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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Dr. Joseph Hendrie has been a member of the American Nuclear Society since 1956, at which time he joined the Nuclear Installations Safety and the Fuel Energy Divisions.
Dr. Hendrie worked some 45 years in the fields of nuclear reactor safety and research and development of energy technologies. He received his BS at Case Institute of Technology, now Case Western Reserve and his PhD in Physics at Columbia University.
He began his career at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1955 where he directed the design of the High Flux Beam Reactor. He became Head of the Engineering Division of the Laboratory’s Department of Applied Science and later, Chairman of that Department (1975-77). From 1972-74 Dr. Hendrie was Deputy Director for Technical Review of the AEC’s Directorate of Licensing. He also served for six years on the AEC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards and was Chairman in 1970.
He has been the U.S. Representative on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Senior Advisory Group for Reactor Safety Codes and Guides (1974-79). In 1977 he was appointed Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and served a four-year term that included the Three Mile Island accident.
He was a Director of Houston Industries, Inc., Houston Lighting & Power Company, and Entergy Operations Inc. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York and California. Dr. Hendrie is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was a member of the Energy Engineering Board of the National Research Council (1986-90).
He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He received the Ernest O. Lawrence Memorial Award of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1970, the Order of Leopold II, Rank of Commander, from Baudoin, King of the Belgians in 1982, the George C. Laurence Pioneering Award of ANS in 1998, and the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Joint Award from ANS and the Nuclear Energy Institute in 2004.
Read Nuclear News from July 1984 for more on Joseph.
