An image sent by NASA's Curiosity rover shortly after landing
The nuclear-powered roving robotic laboratory Curiosity touched down early on August 6, and is beaming back images while undergoing system checks. The Curiosity landing has generated worldwide interest, including interest in its plutonium power source.
Modeling the change: Commissioner Wright leads by example as the NRC faces its future
There is a modern-day parable that NRC commissioner David Wright likes to reflect on from time to time, the story of a janitor on a mission. On a visit to NASA in the 1960s, or so the story...
Jay F. Kunze—ANS member since 1960
We welcome ANS members with long careers in the community to submit their own stories so that the personal history of nuclear power can be captured. For information on submitting your stories,...
Throwback Thursday: The legend of SCRAM
Ax man. Scram. Trip. Yes, this is Throwback Thursday, but no—we aren’t revisiting the slang of American countercultures from decades past. We are, however, pondering a term central to a...
ORNL algorithm shows promise for faster inspection of nuclear materials
A software algorithm developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has reduced the time needed to inspect 3D-printed parts for nuclear applications by 85 percent, the Department of Energy...
Liftoff report lifts the lid on cost and risk in push to nth-of-a-kind reactors
The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear report that was released in March 2023 by the Department of Energy called for five to 10 signed reactor contracts for at least one reactor...
WSJ highlights current workforce challenges; signs are hopeful
A new article in the Wall Street Journal focuses on the problematic confluence of three developments: a declining number of young people pursuing nuclear engineering, an aging nuclear...
IAEA’s updated Milestones for nuclear-curious nations include a focus on SMRs
The IAEA’s Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power was last revised back in 2015. Now, about nine years later and amid a resurgence of interest in...
Berkeley Lab’s titanium beam targets one goal: Making the heaviest element yet
A plutonium target bombarded with a beam of titanium-50 in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-Inch Cyclotron for 22 days has yielded two atoms of the superheavy element 116, in a...
UMich research IDs coal plants with peak potential for a nuclear transition
Comprehensive analysis of 245 operational coal power plants in the United States by a team of researchers at the University of Michigan has scored each site’s advanced reactor hosting...
Latest electricity cost estimates get new details on nuclear
Every year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) puts out a set of technology-specific cost and performance parameters for electricity generation. Now in its 10th year, the...