Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Council of Federation (Higher Chamber of the Russian Parliament), in an interview to the 'Parlamentskaya Gazeta' remembers his student's research carried out in Tuva. His diploma work at the Leningrad Geological Institute was devoted to the study of Tuvan uranium mines. And the student's vacations he usually spent in Tuva together with Yelena Vysokoostrovskaya, his scientific superviser. In one of the mines named Karasup he smelt for the first time the uranium 'aroma'. The scale of his radiation detector with the maximum of 3000 microX-rays p/h was not enough to show the real level of radiation. The memory of this smell helped him further on during his geological expedition in Mongolia to discover a uranium deposit there.