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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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.
2021 CONTE Virtual Meeting Plenary Session Speaker
Dr. Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar is Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Idaho State University. She has a PhD in nuclear engineering and MS in environmental engineering from Penn State University and a BS in chemistry from Cedar Crest College. Her nuclear career spans 25 years, during which time she has performed research in various aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including waste form development, spent fuel pyroprocessing, spent particle fuel qualification for disposal, fuel and material development and characterization (pre- and post-irradiation), development of a waste minimization plan for a next generation nuclear reactor design, and fuel cycle modeling. Dr. Dunzik-Gougar’s research has led to national and international collaborations, including a year-long position with PBMR Ltd in South Africa and a consulting contract with EDF energy of France. She has served as consultant/ subject matter expert for subsequent projects coordinated by the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency. She has led multi-institutional teams of researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory and through Idaho State University. To share her expertise with a new generation of researchers, Dr. Dunzik-Gougar developed and teaches several senior/graduate level courses on the nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste management. Before going to graduate school she taught high school science and mathematics for 7 years in the U.S. and the U.K. In addition to her scholarly and technical activities, she has been a contributing member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) at local and national levels for 25 years. In 2019, she was elected to serve as Vice-President/President Elect for ANS and she began her term as President in June 2020.
Last modified December 7, 2020, 4:41pm EST
