At the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the nuclear generational change started, many international organizations declared their concerns regarding the lack of enough candidates to substitute for the retiring workforce, due to declining interest among students in nuclear matters. This situation would threaten the preservation of nuclear knowledge in the world.

In the report Nuclear education and training: Cause for concern? (NEA, 2000) the Nuclear Energy Agency alerted the national authorities respon­sible for education and nuclear safety and encouraged them to take urgent actions on the following recommendations:

• The strategic role of governments

• The challenges of revitalizing nuclear education by universities

• Vigorous research and maintaining high-quality training

• The benefits of collaboration and sharing best practices.