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
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Raemer Edgar Schreiber (“Schreib”) was the 13th President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and a Fellow of the Society. He served on the ANS Board of Directors from 1962-1965 and again from 1966-1969.
Raemer Schreiber was born on November 11, 1910. In 1944, he began his career working on the water boiler reactor at Los Alamos Laboratory. It was the first reactor to use enriched uranium. By April of 1945, he became a member of the pit assembly team for the Trinity Test. He was at Base Camp at the time of the actual explosion on July 16, 1945. Following Trinity, Dr. Schreiber escorted the plutonium core of the Fat Man device to Tinian Island, where he helped to assemble the Nagasaki bomb.
Post war, Dr. Schreiber was part of a group that was viewing a critical assembly experiment that went wrong. He and the others were exposed to ionizing radiation, killing one of the men present. This resulted in Dr. Schreiber becoming a leader in the development of remote handling.
In 1947 he began working as a leader in the W Division of Los Alamos. This Division played a key role in developing the world’s first hydrogen bomb. Ultimately, he became the deputy director of Los Alamos in 1972. In 1955 Schreiber became the leader of the Nuclear Rocket Propulsion (N) Division. The primary responsibility of N Division was the Rover program that developed rockets based on reactors that would power long, interplanetary missions not able to be carried out by conventional rocket-propulsion technology. In this capacity, he met John F. Kennedy during the President’s 1962 visit to Los Alamos. That same year he became technical associate director of the Laboratory and deputy director in 1972.
Dr. Schreiber retired in 1975 and continued to serve as an unpaid consultant to Los Alamos until 1995.
During his retirement years in the late 1980s, he was a member of the Laboratory’s History Advisory Council, which assisted in the publication of Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945. In 1994-1995, he assisted the Human Studies Project Team in reviewing the history of medical studies at the Laboratory.
Among his many career honors and awards were an honorary doctorate of science from Purdue University (1964). He was also a joint recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Award from the Institute of Nuclear Space Propulsion (1988). He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, as well as of ANS.
Dr. Schreiber graduated Linfield College with a B.A.in 1931, earned his M.A. from University of Oregon in 1932, and Ph.D. from Purdue in 1941. All degrees were in physics and mathematics.
Postmortem, Los Alamos has named a conference room the “Raemer E. Schreiber” in honor of his many contributions to nuclear criticality research.
Dr. Raemer Schreiber passed away on December 24, 1998.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 10:50am CST
