Meetings


Nuclear science event hosted at Illinois Tech

November 5, 2024, 7:19AMANS Nuclear CafeJoseph Koblich
ANS members Eric Jebsen (from left), Jeff Terry, and Amanda Bachmann by the ANS Chicago Section display during setup for Nuclear Science Week at Illinois Tech. (Photo: Jeff Terry)

American Nuclear Society member Jeff Terry hosted this year’s Nuclear Science Week meeting at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) on October 26. In his opening remarks, Terry, a physics professor at Illinois Tech, described the institute’s 12-year history of Nuclear Science Week events, going back to the 2012 meeting that included the Nuclear Clean Energy Indy car on display.

National awards to be presented at ANS Winter Conference

November 4, 2024, 12:00PMANS News

One of the few constants at American Nuclear Society national meetings is the recognition of exceptional individuals in the nuclear community. ANS President Lisa Marshall has named this season’s award recipients, who will receive recognition at the upcoming Winter Conference and Expo in Orlando, Fla.

ANS also announces the winners of awards presented by the Society’s professional divisions. These awards will be mailed to the recipients, and the divisions will recognize honorees at various division functions and meetings this fall. The 19 professional divisions of ANS are constituent units and represent a vast array of nuclear science and technology disciplines.

New meeting, better story

November 4, 2024, 9:31AMNuclear NewsCraig Piercy

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

As you may have heard, the American Nuclear Society recently entered into a 50/50 joint venture with the Nuclear Energy Institute to host an annual industrywide meeting in late summer, which will replace ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly. Simply put, we are taking the best of both events to create the ultimate nuclear power meeting of the year. If you are a longtime UWC attendee, you will feel right at home in the aisles of the exhibit hall, or in the working sessions designed to tackle the shared practical challenges operators face. NEI will bring the nuclear C-suite presence along with the freshest insights on industrywide issues.

The U.S. nuclear industry is growing, and we need to get even bigger if we are going to make good on the promise of a resurgence. The auto industry has SEMA, the tech industry has CES. It’s time the U.S. nuclear industry had its top event of the year.

NRC schedules Atlanta meeting

October 22, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear News

A hybrid public meeting hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on October 30 will feature chair Christopher Hanson and commissioners David Wright, Annie Caputo, and Bradley Crowell.

Setting the nuclear theme

October 17, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear NewsCraig Piercy

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

Twice a year, the ANS president and I work with the general chair of our next national meeting to set the theme of the event.

It’s no easy process. Sure, one can be anodyne, picking anything with “collaborations” or “partnerships” in it—perfectly acceptable but easily forgotten. “Partnerships for Innovation.” Yay! Wait, what?

The true goal is to capture the zeitgeist, the vibe that can frame properly a fulsome conversation around the state of applied nuclear science and technology at this particular moment in time. Yes, our theme is intended largely for the opening plenary, but I’ve often seen speakers use it as a conversational leverage point in the technical and executive sessions that follow.

IFRIS conference to showcase humanities, social science insights regarding nuclear

October 4, 2024, 7:00AMANS Nuclear Cafe

Between reactor restarts, a hoped-for tripling of nuclear energy by 2050, and advances in permanent solutions for radioactive waste disposal, the time is ripe for a close yet holistic look at the state of the nuclear industry. The present is informed by both future hopes and the inherited past—that is a key point in the upcoming workshop “Nuclear Revival and Legacies: Insights from Humanities and Social Science,” to be held October 21–22 in Champs-sur-Marne on the outskirts of Paris, France.

N.C. energy council talks nuclear policy and workforce

October 1, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear News
Attendees at the North Carolina Nuclear Energy Industry Advisory Council meeting. (Photo: Steve Rea)

A mix of nuclear professionals and advocates gathered las week to discuss public policy, workforce needs, and regulatory matters at a meeting of the North Carolina Nuclear Energy Industry Advisory Council.

ANS, NEI to partner on premier 2025 nuclear conference

September 11, 2024, 12:01PMANS News
ANS’s Craig Piercy and NEI’s Maria Korsnick announced their organizations’ collaboration at NEA 2024. (Photo: Dot Schneider/ANS)

The American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute have announced a new partnership regarding two of their flagship industry conferences.

ANS’s annual Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly will merge during the week of September 8, 2025, in Atlanta, Ga. The news was shared during the kickoff of the 2024 NEA meeting, happening this week in Philadelphia, Pa.

