Did you know that nuclear technology has been used in space almost since the beginning of human exploration in space?  That's right - nuclear energy has been used to power science experiments, satellites, and space probes.  It may even be used someday to propel vessels with people on board to other planets.  Let's take a look at three basic kinds of nuclear space technology!

This week is National Nuclear Science Week - an exciting week of learning, teaching and interacting on all things nuclear-related.  (You can read about the history of National Nuclear Science Week, or NNSW, by following this link.)

Our latest Friday Matinee video is a fascinating time-lapse produced by Georgia Power to show the entire process of installing one of the two steam generators at its Plant Vogtle expansion.

Last week, the American Nuclear Society announced its new K-12 STEM education initiative Navigating Nuclear - Energizing Our World.

By James Conca

This week's ANS Nuclear Cafe Friday Matinee is an excellent, professional and very modern video tour of the renowned MIT reactor facility.  This entertaining video was produced in an extremely up-to-date style sure to take you in - so don't start watching it unless you have about 18 minutes to sit back and enjoy it.

by Will Davis, from the American Nuclear Society 2018 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia

ANS President Bob Coward

If you walked around the palatial Philadelphia venue of the 2018 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting and bumped into outgoing ANS President Bob Coward or, for that matter, attended one of a number of sessions there, you might have heard him quote exactly, to the hour, how much time he had left as the ANS President.  Not that he was eager to leave - in fact, it seemed as if Coward was marking how much time he had left to continue to make an impact.

Podcast at RadioNuclear is today's Matinee.

https://vimeo.com/269002443

Watch Bill Magwood's presentation

The North Carolina State University Department of Nuclear Engineering recently shared with us a video of ANS member William D. Magwood, IV. Director-General, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) as he presented Nuclear Energy: Where Are We, Where Are We Going.  Enjoy!

Watch ANS Social Media Team member Douglas E. Hardtmayer talk about his hopes for the future of nuclear.

ANS member and Social Media Team member Douglas E. Hardtmayer is a nuclear engineer and host of the RadioNuclear podcast. Watch his TEDx talk as he discusses his hopes to change some of the most common misconceptions about nuclear energy and technology, and makes the case for it being a vital key in sustaining the future prosperity of mankind. Currently, Hardtmayer is a grad student studying nuclear engineering at The Ohio State University.

This week's video is a five-minute-plus "tour de force" on the actual steps of fabrication required to manufacture the integral reactors used in the latest Russian nuclear powered icebreakers.  The impressive shop operations required to fabricate such a system are usually not seen widely, but in this case, Atomenergomash shows the entire process in both computer graphics and in actual film shot during fabrication.  Atomenergomash is the design division of Russian nuclear state enterprise Rosatom; one of the subsidiaries of Atomenergomash is the storied "Joint Stock Company Afrikantov," which is the section responsible for design and fabrication of sea-going nuclear power plants.

By Aristidis (Aries) Loumis

Offsetting the shock of this week's announcement that FirstEnergy intends to shut down its entire fleet of nuclear plants (Davis-Besse, Perry and Beaver Valley) early - the first whole fleet early shutdown declaration in this increasingly dreary nuclear season - we have some good news of the progress underway at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

In the last half of 1968, Public Service of Colorado obtained the necessary approvals from the US Atomic Energy Commission and from the Colorado Public Service Commission to begin the actual construction of its Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station.

By Don Eggett and Mimi Holland Limbach - PBNC 2018 meeting co-chairs

By Will Davis

There's been a ton of news since RadioNuclear.org's newest episode! ANS Social Media Team member and program host Doug Hardtmayer picked out three that had a lot to unpack, so  enjoy his extended news segment! The first item he discusses is the new MOU signed between the Ukraine and Holtec to build multiple SMR-160's in the Ukraine by 2026. Doug also discusses Mark Z. Jacobson's decision to drop the lawsuit against PNAS and Christopher Clack, and speculate some of the reasons he may have dropped the case. Lastly, Doug tackles a new Greenpeace study from Fukushima that will surely make its rounds in the anti-nuclear community, and discuss some questionable findings from this study. Doug's is joined this week by two senior-level board members from First Energy, owner of the Davis-Bessie and Perry Nuclear Power Plants, Ohio's nuclear future!