Governance

The 2024 American Nuclear Society Annual Conference opened with a bang yesterday as 1,200 attendees gathered in Las Vegas to network, collaborate, and socialize. Honors and awards were presented to several recipients, and ANS welcomed twelve new Fellows.

The plenary opened with an address from ANS Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer Craig Piercy that brought this year’s theme to the fore straight away: The time is now to deploy new nuclear projects—and not acting at this moment is simply not an option.

The American Nuclear Society’s 2024 Annual Conference starts this Sunday, June 16. We are looking forward to welcoming more than 1,000 members of the nuclear community in Las Vegas. This meeting is set to be one to remember, with a spectacular group of speakers lined up for our plenary sessions, executive sessions, technical tracks, and two embedded topicals—Advanced Reactor Safety and the International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants.

Statement from Craig Piercy, CEO and Executive Director of the American Nuclear Society, on the Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act:

The American Nuclear Society’s 2024 Annual Conference is moving the venue in part to accommodate a higher-than-expected number of submissions for the Annual Conference and embedded topical meetings—the most received for an annual meeting in over a decade! The conference venue was changed to Mandalay Bay at the beginning of the Las Vegas strip. However, the change in accommodation comes with a change in dates: The meeting has been moved one week later than originally scheduled, to June 16–19.

On February 5, the application process has officially opened for the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship. The American Nuclear Society invites its members to apply for the fellowship, which helps the Society fulfill its strategic goal of enhancing nuclear public policy. Fellows work on energy legislation in the halls of Congress as a representative of ANS, either in a congressional member’s personal office or with a committee.

This year, Nuclear News will recognize the rising stars of the nuclear community when it publishes its first “40 Under 40” list in the December issue. Nominations should be submitted no later than April 1, 2024.

The 2024 American Nuclear Society national election opens next month, and ANS News asked the nominees for vice president/president-elect and five seats on the Board of Directors for statements outlining their goals for ANS. Ballots will be sent electronically on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, and must be submitted by 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Joseph Hendrie, Brookhaven National Laboratory physicist, NRC chair, and ANS past president (1984–1985), passed away in his home in Bellport, N.Y., on December 26 at the age of 98.

Hendrie, an American Nuclear Society member since 1956, was a leader in the nuclear community for much of his 45 years in nuclear reactor safety research. He served as the deputy director for technical review of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Directorate of Licensing from 1972 to 1974 and then was appointed chair of the NRC in 1977 (serving a second stint as chair in 1981—the only person to serve two nonconsecutive terms in that role).

The American Nuclear Society coordinated an effort with eight nongovernmental organizations in asking Congress to update the Environmental Protection Agency’s generic standards for the safe, permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste.

One of the privileges of being president of the American Nuclear Society is awarding presidential citations to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding effort in some manner for the benefit of ANS or the nuclear community. Citations are conferred twice each year, at the Annual and Winter Meetings. ANS President Kenneth Petersen has named this season’s recipients, who will receive recognition at the upcoming Winter Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C.

ANS also announces the winners of awards presented by the Society’s professional divisions. These awards will be mailed to the recipients, and the divisions will recognize honorees at various division functions and meetings this fall. The 19 professional divisions of ANS are constituent units and represent a vast array of nuclear science and technology disciplines.