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A series of firsts delivers new Plant Vogtle units
Southern Nuclear was first when no one wanted to be.
The nuclear subsidiary of the century-old utility Southern Company, based in Atlanta, Ga., joined a pack of nuclear companies in the early 2000s—during what was then dubbed a “nuclear renaissance”—bullish on plans for new large nuclear facilities and adding thousands of new carbon-free megawatts to the grid.
In 2008, Southern Nuclear applied for a combined construction and operating license (COL), positioning the company to receive the first such license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012. Also in 2008, Southern became the first U.S. company to sign an engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a Generation III+ reactor. Southern chose Westinghouse’s AP1000 pressurized water reactor, which was certified by the NRC in December 2011.
Fast forward a dozen years—which saw dozens of setbacks and hundreds of successes—and Southern Nuclear and its stakeholders celebrated the completion of Vogtle Units 3 and 4: the first new commercial nuclear power construction project completed in the U.S. in more than 30 years.
Steven Arndt is an internationally recognized expert in the field of nuclear engineering with experience in nuclear power plant simulation, severe accident analysis and nuclear power plant instrumentation and control. In his 40 years in the nuclear industry Dr. Arndt has worked as a researcher, educator, consultant, and regulator including extensive experience in Russia and Ukraine leading the United States support programs to the states of the former Soviet Union following the Chernobyl accident and as part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) response to the Fukushima accident.
Dr. Arndt currently serves as a Distinguished Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where his research involves advance reactor design readiness. Previously he spent 31 years as a senior scientist with the NRC, leading key research efforts and providing authoritative advice to NRC management and staff in the areas of digital instrumentation and control, software reliability, emergency response, cyber security and numerous other technical areas. Prior to his work at the NRC, Dr. Arndt was a Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. Additionally, Dr. Arndt serves as an Adjunct Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee. In 2012 Dr. Arndt was named the Federal Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the first nuclear engineer to ever be awarded this honor. In 2020 Dr. Arndt was awarded the “NSPE Award” the highest honor given specifically to a professional engineer.
Dr. Arndt holds a B.S. in engineering physics and a M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering all from The Ohio State University, where he was honored by the faculty of the College of Engineering in 2004 as a Distinguished Alumnus. Dr. Arndt also holds a M.S. in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland. Dr. Arndt is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).
Dr. Arndt is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and Maryland and was appointed by the Governor of Maryland in 2006 to the Maryland Board for Professional Engineers, where he served for fifteen years (Three years as Chairman). He has served in leadership roles in a number of professional societies especially ANS. He has served as the ANS Treasurer and as a member of its Board of Directors. In June of 2022, he became the 68th President of ANS.
Read Nuclear News from July 2022 for more on Steven Arndt.
Last modified September 6, 2023, 2:05pm CDT
