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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.
Zhonglu Wang, Stephen F. Kry, Rebecca M. Howell, Mohammad Salehpour
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 610-614
Neutron Measurements | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9277
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron spectra and ambient dose equivalent were determined by unfolding measured Bonner sphere system data using different unfolding methods. These methods included a maximum entropy method (MAXED code), nonlinear least-squares method (GRAVEL code) with several different starting spectra, and a genetic algorithm method. These algorithms were used to unfold measured Bonner sphere data that had been collected using a LiI(Eu) detector and activation foils. The Bonner sphere system was exposed to neutrons from a known AmBe source and at the proton accelerator facility at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The total fluence rates and total ambient dose equivalents of the neutron field agree within 7.5%, regardless of unfolding algorithm or starting spectrum. In contrast, the fluence-weighted average energy varied dramatically, depending on the starting spectrum used in the unfolding process. These findings offer insight and guidance into the use of unfolding algorithms and starting spectra for neutron spectroscopy.