Speaker: Jor-Shan Choi
Project Professor for the Global Center-of-Excellence Program at the Department of
Nuclear Engineering and Management, University of Tokyo
Date: Thursday, 4 November 2010
Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Venue: ESI Conference Room
29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Block A , #10-01
Singapore 119620
Attendance will be limited to the first 30 respondents. Please send us your name, organisation and email address via the ESI website here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Jan Lui at 65162000.
About the seminar
Japan has the third largest civilian nuclear power program after the US and France. 54 power reactors are now in operation, providing 30% of the country‟s electricity. Japan possesses a full nuclear fuel-cycle capability including enrichment, reprocessing and a soon-completed MOX fuel manufacturing. In addition, Japanese nuclear companies, such as Toshiba-Westinghouse, Hitachi-GE and Mitsubishi, own or join as leading partners in major global nuclear enterprises.
Despite such remarkable success, Japan seems to be worrying about, or is perhaps even frustrated with its current nuclear status. This unsettled feeling is shared both inside the nuclear community and by the general public. While the insiders are trying to tackle various difficulties, such as low availability of nuclear power plants and decreasing human resources, the public is increasingly losing trust in “anything nuclear” following a series of recent accidents and scandals. Complicating everything is the experience of 'Hiroshima' and 'Nagasaki' in August 1945. For there to be a nuclear renaissance in Japan, the speaker believes that Japan must overcome its historical burden and present difficulties.
Note: The viewpoints expressed here are those of the author, and may not be those of his affiliations.
About the Speaker
Dr. Jor-Shan Choi is a Project Professor for the Global Center-of-Excellence ( G-COE ) Program at the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, University of Tokyo. His areas of research include non-proliferation policy, proliferation-resistant technologies, 3S ( safety, security, and safeguards ) , internationalization of nuclear fuel cycle, and regional cooperation on peaceful use of nuclear energy. Before joining UT in 2008, Dr. Choi worked for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US for 21 years, developing novel fuels for advanced small reactors and corrosion-resistant material for spent-fuel waste containers. He was a delegation member for the HEU blend-down program, the weapons-Pu disposition program, and the PR&PP working group. Dr. Choi was a Science Fellow at CISAC, Stanford in 1995-96. He worked at IAEA in Vienna from 1998-2001. Prior to joining LLNL in 1987, Dr. Choi gained 13 years of industrial experience at Bechtel. He has a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley. He is a registered Professional Engineer ( PE ) in California.
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