NENE2021 Conference Proceedings

The Excellency of Nuclear Technology and Science. Since 1992.

Foreword

In 2021, the International Conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe (NENE) celebrated the 30^th anniversary. Excellent speakers and audience were in harmony with the motto of NENE2021: “The Excellency of Nuclear Technology and Science. Since 1992”. This traditional international gathering of professionals dealing with different aspects of nuclear energy from all around Europe and beyond was held in the beautiful alpine resort of Bled during September 6 – 9 and also coincided with the Slovenian presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2021.

Due to the unfortunate Covid-19 situation, the 30^th NENE conference was a hybrid event. We were glad to see a very large interest amongst professionals active in nuclear research and educational institutions, nuclear vendors, utilities and regulatory bodies to attend the conference in person. The press conference organized on the first day, hosted by Tomaž Žagar, president of Nuclear Society of Slovenia, Janez Kokalj, chair of Slovenian Young Generation Network, and Leon Cizelj, conference Program Committee chair, had a broad media coverage and carried nuclear energy related topics to an even wider audience.

The 236 participants from 22 countries, both in-person and on-line, represent the highest number of participants at all 30 NENE conferences. Interesting invited lectures by Jadwiga Najder, Abdesselam Abdelouas, Alireza Haghighat, Elia Merzari, Uwe Stoll and Alain Becoulet were combined with presentations of achievements by top experts in nuclear technologies, innovations, science, education and training. These offered insights into the latest scientific research and technological achievements in reactor engineering, reactor physics, nuclear power plant operation, nuclear regulations and other related fields, followed by numerous fruitful discussions. The conference program was complemented by the ENEN & OECD-NEA Workshop about nuclear education and training and the ENEN Ph.D. Event competition.

Social activities celebrated the 30^th anniversary through the exhibition of photos made in the 30 years of the NENE conference, a relaxing trip to the sole Slovenian island in the lake Bled and the conference dinner. The 30^th birthday cake was introduced by the “NENE band”, which gathered specially for the occasion and surprised the conference attendees.

The activities that led to these proceedings started in February 2021 with the Call for papers. 152 abstracts were submitted. Due to Covid-19 situation in Slovenia in June, the program of the conference was defined at the on-line Program Committee meeting. Contributed papers presented a variety of new scientific, technical and operational results. The Proceedings contain 121 peer-reviewed papers, photographs from the venue and collected information about the conference.

Following the tradition of the previous meetings, award was given for the best paper prepared by a first author aged no more than 32 years. Eight young authors participated in the contest and the Young Author Award was presented to:

• Mihael Boštjan Končar for the paper:
  "Film boiling simulation around cylinder with ANSYS Fluent"

Two Best Poster Awards were presented to:

• Andrej Žohar for the poster:
  "Silicon carbide neutron detector development computational support with MCNP"
• Salvatore Angelo Cancemi for the poster:
  "The application of machine learning for on-line monitoring Nuclear Power Plant performance"

In parallel to the conference, ENEN PhD Event & Prize 2021 competition was held with 13 finalists amongst the European nuclear Ph.D. students. The ENEN prizes were awarded to:

• Carolina Introini for the paper "Advanced Modelling and Stability Analysis for Nuclear Reactors"
• Daria Koliesnikova for the paper "Automatic adaptive mesh refinement with controlled accuracy in a multiscale context for nonlinear solid"
• Luiz Pereira for the paper "Oxygen bubble formation in a liquid glass during nuclear waste vitrification"

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the program committee, who solicited papers and elaborated the conference program. Members of the award committees diligently worked through the young authors’ papers or poster presentations, and selected the best. Our sincere appreciations go to all the participants, invited lectures, authors, session chairs and reviewers for their excellent contributions to the conference. We would also like to recognize the dedication and enthusiasm of the organizing committee and the members of the administrative and technical assistance team. We are indebted to the conference sponsors for their generous contributions to the event. Last, but not least, we would like to acknowledge the support of the Nuclear Society of Slovenia and the Reactor Engineering Division of the Jožef Stefan Institute as the co-organizers of the conference.

We are looking forward to meet you all again at the International conference Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2022 in Portorož, Slovenia, from September 12 to 15, 2022.