Romanian “Nuclear Energy” Association - in action!

On 21 March 2012, the Romanian Nuclear Energy Association (AREN) held its Annual General Assembly. The main focus of the meeting, apart from presenting a report detailing recent events, was to submit an action plan featuring many initiatives proposed by the Romanian chapter of the Young Generation Network (YGN). The goal of these activities is to bring nuclear power closer to the people through information campaigns and trust and to point out its benefits for Romania.

The first of these activities took place on 27 March, when a team of nuclear specialists, both young and senior, met with young members of the National Liberal Party of Romania. During a two-hour seminar they discussed the present and future of nuclear power in Romania. The seminar was presided over by the former Minister of Economy, Mr. Varujan Vosganian, who is a national liberal, and by Mr. Teodor Chirica, who is on the Board of FORATOM. Other presenters included members of Young Generation Network (YGN) in Romania, who established a close relationship with the young politicians.

Currently, the country is building two additional units at the Cernavoda NPP site and has plans for a second NPP. Future decisions regarding nuclear power in Romania will have to be made by these young politicians, who represent the country’s future leaders. With this in mind, AREN plans to invite all political parties to take part in seminars and debates that it is organizing with its young members.

Targeting a much younger public, AREN’s YGN representatives took part in an education fair at the Politechnica Institute, whose objective was to attract more students to the nuclear power sector. The fair took place at the university, from 5-7 April 2012 and around 500 high school students visited our exhibition stand.

AREN continued with this series of seminars dedicated to school and high school students. On 27 April, the Association brought together nuclear specialists and pupils to discuss various topics and to give practical demonstrations about the uses of radioactivity in medicine, agriculture, industrial applications, waste disposal and reactor design, technology, fission  and fusion reactors, etc. In 2011, AREN organized 4 of these seminars, which enjoyed great success, with around 150 pupils participating in each one. Many requests had been received from high schools for their pupils to take part in visits and lectures.

At the same time, the national company Nuclearelectrica SA, which is the operator of Cernavoda NPP, is carrying out an extensive public information programme and cooperating closely with AREN in promoting nuclear power to all categories of the public. A series of seminars for pupils that are organised by Nuclearelectrica started back in March. They combine theoretical information given by nuclear experts with practical data, and all in a language that is understandable for young people. During the latest of these seminars pupils had the opportunity to experiment with a fully-equipped and operational mobile monitoring station, which Cernavoda NPP uses to measure the level of effluents around its facility.

Working with YGN has proven to be a very efficient strategy, as children promote our messages effectively with their families and school friends.