Over 600 university and high school students from Bangladesh took part in the final of the Precise Energy Olympiad, an international competition organized with support from Rosatom. Concurrently, a large-scale emergency response drill was held at the construction site of the Rooppur NPP, while Russian educators learned about the construction progress during their visit to the site.
The final stage of the 4th International Precise Energy Olympiad—a major educational initiative of Rosatom’s engineering division—was held in the Ishwardi municipality near the Rooppur NPP. The competition covered three main subject areas: physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and also included a creative team contest focused on solving practical engineering tasks.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Rooppur NPP Construction Director Ashraful Islam thanked the Olympiad organizers and partners for holding that important event and expressed hope that the talented students who took part in the competition would join the Rooppur NPP project in the future.
“It is gratifying to see that the Precise Energy Olympiad is growing year by year and attracting so many talented young people. We are witnessing the development of Russia-Bangladesh cooperation in education and science and sincerely hope that today’s Olympiad participants will want to connect their lives with the peaceful atoms tomorrow,” said Nina Dementsova, Head of Communications at AtomStroyExport.
The Olympiad was organized in association with the Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering (INPE), a branch of Rosatom’s partner university, the National Nuclear Research University MEPhI. Instructors from INPE answered contestants’ questions, assessed their work, and ultimately determined the winners. They noted the high level of young people’s knowledge and keen interest in science and technology.
“Students from the Rooppur NPP host communities are showing increasingly more interest in science, becoming more motivated, and actively engaging in educational initiatives,” said Alexander Nakhabov, Deputy Head of the Nuclear Physics and Technologies Department at INPE.
The primary goal of the Olympiad is to foster interest in science, support talented young people, and build the future talent pool for the nuclear industry. Along with gaining experience in solving complex problems, every contestant had the opportunity to learn more about the latest developments in nuclear technology.
The INPE instructors were invited to visit the Rooppur NPP site during the Olympiad. The guests were accompanied by station staff, who showed them the key facilities, explained the construction stages and project specifics, and answered all their questions.
“This is a rare chance to visit an overseas nuclear construction site and see with our own eyes how such a large-scale project is being brought to life. We are impressed by how well the work is organized and how professional the nuclear plant team is,” Alexander Nakhabov pointed out.
Meanwhile, an all-around emergency response drill was launched at the Rooppur construction site. Response teams practiced actions to contain and mitigate the consequences of a simulated radiation accident on the plant’s territory.
The purpose of the exercise was to test the preparedness of the personnel, emergency services, and mobile teams for rapid response in any emergencies. The simulated accident was triggered by a strong earthquake leading to a loss of power from external sources. The teams involved in the drill were trained to render the reactor safe, ensure radiation protection, and connect mobile emergency response equipment.
Particular attention was paid to coordination and communication between departments, and compliance with safety rules. Such drills are a critical part of staff training programs as they guarantee that the nuclear power plant and its staff are prepared to act quickly and professionally in any situation.
Photo by: ASE JSC, Channel “The mouthpiece of Ruppur”