DNFSB to hold public meeting on aging management

August 6, 2024, 3:00PMRadwaste Solutions

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which provides safety oversight of Department of Energy sites, is holding a public hearing on August 14 on benchmarking of best practices in the management of aging infrastructure.

According to the DNFSB, the goal of the hearing is to gather information from relevant organizations on best practices in infrastructure aging management to inform the development of potential safety improvements to DOE programs.

NWTRB meeting to focus on DOE plans for spent fuel disposal

August 1, 2024, 7:00AMRadwaste Solutions

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB) announced it will hold a public meeting on August 29 to review information on the Department of Energy’s management and plans for disposing of its spent nuclear fuel. The hybrid (in-person/virtual) meeting will begin at 8:00 a.m. EDT and is scheduled to adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m. EDT.

ANS Annual Conference: Nuclear waste

June 27, 2024, 3:03PMNuclear News
The waste management panel, from left: moderator Todd Allen, Fred Dilger of Nevada, Katrina McMurrian of the NWSC, the DOE’s Paul Murray, Jenifer Shafer of ARPA-E, and Kuhika Gupta of the University of Oklahoma. (Photo: ANS)

With increasing demand for clean, reliable, and safe sources of energy, the conversation around nuclear energy is changing. And so too is the conversation around nuclear waste, even as the country struggles to find a path for the disposal of its spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. From community engagement, to recycling, to existing success around other forms of nuclear waste management, the conversation around nuclear waste has many different angles, and an executive session of the American Nuclear Society’s 2024 Annual Conference in Las Vegas aimed to delve into some of those discussions.

ANS Annual Conference: Workforce issues highlighted

June 24, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
The workforce development panel, from left, moderator Amanda Bachmann of Argonne, Lori Brady of NEI, Joseph Stainback of Roane State, Ilana Bowen of Constellation, and Nicole Hughes of Thor Thomas. (Source: ANS)

Industry leaders met this week to discuss the importance of shoring up nontraditional workforce pipelines to support growth in nuclear energy generation in the coming decades.

An executive panel discussed this issue last week at the American Nuclear Society’s 2024 Annual Conference in Las Vegas The industry is working to target community colleges, trade schools, vocational programs, nontraditional students, and a wider variety of educational backgrounds.

ANS Annual Conference special plenary: Our friends the isotopes

June 21, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear News
Panelists for the session, from left, panel moderator Catherine Prat, Westinghouse Electric Company; Riaz Bandali, president of Nordion; Ben Goodrich, a director at TerraPower Isotopes; Ross Radel, chief technology officer at SHINE Technologies; Harsh Desai, chief commercialization officer at Zeno Power; and Alyse Huffman, a professional staff member for the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (Photo: ANS)

“What can the atom do for you, other than produce electricity from nuclear reactors?” That was the question asked and answered during an ANS Annual Conference special plenary session on June 18, introduced by ANS President Ken Petersen and organized by the ANS Young Members Group. An expert panel discussed radioisotopes and their supply chains in the context of cancer treatment, product sterilization, power for remote applications, and used nuclear fuel recycling.

ANS Annual Conference: Nonproliferation considerations about HALEU enrichment

June 20, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News

The technical session “HALEU and Nonproliferation” on Tuesday at the American Nuclear Society Annual Conference focused on why increased nuclear fuel enrichment comes with increased responsibility. Reactor designers are pursuing high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel for their advanced designs, and technical and policy questions surrounding nuclear nonproliferation will need to be addressed if the United States is to become a HALEU supplier.

ANS Annual Conference opening plenary: Full speed ahead

June 18, 2024, 9:33AMNuclear News
From left to right, John Wagner, Secretary Granholm, Jeff Lyash, Chris Womack, have a discussion during the opening plenary of the ANS Annual Conference.

The 2024 American Nuclear Society Annual Conference opened with a bang yesterday as 1,200 attendees gathered in Las Vegas to network, collaborate, and socialize. Honors and awards were presented to several recipients, and ANS welcomed twelve new Fellows.

The plenary opened with an address from ANS Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer Craig Piercy that brought this year’s theme to the fore straight away: The time is now to deploy new nuclear projects—and not acting at this moment is simply not an option.

Annual Conference 2024: Know before you go

June 14, 2024, 6:52AMANS News

The American Nuclear Society’s 2024 Annual Conference starts this Sunday, June 16. We are looking forward to welcoming more than 1,000 members of the nuclear community in Las Vegas. This meeting is set to be one to remember, with a spectacular group of speakers lined up for our plenary sessions, executive sessions, technical tracks, and two embedded topicals—Advanced Reactor Safety and the International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants.