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Investment in Nuclear Power: A Priority for the University

POWER: The nuclear power plant Grohnde near Emmerthal in northwestern Germany in 2019. Germany has since closed several of its nuclear power plants.

Education and research in nuclear power is strengthened both at the University of Oslo and NTNU in Trondheim.

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UiO is starting a new one this autumn bachelor in nuclear physics and nuclear technology. At the same time, NTNU has established a new interdisciplinary research group on nuclear energy, led by Erik Wahlström.

He believes that the debate about nuclear power is characterized by opinion, and instead wants to collect the knowledge that is available.

– We see a renewed interest in nuclear power. We have hardly discussed it in 30-40 years. Now there has been a major technological development, and we are in the middle of an energy crisis, says the head of the institute Address notice.

– Several motivations

Energy demand is also a relevant factor at the university in the capital. Although Norway does not have nuclear power itself, we are surrounded by countries that do.

– There are several parallel motivations here. The pharmaceutical industry has long warned of a lack of nuclear medical expertise, says Eva S. Dugstad, public relations officer at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

– In the event of an accident in our neighboring countries at their nuclear power plants, we need expertise in an emergency situation.

NO THANKS! Skepticism about atomic power, or nuclear power, has been great both in Norway and in other countries. Here with a campaign message from buttons at the museum for cohabitation in Bøverdalen.

– Perhaps more people are skeptical about nuclear power in energy production, precisely because of waste and risk?

– We train students for the future and our candidates will be interesting and in demand in many subject areas, she says.

And highlight, among other things, expertise around the non-proliferation of nuclear material, destruction and monitoring of weapons, decommissioning of shut-down nuclear reactors and oil installations, and also nuclear medicine, where medicine in Norway is far ahead internationally.

STUDENT: Elise Malmer Martinsen (22) in the cyclotron laboratory, where students and researchers do their own experiments with atomic nuclei.

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One of those who believe that there are many exciting jobs in the field is Elise Malmer Martinsen (22), who is already studying nuclear physics through the university’s master’s program in physics.

My dream job is to make radioactive medicines.

– You can potentially save human lives with cancer medicine, work with preparedness at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute or in the Directorate for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety, she says.

Martinsen is now part of a collaboration between the University of Oslo and the University of California, Berkeley.

– The solution to the climate crisis

Both UiO and NTNU point to the fact that the UN and the EU see nuclear power as “green energy” and part of the global solution.

– And the war in Ukraine means that we need more energy, says Wahlström.

Despite the investment, Dugstad will not take a position on the debate about nuclear power in Norway,

– Whether Norway should invest in nuclear power is a political question, she says.

Student Elise is more outspoken.

– I am completely ready for nuclear power both in the world and in Norway. It is clearly part of the solution to the climate crisis, she says.

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