14 thousand people came to the ATOM Pavilion at the RUSSIA EXPO to celebrate the Sarov Atomic City Day

Visitors to the ATOM Pavilion of the International RUSSIA EXPO were told about life in the closed administrative-territorial formation of Sarov. The guests were treated to informative lectures, virtual excursions and games for the whole family. Future students learned about the scientific centres of the most famous closed city, and potential employees of the nuclear industry - about employment prospects. A total of 14 thousand people visited the event. Sarov Atomic City Day was the first in the series of events "Discovering Atomic Cities".

"Sarov is a scientific and spiritual center. In the past times it was the place of the great spiritual feat of Seraphim of Sarov. In Soviet times, it was the place of the formation of the Soviet atomic project. 'If you are stern in spirit, go to Sarov' – this idea from the monks has been adopted by our scientific workers. Many of them are churchgoing. When asked, 'How do you physicists and pragmatists live in this world?' they respond, 'We deal with such matters that only God knows how they work because we lack the knowledge'. Today, several young people approached me to discuss relocation and employment opportunities. I am confident that Sarov holds the future of Russian science and the technological development of our country", said the Head of Sarov Alexei Safonov.

At the plenary session "Atomic City Sarov: Investments in the Future" they discussed the prospects of the CATF from the point of view of entrepreneurs and investors. The city is implementing the project "TASED Sarov" - an economic zone with a special legal regime, where residents enjoy tax and customs privileges and preferences, including an accelerated VAT refund procedure. At the same time, "TASED Sarov" is located in the open territory of the CATF. Also, the business has the prospect of inclusion in the chain of enterprises of Rosatom State Corporation.

Photo: Press service of the Atom pavilion

"We are actively entering new sites and openly talking about our closed city, including its investment attractiveness. Undoubtedly, Sarov is an open opportunity for new partners," added Marina Zhukova, Deputy Head of Sarov City Administration.

Separately, the experts noted the attractiveness of Sarov for young specialists from the scientific environment.

"The most important thing for a young scientist is the opportunity to live in a comfortable place where they can provide their family with security and a good education for their children, as well as be among other highly knowledgeable people like themselves. In this sense, Sarov is the place that can offer them everything. The only remaining issue is affordable housing. To address this, it is necessary to implement federal programs for the construction of rental housing at low rates for young scientists," explained Dmitry Mitroshin, Regional Director of the Association of Innovative Regions of Russia.

Photo: Press service of the Atom pavilion

At ATOM, future graduates and their parents were able to get acquainted with Sarov universities. There are two of them in the closed city: MSU Sarov (a branch of Lomonosov Moscow State University) and the Sarov Institute of Physics and Technology of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. Both scientific centers presented their programs and developments. Thus, representatives of MSU gave popular science lectures and talked about the life of the university in the format of TED Talks. Students also held a quiz and a game "Meet SNO!" (SNO meaning Student Scientific Society). The team of Sarov Institute of Physics and Technology sent everyone on a virtual journey through the closed city and campus of the institute. The representatives of the university also organized a stand "Entertaining Physics", where young visitors to the pavilion could learn about different physical phenomena with the help of experiments.

Alexander Sergeev, Scientific Director of the National Centre of Physics and Mathematics, greeted the visitors personally. He told the guests about the history of the NCPhM in Sarov and the prospects of its development. He also emphasized that MSU Sarov is again waiting for graduate students.

It was possible to make sure that not only higher, but also additional education is strong in Sarov at the "Alley of Knowledge". There "Quantorium Sarov" organized robot races: everyone was taught to control robots using cell phones. The guests also assembled a wooden map of the Nizhny Novgorod region from jigsaw pieces and tried themselves as operators of unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft models.

In addition, on Atom City Day, ATOM visitors saw cartoons from Sarov, got acquainted with books by Sarov authors, and took part in the career guidance card game "Professions" and the quiz "Atom Nearby".