Foreword to the 5th International Nuclear Chemistry Congress

Complete text of publication follows. The story of organising the 5th-International Nuclear Chemistry Congress have started at the RANC-2016 where the organisers from Chalmers met up with the INCC board headed by Professor Flavia Groppi. We heard that the four previous conferences have been very well received, however Chalmers had only been present in the 2nd one. The previous conferences were: 1st in Kusadasi (Turkey 2005), the 2nd in Cancun (Mexico 2008), the 3rd in Sicily (Italy 2011), and the 4th in Maresias (Brazil 2014). Compared with these locations Goteborg seemed a bit less attractive with its weather dominated by horizontal rain. However, we decided for end of August which is usually a better season (Fig. 1). Exactly as we had hoped the weather was with us from the beginning. The conference was opened by Professor Christian Ekberg giving a short summary of the role of Sweden in the history of mankind (Fig. 2). The First plenary lecture of the congress entitled 'Periodic footprints in history, from D to Pu' was given by Professor Lars Ohrstrom of the Chalmers University of Technology (Fig. 3). He is the author of several popular books about chemistry and chemical elements. His talk gave a very good and broad start of the program that encompassed the following keynote speakers in each given field: Nuclear and Related Techniques by Prof Ingmar Persson of Sweden, Radiochemistry by Prof. Jukka Lehto of Finland, Radiation Chemistry by Dr. Bruce Mincher of the USA (Fig. 4), Radioanalytical Chemistry by Dr. Henrik Ramebaeck of Sweden, Education in Nuclear Chemistry by Prof. Jon Petter Omtvedt of Norway, Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry by Dr. Frank Bruchertseifer of Germany, Radioecology and Geochemistry by Prof. Lindis Skipperud of Norway, Radiation Protection by Prof. Geraldine Thomas of the UK, Nuclear Reactors by Prof. Janne Wallenius of Sweden, and Nuclear Forensics by David Kenneth Smith of the IAEA. In total we had more than 100 participants from all over the world and a full week of lectures were given in parallel sessions. The conference dinner was given at the Carlsten Fortress where the participants learned to use a flint lock rifle and had a Viking inspired dinner (Fig. 5). As organisers we are very happy to have been given the opportunity to host this 5th INCC in Goteborg and enclosed in this volume of JRNC you will find some of the papers presented during this hectic week in August 2017.