China – Canada Collaboration

UNENE welcomes the opportunity for research and education collaboration with Chinese universities and industry that have a nuclear component.

The nuclear power industry worldwide is seeing a revival. This, coupled with looming retirements, gives a severe human resource shortage prediction. Plant new builds and refurbishments demand a substantial increase in worker numbers. In addition, oil and gas sector growth, especially in Alberta, is drawing from the same pool of skilled workers. Because this is a worldwide phenomenon, we cannot rely on the import of skills to address the HR gap. However, international collaboration (with the UK and China in particular) will likely help to provide access to highly qualified people and R&D resources.

In October, 2006, Bill Garland gave a presentation to the following universities:

• SJTU – Shanghai Jiao Tong University, located in Shanghai. Presentation on the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering by Dean CHENG Xu. See also a brief introduction of SJTU's nuclear program given by Prof. Cheng at the International Workshop on Nuclear Power Development held in April 2006.
• XJTU – Xi'an Jiao Tong University, located in Xi'an. Presentation on the School of Nuclear Science and Technology by SHAN Jianqiang, Nuclear Engineering Department Head.
• NCEPU – North China Electric Power University, located in Beijing. LU Daogang, Department Head of Nuclear Power Engineering. LI Chunjie, Senior Deputy Dean and Director, International Education Institute.
• Tsinghua University, located in Beijing. WANG Kan, Deputy Head of the Department of Engineering Physics.

RUAN Yang, AECL-China Office also provided a presentation on AECL / China perspectives.

Collaboration is ongoing. For more information, feel free to contact Bill Garland.