Meet Yulia Nagayeva. She's a Russian beauty queen. No, not the winner of the Russian prison pageant I wrote about last week; she's the winner of Miss Atom 2008. The contest was held earlier this month, and Yulia beat out many other stunning women of Russia's extensive nuclear industry. Of course, the U.S. in the past had its own version, Las Vegas' Miss Atom Bomb. What makes Russia's contest particularly unique, however, is that it is only open to workers in Russia's nuclear industry.
Miss Atom works for the TVEL Corporation, which is described on its website as "one of the world leading manufacturers of nuclear fuel." Tvel's fuel is reportedly in every sixth reactor in the world. And they have Yulia working there, too.
The concourse is determined by voters (Yulia got almost 4,000 votes). No word on whether she's going back to nuclear fuel, or has plans for bigger and better things.
Last year, Arms Control Wonk tried to rig the voting (and at least one commenter seemed to think the contest was rigged anyhow).
By the way, Yulia's hobbies include: photography, cooking, studying foreign languages and travel.
Sharon Weinburger, Wired Blog, 18 March.
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