Word from the President
By Mr. Noël Camarcat
Dear Readers,
Once again after an opening speech for the Young Generation Forum at La Villette in June, you give me the opportunity to speak in my home city. I told the Young Generation that I spent my childhood in the northern part of the Paris suburbs. Later I moved to the western part of Paris. In the SFEN headquarters, in rue de Réaumur, we are somewhere in between. In the executive summary of our last General Assembly
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in May which you have just approved, you can read that I often begin by giving news of our conferences. Between may and now, we had at least two important events. The first one was the Young Generation Forum at La Villette, already mentioned. It was highly successful, with over 300 young people in the auditorium coming from all over Europe. After the ICAPP gathering in Nice to sign the nuclear for climate declaration and all the young people holding posters, we could feel that the momentum was still building up in June and also later in the autumn for the support of nuclear energy at the international climate conference COP 21. |
The COP 21 conference, the event which allows us to convene the General Assembly in Paris. COP 21 is now a buzz word, everybody knows and speaks about the climate conference. It would not be appropriate for me to steal the show form my minister for foreign affairs, Mr. Laurent Fabius. But I saw him smile on international TV networks with the successful completion of the conference and an agreement in place. I applaud Mr. Fabius for his efforts.
On our side, we held to our pledge, to maintain the presence of nuclear at this event, and to uphold our messages enshrined in the Nice nuclear for climate declaration:
We proudly believe that nuclear energy is a key part of the solution in the fight against climate change.
I counted over 60 signatories in Nice in May 2015. I understand that the number has reached over 140, one of the latest to join being the SNETP Platform who should be issuing a communiqué saying that it is adhering to the declaration. Seeing those results for promoting nuclear energy, both in scientific conferences presenting facts and progress in nuclear energy and also in the wider energy debate, I feel very honored to have led our European Nuclear Society for the past 2 years. I thank all of you for giving me such a great opportunity.
The future of ENS will now focus on the up-coming celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Society. The focus will be on nuclear technology bringing innovation to our lives well beyond its simple energy generation applications. While we focused so much on this aspect during the COP 21 conference, the 40th anniversary event will shine the spotlight on the other aspects of nuclear: medicine, industry and space among others.
In the past 40 years, nuclear technology has contributed in various ways to the well-being of Europe and the world. Through its various applications, we now live longer, travel further and enjoy our lives more because of nuclear technology. Let us remind everyone working in the nuclear industry and everyone in the world what nuclear has achieved over the last half-century.
Let us also focus on what is to come – nuclear technology has unlimited potential to contribute even further to our lives. The Young Generation in nuclear are not only the future of the industry, but they are also the innovators, explorers and pioneers of tomorrow. They require our full support to continue the groundbreaking, world-altering discoveries which we know are to come.
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