NTIC) in Tashkent. It was attended by Bahram Mansurov, First Deputy Director General of the Agency for the Development of Nuclear Energy (agency “Uzatom”); Sergey Gromov, Director General of Rosatom Central Asia; Alisher Sanetullaev, Executive Director of the Tashkent branch of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI; representatives of Uzatom, ROSATOM and other honored guests.
The event presented modern technologies to young people and answered the participants’ questions relating to nuclear issues. The Festival program includes intellectual games, e.g. “Nuclear Dobble”, “Scientific Chronograph” and “Technostrategy”, lectures and a popular-science talk show. Ilkhom Sadykov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics; Vitaly Khryachkov, Research Director at the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering; Oleg Tashlykov, Associate Professor at the NPPs and RES Department, the Ural Federal University; Alexey Puzakov and Roman Fomin, Lecturers at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow); Larisa Matveeva, Director of the Information Centre for Atomic Energy of Chelyabinsk, and Dmitry Merzlov, Manager at the Information Centre for Atomic Energy of Chelyabinsk were the Uzbek and Russian scientists and specialists delivering the lectures and facilitating the discussions at the Festival.
“At present, the economic development is primarily associated with the development of the knowledge-based industries which need highly qualified specialists, whose training must start at school. While presenting the achievements of modern science, such events as the Festival also help schoolchildren and students to make their career choice, determine their life path”, said Bahram Mansurov, First Deputy Director General of the Agency “Uzatom”.
“The Festival objective is to discuss the opportunities that young people have today due to the technology development and to get students and schoolchildren interested in science. The Festival participants will see how the nuclear technologies contribute to the life quality and get the idea of various application fields and the role of nuclear technologies in the national development. We are sure that the first Festival of Science and Atom in Tashkent is a special event for all its participants and in future it will become our good tradition”, commented Sergey Gromov, Director General of Rosatom Central Asia.
Background:
The Festival of Science is a set of science and education events in the field of nuclear science and technology. The events take place in many countries that develop nuclear energy including Bangladesh, India, Belarus, Armenia and others, and constantly enjoy great popularity.
Russia and Uzbekistan are actively developing cooperation in the nuclear sphere. In September 2018, the two Governments signed an Agreement on cooperation in construction of a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan. The project envisages the construction of two VVER-1200 power units. The site near Lake Tuzkan in Jizzakh region was selected as the priority NPP construction site.
