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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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Sep 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
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.
13th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control & Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2023)
Katya Le Blanc is a senior human factors scientist whose research has improved operator interfaces for control of energy systems including nuclear power plant equipment in the field and in the control room, transmission system technologies, and interfaces for accelerator control systems. She is a skilled researcher who investigates a diverse range of topics from human factors in cyber security to developing innovative methods to measure human performance in complex environments. She is a passionate mentor who prioritizes developing students and junior members of her team to reach their full potential as researchers. She has demonstrated leadership as a principal investigator for more than a dozen projects and is currently the deputy national technical director of the cybersecurity program for the Department of Energy's office of Nuclear Energy. Katya has over 100 technical publications in the subject of human factors in the energy sector. She is a senior member of IEEE and holds a PhD and master’s degree in cognitive psychology from New Mexico State University and a BS in psychology from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Last modified June 8, 2023, 10:04am EDT
