On Saturday, June 10, took place the 16a Festa de la ciència in the Rambla of Prim of Barcelona. More than 6000 assistants came to this science dissemination event organized by the Ajuntament of Barcelona and counted with 176 activities and engaged more than 150 city entities related to science and dissemination. As last year, our Fusion Group participated to disseminate Fusion technology among the event participants.
On 14th of March, our group attended an AI for Good webinar organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entitled “AI for advancing fusion energy through enhancing simulation”. The talk was delivered by Dr. Michael Churchill from the Princeton’s Plasma Physics Laboratory. The main scope of the webinar was focused on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in advancing sustainable development goals, specifically towards fusion energy as well as the potential of AI in enhancing simulation and accelerating research and development (R&D) in nuclear fusion.
On 14 March we welcomed two high school students to visit our group to learn about computational fusion research! Jana and Carlota were participants in the Escola Garbí Vergés Esplugues – Estada a Empresa (Company Visit) program, which connects students with local companies to learn more about professional skills and careers.
On April 23rd, Catalonia celebrates “La Diada de Sant Jordi,” or Saint Jordi’s Day, a deeply ingrained tradition and one of the region’s most cherished occasions. While the original custom involved men presenting women with a red rose and women gifting men a book, it has evolved, allowing anyone to give a book, a rose, or both to anyone they choose.
The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility – Demo Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) has officially started its construction phase in Granada, Spain. On 16 March, the official DONES Steering Committee met for its first meeting in Granada and to celebrate the formal start of construction.
On March 8, coinciding with the International Women’s Day, our group attended the webinar “Improving gender balance in the nuclear sector: Report launch“ organized by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The nuclear industry is a crucial part of our energy infrastructure, providing a significant portion of the world’s electricity. However, the sector has traditionally been male-dominated, with women making up only a small fraction (less than 25%) of the workforce. The same applies to its sub-sectors including fusion where our group belongs.
In the webinar on March 8, a report was launched to address the issue of gender imbalance in the nuclear sector. The report provides insights and recommendations based on the first publicly available international data on gender balance in the nuclear sector. The data was collected from over 8 000 women in the nuclear workforce in 32 countries, as well as human resources data from 96 nuclear organisations in 17 countries. Based on the findings, a comprehensive, evidence-driven policy framework is proposed with practical recommendations.