On April, 14th Deputy General Director of IAEA, the Head of the Nuclear Energy Department Mikhail Chudakov has given a lecture for MEPhI students, during which he acquainted those present with the structure of the Agency, his Department and with current situation and perspectives of nuclear industry development.
According to his words, nearly 1.3 billion people on Earth don’t have an access to electric power in any form; more than one third of the world population still uses biomass for energy production, worsening ecological situation. Bearing in mind the population growth, this problem is becoming more acute and requires a faster solution.
In 2015 the United Nations adopted Sustainable Development Goals – a set of 17 goals for future international cooperation, aimed at reaching stable development, ensuring balance of 3 of its components: economic, social and ecological. To reach these goals it is necessary to adjust potentials of countries’ social and economic development, help them, which means, according to the expert, necessity to develop energetics, especially nuclear one. “As long as we haven’t developed other energy sources, for example, thermonuclear synthesis, we need to concentrate on nuclear energetics which is our bridge to the future”, Mikhail Chudakov has noted. Alternative energy sources – sun, wind, water – can will never be a source that would supply a base load. Moreover, with all their advantages, they have a lot of drawbacks: have bad impact on our environment, are limited in places of possible disposition and are not a reliable source of energy.
We should mention that positive changes have taken place in the process of nuclear energetics’ popularization. For instance, United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) – an international conference which took place in the end of 2015 in France dedicated to the climate changes – “has removed nuclear energetics from the list of enemies as it used to be in”.
Mikhail Chudakov has highlighted that a country accepting nuclear technology should be prepared for the development of that branch: it requires a corresponding infrastructure which provides reliable work of nuclear energetics, and personnel, which is the most important part. The IAEA works in that direction and holds schools on infrastructure for nuclear energetics, educational seminars and conferences, organizes electronic learning like STAR-NET, AFRA-NEST or ANENT. Different universities also contribute to this process. “Highly-qualified workforce is a very important component, and MEPhI is a model that forges professionals”, noted Mikhail Chudakov.
This lecture has been held as a part of a Plan for cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and MEPhI. In May of 2015 there was a visit and lecture by the Deputy Director General of IAEA T. Varjoranta and in November our university was visited by the IAEA delegation headed by the chief of Research Reactor Section, Department of Nuclear Energy IAEA Andrea Borio di Tigliole.
