ANS News

ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy was a recent guest on the Titans of Nuclear podcast, hosted by Bret Kugelmass. The podcasts feature interviews with experts throughout the nuclear community, covering advanced technology, economics, policy, industry, and more.

The wide-ranging discussion with Piercy tackled diverse subjects—from his Washington, D.C., policymaking background, to ANS’s role in addressing challenging nuclear issues, to waste management and climate change.

ANS is celebrating the success of its first Virtual Annual Meeting, which drew a record 2,346 registered attendees.

On the heels of that success, ANS has announced that the Utility Working Conference (UWC) will also be converted to a virtual event in 2020. The one-day UWC Virtual Summit, titled, “It’s Go Time: Creating Momentum Toward Transformational Change,” will be held August 11.

The American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute have organized a workshop for industry partners to discuss standards needs to support advanced reactors. The workshop will be conducted virtually through the Zoom platform

The workshop will be held on Tuesday, June 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (EDT).

For more than 50 years, the ANS Honors and Awards Program has recognized outstanding achievements and meritorious service in the various fields served by our Society.

The recipients of the national awards listed below will be honored on November 16 during the opening plenary of the ANS Winter Meeting. Honorees will be notified of their selection by October.

Snouffer

Patrick Snouffer, a senior nuclear engineer at Bechtel National who has worked on Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant and on initial design work for the Versatile Test Reactor, will take on a new type of assignment in January 2021.

Seven newly elected officers of the ANS Board of Directors began their terms on June 11 following the Board meeting during the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting. Continue reading to learn more about the new officers.

ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy has joined Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy (GCNP), making a commitment, along with over 50 other leaders in the GCNP network, to break down gender barriers in the field of nuclear policy.

Dunzik-Gougar

Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar is the 66th president of the American Nuclear Society. On June 11, during a meeting of the Board of Directors that—like the rest of the 2020 ANS Annual Meeting—was held virtually, the duties of president were officially transferred from Marilyn Kray to Dunzik-Gougar, who will serve a one-year term as president. Kray will remain on the Board of Directors for one year as immediate past president.

American Nuclear Society President Marilyn Kray recognized recipients of four ANS awards on June 9 during the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting. The following awards were presented as part of the ANS President’s Special Session.

Kray

American Nuclear Society President Marilyn Kray announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with other key nuclear organizations today during the President’s Special Session of the Virtual Annual Meeting.

The recipients of four American Nuclear Society awards were recognized Monday during the opening plenary session of the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting. Hussein S. Khalil, Honors and Awards Committee chair, virtually presented each award in succession.

American Nuclear Society Fellows hold the highest grade of membership in the Society. The following new Fellows were honored during Monday’s opening plenary session of the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting.

The 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting promises to be a unique event in the history of the American Nuclear Society. The first all-virtual ANS meeting runs from June 8 to 11 and is being conducted via Zoom, a videoconferencing app that has gained widespread popularity since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 1,700 registrants have already signed up, making for the largest ANS meeting in modern history. More than 90 sessions will be held, with over 200 papers to be presented. Meeting registration will be open through Wednesday, June 10.

Piercy

Nesbit

ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 28 urging the agency to resume work on a proposed rulemaking to allow spent fuel reprocessing in the United States. As the letter explains, “the lack of an efficient, technically robust, and technology-inclusive regulatory foundation for reprocessing and recycling is a barrier to innovation.”

Steve Nesbit, who was recently elected ANS’s next vice president/president-elect, chairs the ANS Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force and helped develop the letter. ANS News staff talked with Nesbit about the development and goals of ANS’s participation in the NRC’s rulemaking process.

Lyons

Peter B. Lyons, ANS Fellow and member since 2003, is set to receive the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal in a virtual award ceremony presentation held June 8 during the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting. Lyons is being recognized for his influential leadership in nuclear technology policy over five decades and for the vital role he played in the nuclear renaissance of the early 21st century.

The ANS Young Members Group (YMG) continues to deliver an in-depth look at the Department of Energy’s national laboratories through a series of live webinars called Spotlight on National Labs. The fourth and most recent webinar focused on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located in Golden, Colo., and its role in advancing clean energy technologies and their integration into the global energy system. “It is exciting to have the lead renewable energy national lab discuss their work toward a flexible grid of the future and system integration efforts among all carbon-free sources, including nuclear energy,” said Harsh Desai, YMG chair.

American Nuclear Society members Mark T. Peters, Kenneth W. Robuck, and Thomas R. White were reelected to the Nuclear Energy Institute’s board of directors during its May 20 meeting. The board is composed of executives from companies that hold licenses to operate nuclear energy facilities and selected representatives of other organizations involved in commercial nuclear technologies. Members of the executive committee and the board’s non-utility members typically serve three-year terms, and officers are elected annually.

American Nuclear Society members who are parent­ing K–12 students have been drafted to serve as home ed­ucators during the COVID-19 pandemic. While schools may have provided e-learning resources, the school year is at an end. How can concerned parents prevent the dreaded summer slide?

Here’s our suggestion: turn to Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World, ANS’s K–12 curriculum devel­oped in partnership with Discovery Education, and teach nuclear chem­istry! Even if you live apart from the children in your life, consider using Zoom to introduce Navigating Nuclear to children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.

Craig Piercy

Dear ANS Members,

In the midst of a global pandemic, it feels insufficient somehow to begin a letter with the oft-used expression of hope that it “finds you well.” We are all affected by COVID-19 in some way that makes us less “well” in our lives, whether caused by the virus itself or the socioeconomic ramifications of our response to it. Perhaps it is more realistic for me to hope that you and your family are healthy, generally well-provisioned, and gainfully occupied as we all, collectively and individually, find a way to make the best of our “new normal.”

Marilyn Kray

What can be said that hasn’t already been said about these “uncertain times”? There are numerous mottos and catchphrases out there. I choose to follow this one: “Stay home. Stay positive.”

I’ve been staying home, which is quite a change for me since I spent over half of the first two months of 2020 traveling. It all came to a screeching halt in early March. Working remotely is not that different for me, as I’m used to working in hotels and on planes. The biggest difference is that when my husband walks by and I order a Diet Coke and extra pretzels, he doesn’t respond like an American Airlines flight attendant!