Sabbatical Nathal Severijns: Development of education for sustainability, and research on the possible contribution of nuclear energy in the context of sustainable energy production.

Several years ago, I have set up a research team (ten staff members from five different faculties) to investigate the possible contribution to a sustainable society of small and medium size modular nuclear reactors (SMR) of Generation-IV, and especially the ones being able to use the spent fuel from the present generation of reactors or using the thorium cycle. Apart from technical requirements also ecological, economical and societal criteria are being considered in this respect. A significant amount of preparatory research has been performed already. This has led to several research proposals that were unfortunately not granted. A sabbatical period would allow me spending the necessary time to intensify this collaboration, possibly provide a stronger focus, and broaden its research abilities. This will e.g. involve determining the long-term research strategy, also in the context of the Leuven Energy Institute, collaborating with other institutes (e.g. TU Delft, the EC Joint Research Center in Karlsruhe and CEA-Saclay; contacts with these have already been established), the writing of new research proposals, as well as offering master thesis topics and hopefully also the start of PhD research. The main part of the time for this research-related part of the sabbatical period will be spent in Leuven with short visits to the above-mentioned institutes. As mentioned below, also research on the impact of education for sustainability will be an important part of this sabbatical period.