ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
Latest News
Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Dr. Chauncey Starr was the 4th president of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and was a charter member. He also a recipient of the ANS awards: Walter H. Zinn Award in 1979 and the Henry D. Smyth Award in 1983. He was a Fellow of ANS.
Dr. Chauncey Starr was born on April 14, 1912. His first job after completing his doctorate was in 1935 at Harvard University as a research associate in the laboratory, where he worked on the thermal transport properties of metals at high pressure. From Harvard, Chauncey went on to a similar postgraduate position at the MIT Magnet Laboratory, where he worked on cryogenics and magnetic measurements.
In 1942, while at the Bureau of Ships heading a group of engineers working on electronic detection of mines, he was invited to join Ernest Lawrence’s staff at the University of California Radiation Laboratory. Dr. Starr was subsequently transferred to Oak Ridge to serve as Lawrence’s liaison and directed a group of several hundred engineers that made crucial improvements to the yields of the beta calutrons; by the spring of 1945 Oak Ridge had produced enough 235U to arm the Little Boy weapon used against Hiroshima.
After the war, Dr. Starr transferred to Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge to participate in the nuclear power reactor design efforts led by Eugene Wigner and Alvin Weinberg. In 1946 he joined North American Aviation, and in 1955 he formed and became president of a new division, Atomics International, to pursue commercialization of the generation of electricity from nuclear power. In collaboration with Walter Zinn at Argonne National Laboratory and the first president of ANS, Chauncey explored the peaceful application of atomic energy to the generation of electricity. In 1966 he left Atomics International to become dean of engineering at UCLA; six years later he founded the Electric Power Research Institute. Chauncey also made substantial contributions to the discipline of risk analysis while at UCLA and established an environmental division at EPRI.
For his accomplishments, Dr. Starr received the American Physical Society’s 2000 George E. Pake Prize and numerous other awards and recognition, including honorary degrees, membership in national and international academies, medals from heads of state, and fellow status in professional societies.
Dr. Starr earned an electrical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1932 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1935.
Dr. Chauncey Starr passed away on April 17, 2007.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 10:28am CST