IYNC Year in Review

IYNC Year in Review

2017 marks a special milestone for IYNC. We are celebrating 20 years of successful collaborations and IYNC activities! In 1997, the IYNC concept emerged as hundreds of young professionals and students collaborated to develop the IYNC network. It has been an eventful and successful year in continuing to further our mission of communicating the benefits of nuclear power, promoting peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, and transferring knowledge from the current generation to the next across international boundaries. Some of our major milestones this year include:

Strengthening and Expanding the IYNC Network

• Launching the IYNC Newsletter, sign up here to receive periodic updates from us.
• Launching Innovation for Nuclear (I4N)
• Celebrating 20 years of IYNC
• Bulletin

Memoranda of Understanding signed with other organizations

• International Union Veterans Nuclear Energy and Industry (IUVNEI)
• World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO)

Participation in Events around the world

• • Inaugural African Youth Nuclear Summit
  • <ahref=”https://iync.org/iync-at-the-european-nuclear-young-generation-forum-in-manchester/”>European Nuclear Young Generation Forum in Manchester, UK
  • Young Generation in Nuclear Workshop at FR17 in Russia
  • International Nuclear Power Plant Summit in Turkey
  • IAEA 61st General Conference, Technical Cooperation Conference, and Nuclear Security Conference
  • 25th Women in Nuclear Global Annual Conference

Notable YGN Activities
Japan YGN visits Fukushima
Re-Activation of Italian Nuclear Young Generation
Creation of the African Young Generation Network
Malaysia hosts Inter-Varsity Debate Competition on Nuclear Energy
Australian Young Generation in Nuclear relaunched

Preparing for IYNCWiN18
As 2017 comes to a close, it is time to get excited for the next Congress, IYNCWiN18 in Bariloche, Argentina! If you haven’t already, now is the time to register and book your accommodation and travel. The Ex-Com team together with WiN are working on an excellent program for you. We hope to see you soon in March 2018 in Bariloche!

Focus on Nuclear4Climate
It has been two years since COP21, where countries pledged to mitigate climate change and sign the Paris Agreement, and IYNC continues to work with partner organizations to advocate for the importance of nuclear energy in being a part of the climate change solution. This Nuclear4Climate initiative was again present at COP23 last November in Bonn Germany. Representatives from IYNC and other professional nuclear organizations hosted a Nuclear4Climate booth along with participating in other activities at COP23.

For the first time, we participated in the Conference Of Youth (COY), gathering international and regional Youth NGOs to discuss climate change, and facilitated an art activity, pictured above. The European Nuclear Societies Young Generation Network (ENSYGN) and several national nuclear societies, including the Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS) and American Nuclear Society (ANS), contributed substantially to the success of Nuclear4Climate booth and activities during the two weeks of COP23.

Generation Atomic also had a strong presence at COP23. They held a “Banana Action” where they bought hundreds of bananas and stuck a sticker on each that said “your breakfast provided by #nuclearforclimate” and handed them out at the Sustainable Innovation Forum. This forum was hosted by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and prior to COP23, UNEP had blocked participation and sponsorship from the World Nuclear Association.

In addition, IYNC’s Communication Officer Lenka Kollar participated in a United States organized panel on the role of cleaner fossil and nuclear energy, representing her company NuScale Power. Although this event was quite controversial with the U.S. threatening to leave the Paris Agreement, the reception to nuclear energy was fairly welcome, watch a video of the event here.

The United Nations and associated organizations, besides the IAEA, still hardly recognize the role nuclear science and technology in the global effort to tackle climate change. Unlike coal and natural gas plants that emit carbon emissions while producing electricity, nuclear energy generates none. And even when considered over the entire life cycle, nuclear energy produces fewer emissions than solar and about the same as wind, per unit of energy produced. More and more environmentalists acknowledge that going carbon-free in power generation requires developing further wind, solar and nuclear together. As young professional in nuclear, we will continue to work to spread this message.