European Young Generation Forum (EYGF) 2007 Amsterdam, 5 – 10 June.

Pieter Kleerenbezem

The EYGF with the title “The Nuclear Future” was a great success. Below you can read an impression of this great event.

Tuesday afternoon saw arriving participants register under clear skies and nice 25ºC degrees at the conference hotel which was the perfect start for this event. In the evening the welcome dinner was set in the right atmosphere as it was held in the first Dutch electrical powerplant. Nowadays it is a museum and all participants had the opportunity to look around while enjoying an excellent meal with quiet guitar music.

On Wednesday the opening session of the forum was attended by several well known and high level speakers followed by very interesting (technical)presentations about “GenIV and Beyond” reactors. During the lunch there was a lot of informal talk about the presentations and many people got to know each other. Of course one of the goals of this forum is to expand one’s network.

The afternoon session was again very interesting and focussed on the subject of what the chances for “the nuclear option in a liberalised energy market” are. The last session of the day was an interactive presentation on “How to deal with the press” with regard to nuclear topics and how this works out in the news and in papers.

The evening event was typically Dutch, a tour through the canals of Amsterdam with dinner served on the boat. The ideal place to talk about the topics of the day with a good glass of wine. The next day (Thursday) everybody left early to attend several technical

presentations and a guided tour at the site of the nuclear research group in Petten and JRC-IE, located in the dunes next to the North Sea. Split up in several smaller groups the participants visited the High Flux Reactor and Hot-cell- and Hydrogen laboratories. To end the day in style everybody went to the beach for a picnic and some even walked a bit through the surf.

Friday’s program was more interactive so to keep everybody sharp after two intense forum days. The morning session had presentations about “Nuclear and Hydrogen” followed by “New attitude towards nuclear”. Both topics are important for the use and acceptance of nuclear energy.

The next session consisted of a debate lead by a moderator between an environmentalist and a member of the Spanish Young Generation. They debated whether we can do without nuclear power. The audience was very much involved and a very interesting and honest debate developed with mutual respect for differing opinions. The conclusion was drawn that in the short term

nuclear energy is needed in our energy mix because the alternatives cannot replace nuclear energy and prevent CO₂ emission.

The afternoon program was reserved for the poster sessions, many high quality posters were presented by young generation members from different countries. This was followed by the hand over of the Jan Runermark Award to Mr. Ralf Güldner for his outstanding and continuous support for the young generation.

Last part of the forum was the famous and interesting “fusion road show”. This was not only fun to see, but also some fundamentals of fusion where shown with simple experiments or examples. The audience was very enthusiastic and many questions asked made sure that the day ended well after five o’clock.

The farewell dinner took place on a boat again while making a tour of the waters surrounding Amsterdam, it’s a bit like Venice. The food, the music and the opportunity for a bit of dancing all contributed to an excellent ambiance for finishing the technical part of the forum and to have fun with (new) friends.

The Saturday was specifically organized for everybody to get to know the Dutch culture and heritage. It was possible to visit the Batavia (a rebuild of a 17th century trading ship) or to make a visit to one of the many musea in Amsterdam. In the evening everybody joined together for a last dinner together on…you guessed it… a boat again!

During the conference the number of people attending was 100% or close to 100% even during the last day. This shows that everybody was dedicated and really enjoyed the program. We as the organisation are of course very happy with the many compliments that we received. We would like to thank all of the participants, speakers and sponsors who helped us to organise this 2nd European Young Generation Forum 2007 and make it such a success.   Peter Kleerebezem

Organisation team EYGF 2007