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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.
Douglas A. Brownson, Anthony J. Baratta, Gordon E. Robinson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 75 | Number 1 | October 1986 | Pages 7-14
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A15972
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Following the Three Mile Island accident, a number of suggestions were offered for improving the safety of nuclear power plants. Many of these approaches involve increased dependence on complex and sophisticated safety systems and control technologies. An alternative approach to increased safety is explored; this approach involves the maximization of inherent safety features and minimization of safety and control system action. Specifically, the effects of changing pressurizer size and surge line configuration are examined to determine if the operation of the power-operated relief valve (PORV) could be eliminated during a turbine trip transient in a pressurized water reactor. The study is accomplished using the RETRAN-02 thermal-hydraulic analysis code. The results show that the opening of the PORV could be eliminated if the pressurizer size was doubled and the PORV setpoint increased slightly.
