Rosatom Director-General Alexei Ligachev reported to President Putin on Nuclear Industry Workers’ Day, Sept. 29, on the state of play in the Russian nuclear industry. (September 29, 1942 was the day Stalin decided the Soviet Union would launch the project to develop the atomic bomb.) “We are currently building more nuclear power units abroad than any other country in the world,” Ligachev told the President, “and we are doing so extremely well, using the latest technologies. And often, these are technologies that nobody else has, apart from Rosatom. I know that the results are good, including the economic results; the technology is developing, and the prospects are good as well.”

He commented on the nuclear weapons complex, which, he noted, Putin had requested be rebuilt and modernized twenty years ago. “We accomplished that task within the first few years and have made substantial progress since then,” Ligachev said. “You are well aware of all our projects, from maintaining and developing the country’s nuclear shield and nuclear ‘sword’ to creating nuclear weapons with new capabilities based on new physical principles. We will continue this work.”

There have also been important spin-offs from this program for civilian industry. “We are particularly proud of our achievements in medicine,” he said. “These include medical cyclotrons, the nitrogen/nitric oxide therapy system, which is already gaining worldwide recognition, artificial kidney systems, and equipment for non-invasive kidney stone fragmentation. All these products are in demand in our healthcare system, and we intend to expand this range further.”