Leaving the expo, I brainstormed how the American Nuclear Society could bolster our international presence in years to come, and how we could learn from the international stage to augment our own U.S. conferences. Nationally, we do not have anything like WNE, but ANS’s and NEI’s newly formed joint NECX conference promises to fill a similar role. After meeting with ITER head Pietro Barabaschi, I left the conference with a plan to visit the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in May with ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy.
I went from one esteemed event to the next: flying from WNE in Paris to Washington, D.C., for ANS’s 2025 Winter Conference & Expo. Too many instrumental figures in the nuclear sector spoke throughout the conference to list them all here, but some highlights included TVA’s Don Moul, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R., Tenn.), the NNSA’s Brandon Williams, ENEC’s Mohamed Al Hammadi, DOE-NE’s Ted Garrish, Holtec’s Kris Singh, NRC Chair David Wright, Cameco’s Tim Gitzel, Kairos’s Ed Blandford, X-energy’s Clay Sell, Standard Nuclear’s Kurt Terrani, and many more.
While each of these speakers gave valuable updates on their various critical endeavors in the industry, I particularly want to highlight Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s energizing speech about both the present and future of U.S. nuclear development and deployment. Wright acknowledged the role of ANS in that development and promised the continued support of the Trump administration for nuclear energy. His speech was followed by a talk from NRC Chair David Wright, who touched on the regulator’s recent work in becoming more efficient and productive while maintaining its standard of utmost safety.
During the conference, I recapped my main goals for ANS during my presidential term—in particular, the launch of a fundraising campaign to attract millions in philanthropic donations to be spent on increasing nuclear educational outreach starting at the kindergarten level. Soon, we hope to interface all school students with nuclear companies and ANS conferences, introducing them to nuclear and taking a key step in diminishing the workforce shortage of the industry.
It’s the start of a new year, and I am roughly halfway through my term as president. There are many exciting things on the horizon for the remainder of my term, the Society at large, and nuclear as a whole in 2026.
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