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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Argonne opens registration for D&D training course
Registration is open for Argonne National Laboratory’s Facility Decommissioning Training Course, a four-day instruction designed for those responsible for the decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and who are looking to understand the full breadth and depth of the D&D processes.
The next session will be held July 16–19 in Santa Fe, N.M. Information on the course and how to register can be found here.
James R. Lilienthal was elected President of the American Nuclear Society in 1972. He joined the American Nuclear Society in 1958 and served in a number of positions, including chair of the Remote Systems Technology Division, member of the Program Committee, Publications Committee, Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Nominating Committee, and the 1968 International Meeting Steering Committee.
Lilienthal was born on August 14, 1916. He started his career in 1940, doing acceptance tests and designing servosystems for gyrocompasses and associated fire control equipment for Sperry Gyroscope Company. During the war, he became assistant product engineer for development and production of an airborne gyroscopically stabilized radar system for B29s.
In early 1947, he moved to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (now Los Alamos National Laboratory), where he initially headed the Special Problems Group of the Chemistry Metallurgy Research (CMR) Division. There, he worked on the design and construction of the first hot cell laboratory at LASL. This in turn led him, in 1948, to help establish a Hot Laboratory Committee with several others. Among them was Mel Feldman, who would later become ANS president (1975-6). The Hot Laboratory Committee merged with ANS in 1958 and is now the Remote Systems Technology Division.
In 1950, Lilienthal became group leader of the Instrumentation and Engineering Group. In that capacity, he designed and handled the instrumentation for the first thermonuclear weapons test codename “Mike,” which took place at Eniwetok in the South Pacific in 1952. He worked on Eniwetok for six weeks as part of a project known as “Operation Ivy.”
Back at LASL, he worked on the design and construction of the CMR Materials Sciences Building in the early 1950s. Later, he worked on another hot cell complex for examining irradiated uranium fuel and irradiated plutonium. In 1967, he was also named assistant division leader of the CMR Division (which later became 2 divisions—the Chemistry-Materials Science Division and the Chemistry-Nuclear Chemistry Division—with him as assistant division leader of both).
He retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1977.
Lilienthal earned a bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from Webb Institute of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in 1938.
James Lilienthal was born on September 8, 1995.
Read Nuclear News from July 1972 for more on Jim Lilienthal.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 11:00am CST