One of the main concerns in the nuclear sector is a loss of the younger generation's interest for specialized nuclear knowledge and related risk that the current workforce, progressively retiring, couldn't be replaced. Highly educated personnel with very specific knowledge, skills and competences will be still required in the EU, as new builds, development of reactors, long-term operations, shut-down, decommissioning, waste management, radiation protection, and other industrial and medical applications using radionuclides or ionising radiation necessitate qualified staff, where nuclear chemistry plays inevitable role.
One of the challenges in teaching Nuclear and RadioChemistry (NRC) is the extremely time consuming and resource demanding “hands-on” training” (HoT) of how to work safely with the possibly very dangerous radioactive material, without any substitute for such experience. However, modern computer technology offers opportunities for preparing and training for work in a real lab by using sophisticated simulations and virtual environment to an extent (and price) that would be unthinkable few years ago.
The A-CINCH, “Augmented Cooperation in Education and Training in Nuclear and Radiochemistry”, answers the need to counter the deficit in skill-based expertise by adding state-of the art 3D virtual reality (VR) environment to the toolbox of teaching tools developed in the three previous CINCH projects. It is our belief that including a sophisticated VR radiochemistry lab and integrating it with traditional teaching and advanced distance-learning training methods will add to attractiveness of the field for young generation and enhance the learning outcome of the very expensive hands-on training.
The overall A-CINCH project objective is to develop a comprehensive and attractive NRC training and teaching set with the overall goal to increase the number of students and trainees in the field by addressing not only university students or professionals but also the interested public, and more specifically also secondary school students and their teachers, which are crucial for assuring sufficient number of students that will decide for nuclear chemistry career.
To support the objective, the consortium of 17 partners has joined efforts to successfully create an online CINCH HUB gate. It wraps up all previous CINCH results into a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate interface, complete it with newly developed courses and tools, including a highly innovative Virtual Laboratory.
