ANS News


ANS recommends updates to repository standards, asks for feedback

February 17, 2023, 8:00AMANS News
Two workers walk down an underground passageway at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant transuranic waste repository in New Mexico. (Photo: DOE)

While still lacking a deep geological repository for the permanent disposal of its commercial used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the United States does have regulatory standards for geological nuclear waste disposal.

Having been written nearly 40 years ago, however, those standards are outmoded and lack transparency, according to a special committee of the American Nuclear Society, which has released draft recommendations on revising public health and safety standards for future geological repository projects in the United States.

The launch of the ANS STEM Academy

February 14, 2023, 7:01AMANS News

The new ANS STEM Academy launched at the end of 2022 encompasses all of the American Nuclear Society’s educational programs. It brings together a state-of-the-art curriculum with nuclear experts and enriches classroom experiences to enable a national expansion of K-12 nuclear science and technology education. The new program strives to serve educators, students, and everyone interested in nuclear science and technology.

YMG launches volunteer incentive program

February 6, 2023, 9:48AMANS News

The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (professional divisions, ANS governance, local sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to that of a professional. With this mission statement in mind, the YMG decided to gamify member engagement to encourage YMG member participation in Society events.

Nominations for national awards open for 2023 ANS Annual Meeting

February 3, 2023, 7:01AMANS News

Nominations for the 2023 Annual Meeting awards are now being accepted, through the deadline of March 1. Hash Hashemian, chair of the ANS Honors and Awards Committee, urged members in a letter posted online to nominate their peers: “Your nomination of highly qualified individuals is the key step in recognizing their contributions and ensuring that the ANS Honors and Awards Program is aware of their achievements.” The recipients of the national awards, listed below, will be honored at the 2023 ANS Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Ind. Honorees will be notified of their selection by May.

Bringing 2022 ANS Standards Committee successes into the new year

January 31, 2023, 12:01PMANS NewsPat Schroder

By all accounts, 2022 brought many successes for the American Nuclear Society’s Standards Committee, including the initiation of five projects, reaffirmation of 11 current standards, and publication of seven new or revised standards. The entire collection of ANS current standards has been approved or reaffirmed (reapproved without change) by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) within the past five years, keeping ANS in 100 percent compliance with ANSI’s requirement on maintaining current American National Standards. Also, the ANS standards program was reaccredited by ANSI on August 19, 2022, with the approval of a revised set of rules and procedures. ANS’s new rules and procedures take advantage of the opportunity to develop standards-related technical reports that may be registered with ANSI.

ANS webinar previews five CONTE 2023 presentations

January 30, 2023, 12:00PMANS News

The Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2023) is still a few weeks off, but ANS offered a preview during a webinar on January 19. Moderated by Billy Wilson, senior engineer of nuclear training (for eLearning) at Ontario Power Generation, the webinar featured four panelists who discussed their upcoming presentations that will be delivered at CONTE 2023.

Deadline approaching for abstract submissions to the 2023 NETS conference

January 27, 2023, 7:01AMANS News

This year the American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2023) conference, which will be held May 7–11, 2023, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, is focusing on powering the next era of space exploration through nuclear-enabled technologies and is sure to be the can’t-miss event of the year for those in the aerospace community.

2023 ANS Leadership candidate statements

January 24, 2023, 9:33AMANS News

With the 2023 American Nuclear Society national election opening next month, ANS News asked the nominees for vice president/president-­elect and treasurer for statements outlining their goals for ANS. The nominees for vice president/president-­elect are Jeffrey King and Lisa Marshall. King, an ANS member since 2001, is the director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Center at the Colorado School of Mines; Marshall, an ANS member since 2005, is the director of outreach, retention, and engagement at North Carolina State University. The elected candidates will succeed current ANS vice president/president-­elect Kenneth Peterson following the ANS Annual Meeting in June, when Peterson becomes president.

ANS offers glimpse into upcoming CONTE 2023 meeting

January 17, 2023, 3:00PMANS News

The American Nuclear Society will host a special preview of its upcoming training and education conference this Thursday, January 19. The hourlong program on the ANS Conference on Nuclear Training and Education (CONTE 2023) starts at 1:00 p.m. eastern time.

Register now: Hear from some of the top experts who will be presenting at CONTE 2023, which takes place February 6–9 in Amelia Island, Fla.

University of Wisconsin nuclear engineering student Grace Stanke is crowned Miss America 2023

December 16, 2022, 11:58AMANS News

Stanke being crowned Miss America.

