Students from the UW Department of Physics are taking part in the Nuclear Youth Capacity Building Summer, a two-week summer school on nuclear power development. The project, organized by the Kepco International Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS) in Ulsan, South Korea, is aimed at supporting the university in the process of training cadres for Poland's nuclear power program.

The two-week Nuclear Youth Capacity Building Summer School, which runs from August 22 to September 2, 2022, is attended by students from six universities: three Polish - including Warsaw University - and three Czech. The school's extensive program includes lectures on the construction and operation of various types of nuclear power plants, as well as the storage and disposal of radioactive waste. Participants will also visit a number of important sites related to Korea's nuclear power industry, including the APR1400 power plant, the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power headquarters, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and the Korea Fusion Energy research reactor. The students will also meet with representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their countries' ambassadors to Korea. There will be no shortage of time to learn about Korean culture and taste specialties of local cuisine. The project, organized by the Kepco International Nuclear Graduate School (KINGS) in Ulsan, South Korea, in cooperation with the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), aims to support the universities of countries developing nuclear power in the process of training human resources for the industry.

'It's hard to imagine universities more different from each other than the University of Warsaw and KINGS' says Dr. Krzysztof Turzynski, Prof. of the university, who accompanied the students during the school's inauguration. During the visit, Prof. Turzynski, associate dean for student affairs at the UW Department of Physics, met with Prof. Ki-Pung Yoo, president of KINGS, to discuss ways to strengthen teaching and research cooperation between the two universities. 'UW is a large public university focused on basic research. Its offerings include a wide range of majors in the humanities, social sciences, science, and soon - a medical major. KINGS is a small technical university with close ties to Korea's largest nuclear power plant, KEPCO, which is responsible for producing more than 90 percent of South Korea's electricity. Each university therefore has different experiences, the combination of which can uniquely enrich students' competencies.'

The University of Warsaw already has experience in nuclear energy education. The UW Department of Physics has been co-organizing a major in nuclear energy and chemistry with the UW Department of Chemistry for more than a decade, and is launching a specialization in nuclear reactor physics starting in October 2022. Students of the Physics Department have been expanding their knowledge of nuclear energy for several years, taking part in one- or four-semester long student exchange programs with KINGS and summer schools organized by the university.

The development of cooperation between UW and KINGS will concern joint didactic offerings within the framework of distance learning and the possibility for UW students to carry out theses related to developmental research in the field of nuclear power carried out at KINGS.