On April 16, the 11th ATOMEXPO International Forum 2019, a global industry discussion event organized by Rosatom State Corporation, finished its work in the Main Media Center of Sochi.
This year, the number of cooperation agreements, memoranda and contracts signed in the margins of the forum has increased. More than 40 signing ceremonies were held during the two days of the Forum (39 ceremonies were held in 2018). The size of the exhibition exposition exceeded 13 thousand square meters. The total number of exhibiting companies exceeded 650. In total, more than 4000 delegates and guests took part in the Forum events. The Forum was covered by more than 290 representatives of the Russian and foreign media.
The plenary discussion on “Nuclear for Better Life” was opened by Sergey Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Executive Office and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rosatom, who noted: “In accordance with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, it is necessary to attain two global goals — to free humankind from poverty and to heal the planet. Of course, the essential factor in this process is the sufficiency of energy reserves, without which neither the first nor the second task can be solved. Nuclear energy can play a key role in addressing all these challenges. Indeed, in addition to being a clean and reliable source of energy, peaceful nuclear power also contributes to the development of science, education, medicine, agriculture and access to water resources. It is also worth noting the impulse given by the construction of a nuclear power plant to the economic growth of each country, which makes a corresponding conclusion for itself.
The plenary discussion was attended by the William D. Magwood, IV, Director-General of OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency, Nenad Popovic, the Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of Serbia, Kamles Vjas, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, the First Deputy Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan — Director of the Uzatom Agency, Thomas Gerasimos, the Deputy Director General of the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission, and the Head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Zambia. The panelists discussed what the representatives of different countries see as the key effects and value of nuclear technologies, and why modern customers choose the atom.
As Alexei Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM, noted, “any of the 17 UN sustainable development goals is in line with the solutions offered by nuclear technologies.” At the same time, he drew attention to the importance of applying new knowledge and new technologies: “We need new knowledge. Any country, both beginner and founder in the nuclear power industry, needs to preserve and expand the knowledge and demand for nuclear technologies among the population. Only the collective use of the resources of the global nuclear industry will allow us to achieve the of the UN sustainable development goals,” Likhachev said.
Discussions on topical issues of innovative development using advanced nuclear technologies at roundtables continued. The experts considered the issues of non-energy application of nuclear and radiation technologies in industry, science, medicine and agriculture; discussed the main trends in the development of carbon-free generation and the role of global partnerships in reaching the goals of sustainable development; familiarized themselves with new digital solutions for the development of infrastructure projects in the energy sector and other sectors of the economy; discussed challenges in the field of preservation of knowledge and development of human capital, modern approaches to attracting investment, the contribution of the nuclear industry to the sustainable development. For two days more than 150 experts spoke at 18 roundtables.
For the second time, ATOMEXPO hosted the joint Russian and IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School The event was attended by delegates from 19 countries, who learned how to solve issues on various aspects of the national nuclear power programs implementation.
The Forum also included an awarding ceremony of the 2nd ATOMEXPO AWARDS prize, an international professional award for outstanding services of global industry companies that have made a significant contribution to the development of the nuclear industry and the use of nuclear energy for the benefit of humankind. The project “Multipurpose Gamma Irradiator and Mobile Unit with an Electron Beam Accelerator Developed in Brazil” (IPEN-CNEN/SP) won in “Nuclear technologies: Improving the quality of life” category; the project “Development of experimental technologies of nuclear waste processing (Marubeni Utility Services Ltd, Japan) won in “Innovations for the future” category; IAEA project “Nuclear Energy Management School” won in “Human Capital Development” category; “Tianwan” NPP construction project (China) won in “Best Start” category; “Creative Energy” project implemented by the nuclear power plant “Paks” (Hungary) won in “Public Acceptability” category.
Among the most significant events of ATOMEXPO2019 was the opening of the Green Square in the Olympic Avenue in Sochi (the concept of “green square” implies the development of energy on the basis of four carbon-free sources: wind, water, sun and atom). This is the contribution of Rosatom State Corporation to the development of infrastructure in the Imeretinsky District of Sochi. The opening ceremony and the planting of the first saplings were attended by the heads of the IAEA, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the World Nuclear Association and Rosatom. The foundation of the square will be formed by the plants from the “Sustainable Development Square” exposition within the ATOMEXPO2019, and the central element was the olive tree, the main symbol of this year’s forum.
As previously reported, in 2019 the Forum set an absolute record for the number of countries, as people form 74 countries (68 in 2018, 65 in 2017, 55 in 2016) visited the event. At the same time, three countries, namely Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Qatar, took part in the forum for the first time.
