Potanin Monument – - Atlas Obscura

Potanin Monument

This monument to a non-ferrous metallurgist radiates success. 

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A unique commemoration of Vladimir Petrovich Potanin flips the popular atomic inertial reference frame with a rotating nucleus and static electrons.  Potanin was a storied director of the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP), a vital enterprise in this uranium-producing city and named for the Ulba River which flows down from the nearby Altai Mountains.      

Potanin is credited with greatly expanding and improving the operations of UMP during his 1961-1974 administration.  In 2000, a street was named in his honor followed by the construction of the monument in 2002.  Three times each year, UMP employees visit the memorial to pay their respects and festoon it with flowers: his birthday, January 13; his death day, May 5; and the anniversary of UMPs founding, October 29.  So important were his achievements that they have even inspired a lengthy poem appropriately entitled “Potanin.”

UMP is known not only for uranium mining, but also for its production of:  1) beryllium, used in x-ray tubes, copper alloys, semi-conductors, mirrors, and thermonuclear weapons; 2) tantalum, used in electronics, watches, superalloys, and thermonuclear weapons; and 3) niobium, used in superalloys, tokamaks, hypoallergenic jewelry, and thermonuclear weapons.  Not surprisingly, UMP is a subsidiary of the National Atomic Company or “Kazatomprom.”

Although Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, is the largest producer of uranium in the world, the nation voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons after independence despite being the world’s fourth largest nuclear power, in order to focus on peaceful applications of its non-ferrous mining operations.  As a major uranium production site, Ust’-Kamenogorsk was a closed city for decades.  In 1994, Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar pulled the trigger on the unconventional “Operation Sapphire” to recover abandoned enriched uranium from the city.  The fissile material was collected and transported to Oak Ridge Tennessee where it was successfully de-fizzed.

Today, Potanin is still referred to as “dad” by older workers who remember him as a great manager, businessman, and scientist, as well as an effective strategic planner who influenced the lives of all Ust’-Kamenogorskers.  A 2003 documentary on his life is available for viewing at UMP headquarters.

Know Before You Go

The monument stands near the East Kazakhstan State Technical University campus.

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  • "Nuclear Community of Kazakhstan" No. 1 (40) 2016