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Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Louis H. Roddis was the 15th President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and a Fellow of ANS.
Roddis was born on September 9, 1918. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1939, having attained a standing of number one in his class in each of his four years there. Following his graduation, he was assigned to sea duty for three years, and was in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese bombing on December 7, 1941, where he and others helped to rescue some of the crewman from the Oklahoma. In 1942, the Navy sent him to MIT, where he received a master’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering.
After finishing his degree, Roddis served on Joint Task force I, which was responsible for the atomic weapons tests in the Bikini Atoll, and then was assigned to the first training course on power reactors at Clinton Laboratories of the Manhattan Engineer District (later, Oak Ridge National Laboratory). His classmates included Hyman Rickover, under whom he later served during the design and construction of the nuclear submarines Nautilus and Sea Wolf. He also played a major role in the development of the first major nuclear power plant in the U.S. at Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
In 1955, Roddis resigned from the Navy to become deputy director of the Reactor Development Division of the Atomic Energy Commission, where he was responsible for both naval and civilian reactor programs. He left the AEC in 1958 to become president of Pennsylvania Electric Company, a subsidiary of General Public Utilities Corporation (GPU). In this position, he was responsible for the construction of the world’s first 500-kV transmission line, for which the company received the Edison Award of the Edison Electric Institute in 1962. In 1967, he became chairman of the board of Pennsylvania Electric Company and director of GPU nuclear activities, where he was responsible for the development of several nuclear power plants. Following that, in 1969, he became vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees of Consolidated Edison.
He served in that capacity until 1973, after which he became president and CEO of John J. McMullen Associates, a naval architecture and marine engineering firm. He left that position in 1976 and spent the remainder of his professional career as a member of a number of corporate boards and a private energy consultant. His clients included a number of U.S. national laboratories, government agencies, and major corporations.
Roddis was the first utility executive to serve as president of the ANS, and in addition to have served as president of the Atomic Industrial Forum (1962-64). Over the course of his career, he received recognition from many sources. In addition to being a Fellow of the ANS, he was a Fellow of the AAAS, the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, and ASME. In 1957, he received the AEC’s Outstanding Service Award; in 1958, the Arthur S. Fleming Award for outstanding government service in the scientific field; and in 1984, the Department of Energy’s Exceptional Service Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1967.
Louis H. Roddis, Jr. passed away on September 15, 1991.
Read Nuclear News from July 1969 for more on Louis H. Roddis, Jr.
Last modified January 20, 2021, 6:33am CST