The reputation of nuclear energy in Russia, as elsewhere in Europe, took a mighty tumble after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. But nowhere else has the industry considered that a beauty contest might help its rehabilitation.

Russia’s sixth such contest is now ongoing. Any female between 18 and 35 who works for the industry in the former Soviet republics may enter Miss Atom 2009, reports the German news magazine Der Spiegel. And nearly three hundred have done so. Their pictures are displayed in an online gallery with text supporting their candidature – and, of course, their vital statistics. Some of the more serious beauty contestants say they hope for world peace. More career-orientated contestants say things like “I don’t need a modelling course – I am, after all, an employee of the company ‘Atomtrudesurcy’”.

Visitors to the gallery can vote online. The three winners will be selected on 5 March. They will win holidays in Cuba, Morocco and the Adriatic – “not crude money, but fun,” according to the organiser of the contest, Ilya Platonow.

Platonow told Der Spiegel that the contest, with its promotion of all that is healthy and beautiful in the controversial energy sector, should finally torpedo ‘the cliché of dangerous and threatening nuclear energy’. Russia is a major exporter of nuclear power stations. It plans to build more at home to increase the proportion of energy from nuclear sources from 17% to 25%.