ANL Project Graduates Motivate and Inspire

We can talk about the success or failure of any project by summarizing the achievements of its participants. Today, one year later, we can confidently state the success of the first specialized training course for future nuclear engineers on the popularization of small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which was held in the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC NRS) with the organizational support of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

This week, we talked to three graduates of the project implemented in 2021, who told how their lives turned out after the project.

“The ANL project is not finished, just its lecture part is over, – says the student of the KPI named after I. Sikorsky Maxim Dzerun. – We continued communication with our co-trainees, moreover, we created the “SMR Ukrainian Internship” community, where we keep in touch, communicate, and exchange experience. I would like to note that during the project implementation period we became friends even more than with our group mates, because we are united by our interest in one common topic – the technology of small modular reactors”.

After completion of the project, Maksym Dzerun, like his colleague Vladyslav Bakanov, continued their studies at KPI and in parallel started working in the SSTC NRS in the Operational Safety Analysis Department.

The guys do not conceal that it was difficult to combine work and study at first, but later they got involved and soon they liked this rhythm of life. Having successfully defended their bachelor thesis, students are already preparing to join the Master’s program. They plan to continue their professional development in the area of their favorite topic of the latest nuclear technologies and encourage other students to do the same.

Next week, Vladyslav and Maksym will deliver lectures for the training course trainees, which is currently ongoing at the SSTC NRS. Their topics will cover the SMR technologies of Holtec SMR-160, NuScale and the eVinci microreactor.

Anastasiya Oleksenko, a senior at the Lviv Polytechnic, and a graduate of the first specialized training, has already delivered part of her lectures for the students. Currently, the lady is studying to acquire a Master’s degree and, although she is not yet an SSTC NRS employee, she jokes: “I will be the first of those employed by the SSTC NRS, if it opens a subsidiary in Lviv.”

“This project is unique. It radically changes your perception of nuclear energy as a field, helps you choose a further path of the professional development, – notes Anastasia. – Participating in the project is very cool, and especially communication with such people as the SSTC NRS lecturers is incredible, because this is the first event where everyone answered all my questions, even the most ridiculous ones, with patience and care. Staying here is very inspiring and I enjoy listening to the project’s lectures again and again.”

Maxim, Vladyslav and Anastasia have already got acquainted with the participants of this year’s training course and invited them to join the “SMR Ukrainian Internship”. They hope to be able to support and be useful to their peers and, in this way, expand the network of future employees in the industry interested in the implementation of the latest technologies, in particular SMR.

According to SSTC NRS