ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
A closer look at the initial NLIC selections—Part 2
In January, the Department of Energy announced its new Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus (NLIC) program, inviting states via a request for information to express their interest in hosting a facility supporting work from the front to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle.
By April, 26 states had expressed interest in hosting such a facility. At the end of July, the DOE signed memorandums of understanding with five states—Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah—to more closely explore the possibilities of state-federal partnerships. These MOUs are not firm commitments from either the federal or state governments. Time will tell which—if any—of the five states develop projects through the program. In the meantime, today, we are taking a close look at what Utah, Idaho, Tennessee can offer in terms of a preexisting nuclear sector that could support new fuel cycle developments.
Nuclear Criticality Safety Division 2025 Conference
Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
Group Leader in the Criticality Safety Research Group of the Nuclear Safety Research Center
Dr. Satoshi Gunji completed his PhD in Engineering at Tohoku University before joining the Power and Industrial Systems Research and Development Center of Toshiba Corporation in 2007 as a researcher in the Nuclear Reactor System Analysis Group. Before the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, his main work was on criticality safety of next-generation light water reactor fuel. He was also an experimenter and an operator of the Toshiba Nuclear Critical Assembly.
After Toshiba decided to decommission the NCA, he moved to the Criticality Safety Research Group at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), where he currently works. At the time, JAEA was proceeding with plans to modify the criticality assembly STACY to conduct criticality assessments of the fuel debris generated by the FDNPP accident. He participated in this project as a criticality safety expert and planned the criticality experiment plans. STACY achieved first criticality in 2024, and he has been directing subsequent experiments.
Last modified August 26, 2025, 10:54am CDT
