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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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!
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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.
Dr. William Earl Shoupp was elected the 10th president of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). He was a Fellow of ANS.
Dr. Shoupp was born on October 12, 1908. He began his career with Westinghouse Research Laboratories in 1938 and held positions involving the direction of research on nuclear power since 1943. He spent his entire career at Westinghouse, and in 1963 became vice president and general manager of Research Laboratories, Westinghouse Electric Corporation. He continued to serve as a consultant after his retirement in 1973.
Shortly after joining Westinghouse, he directed work on the world’s first industrial atom smasher at Westinghouse. In 1943, he was placed in charge of the company’s nuclear physics and electronics research. Dr. Shoupp was co-discoverer of photo fission, the splitting of uranium atoms by high speed gamma rays. When Westinghouse formed an atomic power division in 1949, Dr. Shoupp became one of the original members of that division staff. He later served as assistant atomic power division manager in charge of development, and subsequently, as technical director of the company’s commercial atomic power organization, and technical director of the Astronuclear Lab.
After World War II, he was instrumental in persuading the Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission that nuclear energy should be used to power submarines, from which came the first submarine reactor that powered the USS Nautilus. He was also in charge of R&D for several nuclear plants, including Shippingport and Yankee-Rowe. Following his retirement in 1973, in addition to serving as a consultant to Westinghouse, Dr. Shoupp also consulted for the Office of Coal Research, the Electric Power Research Institute, and other organizations.
He was a member and Fellow of the American Physical Society, IEEE and ASME. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1967, and subsequently served as Vice President of the Academy (1973-1978) and Acting President (1974-1975). He also served on many government advisory committees. He received many awards throughout his career, including the Westinghouse Order of Merit in 1953 for outstanding development work on the Nautilus, and the Industrial Research Institute Medal in 1973, and was awarded 9 patents.
Dr. Shoupp held a bachelor’s degree in physics from Miami University of Ohio (1931) and master’s and doctorate in physics (in 1933 and 1938, respectively) from the University of Illinois. He also received honorary doctorates from Miami University and Indiana Institute of Technology.
Dr. William Earl Shoupp passed away on November 21, 1981.
Last modified November 24, 2020, 10:45am CST