Meeting on nuclear research centres in the 21st century

Abstract

At first a university research centre, then a captive research centre of the state owned company in charge of establishing a nuclear industry in Brazil, then a research centre of CNEN (the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Authority), nearing its 50th anniversary, CDTN has a rich experience. even keeping the project portfolio around a number of traditional nuclear energy areas such as nuclear reactors, materials, environment, process engineering, waste management, radiological protection, the institution experienced an evolution in the substance of the proposed projects. This evolution represents the different institutional insertions, but the major changes occurred at a time when, due to a lesser demand from the nuclear sector and other factors, the explicit idea of producing outputs for the benefit of society received a large acceptance from the employees. The ... >> At first a university research centre, then a captive research centre of the state owned company in charge of establishing a nuclear industry in Brazil, then a research centre of CNEN (the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Authority), nearing its 50th anniversary, CDTN has a rich experience. even keeping the project portfolio around a number of traditional nuclear energy areas such as nuclear reactors, materials, environment, process engineering, waste management, radiological protection, the institution experienced an evolution in the substance of the proposed projects. This evolution represents the different institutional insertions, but the major changes occurred at a time when, due to a lesser demand from the nuclear sector and other factors, the explicit idea of producing outputs for the benefit of society received a large acceptance from the employees. The challenges to the institution at this time are commented upon. Retirements, coupled to the lack of job openings, work together for the decrease in the staff number, one major challenge. Up to a certain point, private companies have been hired to fill some of the organisational needs, but it is felt that a limit to this policy is being reached. It is argued that, even in the absence of a strong demand from the energy generation sector, a number of opportunities are still available to a NRC in a developing country. Maturity of nuclear energy and applications of radiation tend to transfer the focus of the activities from the fundamentals of nuclear science and technology to quality related issues, a requirement of the modern times. quality systems cannot substitute for the in depth knowledge of the fundamentals.