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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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!
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NN Asks: What did you learn from ANS’s Nuclear 101?
Mike Harkin
When ANS first announced its new Nuclear 101 certificate course, I was excited. This felt like a course tailor-made for me, a transplant into the commercial nuclear world. I enrolled for the inaugural session held in November 2024, knowing it was going to be hard (this is nuclear power, of course)—but I had been working on ramping up my knowledge base for the past year, through both my employer and at a local college.
The course was a fast-and-furious roller-coaster ride through all the key components of the nuclear power industry, in one highly challenging week. In fact, the challenges the students experienced caught even the instructors by surprise. Thankfully, the shared intellectual stretch we students all felt helped us band together to push through to the end.
We were all impressed with the quality of the instructors, who are some of the top experts in the field. We appreciated not only their knowledge base but their support whenever someone struggled to understand a concept.
Donald Hoffman is the current president and CEO of EXCEL Services Corporation. He founded EXCEL Services Corporation in 1985 to provide specialized professional services to nuclear utilities in licensing, regulatory support, and operational areas.
Hoffman is very active in the nuclear industry and served as the 59th president of the American Nuclear Society. He is the Chair of the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority which is charged with the responsibility for making the Commonwealth a national and global leader in nuclear energy and to serve as an interdisciplinary study, research, and information resource for the Commonwealth on nuclear issues. He is the Co-Chair of the ANS Special Committee on Nuclear in the States which shall identify and review: state and regional-opportunities for new nuclear development in the US; state-level legislative and regulatory barriers preventing such development; federal policies that have a direct impact on state level decision-making; lessons learned from the new nuclear development projects currently under construction, and determine the best course forward. He is also the president of Eagle Alliance, a U.S. based grassroots organization that represents all facets of nuclear science and technology.
Prior to starting EXCEL, Hoffman served in the U.S. Nuclear Submarine Navy as a senior reactor operator and engineering officer. He was a branch chief and a lead reviewer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviewing license applications and technical specifications.
Hoffman has been a member of ANS since 1984, has served on the Board of Directors, and has been an active member of many divisions and committees.
He received his degree in Nuclear Engineering and Technology in 2010 from Excelsior College in New York.
He continues to make presentations and provide testimony regarding the benefits of nuclear science and technology to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Governors, the National Governors Association, and other U.S. organizations.
Read Nuclear News from July 2013 for more on Don.
