From its creation, Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear (Jóvenes Nucleares, JJNN), a non-profit organization that depends on the Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE), has as an important scope to help transferring the knowledge between those generations in the way that it can be possible

Alvarez, A.

Jiménez Varas, Gonzalo

Ortega, S.

Rubio, Rafael

Sánchez, M.

English

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Educational Activities to Help Transferring Knowledge in Nuclear: The Seminars of Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear (Jóvenes Nucleares)

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EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES TO HELP TRANSFERRING KNOWLEDGE IN 
NUCLEAR: THE SEMINARS OF SPANISH YOUNG GENERATION IN 
NUCLEAR (JÓVENES NUCLEARES) 
 
G. Jimenez1, A. Alvarez1, S. Ortega1, R. Rubio1, M. Sanchez1, 
1 Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear (Jóvenes Nucleares), Spain 
gonzalo.jimenez@jovenesnucleares.org 
 
INTRODUCTION 
From its creation, Spanish Young 
Generation in Nuclear (Jóvenes Nucleares, 
JJNN), a non-profit organization that 
depends on the Spanish Nuclear Society 
(SNE), has as an important scope to help 
transferring the knowledge between those 
generations in the way that it can be 
possible. To try to have success in that goal, 
some educational seminars and conferences 
have been organized by Jóvenes Nucleares 
in the last years: 
 
THE SEMINAR OF NUCLEAR SAFETY IN 
ADVANCED REACTORS 
Finishing 2009, JJNN and the Universidad 
Politécnica de Madrid started to plan a new 
and first-of-a-kind Seminar in Nuclear 
Safety focused on the Advanced Reactors 
(Generation III, III+ and IV). The scope was 
to make a general description of the safety in 
the new reactors, comparing them with the 
built Generation II reactors from a technical 
point of view but simple and without the 
need of strong background in nuclear 
engineering to try to be interesting for the 
most number of people possible. 
After a great effort from JJNN with the 
support of the UPM, the Seminar took place 
in April 2010 at the Industrial Engineering 
School (ETSII). The lessons were conducted 
by young professionals, experts in the field, 
that belong to the Young Generation of the 
Spanish Nuclear Society and to companies 
and institutions related with the nuclear 
energy. 
The Seminar was structured in four sessions. 
In each of them, a comparison between 
previous and new technologies was done, 
regarding safety perspective. 
The Seminar was very popular, with nearly 
70 assistants each day, from the university, 
nuclear companies and research centers. 
After each session there were very 
interesting and animated discussions 
between the lecturers and the public that 
demonstrated the interest of the assistants for 
the subjects taught. 
The assistants were asked for a highly 
detailed feedback of each one of the lessons 
and those opinions have helped to improve 
the program for the 2011 Seminar.  
 
Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear 
(Jóvenes Nucleares) is a commission of the 
Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE), whose main 
goals are to spread knowledge about nuclear 
energy among the society. 
 
One of the scopes of the seminar was to 
make a general description of the new 
reactors from the point of view of the safety 
and in reference with the operating reactors. 
The course lasted four days and was divided 
in two lectures of one hour each day, except 
the last day that consisted of a two hours 
lecture.  
 
In the first and second lecture a review of 
the principal systems of a Westinghouse and 
a KWU PWR of and their design differences 
was done, including their different behavior 
against transients. Those characteristics were 
compared with the AP1000 ones, to clearly 
seen the advances in the new design. 
 
The same analogy was done in the following 
two lectures with the BWR of GE and 
ABWR and ESBWR of GE. The third day 
two lectures were given, the first one was 
about operation and the safety systems of the 
EPR of AREVA. The second one was an 
introduction to the ADS and the physics of 
transmutation. In the last lecture of two 
hours, an introduction to the new Generation 
IV designs was done from the point of view 
of the advances in nuclear safety that this 
new generation incorporates.  
 
The objective of the seminar is to show 
clearly the advances that have been obtained 
in the section of safety with the new 
reactors, from a technical but simple point of 
view and without needing great previous 
nuclear engineering knowledge.  
 
 
Figure 1. Seminar Poster 
 
Seminar Development 
 
The opening session was chaired by the 
Vice-rector of the Universidad Politécnica 
de Madrid and full-professor of Nuclear 
Technology Dr. Emilio Mínguez and by the 
Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear 
president in that moment, Miguel Millán. 
 
