It's been more than two years since Vogtle Units 3 and 4 began to rise from the landscape near Waynesboro, Georgia-though construction officially began just last March with pouring of the Unit 3 basemat concrete, and a few months ago in November with the Unit 4 basemat. Turbine buildings, cooling towers, AP1000 reactor operator training... 2013 saw great strides toward the first new commercial nuclear power reactors in the United States in 30 years. Join host Joe Washington for a tour of the most recent milestones achieved in this amazing construction project.

Today's Nuclear Cafe Matinee takes faithful viewers "across the pond"-well, at least if one is situated in North America-to chat with Hinkley Point B Station Director Mike Harrison in southwest England.

Editor's note: December 11 marked the 59th anniversary of the founding of the American Nuclear Society. After posting a note on ANS Facebook with an image of the ANS 1st annual meeting program cover, the thought struck... "Well, perhaps some readers would be interested in perusing the 1954 meeting program itself." So, presenting the ANS 1st annual meeting technical program-along with accompanying introductory letter at bottom of post.  Click images or here to access (enlargeable!) program .pdf

News out of Fukushima-Daiichi this week is encouraging:  TEPCO successfully transferred the first batch of fuel rod assemblies from the reactor unit No. 4 spent fuel pool to a common fuel pool building offering longer-term stable storage conditions. Completing the process for the more than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies that remain at No. 4 is projected to take a year, and will be a first major step toward decommissioning of the site.

By Rita Patel and Suzy Baker  [originally published at Nuclear Undone]

NS Savannah

An odd sidelight of my years in the Navy as a Reactor Operator was the time that we were called upon to perform work on the preserved ships at Patriot's Point Naval Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  This interlude allowed me to become intimately familiar with a ship that was totally out of place at that anchorage of the aged: the nuclear powered commercial ship N.S. Savannah.

The ANS President's Reception at the 2013 Winter Meeting on Sunday, November 10 was a chance for old friends to reunite and new friends to meet with their colleagues and ANS elected leaders.

Join the conversation today and especially during the premiere, on twitter at #pandoraspromise

The American Nuclear Society's Operations and Power Division will host the 2^nd ANS Small Modular Reactor Conference during the ANS Winter Meeting on November 12-14, 2013, in Washington, DC.  The Opening Plenary for the Conference will begin on Tuesday, November 12, at 8:00 a.m. at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

The American Nuclear Society is offering new materials in time for the holidays. Buy one for a friend.....and another for yourself!

The Sun is powered by the strongest source of energy in the universe - nuclear fusion - and teams of scientists and engineers around the world are working toward harnessing fusion to power the long-term future of civilization.  In effect... they are working to "create a star" on earth.

Today's ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinée takes faithful viewers through the beautiful waterways and countryside of France, following the route of the massive reactor pressure vessel being delivered to the new 1,650 MWe European Pressurized Reactor under construction at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant.

WHEREAS, Nuclear Science Week recognizes the contributions of the nuclear science industry and those who work in it every day; and

The American Nuclear Society's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Technical Group (NNTG) will host a distinguished two-part panel session on the Middle East as part of its embedded topical at the 2013 ANS Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo in our nation's capitol.

Can we assume that everyone knows that the misty cloud from a cooling tower at a nuclear plant - is simply water?

Two new AP1000 nuclear power reactors are under construction at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in Fairfield County, South Carolina. Along with two new units at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, these are the first new nuclear units built in the United States in the past three decades.

The ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinee is usually celebrated on Fridays-but this time, we just couldn't wait.

The 75th Anniversary of the Discovery of Nuclear Fission

Yes, of course... in super slo-mo.  Today's Nuclear Matinee features videos of a recent test conducted to simulate an aircraft crash on a HI-STAR 180 spent nuclear fuel transport cask, a product of Holtec International that is completing rigorous certification for the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate.

Years ago, filmmaker Robert Stone helped Michael Moore make his very first movie (Roger & Me). Here, Stone and Moore discuss the pro-nuclear energy documentary Pandora's Promise, directed by Stone and featured this summer at Moore's Traverse City Film Festival.