Congratulatory messages came flocking in as soon as news came out that North West University’s Director of its Mafikeng Campus’ Centre for Applied Radiation Science and Technology (CARST), Professor Victor Tshivhase, was nominated and unanimously appointed to serve as a member on the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Senior Advisory Panel. One of the messages came from his colleague, acting Vice-Rector Prof Eno Ebenso, and he had this to say on Prof Tshivhase’s appointment: “Congratulations on flying the university flag high through this appointment. This is a wonderful recognition of the good work you are doing in CARST.”
The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) is a co-operative international endeavour which was set up to carry out the research and development needed to establish the feasibility and performance capabilities of the next generation nuclear energy systems.
Prof Tshivhase’s duties will include providing advice on long-term strategic issues, which include regulatory, commercial and technical issues. The advisory panel meets twice a year in conjunction with GIF policy group meetings. The objectives of these meetings are to provide the policy group with a strategic review of GIF systems and cross-cut activities as well as to inform the Policy Group about developments in and projections for the future of the nuclear energy industry; and lastly, to inform the Policy Group on current and long-term industry views on next-generation systems.
“It is a wonderful recognition for the work we do as a centre, and hope that in this new capacity, I will be able to not only contribute significantly to the energy programme, but also learn as much as one can in order to develop our own systems where we need them most,” commented Prof Tshivhase.
