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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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!
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October 2025
Latest News
Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
VIEW RECIPIENTSSUBMIT NOMINATION
Nomination Deadline
March 1
Presented at the
Annual or Winter Conference
Monetary Award
$1,000
The W. Bennett Lewis Award recognizes individuals who have made major lifetime contributions in nuclear science and engineering towards minimizing environmental footprint, attaining long-term global sustainable energy and development, and having shown great foresight in elucidating these goals as recorded in archival publications. Nominees need not be ANS members. Not awarded posthumously.
The award consists of an engraved plaque and may be accompanied by a monetary gift to be decided by the DESD Executive Committee at its discretion. It is presented at a DESD function at either the ANS Annual or Winter Conferences.
This award was established by the Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences Division (formerly Environmental Sciences Division) in 2006 to honor Dr. W. Bennett Lewis, a visionary who understood the importance of providing a clean and abundant source of energy to support the world population for generations to come.
Nominations must include the completed nomination form accompanied by the following supporting documents:
Nominations should include evidence of having made major lifetime contributions in nuclear science and engineering towards attaining long-term global sustainable energy and development and having shown great foresight as recorded in archival publications.
Nominations are submitted to the chair of the DESD Honors and Awards Committee.
View Award