"Thank you so much for the opportunity to travel to Reykjavik Iceland to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly.

As a student of geothermal energy in the form of ground source heat, I am very isolated in my studies as there are no other students focused on this topic in Whitehorse currently. When I can attend conferences outside of my community, I have the opportunity to learn more from colleagues in the energy and earth sciences community and connect with others interested in this topic.

My goal in attending the conference was to connect my current research with the larger geopolitical and scientific context of the Arctic environment. I also had the opportunity to present and pitch my research during the Arctic Innovation Lab session hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School. My pitch was one of the top 4 out of 9 pitches. It was an exercise in being concise and focused as the pitches were only 90 seconds each. It was amazing to be able to connect and compete with students from all over the North including Harvard. Having my pitch ranked as a top pitch illustrates that just because other students are attending Ivy League schools such as Harvard or Cambridge doesn’t really make them superior to our little Yukon University in Northern Canada. The sessions that I attended on energy were very interesting because they talked a lot about the common challenges that communities face in integrating renewable energy across the North. I was also able to attend a session specifically on nuclear energy and learned about the status on the small modular reactors (SMRs) that we have been hearing a little bit about. I was especially interested in the Radiant Nuclear reactors that are scheduled for a reactor test in 2026. These are 1 MW reactors that can fit on a standard semi truck or be deployed by air.

During the conference, I was able to connect with the University of Reykjavik at their booth, the Senior Engineer and manager of the Clean Energy and Infrastructure program at Polar Knowledge Canada, the Director of the Arctic and Northern Challenge Program and a Belgian student who was interested in working with me on life cycle analysis. I plan to follow up on these connections as my Masters program has a connection with the University of Reykjavik, I am meeting with Polar Knowledge Canada about their expanding renewable energy profile, I plan to apply for the current Arctic and Northern Challenge funding call out and I am in email contact with the Belgian student on furthering our work together. I also got cards from the presenters on nuclear energy and I may follow up with them to get more information about the pilot project planned for Fairbanks, Alaska."

 

-Sarah Newton, Yukon University   

 

Supported by Global Affairs Canada through the Global Arctic Leadership Initiative