On April 7 Director of a Communications Department of the State Corporation “Rosatom” Sergei Novikov has given a lecture on “Atomic PR in Russia and abroad”, organized by the Institute of International Relations (IIR) MEPhI. Students of the University, being future professionals in the field of nuclear energy, got an excellent opportunity to discuss problem of increasing public confidence in the nuclear industry with the head of the Rosatom PR-service.
In conditions of large information flow receiving by people daily through television, radio, newspapers, Internet and other means of mass communication PR-specialists must work out several key issues to create a positive image of nuclear energy. It includes the right choice of information sources for lighting activity of the atomic sphere and maintenance of positive public opinion. Also there is an important task to identify the target audience of recipients, as it influences on methods and PR-technologies of interaction process with the population – who are these people, what they want to know and how?
Understanding importance of public opinion, the SC “Rosatom” has conducted a number of measures to increase public confidence in nuclear energy. Sergei Novikov said that in 2008 a project “Radiation situation at Rosatom” was launched on the site http://www.russianatom.ru, where online data from Automated Radiation Control System, updated hourly, is displayed. The project aims at raising people awareness of the background radiation near nuclear facilities. The site also has a personal radiation meter, where everyone answering several questions can see an annual radiation dose from a variety of sources – natural, technological and medical. It is important to note that obtained data is far from the threshold values, the level of radiation is safe for health, even by Russian standards, which are among the toughest in the world.
Sergei Novikov said that one of the main tasks of the “Rosatom” was delivery of timely and reliable information about events taking place at a plant, and considered consequences of an information crisis that emerged in the world at the time of an accident at the nuclear power plant “Fukushima-1” on the 11th of March 2011. “Rosatom” representative told about natural causes of the accident, paying particular attention to the lack of victims with radiation nature. However, the lack of reliable information at the moment of the disaster caused transformation of accident in a worldwide problem. As a result, there was fell of confidence in nuclear power, as well as decrease of public support for its development program, which served as a negative factor for the nuclear power companies and the state as a whole.
To improve the situation around the nuclear power industry in Russia the State Corporation “Rosatom” has conducted an active outreach activities aimed at different social groups. To this end, they created a series of documentary films “Atom encyclopedia”, showed achievements of development of nuclear power technologies and their application in medicine, held a fishing championship in cooling ponds near nuclear power plants. An active campaign was launched in social networks. In addition, for PR purposes the State Corporation took part in various television programs. For example they created a team and participated in the TV-game “What? Where? When?”. All these measures have yielded positive results – people started to respond positively to the activities of the Corporation, and number of opponents of nuclear energy has reduced.
The lecture of “Rosatom” representative has aroused a great interest among students of IIR MEPhI. Future specialists in international relations asked many questions during and after the speech, put forward arguments, argued and expressed their own opinions.
