A reactor operator at MURR works with a sample can from the reactor pool. (Photo: University of Missouri)
On April 10, the University of Missouri (MU) took its first formal step toward building NextGen MURR when school officials issued the request for qualifications for the project. The RFQ is a solicitation for interested companies to offer the design, engineering, licensing, environmental, and developmental services that are needed for NextGen MURR, planned to be larger and more capable than the school’s existing University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR)—which itself has been the most powerful research reactor and most intense neutron source on any U.S. campus since it began operating in 1966.
The PULSTAR reactor at North Carolina State University. (Photo: N.C. State)
The American Nuclear Society is collaborating with the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership (KFP) at North Carolina State University to introduce a nuclear science curriculum to Kenan Fellows and the K-12 students they teach.
The Beaver Valley/Energy Harbor training management team poses in Beaver Valley’s Unit 1 simulator room. Left to right are: Phil Norgaard (fleet training manager), Jerry Manning (maintenance and technical training supervisor), Shari Cook (fleet training superintendent), Annaliese Piraino (instructional technologist), Mike Brasile (training manager), and Greg Pelka (operations training superintendent). (Photo: Energy Harbor)
The education and training of the nuclear power plant workforce is advancing in ways that are increasingly based on scientific knowledge about how the brain works. At the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pa., instructional technologist and certified nuclear instructor Annaliese B. Piraino is applying the principles of educational psychology and neuroscience to the instructional practices.
The plant, which Texas-based Vistra Corporation acquired recently from Energy Harbor, consists of two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, each with a production capacity just over 930 MWe. The operators along with the maintenance and technical staff at Beaver Valley are beginning to show the benefits of the new neuroscience-based instructional approaches to training that are being implemented by Piraino and the Beaver Valley training department.
Gary Senn and Kim Mitchell assist second graders from Chukker Creek Elementary School in Aiken, S.C., with a STEM project.
For almost four decades, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center at the University of South Carolina–Aiken (USC Aiken) have partnered to bring science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to the area's kindergarten through 12th grade students.
Jared Wicker of SRNS explains how different technologies are used to monitor the environment at SRS. (Photo: DOE)
Claflin University students recently toured the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to learn about the facilities and occupations there.
ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy introduces presenter Candace Davison at the first Nuclear Energy 101 talk of 2023.
Nuclear Energy 101, a course for congressional staffers in D.C., is back. After a hiatus of a few years, the American Nuclear Society hosted the first session of the five-part course on March 1 in the Rayburn House Office Building. This educational series has always been a great—and popular—tool for ANS to network with congressional staff and explain the basics of nuclear science and technology. Now that the country has returned (in many ways) to pre-pandemic ways, ANS thought it was the perfect time to relaunch the Nuclear Energy 101 program.
The three winners of NASA’s Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge, are, left to right, Luca Pollack, Rainelle Yasa, and Audrielle Paige Esma. (Image: NASA/Kristin Jansen and Gayle Dibiasio)
Three winners have been announced in NASA’s Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge, in which U.S. students in kindergarten through 12th grade could participate by writing about imaginary space missions using radioisotope power systems (RPSs). Out of almost 1,600 submitted entries, 45 semifinalists, and nine finalists, Luca Pollack of Carlsbad, Calif. (in the K–4th grade category), Rainelle Yasa of Los Angeles, Calif. (in the grades 5–8 category), and Audrielle Paige Esma of Wildwood, Fl. (in the grades 9–12 category) snagged the top prize in their age groups. The April 25 announcement by NASA includes links to the winning essays.