Nuclear Training

Nonproliferation, nuclear waste management, space applications of nuclear power, and the politics surrounding things nuclear are a sampling of the topics on the docket for the first World Nuclear University Summer Institute, which will take place this July and August at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls.

Some 75 young scientists from 33 nations are signed up to participate in the six-week course. Many of the participants are graduate students, one-fourth are women, and the average age is 30. As part of the course, participants will attend a lecture by WNU chancellor and former United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix. They will also visit Yucca Mountain, DOE’s controversial proposed nuclear waste storage site.

The London-based WNU is a worldwide network of institutions. It was founded in 2003 with the aim of replenishing the nuclear energy work-force, promoting nonweapons uses of nuclear power, and improving the image of the nuclear science and technology professions (see Physics Today, December 2003, page 38 ).