By: Elise Kieffer and Ines Linder
An explosion of interest from students Aarhus University has led the physics department to launch the first course in nuclear power in the university’s history.
“25 students have registered for the course for this semester, which is a fair amount considering it’s not compulsory,” said Hans Fynbo a physics professor at the university, who is teaching the course.
According to Fynbo, students’ growing interest in nuclear power is due to multiple factors, one of them being sustainability. With climate change being on the forefront of many science students’ minds, Fynbo states that students are becoming more interested in finding ways to ensure that the Danish energy supply is robust and efficient in the future.
In recent years, support for nuclear energy in Denmark’s student and younger people population has been on the rise. According to Fynbo this is due to talks of how unstable the energy supply system in Denmark can be.
“The current political climate is teaching people that the energy system can be volatile and it can be sensitive to security crises like the one we see in Ukraine. It is becoming clearer than it was before that how we design our energy system can make us more or less vulnerable to decisions made in other countries,” said Fynbo.
For Fynbo, there is another, more emotional reasoning for the shift that – the lack of memory of the threat of nuclear warfare in younger generations.
“I remember being about 14 or 15 and being of terrified nuclear warfare for many people in my generation it was a real threat and fear, it’s not only a new interest but a lack of fear,” Fynbo said.
The shift towards teaching more classes on nuclear power is not only happening at Aarhus universities but at other universities around Denmark.
Physics professor Bent Lauritzen launched a course this past week at Denmark’s Technical University, DTU in Copenhagen about nuclear power. Similar to Aarhus University, DTU’s introduction of a new course was prompted by rising student interest in nuclear power.
“I’ve wanted to start a course on the subject for many years but until now there has been little to no interest from students. Now many students have started to take interest in the mechanics behind nuclear power,” Lauritzen said.
To Fynbo this shift towards learning more about nuclear power at Danish universities is just the start.
“As nuclear power is being spoken about more and more in terms of a green energy, it will not surprise me if Danish universities continue to implement nuclear power courses in the future,” said Fynbo.
