In June 2015, MEng Nuclear Engineering students from the University of Birmingham, Vivien Parker, Alex Cordiner, Alex Potts and Eryk Ryzko participated in a 3 week Clean Energy Science & Technology summer school, focusing on Nuclear Energy, at Xiamen University, China.
The School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham and EDF energy sponsored the student summer school in collaboration with the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Michigan.
The Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research is forging links with the University of Xiamen in nuclear education and research and this three-week summer school programme was an important opportunity to strengthen ties and share expertise. The summer school included a range of lectures as well as visits to nuclear power plants presently under construction.
The visit ensured students had access to worldwide nuclear expertise and an insight into China’s nuclear developments, such as Hinkley Point C.
Vivien Parker, Student, said:
“We attended lectures on a wide variety of topics including nuclear legacy waste processing, and on current critical problems in the field. Lectures were presented by world leading academics including Dr Tim Hunter, University of Leeds, Professor Ron Fleming, University of Michigan and Dr Mark Read, University of Birmingham. These were interspersed with local culture lectures.We were also extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to visit two of China’s nuclear power plants at Dayabay, home of the CPR1000 reactor, and Sanmen Bay, the construction site for AP1000 reactors.
"The Xiamen School of Clean Energy, Science and Technology was an invaluable experience and will undoubtedly influence our future careers. Thank you to our sponsors EDF and the School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham.”