Highest Award!

On January 13, a ceremony of conferring the title of the «Potanin»s Award Winner» took place in the Exhibition & Information Center

This time the event was festive. 95 years ago, an outstanding leader of the country's nuclear industry, twice winner of the USSR State Prize, Honored Inventor of the Kazakh SSR, Candidate of Science, Companion of the Orders of Lenin, the October Revolution, and the Labor Red Banner and two Orders of Honor, Vladimir Potanin was born.

The pandemic did not allow gathering a large number of participants. Therefore, only the organizers, management and authors of papers submitted for the award were present. The guests of honor were Potanin»s daughter, Tamara Bashkatova, and her husband, Yuriy. They both worked at UMP JSC for many years. Their daughter, Potanin»s granddaughter, Tatyana Shtykel, who is now working in the office of the Director for Production Safety, was also invited to the event.

The title of the «Potanin»s Award Winner» is the highest award in the company. It was established in 2001 and is assigned by the decision of the UMP JSC Executive Board every three years for the implemented projects. The assessment is carried out by an Expert Commission. You may receive the award only once. Its goal is to stimulate innovation.

Last time the company people received the award in 2011. Perhaps this explains high activity of the 2020 applicants: six papers were submitted for the award.

The presentation of the prestigious award began with the congratulation of the Deputy Chairman of the Expert Commission, winner of the 2001 prize, Alexander Borsuk: «The small number of participants in the event does not diminish joy that overwhelms us today!»

High awards were presented by the Chairman of the Expert Commission, Executive Board Chairman of UMP JSC, Winner of the Potanin»s Award in 2005, Sergey Bezhetskiy. According to him, receiving the Award means that the project is recognized as very important in the company.

Alexander Anghilevko, Anton Babin, Evgeniy Kryghin, Maxim Bufatin and Lyudmila Maryanina became the Potanin»s Award Winners for the paper of the «Production of Potassium Fluorotantalate by Continuous Precipitation in Continuous Crystallizers».

Vladimir Vakhnenko, Vladimir Bespalov, Vladislav Koghay, Olga Kondratenko, Irina Malyutina, Farhad Sattarov, Galina Shevchenko, and Evgeniy Kirillov became the Potanin»s Award Winners for the paper of the «Development of the Manufacturing Technology of Uranium Oxide Pellets for AFA 3G Fuel Assemblies».

Konstantin Kuzmin, Alexey Boltanov, Mikhail Kozionov, Galina Gussakova, and Igor Levanevskiy became the Potanin»s Award Winners for the paper of the «Arrangement of Highly Enriched Uranium Processing Site at UMP JSC».

Evgeniy Franz, Dulat Yessimov, Alexander Matviyenko and Andrey Trimassov became the Potanin»s Award Winners for the paper of «A Set of Solutions Aimed at High Purity Technical Grade Beryllium Production».

Twenty two participants in total were awarded in 2021 for four papers in two nominations: «Innovative Technique and Technology» and «Economics, Labor and Production Management».

After the awarding ceremony, winners of the Potanin»s award in 2021, Director of Uranium Operations, Konstantin Kuzmin, Director of Beryllium Operations, Yevgeniy Frants, and Deputy Director – Chief Process Engineer of Tantalum Operations, Yevgeniy Kryghin, spoke back. On behalf of the Potanin»s family, Tamara Bashkatova wished the company people to replenish a galaxy of winners with new names.

The ceremony ended with the traditional laying of flowers at the Potanin»s memorial.

Juliya Antonova