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Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2026
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
The transformation of the NRC: 50 years of commissioners
The dust is beginning to settle following the whirlwind of changes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the past year, and 2025 ultimately may be viewed as a transformative year, as well as the year the NRC celebrated its golden anniversary. The 12 months of that milestone year brought more change to the agency in its composition, its mandate, and its relationship to the executive branch than any comparable period in the preceding four decades.
Now at 51 years and counting, the NRC is working with a full commission and issuing new rulemakings to both regulate and support the next round of nuclear deployments. With the turbulence of 2025 still fresh in our minds, Nuclear News decided it was a good time to revisit the professional backgrounds of all 42 NRC commissioners who have served over the agency’s 50-year history to see how the composition of the commission has evolved over time.
General Chair:
Bill Vesely (NASA (retired), USA)
Program Chair:
Carol S. Smidts (Professor, Ohio State University)
Honorary Chair:
Richard Denning (Battelle Energy Institute (Retired), USA)
Publications Chair:
Vaibhav Sinha (The Ohio State University, USA)
Michigan Ohio Section Representative:
John Greenwood (First Energy Corporation , USA)
PSA 2021 Senior Advisory Boards:
Tunc Aldemir (The Ohio State University, USA)
Paul Amico (Jensen Hughes, USA)
Steve Arndt (US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, USA)
Ron Boring (Idaho National Laboratory, USA)
Bob Budnitz (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (retired.), USA)
Matilde D’Arpino (The Ohio State University, USA)
Enrique Droguett (University of Chile, Chile)
Fernando Ferrante (EPRI, USA)
Katrina Groth (University of Maryland at College Park, USA)
Huyn Gook Kang (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Pierre-Etienne Labeau (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
Ming Li (US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, USA)
Zahra Mohagheh (Zahra Mohagheh, University of Illinois, USA)
Poong Hyun Seong (KAIST (retired), Korea)
Abdollah Shafieedazeh (The Ohio State University, USA)
Curtis Smith (Idaho National Laboratory, USA)
Prabhakar Varde (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India)
Jeffrey Woollard (The Ohio State University, USA)
Local Support and Logistics:
Yunfei Zhao (The Ohio State University, USA)
Timothy DeFranco (The Ohio State University, USA)
Gulcin Sarici Turkmen (The Ohio State University, USA)