After a Two-Year Break, the International Conference “Problems of Modern Nuclear Energy” was Held
The V. Voevodin International Scientific and Technical Conference “Problems of Modern Nuclear Energy” was held in Kharkiv on April 17-19, 2024.
After a two-year break due to russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Conference on Problems and Prospects of Development of the Nuclear Energy Complex of Ukraine finally returned to its traditional venue: V. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The Conference was also co-organized by the Ukrainian Nuclear Society and the National Research Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology”.
The Yermilov Center for Contemporary Art, which is also the university’s bomb shelter, sheltered about forty participants on the opening day of the Conference in in-person format. The other two days were held online.
Three days of the Conference included three sections:
- Development of the Nuclear Energy Complex of Ukraine. Materials for nuclear energy.
- Increasing the level of safety and efficiency of NPP operation. Extension of power unit lifetime and NPP ageing management. Problems of thermonuclear fusion.
- Nuclear, radiation and environmental safety in radioactive waste and spent fuel management. Public relations in the nuclear industry.
Most of the reports during the Conference were devoted to the topics of technical alloys and materials used in the nuclear power industry: research on the properties and application of zirconium, palladium and titanium alloys, polymers, their newly discovered properties, and absorption capabilities. A study on a special iron alloy was also presented. In particular, Anatolii Korniets, Head of the Laboratory of Strength and Plasticity Physics at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, reported on the anomalies in the alloy that occur under the influence of various low temperatures: under anisotropic temperature effects, the acoustic properties of the alloy increase, which leads to new opportunities for the material’s use.
Anatolii Mukhachev, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Vibration Processing of Mineral Raw Materials at the Polyakov Institute of Geotechnical Mechanics, presented research on the production of domestic fuel and proven Ukrainian low-waste technologies to produce hafnium, zirconium, and boron carbide, the main components for a nuclear reactor. Such steps towards autonomous nuclear energy in the future will diversify fuel on the Ukrainian and then global market and will powerfully cultivate the development of the domestic nuclear industry.
The Conference also addressed the topic of equipment aging and qualification. Nadiia Pryhoda, a specialist of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC NRS), made a presentation on “Consideration of Actual Thermal Ageing Parameters to Determine the Predicted Service Life of NPP Equipment during its Qualification”. The study proposes to take advantage of the opportunity to qualify equipment, prevent its premature replacement and reduce the cost of new equipment by assessing its actual, real condition and discontinuing the use of irrelevant thermal aging models that rigorously assess the equipment condition.
During the Conference, special attention was paid to public outreach. In particular, Mariia Lopushanska, scientist from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, highlighted the importance of considering public opinion in the environmental assessment report and noted the need to work with a wide audience and transparently inform it to increase the level of understanding and perception of nuclear energy in general. In addition, the topic of public outreach was covered by Anna Skorospelova, SSTC NRS researcher, in her presentation “Counteracting russian Disinformation on the Occupied ZNPP” and Gerhana Ivanova, representative of the Borys Paton State Polytechnic Museum and H. Dobrov Institute for Research of Scientific and Technical Potential and History of Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in her presentation “Nuclear Energy in Public Perception”.
Uatom.org Editorial Board