Yuri Faleychik, deputy of Legislative Assembly of Irkutsk region

– I would call the past year a year of growing optimism for our nuclear industry

Formerly, we were mostly pessimistic: everybody understood that we needed money, everybody knew that we needed to develop, but nobody offered anything specific.

2007 has become a turning point: we have adopted a large-scale development program and have developed a model of new management structure; we have also adopted a law on state nuclear energy corporation and have established it. These are our key achievements in the past year and I am sure that we will reap their fruits in the very near future.

This year we have carried out one more crucial project: we have established an international uranium enrichment center on the basis of Angarsk Electrolytic Chemical Combine. This project has caused an outburst of aggression among a number of ecological organizations, who have begun setting the public opinion in Irkutsk region against the center.

In order to overcome this misunderstanding and to improve the situation, Rosatom has set up a regional public council for establishing a constructive dialogue with the local population. The council will comprise politicians, scientists, ecologists, i.e. people who want the industry to develop and the people to live better. I hope that next year the council will manage to influence the public opinion concerning the project.