European community plans to use the experience of Russian nuclear power engineers for developing new safety culture in the nuclear energy sector. On Feb 21 Smolensk NPP hosted joined meeting of the joint working group of the International Expert Commission of the EU and SNPP specialists working under TACIS safety enhancement projects.

Attending the meeting were European expert Paul Maycock, Director of TACIS Program Bureau Neville Robertshow, senior expert of the Department of International Activities of Rosenergoatom Sergey Poroykov, first deputy chief engineer of Smolensk NPP Alexander Vasilyev.

The Smolensk specialists told their foreign colleagues about TACIS projects at SNPP and about the on-site support program for improving safety culture at the plant. The sides analyzed the results of the past 10 years of cooperation and considered the prospects of further interaction.

Robertshow said that, today, Russia is a profitable partner. Its nuclear power industry has a big scientific and production potential and is the most attractive sphere for reliable investing. In the last 10 years the sides have achieved big progress. At first, they both doubted that the partnership would give profit, but, today, the situation is quite different. It is a great value attained through effective cooperation. Today, Russia is the world leader in NPP building. "And nuclear energy is the best thing we have in energy today," Robertshow said.

He noted that the Russian NPP safety culture is so developed that the European community is going to use the Russian experience in developing new safety culture in the nuclear power sector.