Education on nuclear safeguards for European nuclear engineering students

The knowledge retention problem in the nuclear field was acknowledged by the OECD in 2000. ESARDA reacted to that with a strategy to tackle the problem and created a Working Group on Training and Knowledge Management (ESARDA WG TKM). The final objective of the ESARDA WG TKM is the setup of course modules to an internationally recognised reference standard. This project is in line with the movement of establishing a European curriculum for Nuclear Engineering. Teaching in the Nuclear Safeguards field is indeed strongly influenced by national history so the objective of the course is to provide homogeneous material in safeguards and non proliferation matters at the European level. This paper reports on the feedback of the course that was held by some of the leading experts in the field of nuclear safeguards in Europe. Its content deals with the general background of safeguards legislation and Treaties, the nuclear fuel cycle, various safeguards techniques, verification technologies and the evolution of safeguards. The audience - 40 university students and 5 young professionals (STUK and JRC) - from 12 different European countries was highly interested and gave positive feedback. The course has been introduced in the course database of the European Nuclear Education Network on the website http://www.neptuno-cs.de. A recognition as academic course of 3 credits under the European Credit Transfer System has been requested to the Belgian Nuclear higher Education Network. In the future this course will be repeated on a regular basis and evaluated, aiming to achieve recognition by the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN). With an ENEN-label it is included in the list of optional courses for a European Masters Degree in Nuclear Engineering. (author)