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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.
Peter Klumpp
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 258-271
Technical Paper | Economic | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33725
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The main reasons for conducting research and development (R&D) on an advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) with a high conversion ratio include an awareness of the limited availability of natural nuclear fuels, the low degree of utilization of this resource in present light water reactors (L WRs), and the necessary high capital investments in breeder reactor systems with high fuel utilization. Consequently, these R&D efforts, on the one hand, must greatly increase the utilization of uranium compared to the level achieved in L WR technology and, on the other hand, must reduce the capital investment compared to what is required in breeder reactor technology. If these criteria can be met economically, a future role would be indicated for APWRs as an interim technology during the transition from LWRs to breeder reactors and as a supplement to the latter line in a breeder/APWR symbiosis. It appears that an APWR will use nuclear resources economically but will also create higher costs for an electric utility than current LWR technology.
