Fellows of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently participated in a week-long workshop at NC State. Representatives from Atomic Energy Commissions of Ghana, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, along with the department head of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, took part in lectures, hands-on exercises and technical tours. IAEA technical officer, Dr. Tatjana Jevremovic, organized this scientific visit. The IAEA supports member states in the development of advanced water cooled reactor (WCR) technology by fostering information exchange and collaborative research and development, aimed at improving member states’ capabilities in reactor design, assessment and analysis.

NC State’s Department of Nuclear Engineering is the only such program in North Carolina and a premier program in the United States. The following program and consortia participated in the week’s activities –the Nuclear Reactor Program (NRP) that is dedicated to teaching, research and extension; the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) whose mission is to advance computer simulations to create safer, more cost-effective nuclear power plants; and, the Consortium for Nuclear Power (CNP) whose mission is to promote research and development, innovation, education, and training as well as provision of technical support/expert advice/consultancy services that benefit the nuclear industry and its regulation.

Visits were also made to Duke Energy’s Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant and the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratories (TUNL) located at Duke University. TUNL is a US Department of Energy (DOE) Center of Excellence that focuses on low-energy nuclear physics research and is a consortium of 4 universities – Duke University, NC Central University, NC State University, and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.