What it is: Radfest, the first in-person, ANS-hosted event geared toward high schoolers, is a step in the Society’s broader effort to incorporate more hands-on outreach into its suite of programming. Attendees, comprising high school and college students as well as parents and guardians, got the chance to tour lab facilities and visit a half-dozen tables run by members of the Society’s Chicago Local Section, ANS staff, and employees from Argonne.
Members from the ANS Chicago Local Section talked with students about the benefits of ANS membership along with lesser-known applications of nuclear science and technology like paleontology, art appraisal, and criminology. Alongside those discussions, the members had a variety of slightly radioactive objects for students to test with Geiger counters, including Fiestaware plates with glaze that contains uranium oxide, samples of americium-241 from smoke detectors, and watches with radium dials.
Presentations: At their table, Argonne staff presented a brief history of the lab, the reactors it has built, and the critical role it has played in the development of nuclear science and technology. They also talked with students about careers at Argonne and the broader diversity of opportunities in the world of nuclear. Students also had the chance to talk with Temi Taiwo, director of Argonne’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Division.
Taiwo said of this and similar outreach events that “high schoolers and university students are the future of the industry. If our goal of 400 GW [of new nuclear development] by 2050 is to be realized, we need the best to build and facilitate that goal.”
Students also crowded around one of the ANS staff tables that had a cloud chamber set up, which let them visualize ionizing radiation. There, they also had the chance to talk with ANS’s immediate past president Lisa Marshall (2024–2025), who focused on K–12 outreach throughout her presidency. “College is often too late,” Marshall said, explaining why ANS needed events like Radfest. “Hands-on opportunities like these are a great chance to get students out of their comfort zones and get them excited about nuclear.”
Q&A: After lunch and raffles of ANS Cloud Chamber Kits and Geiger counters, YouTuber and science communicator Kyle Hill, who describes himself as “the most visible pronuclear voice on YouTube,” wrapped up the event with a talk and Q&A about nuclear communication and outreach, making nuclear-related content, and the current state of the industry generally.
During the Q&A, Marshall asked Hill, “From all of the work that you’ve done, if you had to give us three best practices the industry should do, what would they be?”
Hill responded, “Be transparent, be human, and be accurate.” Being transparent, he explained, requires being “more open and honest about the things that we’re doing and how we do them.” Being human requires acknowledging that “emotions are louder than facts, and they make more sense,” so effective outreach requires taking peoples’ fear and confusion seriously. Finally, Hill called for the future nuclear advocates in the industry who were in the room to “be creative and take some more chances” while still communicating truthfully and accurately.
If you are interested in organizing your own Radfest or other educational outreach events, you can reach out to ANS senior manager of STEM programs Uchenna Ezibe at uezibe@ans.org