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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.
Kevin W. Brinckman, Mark A. Chaiko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 133 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 133-139
Technical Note | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3164
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The TRAC-BF1 computer code is used to analyze the fluid pressure response for a waterhammer event in a water-filled pipe with entrapped air. TRAC's capabilities are assessed by comparison against a method-of-characteristics (MOC) solution of pressure-wave propagation in a gas/liquid interface system. A vertically oriented pipe with air initially occupying up to 10% of the pipe volume is considered. A step increase in pressure is imposed at the inlet, and the fluid pressure response in the pipe is calculated. TRAC correctly predicts that the peak pressure with entrapped air is substantially higher than it would be in a purely liquid system. For an initial air volume equal to 10% of the pipe volume, the peak pressure calculated by TRAC compares within 1% of the MOC result. For smaller initial air volumes, TRAC underpredicts the peak pressure disturbance by up to 14% compared to the MOC. The TRAC solution exhibits a degree of long-term artificial damping, but in all cases it captures the basic features of the pressure response for a waterhammer event in a system with entrapped air.
