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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
Raffaele Albanese, Teresa Bellizio, JET-EFDA Contributors
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 2 | February 2011 | Pages 363-375
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11652
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the procedure adopted for the selection of an alternative controlled variable to be used for the vertical stabilization (VS) of elongated plasmas in the JET tokamak in the framework of the Plasma Control Upgrade (PCU) activities. The PCU enhancement project, aimed at increasing the capabilities of the VS system, explored the possibility of having a valid alternative to the controlled variable ZPDIP used for several years. The main motivation of this study was the need of operating JET in future campaigns with the new ITER-like wall, which is expected to significantly shield some magnetic diagnostics. This study was also aimed at improving the VS capabilities by reducing the effect of edge-localized modes on the vertical position estimator. The alternative controlled variable was also planned to play the role of backup solution in case of trouble with the standard one after the modifications of the radial field circuit. The selection was made paying particular attention to robustness, reliability, and reduced impact on the ongoing experimental campaigns. The new controlled variable, denoted OBS05, was successfully tested in JET in a variety of plasma scenarios and became the new vertical velocity estimator for the VS system.
