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Master Thesis at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe, Germany.
Reported by Ester Diaz Alvarez. Powered by FuseNet.

It has been fantastic to do my master thesis at the Tritium Laboratory in Karlsruhe. The city of Karlsruhe, the people at the Tritium Laboratory (TLK) and the work I was involved with, all contributed in making my six-month stay an amazing experience.

Erasmus Mundus offers plenty of opportunities

Two years ago, I started the Erasmus Mundus Master in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics*, which I highly recommend due to the opportunities that it offers: you will meet people from all over the world, while learning about nuclear fusion in different European universities and institutions. At the end of my Erasmus Mundus programme, I was given the opportunity of carrying out my Master thesis at TLK, working on the Vacuum Sieve Tray (VST) project, which is a technology in development for tritium extraction from liquid breeding blankets.

* This MSc programme has been renamed and is currently known as the European Master of Science in Nuclear Fusion and Engineering Physics.

Karlsruhe, a real student city

Home to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe is a really nice city, housing lots of students and hosting many student events during the year. Like most German cities I have visited, Karlsruhe has a very prevailing bike culture, meaning that one can easily go anywhere by bike. When the weather is good, people go to the 'Schlossgarten', the large garden behind the castle in Karlsruhe, to play, to lie down on the grass to read or just to hang out with each other. Moreover, as soon as the winter ends, barbecues start popping up wherever you go. It is also great to bike towards the forests that are located very close to the city, where one can swim in one of several lakes.

Working hours and free time

During my stay, I shared a flat close to the city centre with two nice German students, who were always happy to help me practised my German or give me any advice about where-to-find-what in the city. In general, I would spend my working days at TLK, located at Campus Nord (about half an hour from the city centre). During the evenings, I would sometimes have dinner with friends or, if I wasn't too tired, I would go out to dance salsa with one of my flatmates. The weekends were mainly spent out with my friends and flatmates or (during the last weeks of my stay, working and) resting at home. Altogether, this made my time in Karlsruhe a valuable and unforgetable experience.

I would like to thank FuseNet for their financial support, which helped me to cover some of the necessities and which made my life a lot easier during these amazing six months.