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Nuclear energy makes a difference.

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And I'm here to tell you a little bit
about how I found that out.

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I'm a nuclear engineer,

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graduated from the Federal University 
of Rio de Janeiro.

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As a child, I didn't picture myself
studying nuclear engineering.

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Actually, this course didn't even exist 
in Brazil at that time.

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During high school, I took
a technical course in computer science.

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I would go to the technical course
in the morning,

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regular high school in the afternoon,
and English classes at night.

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And to get the technical degree,
I had to do an internship,

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and I ended up doing it
at a nuclear company.

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I'd fix the employees' computers,

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and that would take me to their offices, 
which were around the power plants.

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I would go there, 
look at the reactor building

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and I'd have no clue of what was in there.

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I'd just imagine, with curiosity,
how all that worked.

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At that time, I still didn't think
about going into this field,

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but I already knew
I wanted to be an engineer

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because I wanted to use calculus
and physics to solve problems.

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When I was about to enter college,
the Federal University had just created

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its undergraduate course
in nuclear engineering,

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and, at the time of registration,

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I didn’t have much idea
of what that field was,

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but I was still curious.

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During the first week of classes,
I fell in love with it.

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Throughout the course, 
I found out that radiation is used

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for the diagnosis of diseases

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and for the treatment
of diseases like cancer;

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that it's used for the sterilization 
of medical equipment, like syringes;

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that it's used to sterilize even 
mosquitoes and eradicate diseases.

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It's used in space applications.

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Curiosity, that robot on Mars,

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is powered by a nuclear battery.

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It can even be used to change 
the color of a precious stone

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or to help in the process 
of restoring a painting.

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And I finally discovered
what was inside that building

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and how all that worked.

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And I'm going to talk to you
a little bit about that.

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It seems like a lot,


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(Laughter)

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but it's quite simple.

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(Laughter)

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The process of producing energy
inside a reactor comes from fission:

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a neutron hits a uranium atom,


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which splits up,
and in this division, this fission,

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it produces two other parts, 
from two to three neutrons, and energy;

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and these two to three neutrons 
split other uranium atoms,

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and that's the chain reaction.

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This energy is used to heat 
the water that's inside the reactor,

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that red system.

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This water heats
the water in another system,

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which then becomes steam,
makes the turbine spin,

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and the generator transforms
this rotation of the turbine into energy

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that's then distributed to houses.

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And the most important thing
I found out is that this energy is clean.

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It's part of the solution
for climate change.

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I know that this isn't the first thing

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that comes to your minds
when you think about nuclear energy.

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But it should be, because this process
doesn't produce any greenhouse gases.

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Nothing.

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All of us have been feeling
the climate changes.

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Heat waves: in Rio de Janeiro, there have
been days with a heat sensation of 50º C.

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Agencies and institutes have researched

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what we do to cause so much 
release of greenhouse gases.

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And one of the main reasons
is the use of fossil fuels, like coal.

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Coal is still the most used
energy source in the world.

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The world still burns a lot of coal
to produce energy.

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During our water crisis,

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when our reservoirs
reached critical levels,

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Brazil used its fossil fuel
thermal power plants in full power

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to supply its energy needs.

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Aside from that, energy consumption 
has a tendency to grow.

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It's an indicator of the availability 
of basic services in societies,

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like the treatment of waste 
and sewage, hospitals --

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That is, energy consumption
is directly associated

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to a country's development index.

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And we're not likely to stop 
charging our phones,

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using microwaves, fridges, TVs,

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heaters, or air conditioning
as in the case of Rio de Janeiro.

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So, what will the world do
when the need for more energy arises?

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Burn more coal?

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The ideal solution
is to opt for clean energy,

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which includes renewable
and nuclear sources.

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I know that many might think
that, Brazil being a tropical country,

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we could use only solar and wind power.

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And I think that they are
part of the solution too.

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But these are two intermittent
sources of energy.

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They rely on the climate to produce power.

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On a cloudy, rainy day, a solar plant 
will not produce that much energy.

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With a lot of wind, or a little wind,

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since wind power plants work
within a specific variation of wind;

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if there's too much or too little,

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wind power plants won't produce
so much energy either.

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But a nuclear plant will produce
24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

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It's a reliable, basic energy,

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and you know exactly how much 
it will produce, in how much time.

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Besides that, it has…

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This is a graph 
about greenhouse gas emissions

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in the production
of different kinds of energy.

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If you consider the whole cycle,

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the fuel fabrication, 
its transportation in trucks,

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the maintenance of diesel generators
in the nuclear plant,

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then yes, you'll see a small production 
of these greenhouse gases.

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But compared to other sources, 
according to research,

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nuclear energy produces 
even less than solar.

