10th Anniversary of German YGN

The Young Generation Network of the German Nuclear Society (KTG) celebrated its tenth birthday in Berlin on October 16 and 17, 2005. Already in 1991 Mrs. Elfriede Precker (from meanwhile decommissioned NPP Obrigheim), the first female member on the KTG board, had initiated the first meetings on public opinion aspects in Germany especially focused on students and young professionals in nuclear technology. It took four more years until a specific young generation section of KTG got formally established.

Today the KTG-YGN has three main objectives:

1. Promotion of nuclear energy in public opinion

2. Establishing/maintaining a national network of young people up to 35 years in nuclear technology and research with international cooperation

3. Know-how transfer to the young generation

YGN-Germany Board 2005: Thomas Schöße, Carsten George, Christoph Mertens, Ingo Kleinhietpaß, Cora Fischer, Stefan Opel, Tim Büscher

The main activities are:

1. Two annual meetings for students and young professionals, one in southern, one in northern Germany, e.g. in 2005
   Nov.3-5 “Nuclear Energy – does it split Germany?” at NPP Isar
   Nov.24-26 “Climate Change – chance for nuclear energy?” at NPP Kruemmel

2. Campus for regional high school students during the annual KTG conference on nuclear technology (different location in Germany each year) in order to promote interest in a later university study in nuclear science and technology related matters

3. Sponsoring of university student excursions to nuclear facilities via a competition between faculties

4. Dialogue on energy policy with young Members of Parliament

5. Promotion of participation of YGN members in professional conferences and meetings

An article on the first 10 years of the KTG-YGN is under preparation by the YGN speakers and will be published in the next or overnext issue of the European Nuclear Features.