ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
Latest News
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.
Manuel G. Vigil, Amado A. Trujillo, H. Richard Yoshimura
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | June 1983 | Pages 514-520
Technical Paper | New Directions in Nuclear Energy with Emphasis on Fuel Cycles / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33176
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Full-scale experimental measurements on the thermal effects of torch fires on a large spent nuclear fuel shipping cask have been obtained. The measured temperature data in the various materials of the multilayered cask are unique, since no torch tests have been previously performed on a cask. These data were obtained during a series of four torch tests that simulate a situation in which the relief valve of a liquefied gas tank railcar has been opened and the contents are vented and ignited so that the resultant torch impinges on the cask. An existing spent fuel cask was modified, and temperature data were obtained in the various materials of the multilayered cask using stainless-steel sheathed thermocouples. Results of these tests indicated that the surface temperatures for the cask with a voided neutron shield were about twice as high as those for a cask having a neutron shield filled with water. The wood in the impact limiter effectively prevented thermal penetration, limiting the temperature rise of the inner cavity to only 13°C in test 4. The maximum temperature rise of the inner cavity surface, which occurred in test 3 with the neutron shield voided, was 80°C. These thermal data will be used to refine a transient thermal analytical model, which can then be utilized to predict the thermal response of other nuclear material shipping system designs subjected to torch fire environments.