Nuclear research technical session and getting lost in Quezon city

For this Wednesday, I went out 😊 now usually I have work then I just conclude my day by drawing, but today was our schedule for the Philippines Nuclear Research Institute's (PNRI) technical session. It was a seminar of recent and ongoing research involving Nuclear energy, this also involved isotope usage and a few applications and legalities with the usage of Nuclear power.

I and my sister first heard the news from an old batch mate of mine that also worked in PNRI. He was keen on inviting me since he remembered that some of my undergraduate research involved the use of stable isotopes and also that I've always been a fan of Nuclear research. What got my sister hooked was the biological applications as seen on the program list my batch mate sent

I was actually more interested in the hatter set because of the discussion of the nuclear law. I've always been curious how the use of this research was regulated when there's about 400+ nuclear power plants worldwide and about 200+ nuclear research reactors actively functioning to better the use, application and implementation of this kind of research.

But the biggest problem was... getting to the venue 🤣

I have never actually been to PNRI before but I've been to other Department of Science and Technology offices before. Plus I'm not so familiar with quezon city like I am in the south 😅 so getting there took us... about 2 hours. we were late by 30 minutes so it was rather sad that we missed the 1st speaker because I was interested in isotopic research on food. we did catch bits of it though, like with the application of stable and naturally occurring isotopes as nutritional tracers.

quite unfortunate that we were seated at the back since we were late so I couldn't take enough photos of the slides. but hey, less photos of slides forced me to really listen to the presentations so it's not so bad

then the next speaker discussed banana mutation through the aid of gamma rays to make TR4 nodule resistant bananas. and what's fascinating is that you can actually register mutated fruits to make it endemic to the country. its a different kind of gene mutation, really and since we were also late for this one, i never found out if what she meant with TR4 is the thyroid nodule marker or the plant nodule because plants also gets nodes that hinder production and growth. So I guess I'll have to do my own research on that one.

So after the first set of speakers, we actually had a mini break so me and my sister decided to go out of the auditorium to sit on the grass and get some fresh air. refresh the mind, so to speak. what we didn't expect was to meet ducks along the way out 🤣

My sister was actually trying to touch them but I know for a fact that some ducks are violent so i told her to keep a distance 😅

by the time we got back, the 1st presenter for the 2nd set of speakers was setting up and her topic was about the restoration of nuclear research in the philippines. Which honestly, I think is amazing because this would definitely change the way us Filipinos view the usage of nuclear energy. it could even counter the ever rising price of petroleum products and the steady rise of electricity bills.

it's fascinating to know that we not only have a nuclear power plant here, but we also have a research reactor. sad that both projects were abandoned for so long, but then it's great news for the science community to finally have the research reactor restored
to think that we were the first in southeast asia to even have one yet we were also the first to abandon it. Imagine the development the country could have had if only we pushed through with the research a little more and gained a bit more funding. but oh well, at least now, everything is being set straight.

Then came what I think was the highlight and key point in all of this: The nuclear law.
Yes, all this research stuff, the applications, the potential, all of it is exciting for us as a starting country in the nuclear field, but then how do we sustain the research, how do we ensure that all this research isn't going to cause another catastrophe, especially since the movie Oppenheimer just recently showed and has shown the impact of nuclear weapons. This nuclear law is what will keep a leash on potential abusers from war. and the fact that it's heavily based on international law is a bit of a comforting thought. I probably won't go into the nitty-gritty of this one because it's the most technical aspect of the sessions, but to appreciate would be good.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to linger around for the final speaker who discussed what happened on Japan's situation on the accidental release of reactor fluid waste into the ocean during one of Japan's major earthquakes. It was getting quite late and the open forum part has been so stimulating. question after question, I think this is where the presentation got prolonged, because all the topics were so fascinating and you'd never think that research like this would be possible here.
Hopefully next year, I could still attend the technical session because this was a much needed break for me.

this was the entrance to the auditorium.

Then this is where the research reactor resides in UwU
it's also unfortunate that we couldn't do the reactor tour, but with all the new knowledge gained, I can definitely say it was an afternoon well spent

This was the long walk we had going back. Not such a bad walk because the view was just so peaceful.

Then we saw a few little froggies

then me asking my sister to take a photo of me at a higher angle and while holding hands so I could show it to my boyfriend and tell him that this will be his view when we go for walks and i get excited to see something so I'll have to drag him by the hand.
And with that thought, he smiled as we called because the thought made his heart swell. and I think that was such a wholesome moment for us.

Going back to this. We got to the bus terminal at around 6pm and the bus was bound for the south (where I live). By 7pm, we were at the terminal headed home

Then this was around the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and uou can definitely feel Christmas in the air. Even when passing through manila city, you could see all the lights.

Anyways, we got home around 9pm and after that, I tried to speed write this to the best of my abilities, but I still dozed off anyways 🤣

Well, this is all from me. Hope you guys enjoyed my nerd talk for today. I might go into specifics about the topics they presented on my next articles... or I'd draw, who knows what my brain wants 🤣