Pierre RYCKEWAERT is currently an apprentice engineer at EDF, working as a Safety Authority Relations Engineer (IRAS) within the nuclear safety department. At the same time, he is a student at Mines de Saint-Étienne engineering school, specializing in Nuclear Engineering.

During the summer of 2025, Pierre completed a research internship at the University of Regina under the supervision of Professor Situm. There, he contributed to setting up an experiment to study the corrosion of stainless steel in a molten fluorinated salt environment. This project is part of understanding material behavior exposed to molten salt-based nuclear fuels, a key area in the development of Generation IV reactors, especially molten salt reactors. During this internship, he worked closely with researcher Zoe Hoyda, employing analytical techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and Zero Resistance Ammeter (ZRA).

Before entering engineering school, Pierre earned a two-year technical diploma (DUT) in Chemistry from the University of Poitiers (2020-2022), specializing in organic and inorganic synthesis and analysis. He also gained valuable professional experience: as a researcher at Michelin in 2022, working on the fluctuation of EBR polymers, and at Sanofi in 2023, focusing on the synthesis and extraction of genotoxic organic molecules.

From 2023 to 2024, Pierre was an apprentice engineer at NAAREA, a French nuclear deep-tech company. There, he participated in conducting experiments, data analysis, and the creation of a recycling and reprocessing center for spent molten salt fuels, in partnership with the IJCLab laboratory in Orsay.

Convinced that Generation IV reactors and molten salt technologies represent the future of nuclear energy, Pierre is also actively involved in science communication to educate and reassure the public about the challenges and benefits of this sector.