 
The Seminar was highly crowded every day, 
with more than 70 daily attendees. There 
was a very active audience participation with 
animated debates after every lecture. The 
closing session was presented by the 
president of Jóvenes Nucleares and the 
president of the Spanish Nuclear Society, D. 
José Emeterio Gutiérrez. 
 
After the brief speech of each president, the 
diploma ceremony started with the 
documentation given to the audience. To 
finish the closing act, it took place a Spanish 
wine, courtesy of the University. 
 
Surveys results 
 
The participation filling the surveys was 
estimated into 50% of the attendees. It is a 
satisfactory result due to the voluntary 
aspect of the surveys. 
 
 
Figure 2. Lecture score 
 
 
Figure 3. Lecture Material Score 
 
 
Figure 4. Lecturers level of knowledge score 
 
 
Figure 5. Didactic of the lectures score 
 
 
Figure 6. Global Score 
 
The surveys had two different parts: in the 
first one, some fields were scored from 0 to 
10, see Figures 3 to 7, and the second part 
was a free text one, where the attendees 
could write down their suggestions and 
comments about the Seminar. 
 
As a first conclusion of the surveys, the 
score of the lectures, the lecturers and the 
lectures material was satisfactory. More 
important than that, as it was one of the main 
scopes of the Seminar, the lectures were 
valuated as didactic. This was highly 
difficult to get, as the level of knowledge of 
the audience was very varied. 
 
 
Lessons Learned 
 
From the multiple and very valuable 
comments from the attendees, some of them 
have been extracted, as they are lessons 
learned for the on forward Seminar sessions. 
For example: 
 
● The Seminar should last more 
to describe with more details the 
lectures. 
● The timetable should be 
respected. 
● It is important to have all the 
material available at the 
beginning of the lecture, to 
follow it and take notes during 
the presentation. 
● The Seminar should be valuated 
with UPM ECTS. 
● It is recommendable to have a 
more specific introduction of 
the PWR of Westinghouse, 
separated of that one about 
PWR of KWU, as they are too 
different from each other. 
● ABWR and ESBWR are too 
different to be in the same 
lecture. 
● The time dedicated to the new 
reactors should be longer that 
the old reactor´s time. 
● The detailed systems drawings 
are too complex to be seen by 
the audience. 
● It could be interesting to see 
more images of the reactors 
under construction. 
● The technical videos are very 
good, but some of them are too 
corporative. 
 
The following comments describe the most 
valuated aspects of the Seminar: 
 
● The ambient and the subjects 
were very interesting. It was a 
good point to present different 
reactors to compare them during 
the same session. 
● Good quality of the debates 
answers and questions. 
● High attendance and audience 
collaboration. 
● Interesting state-of-the-art 
subject 
● The lectures were clear enough 
for somebody that did not know 
all the concepts. 
 
Once all the surveys were processed and all 
the comments were classified, some 
improvements were implemented in the 
2011 edition of the Seminar: 
 The Seminar lasted more hours (15 
h) and it was valuated with ECTS 
 The structure was changed to 1h of 
the old reactor + 1.5 h of the new one 
 There was one lecture for PWR-W 
and another for PWR-KWU 
 There was one lecture for ABWR 
and another for ESBWR 
 All the documentation was given at 
the beginning of the Seminar. 
 A first day lecture about 
“Introduction to Nuclear Safety” was 
created. 
 A new lecture of High Temperature 
Reactors was created. 
 
In this 2011 edition, the Seminar is still 
alive, open to comments and evaluated with 
surveys, to make it better year after year. 
 
THE TECHNICAL CONFERENCES 
Jóvenes Nucleares has a long tradition of 
interacting with the media, that is why the 
topic of two really interesting conferences 
promoted by Jóvenes Nucleares was 
“communication”. To get over the subject, it 
was a need to find somebody enough 
talkative and friendly to connect with the 
audience and this person was Piluca Nuñez, 
communication director of the Spanish 
Nuclear Forum. In the first conference, 
“How to manage with the journalists?” she 
talked about the difficulties that the nuclear 
energy has in terms of public acceptance. 
She reminded that one of the problems is the 
lack of adequate information in the media, 
which is not always enough clear and 
reliable. The main goal was to learn how to 
communicate effectively with the journalists 
to give the adequate message to them. 
 
