ENERGY SAFETY GROUP PARTICIPATED IN THE NURECAB WORKSHOP
On October 10, 2024, the NURECAB Workshop “UA and EU Nuclear Education Trends and Nuclear Industry Prospects” was held in Kyiv, dedicated to the education and training of future nuclear industry workforce. Scientists, educators and industry experts gathered to mainstream the issues of nuclear education development in Ukraine and identify the needs of the Ukrainian nuclear sector to educational institutions.
The main goal of the meeting was to discuss current trends in nuclear education, analyze the needs of the nuclear industry in Ukraine and the EU, and explore ways to improve educational programs to train highly qualified specialists in nuclear energy and medicine.
The speakers highlighted the main challenges currently facing the nuclear industry as regards to training specialists. The main and global issues are: a small number of applicants to physics faculties; weak laboratory infrastructure and insufficient government attention to technical/natural disciplines.
Participants included representatives of the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN), the Ukrainian Nuclear Society, Spizhenko Clinic, the Joint Support Office of the European Commission in Kyiv managing the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation, the Joint Research Center of the EU (JRC), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the POLATOM Radioisotope Center, CVR, JSC NNEGC “Energoatom”, as well as leading Ukrainian universities and research centers. Energy Safety Group also joined the event as representatives of business and nuclear sector companies.
Today, the situation in the field of education can be improved by integrating Ukrainian education into European nuclear education; promoting international grant projects, including in the educational field, aimed at creating new curricula and developing educational infrastructure in Ukraine, as well as changing the government policy towards higher nuclear education and even greater involvement of nuclear industry companies in the educational process.
