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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
A. M. Zhukeshov, Zh. M. Moldabekov, B. M. Ibraev, A. U. Amrenova, A. T. Gabdullina
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 5 | July 2021 | Pages 359-365
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1916273
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper is devoted to discussing the technical characteristics of pulsed plasma-focus (PF) generators and their features as fusion reactors as an alternative for stationary thermonuclear installations. First, the authors present results of experimental data obtained on the Pulse Plasma Accelerator–30 (PPA-30) and dense PF-4 devices. The pulse discharge current and jumped parameters and the energy distribution along and across the axis on the 31-kJ (at 30 kV and 69 μF) PPA-30 device were determined. It is indicated that plasma already is completely ionized at the kilo-ampere range and its inductance is small. The maximum energy density of the plasma was equal to 230 J/cm2 and a macrofocusing effect was observed. Second, the emission parameters of the PF-4 device were determinate. The neutron yield was equal to about 107 imp/shot. The variation of the axial and radial neutron yield was observed. Further, the problems of neutron yield on PF devices and options for the development of a fusion reactor taking into account other technical capabilities of PF are discussed. It is proposed to develop the design of PF in such a way as to take into account the peculiarities of the interaction of particles with an electric and magnetic field. In this situation, the important indicator is not the temperature of the plasma, but the geometry of the electrode system to provide a directed flow of particles.