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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Educator Training
March 7, 2024|5:00–6:00PM (6:00–7:00PM EST)
Available to All Users
Comet isn’t just one of Santa’s reindeer. To nuclear scientists, Comet—along with Planet, Flat-top, and Godiva IV—is a critical assembly, a type of reactor essential in conducting experiments using fissionable materials. Learn how critical and sub-critical assemblies are used in nuclear experiments in this special webinar for K-12 educators.
A Q&A session will follow their presentation, so send your and your students’ questions to webinars@ans.org.
Panelists
David AmesDOE NSCP Sandia Site ManagerSandia National Laboratory
Kelsey AmundsonResearch & Development EngineerLos Alamos National Laboratory
Jesse NorrisNuclear Criticality Safety EngineerLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Moderator
Evan GonzalezComputational PhysicistLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
BIOS
David Ames
David received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2006 and 2010. His focus was on the design and performance of advanced reactors and fuel cycles utilizing uncertainty quantification and multi-objective optimization techniques. David started at Sandia in 2010 and supported the NASA Fission Surface Power project and other advanced nuclear fuel cycle projects. In 2017, David joined the critical experiments team and authored two benchmark evaluations designed and performed at Sandia. He also supports the Sandia NCS Program as a qualified NCS Engineer and Deputy Program Lead. David recently took over the role of the DOE NSCP Sandia Site Manager.
Jesse Norris
Jesse is a Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he has worked since 2017. The focus of his work is on experiment design, execution, and benchmarking for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program. Most recently, this includes two critical experiments within the Thermal and Epithermal eXperiments (TEX) Program utilizing Highly Enriched Uranium (TEX-HEU) and Hafnium (TEX-Hf). Jesse has a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University and an M.Eng. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Kelsey Amundson
Kelsey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 and a Master of Engineering degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California-Berkeley in 2019. Kelsey began working in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Advanced Nuclear Technology group in June 2020 as a research & development engineer. Her team operates the critical assemblies at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) and she is a crew member on all four assemblies. Before working at Los Alamos National Laboratory she worked at the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, serving as the Immediate-Chair of the Young Members Group, and as a member of the American Nuclear Society Board of Directors, and serves on two working groups for ANSI/ANS 8 series standards (8.19 and 8.20).
Evan Gonzalez
Evan is a computational physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he writes code to simulate how radiation interacts with matter. He completed his undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University in 2017 and his graduate degrees at the University of Michigan in 2023, all in nuclear engineering. Evan is co-chair of the ANS Young Members Group Program Committee.