The IAEA is now expanding the reach of its advanced distance learning portal to include more students and professionals in Latin America and Africa. Established in 2003, the Network for Education in Nuclear Technology facilitates the delivery of nuclear energy courses over the Internet.
The Asian Network for Education in Nuclear Technology (ANENT) supports students in degree and masters programmes by providing information, curricula and training materials. In 2007 and 2008 two e-training courses on energy planning were conducted and certificates were issued to the participants.
There are also plans to use the system to deliver information on nuclear reactor physics as well as provide an e-textbook on advanced nuclear and ionizing radiation technology.
For the last six years ANENT has been operated by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). But today KAERI and the IAEA signed an agreement to jointly maintain and operate the ANENT web system.
As a result, the IAEA will be expanding access to Latin American and African countries.
The IAEA is in the process of establishing the Latin American Network for Education in Nuclear Technology so that by the end of this month, the advanced distance learning portal will be available through a server in Argentina. There are also plans for courses and learning materials to be made available to students in African countries through Nexa, a company based in South Africa.
"It will be a major benefit to educators in all countries, especially in the 53 developing countries that have expressed an interest in starting nuclear power programmes. It will help these educators to establish their engineering programmes and give them access to state of the art educational materials," says Yanko Yanev, head of the IAEA´s Nuclear Knowledge Management Unit.
Background
Since its launch in 2003, ANENT has helped to coordinate nuclear training and research by linking educators and professionals via its web portal. The network facilitates information sharing and learning through the coordination of joint research activities, standardization of nuclear educational resources, and sharing of knowledge resources and materials.
The European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN) and World Nuclear University (WNU) are partners in the Network for Education in Nuclear Technology.