Grace Stanke, a nuclear engineering student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who has partnered with ANS to promote nuclear energy, has been crowned as Miss America 2023. After competing in the three-night competition at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn., as the reigning Miss Wisconsin, Stanke was honored with the iconic crystal crown and a $50,000 scholarship on December 15. During her year-long reign as Miss America, she will also receive a six-figure salary and other benefits as she travels thousands of miles a month to represent the Miss America Organization and to continue advocating for nuclear energy.

During the past year, Stanke’s work with ANS has included writing articles for Nuclear Newswire about her visits to nuclear facilities in Wisconsin and about misconceptions regarding nuclear energy. She also posted a two-part video about nuclear fusion on the ANS Instagram page.

How a nuclear victory at COP27 started with a teen and a text

December 15, 2022, 7:02AMANS News

As Seth Grae was preparing to return home from COP27, where he attended as an American Nuclear Society delegate, he had no idea that he was about to be part of a last-minute win for nuclear energy. Grae, the founder and chief executive officer of Lightbridge Corporation (NASDAQ: LTBR), felt that the nuclear industry had exceeded expectations at the two-week conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The first-ever International Atomic Energy Agency pavilion dedicated solely to nuclear energy was buzzing with delegates eager to educate the public. But hours before COP27 was to end, Grae received a text—the message of which would end up reaching the conference negotiation room.

The text came from a delegate, a teenager from Sweden who spotted an issue with the preliminary draft of the final COP27 decision.

Jigar Shah talks about the DOE’s Loan Programs Office

December 14, 2022, 9:30AMANS News

Shah

American Nuclear Society executive director/chief executive officer Craig Piercy interviewed Jigar Shah, the director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), in an ANS members-only online event on December 7. Shah and Piercy discussed the LPO’s role in assisting the U.S. nuclear energy industry both domestically and internationally in working toward the decarbonization of the power sector. The interview served as a follow-up to Shah’s article in Nuclear News, “Deploy, deploy, deploy: Achieving our climate goals requires nuclear this decade” (November 2022, p. 12).

Shah’s expertise: Before becoming LPO director in early 2021, Shah was president of Generate Capital, which he cofounded as an investment and operating platform for sustainable infrastructure, including distributed energy storage, microgrids, fuel cells, electric vehicles, and organic waste management. He also founded SunEdison, which pioneered “pay as you save” financing for solar energy. In addition, he was the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs address climate change.

DOE awards $800K to ANS, ECA to engage on nuclear energy

December 9, 2022, 7:00AMANS News

The Department of Energy yesterday awarded the American Nuclear Society and Energy Communities Alliance Inc. (ECA) a combined $800,000 to connect with communities across the country and establish education and outreach opportunities in nuclear energy. (A Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit, ECA “brings together local government officials to share information, establish policy positions, and promote community interests to address an increasingly complex set of constituent, environmental, regulatory, and economic development needs,” according to its website.)

ANS-DOE discussion on decarbonization

December 6, 2022, 3:01PMANS News

ANS will host a members-only event on December 7 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST with Jigar Shah, director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). Craig Piercy, ANS executive director and chief executive officer, will lead the interview.

Register now: Hear about the ambitious goals of the Biden administration to decarbonize the power sector by 2035, which were highlighted in Shah’s article in the November issue of Nuclear News. Shah will also discuss how nuclear can be an important part of the decarbonized energy mix in the United States and how he believes the LPO can support the administration’s target.

Four recipients awarded ANS Presidential Citations

December 1, 2022, 9:35AMANS News

At this year’s Winter Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, American Nuclear Society President Steven Arndt honored four ANS members with Presidential Citations. The president of ANS has the privilege of presenting presidential citations to individuals who, in their opinion, have demonstrated outstanding effort in some manner for the benefit of ANS and/or the nuclear community.

The awards are “highlighted throughout our community as a personal outreach to our recipients to say, ‘well done,’” said Arndt.

Art exhibit visits IIT

November 28, 2022, 3:00PMANS News
A room full of displays at the Art of the Reactor exhibit. (Photo: IIT)

Nuclear power plant cooling towers are easily recognizable for their familiar hyperboloid shape. But an art exhibit running at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago aims to give visitors a different perspective.

The Art of the Reactor, an exhibit by the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History and hosted by IIT’s Lewis College of Science and Letters, opened on November 4 and runs until Sunday, December 4 at Hermann Hall on the IIT campus.