Ukraine belongs to the few countries with a large-scale program of atomic energy usage for peaceful purposes. Therefore, the implementation of measures for safe operation of nuclear plants, protection of population and environment is one of the main directions of state policy. Students of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, studying at the specialty of Nuclear Power Plants, learn not only how to manage nuclear power plants, to simulate neutron-physical and thermal-hydrodynamic processes using the NPP equipment, but also to solve problems of reliability and safety of nuclear power plants.
In particular, the fifth-year student of TEF, Alexander Haran, his graduation work, which he successfully defended as the completion of the bachelor's degree and continues to develop as part of his master's thesis, devoted to the impact of seismic activity on the safety of nuclear power plants. The choice of the topic was influenced by events in Japan several years ago, which led to a major accident at “Fukushima-1” NPP and caused human casualties, financial loss of $100 billion and the rejecting of adjoining land from agricultural works for several decades. Student is very responsible for the research which is carried out on the basis of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety. After all, the consideration of external extreme influences within the framework of risk-infiltrated approaches is the latest and extremely important measure to improve the nuclear and radiation safety of Ukrainian NPPs.
Alexander Haran is from the Rivno region, since childhood heard a lot about the work of the nuclear power plant located nearby. However, he studied at the gymnasium with humanitarian orientation. Although, Alexander studied foreign languages easily, he radically changed his views in the senior classes and decided to enter technical specialization and chose nuclear power engineering - one of the most perspective branches of Ukraine and Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, whose graduates are highly valued at domestic and international companies.
Due to the unusual nature of the technical training, first years at the university were difficult. However, since the third year, conscientious work brought results: Alexander began to show success beginning with the assessments at the examinations till participating in various activities on usage of nuclear energy. For the excellent results of the winter session of 2016/2017 school year, he was awarded with the nominal scholarship named after I. Kurchatov.
The student is a co-founder of the public organization "Youth Energy Community" whose main task is to defend the interests of young people in the energy sector of Ukraine. The organization is constantly developing and conducting educational activities involving students and experts from various fields: from bioenergy to nuclear energy.
Since February, 2017 O. Haran has served as vice chairman of the Public Council at the State Atomic Energy Organization of Ukraine, where he actively advocates security priorities in the usage of nuclear energy. Thus, the nominal scholarship will not only be a pleasant addition to the student budget, but also an incentive for further development.