The Nuclear South West annual conference took place on the 20th and 21st September 2017 at the Royal Marriott Hotel on College Green. This was jointly hosted by the South West Nuclear Hub and brought together large and small businesses from the region and beyond. The conference had an international theme this year and this was reflected in the wide range of speakers, for example Melanie Sachar from EDF Energy who flew in from Paris for the event.
The Hub had a number of delegates in attendance and also contributed to the programme in the following sessions:
Building a globally recognised centre of excellence
Co-Director Professor Tom Scott gave a talk outlining the progress the Hub has made since the physical building opened, and spoke about future plans including the NUCLEATE programme. He also spoke of the challenges facing the industry such as meeting the electricity demand posed by electric car growth.
If we're all going to drive electric cars we need to change infrastructure&we'll need nuclear, says Tom Scott @SWNuclearHub #nswconference
— Nuclear South West (@NuclearSW) September 21, 2017
Skills Panel
MSc lecturer Dr Ross Springell took part in a skills panel that represented the various levels of education that support nuclear activity in the South West. Here he represented the Higher Education sector generally but also the MSc Nuclear Science and Engineering programme run by the Hub.
Applying R&D expertise to tackle global challenges
The final representative from the University of Bristol was Dr Anthony Croxford from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He introduced Inductosense, a spin-out that showcased how university research can produce products with practical applications for the nuclear industry.