On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 earthquake and 40-foot-high tsunami waves hit Fukushima, Japan. The impact on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was a call-to-action for members of the American Nuclear Society.

Don Miley, tour guide at Idaho National Laboratory, takes viewers of this video on a trip to the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-I). In 1951, the first electricity from nuclear power was generated at EBR-I-using a reactor that actually bred more fuel than it consumed, using an all-plutonium core.

Taxpayers for Common Sense on February 27 issued a press release targeting the Department of Energy for "wasting more than half a billion dollars" on its small modular reactor (SMR) development cost-sharing program. Leaving aside the historically essential role of government investment in developing, advancing, and bringing to market innovative energy technologies-and the fact that early government investments in nuclear energy technology now pay back enormous dividends to all Americans in billions of dollars' worth of affordable and emission-free electricity generation every year-many of the advantages of advanced SMR energy technologies were overlooked or misconstrued in the group's press release and policy brief.

All forms of electricity generation have their own set of advantages... But among the seemingly endless unique advantages of nuclear fission are the massive implications of the deceptively simple equation E=mc².   This translates to unparalleled energy density.

The February issue of Nuclear News magazine is available in hard copy and electronically for American Nuclear Society members (click 'ANS Members' or 'Subscribers' in left column). Don't let a month go by without your Nuclear News!

All ages are welcome at the Friday Nuclear Matinee for this short video from the UK. Kids get in free! Also, adults who enjoy British accents-and cartoons-and the funny word "aluminium."

The ANS Nuclear Cafe today brings faithful viewers a short interview with Dr. Joseph M. Zawodny, senior research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. Zawodny discusses research on "Low Energy Nuclear Reactions" at NASA Langley, and the incredible potential of this new form of nuclear power-IF theory is validated by experimental results.

Here are some new products available from the American Nuclear Society. Keep your library current-please order today!

The February 2013 edition of the technical journal Nuclear Technology (NT) is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

Environmentalist Stewart Brand, one of the principal founders of the green movement in the United States, speaks on environmentalism and nuclear energy.  Take a look and have a listen!

What's Next For Used Nuclear Fuel and Nuclear Waste Management Policy?

The American Nuclear Society is soliciting names of qualified members who are interested in becoming the editor of the ANS journal Nuclear Technology (NT). Dr. Nicholas Tsoulfanidis, Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, has served as editor of NT since June 1997. During his term, Professor Tsoulfanidis has done an outstanding job. He has raised NT's reputation for technical excellence and has kept up a full schedule of publishing monthly issues.

Artist Suzy Hobbs Baker to chronicle

The January 2013 issue of ANS's Nuclear Technology journal is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others. Non-subscribers click here to  subscribe to NT and other ANS titles.

An International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering

Microsoft founder and extraordinary philanthropist Bill Gates is also a nuclear energy enthusiast.

Today the ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinee features the impressive transformation going on at the Plant Vogtle -3 and -4 construction site near Waynesboro, Georgia.

The New Year's 2013 edition of the weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome.  This week's topics include: suggested nuclear New Year's resolutions for Japan; future prospects for nuclear energy in America; getting along with antinuclear friends and neighbors; a radical nuke that also makes cheap diesel fuel; how the NRC's nuclear decommissioning fund is not a tax subsidy.  For the full reports, see The Hiroshima Syndrome (the internet's top source for Fukushima updates and commentary).

The nuclear energy industry is the only large-scale energy producer responsible for managing and storing (and paying for) all the wastes generated by the process [in contrast to, for example... dumping wastes into the atmosphere].