THORIUM AS AN ENERGY SOURCE - Opportunities for Norway ...

Research, Development, Education and Training
WNU was inaugurated in 2003 as a global partnership committed to enhancing international
education and leadership in the applications of nuclear science and technology. The central
elements of the WNU partnership are the global organizations of the nuclear industry WNA and
WANO, the inter-governmental nuclear agencies IAEA and OECD-NEA and the leading
institutions of nuclear learning in some thirty countries.
Within the UN system, the WNU is recognized as a "Partnership for Sustainable Development"
by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). WNU pursues its educational and
leadership-building mission through programs organized by the WNU Coordinating Centre
(WNUCC) in London.
The prospect of a steady worldwide growth in the use of nuclear technology – for power
generation and in a diversity of sophisticated applications in medicine, agriculture, and industry
– points to the need for a greatly expanded global cadre of nuclear professionals in the 21 century.
The role of the WNU partnership is to support this growth.
After the summer 2007, USA, France, Russia, South Korea and Canada had seconded staff to the
WNUCC. Secondment commitments have been received from India and the UK, and discussions
are underway with governments and leading nuclear enterprises in Japan and China. An
attractive concept, unfulfilled, is the placement on the WNUCC secretariat of regionallysupported
representatives from Latin American and Africa.
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