On July 27 the head of the Administration greeted a delegation from Obninsk’s sister city – Oak Ridge and a delegation from a long-time partner Finnish town Yuvyaskul. The guests were invited by Nikolai Shubin to participate in the celebration of Obninsk's 50^th anniversary.

July 28, 2006
.(Translation from http://www.obninsk.ru/news/?id=1816 provided by Olga Clark)

Obninsk and Oak Ridge have been sister cities since 1992. During this time different programs were realized: programs for leaders of the innovation enterprises in Obninsk, anti-drug, anti-alcoholism and anti-AIDS efforts, charity projects. The delegation is represented by Oak Ridge city manager James O’Connor, head of the East Tennessee Economic Council (close to our City Scientific and Technical Council) James Campbell, secretary of the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization Dr. Kenneth Luckmann, member of the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization Thomas Row. The mayor of Oak Ridge David Bradshaw heads the delegation. 

During the meeting with Oak Ridge delegation the issues of cooperation in the area of city administration and management in order to improve lives of the city population. For example, Oak Ridge had regular polls among the population in order to identify problems; city administration concentrates on these identified problems in its further work. It turned out that our cities have a lot in common. People of Oak Ridge as well as people of Obninsk would like to see improvement in the work of police to reduce circulation of illegal drugs. These issues are also important for us and cooperation in this area can be developed. Nikolai Shubin also expressed an intention to cooperate in the area of small business. Cooperation in the development of family and woman-owned business is also seen as interesting.

Head of Obninsk Administration Nikolai Shubin and Oak Ridge mayor David Bradshaw signed an agreement of further cooperation. This agreement suggests realization of joint development and research in the area of nanotechnology, energy and neutron physics, creation of new materials, environment protection, information technology and radiation biology.