ANS Nuclear Cafe

The ANS Nuclear Cafe is a blog owned and edited by the American Nuclear Society. Information contained on the ANS Nuclear Cafe has been provided by numerous sources. Therefore, the American Nuclear Society assumes no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of information contained herein. DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in posted articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Nuclear Society. The views expressed here are those of the individual authors. ANS takes no ownership of their views. The American Nuclear Society assumes no responsibility or liability for any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained on this site.


The “I’m a Nuke” Project: The Epic Saga of Tim the Vagabond Nuclear Engineer

December 12, 2013, 7:00AMANS Nuclear CafeMark Reed

Young Member Group 200x52Like many young and restless Ph.D. recipients, Tim Lucas was stricken with insatiable wanderlust. After completing his Doctorate in nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tim cast off the shackles of his societal commitments to begin a new life as a roving vagabond. Tim, who lived on his beloved boat Slick throughout grad school, set sail from Boston two years ago. He first headed south to the Caribbean, then through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos. He drifted among the South Pacific archipelagos, embracing all the pleasures of peripatetic life. Eventually, he finagled his way across Asia and into the Mediterranean, where he now meanders through the Dodecanese.

Past, Present, and Promise 3: Return to the NS Savannah

December 5, 2013, 7:00AMANS Nuclear CafeWill Davis

Previous articles in this series were published on November 8 and November 14; this is the third and final installment of the series, which concludes just prior to the 60th anniversary of President Eisenhower's famous "Atoms for Peace" speech.  That speech, whose official title was "Atomic Power for Peace," was delivered to the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 8, 1953 and its ramifications for the future of civil nuclear energy the world over were immense.

Nuclear Matinee: Removal of Spent Fuel from Fukushima Pool No. 4

November 22, 2013, 7:00AMANS Nuclear Cafe

News out of Fukushima-Daiichi this week is encouraging:  TEPCO successfully transferred the first batch of fuel rod assemblies from the reactor unit No. 4 spent fuel pool to a common fuel pool building offering longer-term stable storage conditions. Completing the process for the more than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies that remain at No. 4 is projected to take a year, and will be a first major step toward decommissioning of the site.

Past, Present and Promise 2: The N.S. Savannah… Then

November 14, 2013, 7:00AMANS Nuclear Cafe

savannah 240x160

NS Savannah

An odd sidelight of my years in the Navy as a Reactor Operator was the time that we were called upon to perform work on the preserved ships at Patriot's Point Naval Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.  This interlude allowed me to become intimately familiar with a ship that was totally out of place at that anchorage of the aged: the nuclear powered commercial ship N.S. Savannah.

Nuclear Undone: A Familiar Advocate Takes Charge

November 13, 2013, 12:18PMANS Nuclear CafeWill Davis

Lenka Kollar

Readers of the ANS Nuclear Cafe blog will have seen, from time to time, the work of Lenka Kollar, educating and informing about a wide variety of nuclear issues.  Kollar, formerly of Argonne National Laboratory, has made the bold decision to make her own way as a nuclear advocate and consultant. We had a chance to catch up with Ms. Kollar during the 2013 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. and ask her a few questions about her just-launched and exciting new initiative Nuclear Undone.