The mission of
the World Nuclear University (WNU) is to strengthen the international
community of people and institutions so as to guide and further
develop:
- The safe and increasing use of nuclear power as the
one proven technology able to produce clean energy on
a large global scale; and
- The many valuable applications of nuclear science and
technology that contribute to sustainable agriculture,
medicine, nutrition, industrial development, management
of fresh water resources and environmental protection.
Through a worldwide network that coordinates, supports
and draws on the strengths of established institutions of
nuclear learning, the WNU will promote academic rigour and
high professional ethics in all phases of nuclear activity,
from fuel and isotope supply to decommissioning and waste
management.
While looking to the future, the WNU will strengthen capabilities
to manage, and responsibly dispose of, the waste legacy
of early weapons and power programmes in compliance with
rigorous standards of custodianship and environmental protection.
Nuclear Technology and Sustainable Development
Today nuclear reactors generate nearly one-fourth of the
electricity in nations representing 2/3 of humanity, and
other nuclear applications are integral to many aspects
of the world economy.
With major countries expanding nuclear energy's role and
new countries poised to introduce it, the key issue is not
whether the use of nuclear technology will grow worldwide
but whether it will grow fast enough to make a decisive
contribution to the global imperative of sustainable development.
A corollary question is whether the world's institutional
support for nuclear power and other nuclear applications
will be configured so as to realise the full environmental
and developmental value of this technology while managing
all associated risks.
The advent of the World Nuclear University - supported
by IAEA and NEA, representing the inter-governmental nuclear
community, and by WANO and WNA, representing the global
nuclear fuel cycle and utility industry - is a strong affirmative
answer to this critical question.
A Pillar of Security and Progress
Even those sceptical of nuclear energy should see value
in the WNU's emphasis on promoting the very highest levels
of skill, motivation and ethics in the world's existing
nuclear facilities and in the long-term work of decommissioning
and waste management.
Similarly, supporters and sceptics alike will welcome the
WNU's commitment to building an ever-stronger global non-proliferation
system, and to advancing such knowledge and technologies
as WNU members agree will contribute to that objective.
In overall effect, the WNU will be an inspiration and a
bulwark - advancing the many benefits of nuclear energy
while fortifying institutional and technological barriers
against misuse.
An Expanding and Exciting Global Profession
Precisely because nuclear energy's contribution to sustainable
development is not yet adequately perceived, an overarching
role of the WNU will be to elevate the stature of professions
associated with peaceful uses of nuclear technology.
The WNU will aim to encourage a broader appreciation -
particularly among students choosing careers - that nuclear
science and engineering offer an exciting, future-oriented
vocation in an expanding global industry that is providing
essential service to humankind while adhering to high international
standards of safety and performance.
In recognition that nuclear science and technology are pervasive
in advanced and in modernizing economies, the WNU will seek
to attract and support students from developed and developing
nations.
A Transnational Network of Cooperation
The WNU network - spanning some 30 nations and coordinated
from a small headquarters - will comprise highly regarded
universities and research centres with strong programmes
in nuclear science and engineering.
The WNU's main function will be to foster cooperation among
its participating institutions - seeking synergies and mutual
benefit while setting and enforcing high academic standards.
A key role will be to facilitate "distance learning"
techniques that make courses at any WNU university available
to students throughout the network.
Within each country, a lead institution or consortium will
"pilot" that country's participation, and will
encourage and facilitate involvement by other institutions
in the WNU partnership.
Value-Added from a Core Faculty
While coordinating this far-reaching institutional network,
the WNU headquarters will build a small core faculty embodying
world-class expertise.
This centralised asset will enable the WNU to introduce
a unifying global dimension to nuclear studies by:
- Facilitating development of standard curricula
- Designing courses with strong international content:
- Operational safety and performance
- Radiological protection
- Nuclear reactor engineering and fuel cycle technology
- Industry economics
- The non-proliferation regime and safeguards
- Probabilistic risk analysis
- Nuclear trade law, licensing and regulation
- Liability and insurance
- Nuclear transport
- Clean-up, decommissioning and waste management
- Nuclear applications in agriculture, medicine, hydrology
and environmental protection
- Innovation in a nuclear-renewables-hydrogen economy.
All WNU courses - whether conducted within the curricula
of member institutions, in summer school sessions, or eventually
in a WNU-sanctioned Master's Degree program - will embody
state-of-the-art knowledge. Some will be sponsored or certified
through the IAEA and NEA; some will be shaped by WANO to
fortify the global nuclear safety culture.
Assembling a highly experienced core faculty will, as an
ancillary benefit, provide a prestigious team that can be
used selectively to educate and advise influential non-experts,
including policymakers, environmentalists, international
development officials and media professionals.
A Broad and Evolving Agenda
The WNU's founding supporters - inter-governmental and
private sector - reflect the full breadth of the global
nuclear industry and its associated structures of standards
and oversight. The WNU will maintain close links to these
founding bodies but will retain full independence.
