Message from Editor-in-Chief
Hidekazu Yoshikawa Ph.D. Construction projects of nuclear power plants have been progressing rapidly in many provinces in China. Several countries in South-East Asia and Near- and Middle-East are planning to construct nuclear power plants with the operational start in 2020s. In Japan and South Korea, the nuclear power has already fulfilled the central role of domestic electric power supply. The 1st International Symposium on Symbiotic Nuclear Power Systems for 21st Century (ISSNP2007) had been held in September, 2007 in Tsuruga, Japan, when Professor Zhang Zhijian, Dean of College of Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST), Harbin Engineering University (HEU) had proposed me that he would like to succeed the ISSNP in China. At the time of ISSNP2007 I had no idea whether or not to continue the ISSNP and I was very thankful to him. By this way, the conference series of ISSNP had started. The 2nd ISSNP2008 at HEU in Harbin in September 2008 was indeed very successful with ca. 200 participants in total with foreign participants as many as over 80 from many countries. In March 2009, Professor Zhang Zhijian had asked me my comment to his new idea of publishing an international English journal on nuclear science and technology in China. His idea was originated his strong motivation to internationalize nuclear researches in China more and more to meet drastic expansion of Chinese nuclear power development program. I had proposed him rather publishing an international journal on nuclear safety because nuclear safety is the most essential and common basis of nuclear power development around the world. And in June 2009 both Professor Zhang Zhijian and I agreed with publishing an International Journal of Nuclear Safety and Simulation (IJNS) four times a year from March 2010 by the form of both electronic and printed journals. Our concrete action had started from August 2009 by inviting many members of International Advisory and Technical Program Committee of ISSNP2008 to become members of International Editorial Board of IJNS while asking all authors of the papers presented at ISSNP2008 to submit their papers to IJNS again by updating the content. On the other hand, the development of a web-based IJNS management system had started from July 2009, which would serve to submitting papers, reviewing submitted papers, editing the accepted papers for journal publishing and viewing the electronic journal on the internet. The web IJNS system development is still continuing but the first electronic IJNS had published at the end of March 2010 while the first printed journal at the end of May 2010. I am very thankful to the full support from HEU and many members of internationally organized editorial board for the start of IJNS. However, this is only one step of IJNS publication. To get back a bit on the nature of IJNS, its contents are composed by review articles and original papers from basic researches to various applications in many fields. The review articles include (i) review paper of specific areas to introduce readers about research or technical trend, industrial and social trends concerned with nuclear safety and the related simulation technology, and (ii) lecture notes to give readers comprehensive basic knowledge on specific topics. The specific feature of IJNS is that it put emphasis on applying advanced ICT (Information Communication Technology) for nuclear safety and simulation. We hope that the IJNS will contribute to the international communication of the researchers, engineers and young students for the next generation for further development of nuclear safety and the related simulation technology around the world. May 13, 2010 Hidekazu Yoshikawa |
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