Happy birthday to the American Nuclear Society!ANS NewsDecember 11, 2020, 1:30PM|ANS News StaffThe American Nuclear Society turns 66 today! ANS was founded on December 11, 1954, at the National Academy of Sciences on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.The beginnings: ANS was launched in the mid-1950s, a time of growing interest in employing peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology for bettering the lives of people in the United States and around the world. President Eisenhower had presented his dramatic 1953 "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations, proposing international knowledge-sharing for the development of civilian nuclear science and technology. While a number of associations already had nuclear divisions or groups, many people felt that a new organization was needed. Following its establishment in 1954 as a not-for-profit association of individual members, ANS quickly added breadth and depth to its activities, resulting in an organization that was both influenced by and had an influence on the burgeoning nuclear field.The best name: The name of the organization generated considerable discussion in 1954. Among the other titles suggested were the Society of Nuclear Engineering, American Society of Nuclear Technology, Institute of Nuclear Engineering, Association of Nuclear Engineers, Association of Nuclear Science and Technology, and Society of Nuclear Scientists and Engineers. Ultimately, in October 1954, the name American Nuclear Society won the day–and the decades.In the mid-to-late 1950s, ANS was already putting in place many of the elements that still make up the organization. In June 1955, ANS held its first Annual Meeting and elected its first president, in March 1956 launched its first journal (Nuclear Science and Engineering), and in November 1956 formed its Standards Committee. By the end of the 1950s, ANS had three professional divisions, 14 local sections, and 11 student branches.Rapid growth: During the 1960s, ANS grew rapidly, driven in no small part by the construction of many nuclear plants in the United States and elsewhere for generating electricity. Growth was also driven by the research into the technology for a variety of other uses, from aerospace to merchant ships to medicine. By the end of the 1960s, ANS had 12 divisions, 28 local sections, 40 student branches, three periodicals (two journals and a magazine), and was running two national meetings and several topical meetings each year.Through the years: Each succeeding decade has brought changes both to ANS and to nuclear science and technology. In the 1970s, ANS became even more international minded than it already was, and took its first formal steps in outreach activities.The 1980s became a time of focus on operating the plants. Since there were no new U.S. plant orders, an increased emphasis was placed on radioactive waste management--the U.S. federal government enacted major legislation about both low- and high-level wastes and ANS started its Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division.In the 1990s, amid consolidation in the industrial area, ANS increased its visibility in Washington, D.C., carried out its first professionally directed strategic planning, and worked on shoring up the supply of qualified people for the nuclear field.Headquarters: While ANS is national and international in its scope, its headquarters is located in La Grange Park, Illinois (about 10 miles from downtown Chicago). It did not start there, however. As with many associations, ANS moved around during its early years. ANS's first "home" was in space provided by the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies in Tennessee. In 1958, the headquarters was moved to small offices in downtown Chicago, and in 1964 the headquarters was moved to larger offices spaces in Hinsdale, Illinois.HeadquartersFinally, in 1977 the Society moved to its own headquarters building (owned by ANS) in La Grange Park.Today: ANS has made, and continues to make, important contributions to the use of nuclear science and technology, and consequently to the larger society beyond ANS. It achieves this through its many products and services, including meetings, publications, standards, outreach, honors and awards, scholarships, teachers workshops, Organization Members, and representation in Washington, D.C.ANS continues to be a professional organization of scientists, engineers, and other professionals devoted to the peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology. Its more than 10,000 members, from 50+ countries, come from diverse technical disciplines ranging from physics and nuclear safety to operations and power, and from across the full spectrum of the national and international enterprise, including government, academia, research laboratories, and private industry.Making it all succeed are a Board of Directors, standing committees, professional divisions, local sections, student sections, liaison agreements with non-U.S. nuclear societies, and a headquarters staff.Tags:ans historyatoms for peaceeisenhowerShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting: Observing the 50th anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyThe 2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting opened on November 16 with a plenary session moderated by ANS President Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar and more than 700 people in attendance. The opening plenary session was followed by nearly 40 panel and technical sessions. Recordings of all the sessions are posted on the meeting platform and can be view by all registered attendees at any time.Two sessions held in the afternoon of opening day were centered around the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Both sessions featured distinguished experts on the NPT to discuss its successes, challenges, future, and the role of the United States in international nonproliferation.Go to Article
The ongoing effort to convert the world’s research reactorsThe Ghana Research Reactor-1, located in Accra, Ghana, was converted from HEU fuel to LEU in 2017. Photo: Argonne National LaboratoryIn late 2018, Nigeria’s sole operating nuclear research reactor, NIRR-1, switched to a safer uranium fuel. Coming just 18 months on the heels of a celebrated conversion in Ghana, the NIRR-1 reboot passed without much fanfare. However, the switch marked an important global milestone: NIRR-1 was the last of Africa’s 11 operating research reactors to run on high-enriched uranium fuel.The 40-year effort to make research reactors safer and more secure by replacing HEU fuel with low-enriched uranium is marked by a succession of quiet but immeasurably significant milestones like these. Before Africa, a team of engineers from many organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, concluded its conversion work in South America and Australia. Worldwide, 71 reactors in nearly 40 countries have undergone conversions to LEU, defined as less than 20 percent uranium-235. Another 31 research reactors have been permanently shut down.Go to Article
Experimental Breeder Reactor I: A retrospectiveIn the not-so-distant 20th century past, our planet was in an uncertain new-world order. The second of two major wars had dramatically reshaped the landscape of the world's nations. It was not by any means assured that the extraordinary nuclear process of fission, which itself had been discovered mere years before the second war's end, would be successfully utilized for anything but the tremendous and frightening powers realized in thermonuclear warheads. In the years following, a humble project materializing out of the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho was to challenge that assertion and demonstrate that nuclear fission could indeed be a commercial, peaceful source of electrical power for civilizations around the globe.Go to Article
Eisenhower's Atomic Power for Peace - The Civilian Application Program II Westinghouse Electric Corporation promotional illustration showing "PWR" (Shippingport Atomic Power Station) plant and site. "Selected Articles on Nuclear Power," Westinghouse Electric (see sources).The commercial nuclear power program in the United States was sparked by the Shippingport Atomic Power Station project-but one project does not a program make. Action by the U.S. Congress soon after the announcement of the project ensured that a wide program that would evaluate other approaches was launched:Go to Article
Eisenhower's Atomic Power for Peace – The Civilian Application Program Futuristic illustration from 1955 Progress Report, Atomic Power Development Associates, published March 1956. This would become the Enrico Fermi Atomic Power Plant.President Eisenhower's momentous Atomic Power for Peace speech to the United Nations in December 1953 included the bold statement: "It is not enough to take this weapon [a metaphor for atomic energy, specifically as weaponized only] out of the hands of soldiers. It must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace." With that, he effectively launched the civilian nuclear power business as we know it today-of course, it having since undergone many changes and evolutions. What's little spoken of today is what happened before and after this speech.Go to Article