Participation of employees of the Institute in the project on countering nuclear energy disinformation
On October 23, the final meeting was held as part of the Countering Nuclear Energy Disinformation Fellowship Program with the support of The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), during which reports on activities in the period from May to October 2023 were presented. The senior researcher of the Institute, Ph.D. in Biological Sciences Olena Pareniuk presented the report: “Database of Ukrainian experts for countering the disinformation in nuclear and radiation safety”. Activities within the project were focused on establishing effective communication between experts and mass media representatives in order to fill the media environment with more complete and reliable information on the nuclear sphere in order to eliminate the space for fakes and disinformation. The project received favorable reviews from experts, and work in this direction will continue in the future.
The activity of STCU is designed to purposefully reduce chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) risks. Due to the joint efforts, promoting the ideas of non-proliferation of CBRN terrorism is possible only by creating and maintaining sustainable scientific and technical partnerships.
In addition, the following projects to counter disinformation in the field of nuclear energy were presented:
- a report by Oleg Godun, an employee of the NNEGC “Energoatom” Scientific and Technical Center on the assessment of potential risks for nuclear power plants, the mystification surrounding the “dirty bomb” and the diversification of nuclear fuel;
- a report by Maksym Strikha, Ph.D. in Phys.-Math. Sciences, former Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine on the reaction of the Ukrainian academic community to Russian disinformation on the nuclear topic;
- a report by Mykhailo Minin, founder of UKRATOM SERVICE LLC, on countering disinformation on nuclear energy in matters of NPP design at each stage of the life cycle;
- a report by Viktor Hrytsyn, a researcher at the Scientific and Technical Complex “Nuclear Fuel Cycle” of the NSC KIPT on information support for the scientific and technical activities of the introduction of the new Westinghouse nuclear fuel for VVER reactors.
This year’s program focuses on the development of technical solutions to detect and counter disinformation operations in nuclear energy carried out by russia. This line of activity is aimed at improving tools and methods that will allow more effective identification of fakes aimed at distortions in the information space.