In the presentation some examples and 
experiences were related to show how 
difficult can be to give a message of 
calmness when everybody is trying to find a 
message of alarm, which is very typical in 
this field. The conclusion was that is very 
important to have the message clear before 
starting the communication to avoid boring 
or confusing the interviewer with technical 
explanations that could be not so clear for 
the people outside the nuclear field. 
In the second conference called 
“Communication in crisis”, she focused the 
attention on how to be efficient in the 
communication during a crisis, which is 
especially relevant and useful nowadays. 
The conference was very popular and well 
appreciated by the audience, with many 
interesting questions. 
Some years ago, the Spanish electricity 
market became a free-basis one and Jóvenes 
Nucleares saw the need of inform to the 
people about the new situation. In the 
conference called “The Spanish Electricity 
Market”, the lecturer Víctor Niharra 
Hernández, from the Spanish Market 
Operator, explained the audience with 
simple words but very clear how the market 
is composed. 
 
The lecturer talked about the different laws 
of the market and the comparing between 
the Spanish Electricity market and some 
European ones. After the lecture, there was 
an animated discussion with the lecturer. 
As the nuclear Renaissance is becoming a 
fact, Jóvenes Nucleares though that it could 
be convenient to do a series of conferences 
to inform the public about the different 
aspects of the nuclear new age. 
The first conference “UK and the Nuclear 
Renaissance” was based on the new ideas of 
construction in Europe from the perspective 
of one of the utilities that are going to build 
plants in the UK, the international Spanish 
company Iberdrola. The lecturer, Manuel 
Prieto Urbano, started the lecture talking 
about the beginning of this new age in UK 
with the energy planning of the Government 
in 2008, with the decision of starting the 
dismantling of the old power plants and the 
construction of new ones in the next 
decades. 
 
The main part of the conference was based 
on the Generic Design Assessment process, 
which is the licensing basis of the new 
reactors, very different one from the old 
licensing ones. 
Finally, he spoke about the different energy 
planning of the political parties, trying to 
guess if a Nuclear Renaissance is possible in 
Spain. 
The second conference of the “New Age” 
was about the AP1000 construction in China 
and the Spanish collaboration though 
Westinghouse Electric Spain. The lecturer, 
Miguel Palazuelos, spoke about the 
challenges and success of the Chinese four 
unit construction and the lessons learned for 
the future constructions in Europe and the 
USA. As the construction is modular based, 
the making of the equipment and the site 
works are parallel, so the planning is going 
very well and it is expected to finish on time. 
The third conference was called “Uranium 
for the Nuclear Renaissance”. In this 
conference, the lecturer, Francisco Tarín 
from ENUSA, the Spanish fuel company, 
spoke about the uranium resources that are 
actually available and the future 
perspectives. 
 
The key issue was the fact that with this 
planned development, it will be enough fuel 
for the future, as there are many unexploited 
resources that will be used if the uranium is 
more expensive in the future. 
In the last series of thematic conferences, 
Jóvenes Nucleares faced the big challenge 
on every debate about nuclear energy. In a 
project called “Chernobyl 2009”, four 
different conferences were planned plus a 
trip to Chernobyl paid by Jóvenes Nucleares. 
The conferences were: “Chernobyl vs. 
TMI2” by Juan Manuel Blanco, “Facts and 
hypothesis of the Chernobyl “experiment”” 
by Luis E. Herranz, “Chernobyl: effects on 
the population” by Eduardo Sollet, “RBMK 
reactor design and the Chernobyl accident” 
by Agustín Alonso 
 
Figure 7.Jóvenes Nucleares at Chernobyl 
 
CONCLUSIONS 
Many young professionals and students have 
learned really valuable lessons from the 
most experience persons and from people 
that have started some years ago thanks to 
those educational activities sponsored by 
Jóvenes Nucleares in the last years- 
 


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Educational Activities to Help Transferring Knowledge in Nuclear: The Seminars of Spanish Young Generation in Nuclear (Jóvenes Nucleares)

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