Word from the President

Dear members of the European Nuclear Society (ENS),

2013 is drawing to a close. It is a year that has seen great momentum achieved for nuclear in some European countries. The UK, for example, is right on track with its new build programme and I am very much looking forward to watching its progress.

Other nuclear projects are also moving in the right direction, as witnessed by developments in Bulgaria and the Fennovoima Project in Finland. In the summer I visited the OL3 construction site with the Swiss Nuclear Society, which really is an amazing place. It is important in terms of positive communications for the nuclear industry as a whole that there are no further delays there. The same is true, of course, for the FL3 construction in France. There was, however, less good news last month with the decision of BKW to shut down the Mühleberg NPP in 2019. There had been discussions about making possible new

investments in order to prolong its lifetime. But this proposal was ultimately rejected. On the other hand, though, there is now a good deal of pressure being put on the Energiewende (energy transition) plan in Switzerland to deliver enough energy in six years’ time. Personally, I am pretty sure they will fail.

Women in Nuclear (WiN) recently published a book entitled 20 Years of WiN to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. The idea of WiN first saw the light of day during a PIME workshop in 1988. The first ever meeting of “nuclear women”, which was organised by ENS, took place in 1990, in Ascona, Italy. By the end of 1992, WiN was born. Over the last two decades the organisation has grown from infancy, through childhood and its teenage years - when it still needed occasional support from its “mother” - into the strong and mature organisation that it is today. It really has come of age! Congratulations WiN on your twentieth birthday!

Finally, our Society itself has had a successful conference year and is already planning events on the 2014 calendar. These include Pime 2014 and RRFM 2014, in February and March respectively, and both in Ljubljana (Slovenia), as well as ENC2014 in May, in Marseille.

Unfortunately, my term as President of ENS comes to an end in December this year.
I have really enjoyed my time as President and consider it a privilege to have served the Society for the last two years and to have worked closely with so many colleagues. All that remains for me to do now is to say goodbye and to wish ENS all the very best for the future!

Take care.

Marco Streit
President of ENS