Ukrainian Students Strengthen their Knowledge on Innovative Nuclear Technologies and Prospects for their Deployment
The State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC NRS) launched a training course for students of Lviv Polytechnic National University, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Odesa Polytechnic National University. This is the fourth cycle of training held at the enterprise, initiated by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) with the organizational and financial support of the U.S. Department of State (U.S. DOS) and the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE).
The SSTC NRS specialized training course supported by the ANL is aimed at promoting innovative technologies, in particular small modular reactor (SMR) technology and advanced fuel technologies, overview of U.S. approaches to designing nuclear reactors and key areas for assessing progress in deploying advanced reactors. At the same time, students will have an opportunity to learn about the decision-making process for the deployment of new nuclear facilities in the United States and Ukraine, as well as interaction with regulatory authorities at the pre-licensing stage.
During the lectures, in addition to overviews of advanced small modular reactor designs, students will receive presentations on nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems, public outreach in the SMR implementation process, and prevention of disinformation on nuclear and radiation safety. SSTC NRS experts will also demonstrate an example of an independent technical assessment of an SMR design performed in cooperation with the ANL. Lectures will be delivered by SSTC NRS experts, including graduates of previous training courses, as well as ANL’s lecturers.
“The specialized course for the students is a platform where one can obtain the most up-to-date knowledge about innovative nuclear technologies and prospects for their deployment. I have long been interested in the topic of small modular reactors and see the solution to existing problems in the energy sector through the deployment of SMRs. The task of our generation is to develop an energy system that will operate efficiently under the most difficult conditions. And it is at this training that we have an opportunity to take the first steps towards understanding how to do this,” said Yaroslav Burlakov, a student at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
Traditionally, at the end of the course, students present their graduate theses, which they will be working on throughout their training.