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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Latest News
Nuclear power plant proximity study sparks controversy
A study published in Nature Communications found a correlation between proximity to nuclear power plants and rates of cancer mortality.
The paper, “National Analysis of Cancer Mortality and Proximity to Nuclear Power Plants in the United States,” said that the study could not establish causation but also said that the researchers’ calculations support evidence of 115,586 “cancer deaths attributable to nuclear power plants proximity.”
Amir Bahadori, nuclear engineering program director at Kansas State University, cautioned that this study should not be read as proof that nuclear power plants cause cancer deaths.
2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting Plenary Session Speaker
Thomas (Thom) Mason is the President and CEO of Triad National Security, LLC (Triad) and will serve as the Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory once Triad assumes responsibility for the laboratory. Most recently he was the Senior Vice President for Global Laboratory Operations at Battelle where he had responsibility for governance and strategy across the six National Laboratories that Battelle manages or comanages. Prior to joining Battelle, Thom worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for 19 years, including 10 years as the Laboratory Director. Under his leadership, ORNL saw significant growth in programs, new facilities, and hiring while achieving record low safety incident rates. Before becoming Laboratory Director, he was Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for Neutron Sciences, ALD for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and Director of the Experimental Facilities Division. During his time in Oak Ridge, Thom was active in the community serving as Chair of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation as well as Innovation Valley, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area regional economic development organization. He moved to ORNL from the University of Toronto where he was a faculty member in the Department of Physics and previously worked as a Senior Scientist at Risø National Laboratory and a Postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories. For the past 30 years, he has been involved in the design and construction of scientific instrumentation and facilities and the application of nuclear, computing, and materials sciences to solve important challenges in energy and national security. Thom has a Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from McMaster University and a BSc in Physics from Dalhousie University.
Last modified October 21, 2020, 9:23am EDT