In operation, the WNU's philosophy will be one of exploration,
as its academic, industry and governmental supporters and
participants collaborate in a creative search for effective
cooperation. The WNU's initial agenda will include these
elements:
- Coordinate curricula for common advantage
- Explore the harmonising of degrees & credentials
transnationally
- Promote exchanges of students & faculty
- Facilitate distance learning
- Build scholarship support (corporate, governmental,
philanthropic)
- Assess and respond to the challenge of knowledge preservation
- Collaborate with:
- Industry and other end users to promote performance
excellence and to help tailor educational work to
practical needs
- WANO on instruction, for business leaders and plant
operators, designed to fortify the global nuclear
safety culture
- IAEA to promote knowledge preservation, the ethic
& technologies of non-proliferation & safety,
and nuclear applications in sustainable development
- NEA and IAEA to promote innovative reactor design
and fuel-cycle research
(stressing proliferation resistance, inherent safety,
economics and reduced waste)
- Create a respected multilingual information service
- Assemble a core faculty to:
- Shape summer-school courses stressing "global"
subjects
- Develop a WNU Master's degree
- Offer expert-led familiarisation sessions for policy
and opinion makers
- Operate a global human resources pool
- Orchestrate WNU "alumni" as champions of nuclear
science and technology.
The WNU's structure of governance - a Board of Governors,
a Council of Advisers and an Academic Council - will produce
a balance of perspectives and interests. The WNU agenda
will evolve to emphasise proven successes and emerging priorities.
Founding, Funding and Leadership
The WNU was founded on 4 September 2003 in London, in a
ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President
Eisenhower's historic "Atoms for Peace" speech
to the United Nations General Assembly.
A vision that transcended its Cold War origins, the "Atoms
for Peace" initiative gave birth to the IAEA to institutionalise
the harnessing of science and cooperative diplomacy to reap
the fruits of nuclear knowledge for the benefit of all humankind.
The WNU will give new vitality to this work in the century
ahead.
The WNU's four "Founding Supporters" are the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Energy
Agency (NEA) of the OECD, the World Association of Nuclear
Operators (WANO), and the World Nuclear Association (WNA).
The WNU will be funded through a non-profit corporation,
to which industry and philanthropic donors will be invited
to contribute, and will seek programmatic support from the
IAEA and national governments.
To lead the World Nuclear University, the WNU's initial
participants and its Founding Supporters agreed by consensus
on two persons, each a pre-eminent statesman and institution-builder
in the nuclear realm:
- Chancellor: Hans Blix (IAEA Director General-Emeritus)
- Chairman of the Board: Zack Pate (WANO Chairman-Emeritus).
In 2006, Dr Robert Hawley, former Chief Executive of British Energy, was appointed Vice Chancellor of the WNU.
Substantial Value from a New Global Institution
Although primarily a "virtual" institution, the
new WNU mechanism of transnational cooperation will serve
as a powerful worldwide stimulus to the building of:
- Nuclear knowledge and skills
- High international standards in academics, ethics and
operational performance
- Enhanced public understanding as needed to support
sound global policy.
The WNU network will thereby provide continuing substantive
value to its constituent members, to the rapidly globalising
nuclear industry, and to national governments seeking to
strengthen the technical and political foundations for nuclear
science and engineering.
In the 21st century, Atoms-for-Peace means Atoms-for-Sustainable-Development.
The World Nuclear University will be a dynamic force for
progress in meeting this global imperative.
The WNU Network
Founding Supporters
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - inter-governmental
/ UN
- Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) - inter-governmental / OECD
- World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) - nuclear
utilities worldwide
- World Nuclear Association (WNA) - entire global nuclear
industry
WNU Members (by country)
- Argentina: Bariloche Atomic Centre & Balseiro
Institute
- Australia: Australian Nuclear Science & Technology
Organisation (ANSTO)
- Austria: Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities
- Belgium: Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK*CEN)
- Brazil: Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN)
- Bulgaria: University of Sofia and Technical University
of Sofia
- Canada: University Network of Excellence in Nuclear
Engineering (McMaster, Queen's, Toronto, Waterloo, Western,
UOIT, Ecole Polytechnique, New Brunswick)
- Chile: Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission
- China: Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology
of Tsinghua University (Beijing)
- Czech Republic: Czech Technical University in
Prague & Nuclear Research Institute REZ
- Finland: Helsinki University of Technology and
Lappeenranta University of Technology
- France: Institut National des Sciences et Techniques
Nucléaires (INSTN)
- Germany: Technical University München and
Competence Network on Nuclear Technology
- India: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Training
School
- Israel: Shalhaveth Freier Center for Peace, Science
and Technology
- Italy: University of Pavia (European Nuclear
School) and CIRTEN Consortium
- Japan: Tokyo University & Tokyo Institute
of Technology
- Republic of Korea: Korean Atomic Energy Research
Institute (KAERI) &
Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
- Mexico: National Autonomous University of Mexico
(UNAM)
- Pakistan: Pakistan Institute of Engineering &
Applied Sciences (PIEAS)
- Russia: Kurchatov Institute and MEPhI (Moscow
Engineering Physics Institute)
- South Africa: University of Potchefstroom
- Spain: Polytechnical University of Madrid
- Sweden: Swedish Centre for Nuclear Technology
- Ukraine: Ukrainian Nuclear Consortium
- United Kingdom: Nuclear Academics Industrial
Liaison Seminar (NAILS) and University of Manchester/UMIST
- USA: Texas A&M (leader of Southwest Consortium),
Oregon State Univ. (leader of the Western Nuclear Science
Alliance) & Argonne National Lab (coordinator for
U.S. labs)
- Europe-wide European Nuclear Engineering Network
(ENEN)
- Asia-wide: Asian Network for Higher Education
in Nuclear Technology (ANENT)
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