Oct 25, 2022
New graduate program at TU Dresden for power plant decommissioning
With the support of Dornier Nuclear Services and PreussenElektra, the TU Dresden has launched the graduate program "Sustainable Decommissioning of Power Plants - Challenges and Solutions for Technology, Environment and Society".
The Sustainable Innovative Decommissioning (SIDEC) graduate program promotes young scientists in the field of sustainable decommissioning of power plants. It will officially start in the summer semester of 2023 and will address the five topics of industrialization, measurement and analysis technologies, sustainability in disposal and recycling, occupational safety and radiation protection, and process rationalization and digitalization from the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Within these topics, five PhD projects will be initiated. The doctoral students will work both at the TU Dresden and in the respective companies and will be scientifically supervised by professors from the faculties of Mechanical Science and Engineering and Civil Engineering. PreussenElektra finances two positions, three are supported by Dornier Nuclear Service.
Prof. Antonio Hurtado, chairman of SIDEC at TU Dresden, sees the new graduate program as a blueprint for the interdisciplinary training of young researchers. "We look forward to the cooperation with PreussenElektra and Dornier Nuclear Service and appreciate this financial support, especially at this time."
Uwe Altmann, head of innovation and long-term dismantling planning at PreussenElektra, added: "In our daily work, we can only do limited scientific work ourselves. We therefore hope that the research work will lead to development of key technologies for dismantling and innovations in related fields. Of course, we also want to train specialists here and hire them."
Dr. Anton Anthofer for Dornier Nuclear Services strengthened with his statement: "We are pleased to have the opportunity to incorporate the scientific expertise of the doctoral students into our current dismantling projects on the one hand, but also to be able to support them with practical experience on the other."
Contact
TU Dresden
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Antonio Hurtado
Chair of Hydrogen and Nuclear Energy
E-Mail: antonio.hurtado@tu-dresden.de
About TU Dresden
Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) is one of the top universities in Germany and Europe. Strong in research and considered excellent with respect to the range and the quality of degree programmes it offers, it is also closely interconnected with culture, business and society. As a modern university with a broad array of disciplines and with its five Schools it has a diverse scientific spectrum that only few other German universities are able to match. TUD is Saxony’s largest university with approximately 31,000 students and 8,700 employees – among them 600 professors. Since 2012, TU Dresden has been one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany. It was able to successfully defend this title on 19th July 2019.
About Dornier Nuclear Services GmbH
Dornier Nuclear Services GmbH is a member of the Dornier Group, an infrastructure service provider for energy, water and mobility. The task of Dornier Nuclear Services GmbH is to enable safe and efficient dismantling of nuclear facilities. With holistic disposal planning, the entire process is covered, from dismantling, disposal and packaging planning to radiation protection and final storage documentation.
About PreussenElektra GmbH
PreussenElektra operates eight nuclear power plants in Germany. Seven of the eight plants have been shut down or are in the process of being dismantled as part of the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany. The Isar 2 Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled to be the last nuclear power plant to be taken off the grid at the end of this year. PreussenElektra's goal is to generate climate-friendly and reliable electricity in Bavaria by the end of 2022 and to ensure the safe dismantling of the remaining decommissioned plants by 2040.