ANS Nuclear Cafe

The ANS Nuclear Criticality Safety Division (NCSD) is sponsoring a special session at the upcoming American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting in Reno, Nev., June 15-19. The session is titled "Critical and Subcritical Experiments" and will commence the morning of Wednesday, June 18. This session will contribute to the long history and hundreds of technical papers related to critical-mass experiments that first began at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the 1940s.

It's time for the 204th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers and Authors - and this week, it's hosted right here at the ANS Nuclear Cafe.  The best pro-nuclear authors and bloggers have lined up to submit their choices for this week's compilation.

ICOSA Media caught up with NuScale chief executive officer Chris Colbert and TerraPower CEO John Gilleland at the recent CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Tex. The two leaders of these innovative nuclear energy companies discuss the how's and why's of their small and beautiful reactor designs-the NuScale Small Modular reactor and the TerraPower Traveling Wave reactor.

"Another victory like this will ruin us"

On March 31-April 1, Nuclear Energy Insider held its 4th Annual Small Modular Reactor (SMR) conference in Charlotte, NC (following on the 2nd ANS SMR Conference in November 2013-for notes and report from that embedded topical meeting, see here).

There has been an increasing amount of press lately about the growing number of nations on the African continent interested in exploring the benefits of nuclear energy. South Africa has led the way in this realm, having had operational nuclear power for many years. Kenya plans to follow next.

The 203rd Nuclear Energy Blogger Carnival has been posted at Thorium MSR.  You can click here to see this latest installment in a long running tradition among the top English language pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

Near Augusta, Georgia, the first new commercial nuclear power reactors built in the United States in 30 years continue to take shape. This latest video update features the recent heavy lift of the massive 5-story CA20 module, which will house the spent fuel pool, fuel transfer canal, and other essential components for Unit 3. The video also features a visit by US Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz, day-to-day problem-solving operations at the site's operations control center (especially during recent unusually cold weather), and the immeasurable beneficial economic and other impacts on the region's economy and school systems. Fuel loading and connection to the grid is scheduled for Unit 3 in 2017, and Unit 4 in 2018.

The American Nuclear Society's Center for Nuclear Science and Technology Information will sponsor a full-day teacher workshop on Saturday, June 14, at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. The workshop-Detecting Radiation in Our Radioactive World-is for science educators, including biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, physical science, life science, environmental, general science, and elementary teachers. The workshop will be held the day before the beginning of the ANS Annual Meeting in Reno.

The 202nd Nuclear Energy Blogger Carnival has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to see this latest installment in a long running tradition among the top English language pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

This excerpt from the Discovery Channel's How It's Made series documents the making of a spent nuclear fuel container.

Earlier this month, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) published its annual survey on nuclear engineering enrollment and degrees (check out the full report here). The 2013 data shows enrollment and the number of graduates in nuclear engineering programs along with a survey of where students are working after graduation.

Thirty-five years ago this week, a nuclear reactor located on an island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, suffered a partial core melt.

The 201st Nuclear Energy Blogger Carnival has been posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome.  You can click here to see the latest installment in a long running tradition among the top English language pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

Don Miley of Idaho National Laboratory leads a highly enjoyable and thought-provoking tour through the images, perceptions, and yes, the reality of 'nuclear' and nuclear energy research through history.

Hallam Nuclear Power Facility; part of Sheldon Station.

In our previous installment we looked at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Five Year Plan for development of commercial nuclear power in the United States. In this final installment, we'll look at two programs that were initiated in the mid-1950s to help launch the era of construction of commercial power reactors-the Civilian Application Program, and the Power Demonstration Reactor Program.

At this site in January, I made the case that there is significant and persistent prejudice against nuclear power among both the public and policymakers. In February, I discussed several approaches to ameliorating nuclear's current and future problems (which are largely due to said prejudice) and the limitations of each approach. This month, I will explore one last possible option: challenging the biased and unfair treatment of nuclear under current policies and regulation-in court.

The 200th Nuclear Energy Blogger Carnival has been posted at Atomic Power Review.  You can click here to see the latest installment in a long running tradition among the top English language pro-nuclear bloggers and authors.

The world's first Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactor is scheduled to begin operation later this year at the Sanmen Nuclear Power Station in China. Another AP1000 is scheduled to go online later this year at the Haiyang nuclear power plant in China, with two more AP1000 units to be operational at those sites in 2015, and four additional to follow after that.