Kung-fu and kickboxing
Posiva’s Project Manager Barbara Pàstina’s hobby counterbalances research work.
Barbara Pàstina heads various project teams which focus on identifying the most important phenomena, events, and processes that affect the long-term safety of spent nuclear fuel.
Looks may deceive. Barbara Pàstina, who likes to dress to impress and is fluent in Italian, French, English, and Finnish, is not quite what first impressions might suggest. With a Doctorate in Radiation Chemistry, she works as Project Manager in charge of the supplementary memorandum to Posiva’s Safety Case and provides answers to requests for clarification received from the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland (STUK), but lists kung-fu and kickboxing as her free time hobbies.
Thrown to the tatami mat with a thud, and a hard kick behind the ear. Is the same principle applied also to STUK’s requests for clarification?
- Of course not. Replies related to the Safety Case must demonstrate facts substantiated with scientific research data, and require long hours of meticulous writing and, right now, long working days. These martial arts counterbalance work perfectly for me, Barbara Pàstina says and chuckles.
Half of origins in Finland
Barbara Pàstina, whose mother is from the Finnish Savonia area, was born in Italy and ended up in Finland after detours to France and the United States. She wants to verify that the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel implemented by our generation is guaranteed to be safe.
Pàstina heads various project teams which focus on identifying the most important phenomena, events, and processes that affect the long-term safety of spent nuclear fuel. The analyses reach far into the future and consider uncertainties and their impacts in different scenarios.
- The great thing about the world of longterm safety is that it is multidisciplinary and there is always something new to learn. The task is to determine how the new data affects Posiva, Pàstina says.
Born in Italy
Pàstina’s personal history is just as interesting as the topic she deals with in her work. She was born in Italy and lived there till her twenties. Then, her path took her to France where she studied and worked in the field of nuclear sciences. The next stop in her journey was the United States. At this point she entered the world of nuclear waste and nuclear safety.
In the spring of 2006, Pàstina moved to Finland. She did not choose Finland by chance, but because her mother comes from the municipality of Puumala. So the citizen of the world has half her origins in Savonia.
- I wanted to come to Finland because of my roots. My children have lived here for most of their life, Pàstina relates.
Most recent accomplishment at end of April
Right now is a very good time to congratulate Barbara Pàstina and everybody who have been or still are involved in the projects she heads. One of Posiva’s important goals for the first part of the year was achieved at the end of April when the company submitted right on time a quantitative answer to STUK’s request for clarification regarding the Safety Case.
The preparation of the answer was an arduous task but updated conclusions of the Safety Case have now been provided to STUK and incorporate all the changes made in the final disposal system. The multidisciplinary answer to this one request for clarification was based on the efforts of a total of 24 Posiva-employees involved in the project. That is a great example of working together.
Text: Pasi Tuohimaa, photos: Barbara Pàstina