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Chairman’s Message
The Seventh International Conference on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (SMiRT 7) is now being organized to be held in Chicago in August 1983. The previous SMiRT Conferences were held in Berlin in 1971 and 1973, London in 1975, San Francisco in 1977, Berlin again in 1979, and in Paris in 1981. Every one of them advanced the state of the art in achieving safer and more economical nuclear energy.
The number of participants steadily increased over the years. In the last Conference (SMiRT-6) in Paris 800 papers were presented and more than 1500 scientists and engineers from 38 nations attended the meeting.
The SMiRT Conferences expanded in scope from their narrower beginnings to cover analysis, design, testing, construction, and performance of components, systems, and plants of nuclear fission reactors. More recently technical coverage was extended to the fusion systems and plants of the future.
An emphasis on nuclear safety can be detected in the subject matter of the SMiRT Conferences so far. This orientation was mandated–as it should be–by considerations of public safety. While this trend will be continued, another objective to be pursued actively in future SMiRTs would be the protection of investment in nuclear power plants. It is important to note that not a single death has occurred so far in a nuclear power reactor since the inception of the nuclear power industry.
I hope that the new knowledge that will emerge from SMiRT-7 will have a positive impact on current efforts to solve the world’s energy supply problems and provide a better future for its people.
Scientific & General Chairman
SMiRT-7 and President (1981-83)
International Association for Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology
