Spanish Nuclear Society

• A one-day technical session of the Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE) was held on 15 April 2015 with a significant participation from the sector and was attended by approximately 100 people. As in recent years, it was organized by the Technical Commission of the SNE. The Session was held at the “Centre Tarraconense El Seminari” in Tarragona. The title of the Technical Session was: Parts Supply in nuclear power stations.
  
  As seen by the numbers of participants and their great interest despite the obvious overload of information in such a tight schedule, the session was a big success which shows the relevance of the chosen topics.

• Young Nuclear Generation is actively engaged in boosting interest in education and training of students and young professionals with its Annual Seminar on Safety of Advanced Reactors at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and two Basic Nuclear Science and Technology Courses which took place in the University of Zaragoza and at the School of Engineering at the University of Oviedo. Furthermore, the Young Generation supported the Nuclear4Climate initiative at the ENYGF-Paris-2015.

• Nuclear España, the monthly magazine of the SNE, distributed since 1984, has published issues 357 and 361 about the “40th Annual Meeting” and the winter session "Spanish Nuclear Power Plants in 2014: Experiences and Perspectives", in both English and Spanish.

• SNE has released the candidates for its annual scholarship grants for Masters programmes related to nuclear technology. To be used exclusively to cover their academic registration cost, up to a limit of €3.000, a total of €22.500 € were assigned.

• SNE announced the 2015 edition of the Projects and Master’s Award with content related to science and / or nuclear technology. The three finalist projects were publicly announced on 6 May 2015 and these projects were presented at the 41st Annual Meeting in A Coruña. The winner will be awarded €1,500 plus a commemorative plaque.

• SNE signed the international agreement "Nuclear for Climate” declaration in Nice with 40 other nuclear associations from around the world.
  
  Jose Ramon Torralbo, SNE President, signed the "Nuclear for climate” declaration to achieve international recognition of nuclear power as part of the solution to fight change climate.
  
  
  The ratification of the agreement occurred during the ICAPP conference (International Conference on Advanced Reactors), held in Nice, where the main international experts participated in technology and nuclear energy.

• The 41th Annual Meeting of the Spanish Nuclear Society was held on 23-25 September 2015 in A Coruña, Spain. All the relevant information about the meeting is available at: www.reunionanualsne.es. This year over 600 professionals took part; 39 technical sessions conveyed the industry’s projects and advances through 345 papers dealing with areas such as nuclear safety, radiological protection, nuclear fuel, plant operation and maintenance, engineering, R&D, communications, etc. 32 stands representing companies in the industry were at the exhibition.
  

The technical programme included Three Plenary Sessions and a Colloquium Session dedicated to the relevant current issues related to energy subjects and associated issues. The participants in these sessions included high-ranking prestigious national and international experts in the topics covered by the sessions.

The Plenary Sessions focused on currently important issues in the energy and nuclear
sectors such as:

• The needs of research, development and innovation to meet the challenges of the nuclear sector: long-term operation, fuel management and new projects;

• Intelligent management of cities: a new model of energy supply;

• IAEA report on the Fukushima Daiichi accident;

The colloquium Session for experts was on entitled: “How to define the Spanish energy strategy?”

The key part of the technical programme was the Technical Sessions and Worshops, in which national and international professionals and experts presented their work on relevant projects and scientific studies and on the progress made in the past year in different fields. The technical papers were presented in oral and poster sessions. The subjects of the papers covered a wide range of fields such as fusion, O&M, engineering, safety, waste, R&D, communication, medical applications, etc.

The meeting also included activities aimed at informing and educating the general public; e.g. the Basic Course on Nuclear Science and Technology, which was organized by the SNE’s Nuclear Youth Committee and was open to students from the city and region and to anyone else who wished to learn more about nuclear energy and technology.

• WiN Spain
  
  Among the activities planned to celebrate its 20th Anniversary, Women in Nuclear Spain attended the Joint Meeting of the Spanish Radiological Protection Society (SEPR) and the Spanish Medical Physics Society (SEFM), held in Valencia on 23-26 June.
  
  A specific WiN session on "Radiation, Health and Nutrition” was organized on 26 June, at  Torrent, near Valencia, which was attended by a large representation of the consumer association Tyrius and the Association Against Cancer, as well as professionals of the University and Polytechnic Hospital “La Fe” and the Health Research Institute “La Fe”.
   
  WiN Spain also organized the Conference Session "Industry and Nuclear Medicine in Cantabria", hosted by the University of Cantabria, on 8 July.