B. ASSAf Workshop Proceedings and Other Reports
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Proceedings Reports are a verbatim reflection of a live ASSAf event. It is published with consent of all speakers.
Peer-Review Status: Non-Peer Reviewed
Enquiries: Henriëtte Wagner
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Item Proceedings of a Symposium on Our Nuclear Future: Delay or Demise?(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2014) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)The purpose of the symposium was to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders and invite engagement in a rigorous, evidence-based, scholarly debate on the issue of nuclear energy. Participants and presenters were drawn from various backgrounds: academia, government, private and public sectors, and civil society. South Africa is not alone in the world in grappling with issues related to nuclear energy. International perspectives on costs of nuclear energy were also presented.Item Environment and Health Symposium(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2015) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf); Ethiopian Academy of Science (EAS); Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS); German National Academy of SciencesASSAf, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Academy of Science (EAS), Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) and the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina hosted a symposium on Environment and Health in June 2015. The themes on environmental and health under discussion at the symposium comprised of: air pollution, metals exposure, water pollution and ultra violet radiation.Item Evidence-based Practice: ‘Double Symposium’ Proceedings on Problems, Possibilities and Politics(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2006) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)The Academy’s Double Symposium that was admirably arranged by Prof. Jonathan Jansen and executed by the staff of the Academy, had objectives that were concisely captured by the Minister of Science and Technology in his address that intervened between the two symposia: “This Double Symposium on the ‘Nature of Evidence’ and ‘Science-based Advice for the Nation’ has an important contribution to make in exploring the urgency and growing importance of evidence as the basis for making informed policy and practical decisions across the world. It also offers the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), which is an independent and authoritative provider of evidence-based advice on a broad range of nationally significant topics and issues, an opportunity to examine its own role in the national science system” Mr M. Mangena, Minister of Science and Technology Robust debate in a democracy can be fostered through the use of evidence where the participants share a common understanding of the nature of evidence. The participants in the first symposium showed that the nature and use of evidence is often divergent in different domains, with the particularly stark contrast being represented by the views of the natural sciences and the law. The discussion during this symposium indicated that a much more nuanced approach to the use of evidence is required, as well as explicit discussion of divergent understandings of the uses of evidence if productive debate and effective decision making is to be achieved. The use of evidence based advice to address topics and issues that affect the well-being of the nation is a significant and daunting role that the Academy wishes to fi ll. In this respect, it will be following the example of other international academies of Science and Arts that have mobilized the intellectual capacity of their membership to perform this function. The second symposium considered the results of studies that had been undertaken by the National Academies of Science of the United States and the Royal Society of London so that the lessons that they have learned may be applied in our context. What was clear from these discussions was that giving advice tends to be nationally embedded. The nature of advice structures in different countries requires that Academies determine their mode of operation and role in relation to these. In this respect the National Academies of Sciences of the US generally have their reports commissioned by government or other organisations, while the Royal Society studies are almost exclusively self-generated. We need to determine in our own context what judicious mixture of commissioned and self-generated reports we need to develop, taking into account our relationships with other advice giving organisations in South Africa. Participants in the symposia came from a range and diversity of organisations, indicating that the Academy was addressing a topical subject with particular resonance in our context at the moment. It is clear that the Academy has at its disposal a resource that can be effectively used to play the role envisaged both in the Minister of Science and Technology’s speech and encapsulated by Mark Orkin in the discussion at the end of the Double Symposium: “ASSAf by contrast has a major role to play in acting as a professional body drawing judiciously on the large pool of intellectual resources at the universities, at the highest level of expertise and in a multi-disciplinary way, to generate advice on big national issues.” The presentations and discussions that are recorded in this volume, show that the Academy has accepted the challenge implicit in the deliberations of the two symposia and wishes to engage actively in its advice giving role.Item Nuclear Energy Safety Symposium. Proceedings Report(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2012) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)Both public and political attitudes on the introduction and use of nuclear energy change with time and events. A movement towards extending its use and building new advanced power stations is driven largely by the contribution that nuclear energy can make to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and hence nuclear energy’s positive role in the climate change debate, as well as its contribution to satisfying the world’s increasing demand for base load electricity. Should the South African government continue with its plans to expand the contribution of nuclear energy to the energy mix, there is no room for complacency, particularly after the March 2011 events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. These events have focused attention on safety and risk as key issues in the use of nuclear power and have created an understandable anxiety about the use of nuclear technology. South Africa needs to heed the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident, as well as other accidents and ensure that these lessons are incorporated into current and future nuclear energy planning. The symposium was initiated by the ASSAf commentary on the IRP 2010 requested by the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology. The idea developed during the meeting of the G8+5 Academies of Science. The international and local inputs to this symposium were very refreshing, original and decisive in conveying specific and relevant points.