Once upon a time...

I recently joined the latest social media phenomenon-"Pinterest"-after some good old-fashioned peer pressure from my pals. Basically it is an online scrapbook, where you can collect images from all over the Internet and organize or "pin" them under categories like "recipes to try" or "ideas for the garden" on your personal page. There is very little text and not much user-to-user interaction. You just browse thousands of images of party dresses, wedding ideas, art, or whatever you or other users have uploaded to the site. Essentially it's a whole lot of eye candy.

On March 21, 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a renewal of the operating license for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for an additional 20 years. Vermont Yankee's original license would have expired on March 21, 2012, and its state-issued Certificate of Public Good does expire on that date. Most commentators agree that March 21 will not be the last day the plant operates, but the date does give opponents a focal point, and they are planning some kind of civil disobedience on that day. The question remains: Who are "they"?

A so-called scientific article issued on December 19 by Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman purports that an estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan. The article, published in the International Journal of Health Services, is available by clicking here.

What questions do young people have about nuclear power? Recently, Howard Shaffer and I had two opportunities to hear their questions for ourselves.

In the past week, two exciting new art-based initiatives in the nuclear sector have come to my attention. I am thrilled about both and want to share them with my fellow American Nuclear Society members.

December 15, 1852, was the birthday of French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel, who discovered a completely unknown property of matter in March 1896.

American Nuclear Society scholarship applications for the 2012-2013 academic year are now online! Since ANS was established in 1954, it has promoted the awareness and understanding of nuclear science and technology (NS&T). To further that mission, ANS administers scholarships each year that support the development and education of those who will research and implement future applications of NS&T.

On Thursday, December 1, 2011, the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC) released a study titled Small Modular Reactors - Key to Future Nuclear Power Generation in the U. S..

University student sections of the American Nuclear Society are very involved in reaching out to the public, including teaching young students about nuclear science and hosting public forums. With the resurgence of the nuclear energy industry, nuclear engineering enrollments at universities are increasing and thus ANS student sections are becoming more involved.

On December 2 in 1942, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and their colleagues achieved the first man-made, sustained, controlled nuclear chain reaction-in a squash court beneath the football grandstand of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. That event occurred 69 years ago today!

And wins a Nobel Prize

The November issue of Nuclear News magazine, which contains a special section on waste management, is available in hard copy and electronically for American Nuclear Society members (must enter ANS user name and password in Member Center). The special section contains the following stories:

NCEES is seeking engineering professionals to participate in a content review for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. The results of this survey will be used to update the test specifications for the exam, which is typically the first step in the process leading to professional engineering licensure.

Our intrepid reporter files another update from the ANS Winter Meeting.

Our intrepid reporter files another update from the ANS Winter Meeting.

Our intrepid reporter files another update from the ANS Winter Meeting.

Snow day

Your reporter has been tramping around chilly Washington, DC, beset by an unseasonable early snow storm on Saturday. At the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting, aptly named this year, I'm collecting observations, rumors, and raw random data, throwing out the rumors and keeping the rest to post here. This will be a daily feature through Wednesday of this week.

 We are just a few days away from the 2011 Young Professionals Congress, taking place during the ANS Winter Meeting next week in Washington, DC. We have many exciting and informative sessions scheduled for the meeting-informational sessions on important current topics, workshops, and interactive skills sessions (to find out more, see Nuclear Cafe posts 9-21 and  8-30).

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is undergoing a refueling outage. For most plants, the situation would be business as usual.  The state of Vermont, however, believes it has the power to shut down Vermont Yankee in March 2012, even though the plant has a 20-year license extension from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In order to continue operations at Vermont Yankee, Entergy (the plant's owner and operator) has sued the state.