spotlights |
 |
 |
ENS High Scientific Council |
 |
ENS
YG Reporter |
 |
RRFM 2010 |
 |
ENC 2010 |
 |
 |
Country Report for Switzerland
Hosting the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) 2008
The idea of applying for hosting the IYNC in Switzerland was born in Sweden at the IYNC 2006. The delegation of Swiss Young Generation won the competition and founded a local organization committee. It was a challenging task to arrange the program, the venue and the financing of this huge conference project, which attracted in the end more than 320 participants to come for one week to Interlaken in September 2008.
The congress started on Sunday afternoon with the registration at the International Conference Center in Interlaken. As the congress was seeking to expand and strengthen the Young Generation’s networking, inscribed participants joined immediately into groups for playing the “nuclear games” in the park near the convention center: Games like e.g. “nuclear bowling”, “emergency core cooling” or “spying nuclear facilities with Google Earth” achieved team building and formed first friendships. In the evening, the welcome reception at the congress venue was accompanied with Swiss traditional music presented in a young way: Eliana Burki, a young Swiss artist, was playing the alp horn.
On Monday, on the 21st IYNC was formally opened by Dr. Marco Streit, the local general chair of IYNC2008. On behalf of Swiss Nuclear Society, Peter Hirt welcomed all the participants in Switzerland. After opening ceremony with some key note speakers, i.e. Patrick Miazza from BKW or Ric Perez from Westinghouse, the technical sessions have started and were running until Thursday morning the 24th. About 150 papers were presented in ten technical sessions. The sessions were covering a broad spectrum of topics – from communication issues to knowledge transfer, from reactor technology to the economics of new build projects. The presentations and discussions provided opportunities for young people to exchange knowledge on technology trends, new developments, best practices and the social and political aspects of nuclear energy throughout the world.
In addition to the benefits of exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge at the congress, the cultural program offered the opportunity for networking and tying friendships: On Monday evening a special guest was performing: Othella Dallas, a queen of Soul and Blues was singing into extasis of herself and the audience! The Tuesday evening was a free evening except from for the core committee to elect the next host of IYNC2010. USA, Russia, Brazil and South Africa have applied and at the end South Africa was elected! IYNC2010 will be in Cape Town SA, congratulations!
On Wednesday evening the Swiss Nuclear Society has offered the party to celebrate 10 years of Swiss YG and 50 years of Swiss Nuclear Society.
On Thursday evening, almost at the end of IYNC2008, the farewell dinner was arranged at around 2050 meter above sea level facing the Eiger North Face (through the fork): The participants arrived by a cable car at the summit of the Männlichen and enjoyed a traditional Swiss dinner (Cheese Fondue) accompanied by a tremendous German acapella band!
In order to not only talk about nuclear but to put hands on, the technical tours on Friday offered five opportunities to visit one of the Swiss nuclear facilities (KKB I+II, KKG, KKL, KKM) combined with another facility (PSI, ZWILAG, grid control Olten, WKM) or the visit of the Grimsel Rock lab of NAGRA combined with the Grimsel hydro power station. The visit were during the whole day and started in the early morning (which was not an easy task for the participants!).
On Saturday after the official end of iYNC2008, for some participants, they had the extraordinary opportunity to visit “Top of Europe”, the Jungfraujoch on 3454 meters above sea level! This time we have been lucky and the weather and the view over the alps were tremendous! This was an unforgettable
This IYNC in Interlaken was an excellent opportunity to meet with young professionals from all over the world, to share the view of the multi-faceted aspects of the deployment of the nuclear energy, and to create an opportunity for networking, collaboration, sharing of technical information and the building of trust relationships internationally.
Celebrating the 10th birthday of Swiss Young Generation
The IYNC in Interlaken offered a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the 10th birthday of the Young Generation of the Swiss Nuclear Society together with many guests from throughout the whole world. During the dinner a panel discussion brought together representatives of the Swiss young generations as well as from the pioneer generation. Issues about knowledge transfer and creating excitement about nuclear energy for young scientist and engineers were discussed from the perspectives of new-build-planning utilities, plants as well as research institutions. In order to celebrate its birthday, the Swiss Young Generation invited the Swiss Ska Band “Open Season”. Their astonishing performance filled the dance floor completely, and added another benefit to the conference besides the networking and knowledge: Dancing and Fun.
Activities of the national YG network for the time period given: 2008
Spring meeting at ETH Zürich On May 13th, the SGK-YG held its annual spring meeting. Young employees of Swiss nuclear facilities met at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) to get some basic knowledge about climate and energy. Speakers gave an insight about measurement techniques to estimate the evolution of the climate of the last 100'000 years, assessments on energy systems, challenges of maintenance power plants and latest scientific achievements in the nuclear field. After these interesting presentations the labs of Prof. H.M. Prassers group at ETH has been visited. ENS core meeting in Interlaken The core meeting was held one day before IYNC 2008… IYNC 2008 in Interlaken From the 20th -26th September 2008 Swiss YG hosting the International Youth Nuclear Congress in Interlaken, Switzerland.
|