News update from the Finnish Nuclear Society

Annual meeting of the Finnish Nuclear Society

The Finnish Nuclear Society (ATS) organised its annual meeting on 3 March 2010, in Tieteiden Talo, Helsinki. Altogether 55 members of ATS participated in the meeting. During the meeting Dr. Eija-Karita Puska from VTT was nominated to the position of Chairwoman of the Society for the second year running. Veijo Ryhänen from TVO was nominated as Vice Chairman. The new Secretary of ATS is Dr. Silja Holopainen from VTT and the new Treasurer is Risto Vanhanen, from Aalto University. Timo Seppälä from Posiva replaces Yrjö Hytönen from STUK on the ATS board.

In addition to these official procedural matters, two presentations were given during the meeting. Stefan Forss from the National Defence University spoke about the nuclear energy situation in Iran. Juhani Santaholma clarified the reasoning behind the “decision- in-principle” process and explained the meaning of the term "overall good of society." These are both part of the process for obtaining a license to build a new nuclear power plant unit in Finland.

The presentations are available on the internet in the archives of ATS www.ats-fns.fi/info/arkisto.html.

ATS members visit Wärtsilä and other local industry in Vaasa

ATS recently organised a two-day visit to Vaasa, where the members met representatives from the local energy industry. The host of the visit was Wärtsilä, and the meeting was arranged in co-operation with the regional entrepreneurs’ organisation, RPY. Altogether 10 ATS members and 4 members of FinNuclear participated in the visit.