President Corradini: Welcome to the ANS 2012 Winter Meeting

Dr. Michael Corradini

The Winter Meeting allows us to share new knowledge and lessons learned, and to network with other professionals in our field from across the country and around the world. The Meeting kicks off on Monday with the opening plenary, "Future Nuclear Technologies: Resilience and Flexibility." Of particular meaning to me is the topic of my President's Special Session, "Ten Years since the Generation IV Roadmap: Progress and Future Directions for New Reactor Technologies." The Gen IV Forum has offered many new innovations and this is a chance to reflect on those innovations and look toward the next phase of reactor design for the industry.

The many sessions available during the Meeting cover a wide range of issues including two embedded topicals - one on severe accident assessment and the other on advances in thermal hydraulics. Throughout all of the sessions at the Winter Meeting, we will discuss our successes, debate our questions, and delineate the ongoing challenges.

In addition to the great educational opportunities available, divisions and committees are meeting during the Winter Meeting to continue the important work they do in helping to lead the Society. With the completion of our strategic plan, these dedicated professionals are working together with headquarters staff to implement the plan. One aspect of this work that I want to highlight is ANS's Center for Nuclear Science and Technology Information.

Over the past six decades, professionals like you have been helping to improve quality of life by providing clean energy, medical diagnostic tools and treatments, irradiation technologies that protect our food supply, advances in security technologies, and other benefits of nuclear science and technology. The public, however, remains largely uninformed about how nuclear science and technology enrich our daily lives. This lack of awareness impedes the introduction of new technologies that can create jobs, protect the environment, and continue to improve our lives. The Center is giving us a vehicle for greater public outreach that will impact all other aspects of the Society and ultimately impact our industry.

This is an exciting time to be in our field and a great opportunity here at the Winter Meeting. I am so proud to be a member of ANS and I hope you are too.

For those of you not able to attend in person, I encourage you to follow the happenings of the Meeting through social media outlets like this blog, Facebook, and Twitter through @ans_org and #ans12. Of course, you'll get the full recap through future issues of ANS publications, ANS News and Nuclear News.

Again, welcome and thank you for coming.

Michael Corradini

ANS President 2012-2013