Have you ever heard the joke about the football player who was so ugly that, whenever he stepped onto the field, he was penalized 15 yards for illegal use of face? Okay, you probably haven't heard that one before, because I just made it up. The concept of ugliness, both in the abstract and as attributed to specific entities, has long inspired creativity; after all, it spurred me to develop that magnificent joke. (For you young folks out there, the term "illegal use of hands" used to be applied to something one shouldn't do in football, only in the last few years the terminology has changed, so . . . ahh, skip it.)

On August 25, 2011, I had the privilege of attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Center for Advanced Engineering Research (CAER) located in Bedford County, Va., near Lynchburg. The crowd at the event included representatives of local, state, and federal governments, as well as a number of area business people, academics, and boosters.

The 68th Carnival of Nuclear Energy Blogs is online now at Deregulate the Atom

The hunt is on in Vietnam, Turkey, and elsewhere

It's time to make plans to attend the American Nuclear Society's 2011 Winter Meeting and Nuclear Technology Expo, this year held in Washington, DC, on October 30-November 3 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

The American Nuclear Society's Young Members Group, with the help of ANS's Nuclear Installation Safety Division, is organizing a panel session at the Young Professionals Congress (an embedded topical at the 2011 ANS Winter Meeting) on the history of severe nuclear accidents.

ANS President Eric Loewen sends letter to Chairman Jaczko and NRC commissioners to stress the importance and obligation to complete licensing application

Follow the ANS Twitter feed for breaking news:  @ans_org

ANS Hurricane Nuclear Watch for

Projected path of Hurricane Irene 8/26-28/2011

1700 HRS Aug. 26, 2011-Nuclear energy facilities are prepared to safely withstand high winds and heavy rain as the eastern United States braces for Hurricane Irene to make landfall this weekend.

Dominion's North Anna Power Station Restores Offsite Power

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake (USGS data) shook much of the east coast at 1:51 PM eastern time today. Dominion's North Anna reactors went off line safely and are on emergency power using four diesel generators.  (See full text of NRC press release below)

Editor: Dan Yurman

It's the Dog Days of Summer (at least by some definitions).

Box Scores

The utility's board of directors will spend $4 billion-$5 billion completing the 1,260 MW reactor

Curbing domestic oil use is a key driver

Victor Francis Hess was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for discovering "cosmic rays." Hess did some of his research in a very bold manner-here's some of his story.

Two members of the American Nuclear Society were named Fellows during the June 2011 ANS annual conference. These awards were presented in recognition of the Fellows' significant contributions and achievements to nuclear science and technology.

The nuclear renaissance began in the 1990s when reactors began to achieve better than 90-percent up time. The next step is to build new plants on time and within budget. - Nuclear Energy Institute