2025 Essay Contest

The Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS) is pleased to invite high school students across Canada to participate in a nuclear-science-and-technology-based essay contest.The theme of the 3rd annual essay contest is “Nuclear Waste Management”. Students are free to explore various topics around this theme and select one as the subject for the essay. The following are some examples of essay topics:

Rules of the contest

The following are rules and guidelines for this contest:

  1. The contest is open for high school students (level III, IV, and V in Québec and grade 9 through 12 elsewhere in Canada) enrolled in public or private high schools in Canada.
  2. A student can only submit one essay for this contest.
  3. The essay must be original and has never been submitted to other essay contest(s) or publication.
  4. The length of the essay is to be 1000 words or less, plus acknowledgements or references, as needed.
  5. The essay could be prepared in English or French.
  6. Formatting of the essay:
    • The first page of the essay contains the following information:
      • The title of the essay.
      • The name of the author.
      • Grade and school name.
      • Contact information.
    • The essay starts on the second page. Please note that while the title is to be included, the name of the student should not be included here.
    • To ensure a uniform presentation of the papers, the following specifications should be followed:
      • The essay is prepared on a letter-size (8.5-inch×11-inch) paper.
      • The text should be in normal 12-point Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman.
      • The text should be left-justified.
      • A one-inch margin is to be used on all sides.
      • The essay should be submitted in a PDF format to the following email address: essay_contest@cns-snc.ca.
  7. The student should not receive any assistance during the writing of the essay. However, consultations with teachers or parents when performing research for the essay are encouraged.
  8. The use of artificial-intelligence-based software for generating the essay is prohibited.
  9. The essay will be judged based on the following criteria:
    • The essay has a clear focus on medical radioisotopes and their applications.
    • Originality on the subject.
    • Effectiveness of focus and organization.
    • Clarity and effectiveness of expression.
    • Proper acknowledgement of source of materials used in the essay, as applicable.
    • Correctness in spelling, diction, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.
  10. Decisions of the judges are final.

Important Dates

Prizes

The CNS will award the following prizes to the three best essayist:

The prizes will be distributed shortly after the announcement of the winners. Prior to awarding the prizes, the CNS will contact students’ schools to confirm their enrollment status. Moreover, the winners will also be mentioned during the Honors & Awards ceremony at the 2025 Annual CNS Conference.

We are looking forward for your submission. Happy writing!


La Société Nucléaire Canadienne (CNS-SNC) est heureuse d’inviter les élèves Canadiens du secondaire à participer au concours de rédaction d’un essai enscience et technologie nucléaire. Le thème de ce concours annuel est « Gestion des déchets nucléaires ». Les élèves sont encouragés à explorer différentes questions reliées à ce thème, incluant les sujets suivants :

Règlements du concours

Les instructions et règlements du concours sont :

Dates importantes

Prix

Ces prix seront envoyés aux élèves aussitôt que possible après l’annonce des gagnants. La CNS-SNC s’assurera auprès des autorités que les étudiants fréquentent bien les écoles mentionnées dans la page titre de l’essai. Le nom des gagnants sera aussi mentionné lors de la cérémonie de prix à la conférence annuelle 2025 de la CNS-SNC.

Peter Ottensmeyer and Matthew Dalzell
Co-Chairs of the Education and Communication Committee 
Canadian Nuclear Society
Doddy Kastanya
Immediate Past President
Canadian Nuclear Society