Chairman’s Message
Over 30 years have passed since the 1977 SMiRT-4 conference was held in San Francisco. During this time, nuclear energy has continued to be an important part of the world’s energy supply despite facing many challenges. With the estimated world population forecasted to reach 9 billion by 2050, the need for energy is expected to be more than the total energy produced to date. This projected growth in energy demand, coupled with the need for carbon free, secure and diverse energy supplies, confirms the potential for significant growth of nuclear energy. The industry has responded by developing various standard designs, modular reactors, and novel ideas for the nuclear fuel cycle. These new designs are in varying stages of development and implementation. Along with this growth and development have come challenges. Recent events such as the effects of the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima in 2011 have highlighted the need for reliable performance of the system as a whole during an extreme event. The nuclear industry is responding to the events at Fukushima Daiichi by taking steps to improve the safety and reliability of nuclear energy where needed and enhance the public perception of safe nuclear energy. SMiRT-22 offers an updated forum for technical discussions on critical topics facing the nuclear industry. The Thomas Jaeger lecture, the key note speakers and the plenary sessions are focused on the topics of safety and the lessons learned from the recent events. A special extended session for the recent development on ground motion modeling is planned to disseminate the recent developments for beyond design seismic evaluation.
In an attempt to be environmentally friendly, SMiRT-22 has chosen to use the electronic files and e-readers to distribute the proceedings.
I thank you for your participation, support and contributing to SMiRT-22 conference.
Farhang Ostadan
SMiRT-22 Chairman
IASMiRT President Elect
