Why the WNU?
As today’s global economy expands in pace with the explosion of world population and technological advance, the international community faces no greater challenge than to meet the imperative of sustainable development. Central to this challenge is the need to identify and deploy a mix of energy technologies that can propel global economic growth – and meet urgent human needs – without grievous and potentially catastrophic damage to the planetary environment.
With fossil fuel resources under pressure from scarcity and rising prices, and with scientific concern mounting over the dangerous health and atmospheric effects of carbon and other polluting emissions, major governments on every continent are reassessing the role of nuclear energy.
Their analysis foresees a widening worldwide use of nuclear power in multiple clean-energy roles: emissions-free generation of electricity for traditional purposes, plus desalination of seawater to meet the global water crisis and production of hydrogen and battery power for tomorrow’s vehicles.
As a consequence, the preponderance of global population – in developed and developing countries alike, and including major nations not yet using nuclear energy – is now represented by governments that are affirming the central importance of nuclear power in their strategies for energy and environmental security for the 21st century.
This policy recognition – based on nuclear technology’s demonstrated maturity as a safe, reliable and increasingly affordable source of primary energy – has spawned a global nuclear renaissance.
The prospect of a steady worldwide growth in the use of nuclear technology – for power generation and in a diversity of sophisticated applications in medicine, agriculture, and industry – points to the need for a greatly expanded global cadre of nuclear professionals in the 21st century. The role of the World Nuclear University partnership is to support this growth by:
- Strengthening education in nuclear science, engineering and law
- Promoting public understanding of nuclear technology
- Inspiring and strengthening the development of a new generation of leaders for the nuclear industry.