A-CINCH
Nuclear and radiochemistry (NRC) expertise is necessary to maintain European nuclear operations. It is also relevant in the process of decontamination and decommissioning, waste management and environmental monitoring. Moreover, there are several non-energy fields of NRC applications requiring such expertise, ranging from radiopharmaceuticals, radiological diagnostics and therapy to dating in geology and archaeology and more. The EU-funded A-CINCH project aims at mitigating the decreasing interest in the study of nuclear subjects. It will focus on students and teachers from secondary schools up to academia as well as end users in the field, using a 'learn through play' concept including a virtual radiochemistry laboratory, NRC MOOC, RoboLabs, high school teaching packages etc.
Objective
Expertise in nuclear and radiochemistry (NRC) is of strategic relevance in the nuclear energy sector and in many vital applications. The need for radiochemistry expertise will even increase as the focus shifts from safe nuclear power plant operation to decontamination and decommissioning, waste management and environmental monitoring. The non-energy fields of NRC applications are even much broader ranging from life sciences – radiopharmaceuticals, radiological diagnostics and therapy – through dating in geology and archaeology, (nuclear) forensics and safeguards operations, to radiation protection and radioecology.
The A-CINCH project primarily addresses the loss of the young generation's interest for nuclear knowledge by focusing on secondary / high school students and teachers and involving them by the “Learn through Play” concept. This will be achieved by bringing advanced educational techniques such as state-of the art 3D virtual reality NRC laboratory, Massive Open Online Courses, RoboLab distance operated robotic experiments, Interactive Screen Experiments, NucWik database of teaching materials, or Flipped Classroom, into the NRC education. All the new and existing tools wrapped-up around the A-CINCH HUB – a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate single point of access – will contribute increasing the number of students and trainees in the field of nuclear and radiochemistry. Nuclear awareness will be further increased by the High School Teaching Package, Summer Schools for high school students, Teach the Teacher package and many others. Additionally, successful educational and training tools from previous projects will be continued and further developed.
Networking is an important part of the project, facilitated by having ENEN as one of the partners and by having structural links with other Euratom projects, the EuChemS, the NRC-Network as well as by additional links with other end users and stakeholders including the high schools.
