ANS Nuclear Cafe

On September 11, the National Nuclear Security Administration (U.S. Department of Energy) hosted a public meeting in Chattanooga, Tenn., concerning its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the disposition of surplus weapons-grade plutonium as mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for use in power reactors. You may have seen the ANS Call to Action for the hearing and perhaps read the ANS position statement or background information.

The American Nuclear Society will welcome delegates from around the world to Chicago in August 2014 for the 8th International Conference on Isotopes (8ICI).

The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant is located on the Tennessee River near Decatur and Athens, Alabama. The site, which has three General Electric boiling water reactors, is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The 123rd weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at The Hiroshima Syndrome.

Today the ANS Nuclear Cafe Matinee takes viewers on a virtual tour of an EPR nuclear power plant, in the virtual world of Second Life.  EPR (European Pressurized Reactor or Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor) is a relatively new design, third-generation nuclear reactor, with units under construction in Finland, France, and China.

Implementation of the energy policy announced last week will keep reactors running well into the second half of the 21^st century.

The American Nuclear Society's Young Members Group (YMG) has announced the recipients of the 2012 ANS Young Members Advancement Award and the ANS Young Members Excellence Award.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats have recently released their party platforms. Here's a look at what each platform has to say about energy and environmental issues in general, and on nuclear specifically.

The September 2012 edition of the technical journal Nuclear Science and Engineering is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

The weekly Carnival is the collective voice of blogs by many of the Internet's foremost nuclear experts and advocates, who continue each week to tell the story of nuclear energy around the World Wide Web.

At the ANS 2012 Annual Meeting, ANS Public Information Committee's Dan Yurman caught up with Dr. Wade Allison, of Oxford University, UK.  They discussed radiation, health effects, Fukushima, Dr. Allison's recent book Radiation and Reason, and Dr. Allison's recent trip to Japan in this video interview.

The September issue of Nuclear News magazine is available in hard copy and electronically for American Nuclear Society members (click 'ANS Members' in left column).

A few months ago, I wrote about the need to have an active dialogue between the nuclear community and the climate change community. Since then, the severity of the drought in the Midwest has continued to worsen and push up food prices, the Mississippi River has been intermittently closed due to low water levels, some private wells are running dry, and the arctic sea ice just hit a new record low.

The draft SEIS meeting for disposition of surplus weapons plutonium in MOX fuel started out relatively smoothly-lots (and I mean lots) of pro-nuclear folks in the room; my initial estimates would put the pro-nuclear folks from the University of Tennessee and Chattannooga State University at over half the crowd present. No zombie sightings as of yet.

A quick shot of the ANS member room before the open house kicked off - students in the royal blue t-shirts are with the Chattanooga State ANS Student Section.

Hi folks, Steve Skutnik here-you may know me from The Neutron Economy blog. I'm also currently an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee. I'll be here with Suzy Hobbs-Baker (of PopAtomic Studios) and Laura Scheele live-blogging the public hearing on the use of surplus weapons plutonium in MOX fuel. I've also got a healthy contingent of eager students from the University of Tennessee here as well, eager to speak up for the nonproliferation benefits of disposing of surplus plutonium in MOX fuel.

WHO:          

On August 16, G. Ivan Maldonado, PhD, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, attended a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board Meeting on behalf of the American Nuclear Society to present comments on the use the of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel technology to accomplish the timely disposition of surplus weapons-grade plutonium.

When the heat released by nuclear fission is used in a steam plant to produce mechanical power, the second law of thermodynamics dictates that a large part of the heat must be rejected to the environment. Most land-based nuclear plants reject heat by using cooling water from a river or ocean.