Distance education has a track record in astronomy and is already making a significant contribution worldwide. It will make an even greater contribution in the future, not only at-a-distance, but through greater use of self-study materials on- campus, where it will liberate staff for more appropriate forms of face-to-face teaching, and help overcome the need to do more and more with less and less resource. Distance education offers huge promise in meeting the educational needs of a burgeoning world population, and because low costs can be achieved there is no need for people in areas of material deprivation to face mental deprivation also. The IAU and The Open University can be proactive in promoting the spread of distance education, and of self-study on campus.

Distance education and self-study are defined and described and their possible application to developing countries is discussed.

Dreary correspondence colleges that send tatty typewritten notes to their suffering students are gradually being eclipsed by full-fledged open-learning institutions of wide educational significance. The Open University is the premier open-learning institution in the U.K., perhaps even in the world. It already offers an astronomy course as a significant part of a science major degree, and further courses are planned, including an in-service course for school teachers.

In this article I discuss:

1. 1. open learning systems, including the ways in which various educational media can be used to good effect
2. 2. some features of the existing astronomy course of The Open University, and some possibilities for future courses.

C46 was a Commission of the Executive Committee of the IAU under Division XII (Union-Wide Activities), then after 2012 under Division C (Education, Outreach, and Heritage). It was the only commission dealing exclusively with astronomy education; a previous Commission 38 (Exchange of Astronomers), which allocated travel grants to astronomers who needed them, and a Working Group on the Worldwide Development of Astronomy, have been absorbed by Commission 46.

This project began in 1979. Its objectives are to locate, survey and analyse the extensive remains of ancient agricultural settlement that can be found in the wadis of the hinterlands of Tripolitania, Sirtica and Cyrenaica. Within this framework, established by the Department of Antiquities of the Libyan Arab Republic and UNESCO, is the archaeological aim of recording the evidence for periods when extensive areas of the pre-desert were, for whatever reason, cultivated in ways that are not immediately possible today, and in the longer term of assessing those areas where modern farming might be re-established. Archaeology is thus brought into direct line with the aims of the modern world. This paper presents some preliminary comments on the findings of the 1979 survey, which (as we conclude) have raised questions about ancient settlement and land use rather than provided answers; we hope that our full report on the project in Libya Antiqua will be able to offer a reasoned assessment of these issues, understanding which is surely critical for modern agricultural planning.

The first season of fieldwork by the UNESCO-sponsored Anglo-Libyan team under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, occupied the period from late August to early October. The succeeding months have been taken up with the assimilation, processing and plotting of the initial results. The group was led on the British side by Dr Graeme Barker, of the University of Sheffield, and Professor G. D. B. Jones, of the University of Manchester. Their grateful thanks are due to Dr Salaheddin, at the time President of the Department of Antiquities, and his successor Dr Abdullah Shaiboub, who was at the time in Britain and took an active part in the preparations for the 1979 programme. Mr Abdul Wahab, Controller of Antiquities for Tripolitania took part in the original preliminary survey conducted by Mr Charles Daniels, Chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies, and Professor Jones late in May 1979. Mr Omar Marjub, Controller of Antiquities for Leptis Magna, kindly provided the base for the team at Homs and helped in a variety of ways, both at Leptis and during his visit with Dr Salaheddin in the field. The day-to-day work in the field was organised by Mr Abdullah Ahmed and Mr Muhammed Shitewi, Assistant Controller of Leptis Magna, to whom the Directors are deeply grateful. In Tripoli, the British Ambassador and his wife, Mr and Mrs A. Williams actively fostered the work on the project, not least through their hospitality to members of the team. A particular debt of thanks is due to Olwen Brogan for her constant advice, encouragement and active presence in the field, as well as to Miss Tina Watson.

C46 is a Commission of the Executive Committee of the IAU under Division XII Union-Wide Activities. Aiming at improvement of astronomy education and research at all levels worldwide (through the various projects it initiates),maintains, develops, as well as through the dissemination of information. C46 has 332 members and it was managed by the Organizing Committee, formed by the Commission President (Rosa M. Ros, from Spain), the Vice-Presiden (John Hearnshaw, from New Zealand), the Retiring President (Magda Stavinschi, from Romania), the Vice-President of the IAU (George Miley, from Netherland) and the PG chairs:

• •Worldwide Development of Astronomy WWDA: John Hearnshaw
• •Teaching Astronomy for Development TAD: Edward Guinan and Laurence A. Marshall
• •International Schools for Young Astronomers ISYA; chair: Jean-Pierre de Greve
• •Network for Astronomy School Education NASE: Rosa M. Ros and Beatriz Garcia
• •Public Understanding at the times of Solar Eclipses and transit Phenomena PUTSE: Jay Pasachoff
• •National Liaison and Newsletter: Barrie Jones
• •Collaborative Programs: Hans Haubold

The agricultural land classification (ALC) of England and Wales is a formal method of assessing the quality of agricultural land and guiding future land use. It assesses several soil, site and climate criteria and classifies land according to whichever is the most limiting. A common approach is required for calculating the necessary agroclimatic parameters over time in order to determine the effects of changes in the climate on land grading. In the present paper, climatic parameters required by the ALC classification have been re-calculated from a range of primary climate data, available from the Meteorological Office's UKCP09 historical dataset, provided as 5 km rasters for every month from 1914 to 2000. Thirty-year averages of the various agroclimatic properties were created for 1921–50, 1931–60, 1941–70, 1951–80, 1961–90 and 1971–2000. Soil records from the National Soil Inventory on a 5 km grid across England and Wales were used to determine the required soil and site parameters for determining ALC grade. Over the 80-year period it was shown that the overall climate was coolest during 1951–80. However, the area of land estimated in retrospect as ‘best and most versatile (BMV) land’ (Grades 1, 2 and 3a) probably peaked in the 1951–80 period as the cooler climate resulted in fewer droughty soils, more than offsetting the land which was downgraded by the climate being too cold. Overall there has been little change in the proportions of ALC grades among the six periods once all 10 factors (climate, gradient, flooding, texture, depth, stoniness, chemical, soil wetness, droughtiness and erosion) are taken into account. This is because it is rare for changes in climate variables all to point in the same direction in terms of ALC. Thus, a reduction in rainfall could result in higher grades in wetter areas but lead to lower classification in drier areas.

Current energy demands and future energy needs are a growing industry which at present attracts a large amount of research and investment of which nuclear energy is an integral part. Eight new nuclear stations are proposed to be developed in the UK over the next ten years to meet this demand. In order for nuclear energy to sustain growth and development, nuclear decommissioning of first and second generation power stations needs to be addressed in the U.K. and worldwide. Presently the UK has 36 graphite moderated reactors as a result of the UK military and civil programs, which over the next twenty years will close. This will result in ∼99’000 tonnes of irradiated graphite waste for which no current national decommissioning strategy exists. The main issues associated with this waste are the large volume and activation products associated. By far the greatest inventory is from 3H and 14C. An EU Euroatom FP7 Program; CARBOWASTE was established in 2008 with the aim of developing treatment and disposal options for graphite.

This research is based within CARBOWASTE, the main objectives are to understand the mechanisms involved in the production, location and removal of radioisotopes from nuclear graphite. Computed X-ray Tomography (CT) will be used in order to quantify the initial porosity in conjunction with thermal treatment (ex situ) in order to eventually identify the location of 14C within the matrix of irradiated graphite, through the preferential chemically controlled oxidation of graphite. Unirradiated Pile Grade A graphite samples have been laser and manually marked in order align the samples prior to and post thermal treatment to determine the degree of porosity changes and weight loss under a range of thermal oxidation parameters.