Georgy Tikhomirov, Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Technology at MEPhI, participated in a round table of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy on the topic "Legislative support for the creation and operation of low-power nuclear power plants."

Small modular reactors (SMR) and low-power nuclear power plants (LPNP) – trends in the modern development of nuclear energy technologies. There is a lot of work in this area in the nuclear industry, but there is room for further development in terms of human resources. Georgy Tikhomirov's report was devoted to such an urgent issue as the training of highly qualified specialists who could fully meet the modern requirements of employers and meet the challenges of the time.

"Our task is to train elite, competent specialists for the nuclear industry. And we are not talking about reactor maintenance personnel, we are talking about those who will design the nuclear power industry of tomorrow. Today, the world is digital, which means that from the first year we must teach students how to create digital counterparts of NPP, SMR, LPNP and work with it," the MEPhI professor believes.

Nuclear engineer training, Georgy Tikhomirov noted, takes at least 10 years. In order to keep the interest of students all this time, attractive projects are needed, where students could be attracted, as well as teachers who work closely with the nuclear industry.

According to the Deputy Director of INPIT, the best way to involve students in solving research problems is to involve them in real research and development at all stages of their studies.

"A necessary element of training nuclear engineers is nuclear power plant simulators. For example, MEPhI has developed a virtual analogue of the MEPhI IRT using funds from the Priority 2030 program. Today, our students are virtually running a research reactor. Moreover, it is tied to the operational characteristics of a real reactor and is based on modern mathematical models. It is important that not only teachers, but also students and postgraduates of MEPhI participated in the process of its development," Georgy Tikhomirov shared his experience.

In his opinion, in order to maintain Russia's leadership in nuclear technology, it is necessary to develop a mechanism to support specialized universities.; All government-supported ASMM development, construction, and operation programs should include training subprojects; student competitions on various issues of these technologies should be held to attract the attention of young people to SMR and LPNP projects.

"Without the involvement of active youth in the SMR and LPNP projects, Russia may lag behind competitors," Georgy Tikhomirov is confident.