OREANDA-NEWS. Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced it is holding the first European training course aimed at assisting with human resource development for the nuclear industry in the Republic of Lithuania in mid-October this year. The course is being run jointly with the Tokyo Institute of Technology and includes instructors from both organizations being posted to Lithuania. Although being held at Kaunas University of Technology, one of Lithuania's leading universities, the training is not restricted only to students of that institution. Rather, the approximately 50 participants will also include students in the entire Baltic States specializing in nuclear power, and researchers from other institutions involved in the nuclear industry.

Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. have previously established "the Global Nuclear Human Resource Development (Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy) sponsored course" in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology. This course has fostered human resources in the international nuclear industry, primarily in Asia (Vietnam and Malaysia), through measures such as the internship arrangement at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for nuclear engineering students at Tokyo Institute of Technology.
 The new course in Lithuania will be the first under this program to be held in Europe. It is intended to provide active assistance for the development of the skilled engineers that Baltic States will need in the future.

The background to the introduction of this course includes the fact that Lithuania operated RBMK (Reaktor Bolshoy Moshchnosti Kanalniy or high-power channel-type reactor) graphite-moderated reactors until 2009. However, there has been an ongoing decline in the number of people qualified to work in the nuclear industry since the operations of those power plants ceased. Furthermore, the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) design selected by Lithuanian government uses different systems to the RBMK reactors.

Accordingly, in order to ensure greater safety and higher reliability in Lithuania, there is an issue regarding how to pass on the knowledge and technology of Japan, the only nation in the world with experiences in the construction and operation of ABWRs, and develop the people to be with highly specialized education and training. This has created an urgent need for human resource development over a wide range of technologies, including at universities and other centers of higher education.
 Hitachi and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have experiences in the running of human resource development programs for countries in Southeast Asia that are adopting nuclear energy for the first time. To help resolve this educational challenge faced by Lithuania, the two organizations have now decided to contribute to that country's human resource development by running this course at the Kaunas University of Technology.

On a separate note from the joint course with Tokyo Institute of Technology, Hitachi also intends to support collaboration with relevant institutions in Lithuania and otherwise work actively toward nuclear industry human resource development in the country. Japan Electric Power Information Center was contracted by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for "FY2013 International Training Program for Safety Management at Nuclear Power Plants", which will commence for Lithuania this December.