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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
2025 ANS Annual Conference
Senior Vice President of Policy Development and Public Affairs
NEI
John Kotek is Senior Vice President for Policy and Public Affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute, and is President of Nuclear Matters, a grassroots coalition of nuclear energy advocates. From 2015-2017, John served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in the US Department of Energy. John was Staff Director to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which in 2012 recommended a new strategy for the U.S. nuclear waste management program. John has also served as a Congressional fellow, an R&D program manager at Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho, and as a public affairs consultant. He holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