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And it has a great energy density.

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A seven-gram uranium pellet produces

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the same amount of energy
as around 800 kg of coal.

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A nuclear power plant occupies a space,

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on average, a hundred times less space

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than a solar power plant needs

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to produce the same amount of energy.

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Currently, nuclear power is responsible

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for ten percent of the world's
energy production.

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And this number will grow,
because dozens of plants are being built.

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More than 20 only in China.

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In France, more than
70 percent of its energy

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comes from nuclear, over 50 plants.

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In the US there are "only" 99.

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In Brazil, we currently
have two in operation.

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Nuclear energy annually
prevents the emission

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of around 2 billion tons
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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Imagine if we replaced

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fossil fuel sources for nuclear.

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A research conducted by NASA
and Columbia University,

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in New York, in 2013,

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concluded that the lives 
of 1.8 million people

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have been spared from death 
caused by air pollution

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due to the use of nuclear power.

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Nuclear energy saves lives.

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That was actually the title of my video

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when I applied, last year,
to the World Nuclear Olympiad.

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In the video I chose to talk 
about medical applications,

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because my grandmother 
was undergoing cancer treatment

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and she was going through 
those radiotherapy treatments.

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But before talking about the Olympiad,
I want to tell you about how I got there.

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I started my undergraduate
studies in 2011,

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and in my class there were 
around 25 students, only 3 girls.

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Since the beginning of my studies, 
I got involved in everything possible.

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In the first week of classes,

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I went to talk to a professor, 
to understand the field better,

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and he offered me a position in his lab.

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And as soon as he could,
he offered me a research scholarship,

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and I finally started using calculus
to research about nuclear reactors.

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Also in the first year, 
listening to a talk by a researcher

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of a lab in the United States,
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,

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he offered to talk more
with the PhD students

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to establish an agreement
and share research,

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and I, at the height 
of my first graduation period,

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went to tell him I wanted in.

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After a lot of effort on my part, 
and mainly on his part

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to convince the people from the lab, 
I got a two-month internship,

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and it was my first trip abroad.

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During those two months,
I developed a software

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using the knowledge acquired 
in my technical training,

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a graphic interface on a nuclear database

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that was submitted
and added to the database

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of the Radiation Safety Information
Computational Center, in the USA.

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(Applause)

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I participated in and organized 
technical visits

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that allowed me to finally enter
that reactor building

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that seemed, at first, 
so mysterious to me.

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And in 2014, I took part
in the Science Without Borders program

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and studied in the USA for a year,

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which was, by the way, a childhood dream.

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I had even considered going
to the United States as a babysitter

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in order to achieve this dream,
but God knows best,

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and when I managed to fulfill this dream,
it was in the best way possible.

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Over that year, two of my colleagues and I
were able to do an internship

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in one of the largest nuclear 
companies in the world,

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based in the United States,

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and I am currently an intern
in this company, in its Brazilian office,

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and this week I was formally hired.

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(Applause)

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The Nuclear Olympiad happened in 2015.

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I submitted this video
on medical applications,

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and one of the Olympiad stages
was to promote this informative video.

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And it was incredible to notice
how people's perception changed

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when they found out
the benefits of this application.

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Throughout my experiences in college,

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I came to learn more and more,
and to notice the importance

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of making the benefits
of this technology known to the public

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and encouraging the expansion of its use.

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I took the responsibility
of talking about it.

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The final stage of the Nuclear Olympiad
happened in Vienna, Austria.

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I was the only finalist
representing the Americas

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and the only woman.

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(Applause)

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And I won.

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(Applause) (Cheers)

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My biggest satisfaction, when I won,

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was seeing the benefits
of this application being widely promoted

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and being able to prove that women do have
a place in engineering and in science.

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(Applause)

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I took the responsibility of promoting

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and showing that we need 
to take urgent action,

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because the climate changes
we've been feeling are drastic.

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We need to change the fossil fuels
that are being used, for clean energy,

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and nuclear energy is clean,

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it is an energy of high density

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and it is safe.

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And, besides, I wanted to tell you 
a little bit about my trajectory

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because I believe that each one of us

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has the capacity to bring
positive changes to our society.

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My wish and desire for each one of you

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is to have found, or find yourself
in your field of expertise, as I have.

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And that, in this way,
you can help solve problems,

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and seize the opportunities,

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not only the ones that appear,

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but create your own opportunities 
for growing and learning.

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And through this, you can bring about 
positive changes to society,

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to the world, to your community.

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Because, just as I believe
that nuclear energy makes a difference,

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you and I also make a difference.

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Thank you.

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(Applause) (Cheers)

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Oh! I forgot!

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The picture of me receiving the award.

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(Applause)