Excitement is building for the 2023 American Nuclear Society Winter Conference and Expo, which will be held November 12–15 in Washington, D.C. The Society has named the recipients of 11 awards that will be presented at that time, as well as six new Fellows, who will be honored during the opening plenary.
Net Zero Nuclear, an initiative that debuted earlier this month at the World Nuclear Symposium in London, has named GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) its initial corporate sponsor. The announcement was made Wednesday at the Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy Policy Summit in New York.
American Nuclear Society Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy visited One White Flint North, where he sat down with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Christopher Hanson for a one-on-one interview on September 18, 2023. The interview is available exclusively to ANS members to watch this week before it is released to the public. ANS members won’t want to miss the hour-long discussion, where Hanson opens up about important topics facing the NRC and the nuclear community and what he sees as the big successes during his first term as chair.
For the second consecutive year, the American Nuclear Society has selected two of its members to receive the Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship. The 2024 Congressional Fellows, Emily Caffrey and William Murray, will help the Society fulfill its strategic goal of enhancing nuclear policy by working in the halls of Congress, either in a congressional member’s personal office or with a committee, when their fellowship term begins in January.
Ia Aanstoot, an 18-year-old Swedish climate activist, is gaining a lot of online attention with her “Dear Greenpeace” campaign, asking the global environmental organization to drop its “old-fashioned and unscientific opposition to nuclear power, and join us in the fight against fossil fuels instead!”
As reported by the Guardian, Aanstoot’s stance is that “Greenpeace is stuck in the past fighting clean, carbon-free nuclear energy while the world is literally burning. We need to be using all the tools available to address climate change, and nuclear is one of them.”
Treated water is safer than world standards, essential for decommissioning
Washington, D.C. – The American Nuclear Society (ANS) supports the start of Japan’s controlled release of re-treated, diluted tritium wastewater into the sea from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), which sustained damage in the aftermath of a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The American Nuclear Society has published the following new standard, which is available for purchase in the ANS Store:
ANSI/ANS-8.21-2023, Use of Fixed Neutron Absorbers in Nuclear Facilities Outside Reactors (revision of ANSI/ANS-8.21-1995; R2019)
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission draft regulatory guide—DG-8061, “Release of Patients Administered Radioactive Material”—proposes guidance on the release of patients after a medical procedure involving the administration of radiopharmaceuticals or the implantation of a sealed source. The guidance is intended to help licensees interpret NRC regulations designed to protect the people—family, friends, caregivers, or members of the general public—who may be in proximity to a patient who is discharged after receiving nuclear medicine treatment.
Finalized report incorporates feedback on revisiting EPA regulations
Downers Grove, Illinois – The American Nuclear Society (ANS) published a finalized report on recommendations for updating public health and safety standards for the permanent disposal of commercial used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at future geological repository projects in the United States.
WASHINGTON, DC — American Nuclear Society professionals continue to monitor information about conditions at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and to offer insights into relevant engineering and safety issues.
Consulting company TVO Nuclear Services (TVONS), a subsidiary of Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, owner and operator of Finland’s three-unit Olkiluoto nuclear plant, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norsk Kjernekraft, aka Norwegian Nuclear, a firm established last July with the goal of bringing small modular reactors to power reactor–deprived Norway.
A June 27 announcement from TVO said the new MOU provides the Norwegian firm with “access to the know-how and experience of one of the world’s best-known nuclear power companies” and stressed TVO’s 60 percent ownership of Posiva, the company responsible for the disposal of Finland’s spent nuclear fuel. “Posiva has successfully built the world’s first final disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste,” TVO stated. “This is decisively important for Norwegian Nuclear’s plans for the management of the entire life cycle of nuclear power.”
The American Nuclear Society continues to monitor official statements and social media “chatter” regarding the status of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
Every year in July, ANS introduces a new president to its membership. Thirty years ago this month, it was Ed Fuller. Fuller joined ANS in 1966, was named a Fellow, and served in numerous leadership positions in ANS committees, divisions, and on the board of directors prior to becoming president in 1993. Last month Fuller passed away at the age of 82.
France’s Ministry of Energy Transition last Friday announced an investment of more than €100 million ($108 million) in civil nuclear sector training, research, and innovation in alignment with President Emmanuel Macron’s October 2021 unveiling of the “France 2030” investment plan, as well as his February 2022 call for a “rebirth of France’s nuclear industry.” (Among other things, Macron’s envisioned rebirth includes the construction of at least six new nuclear reactors and life extensions for the country’s existing units.)
Washington, D.C. — The American Nuclear Society Rapid Response Taskforce is monitoring the impact of the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the upstream Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Based on the best available information we believe there is enough water at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to cool its six shutdown reactors, even if the downstream Nova Kakhovka dam is breached and the adjacent reservoir is drained.
The American Nuclear Society's 2023 Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo is accepting applications for knowledge managers to work during the meeting. The UWC, which will have a theme of “Building Resiliency in a Rapidly Changing World,” will be held at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort on Marco Island, Fla., on August 6–9, 2023.
The ANS Operations and Power Division will pay the conference registration fee for up to six knowledge managers, who also will receive three complimentary nights of housing at the Marriott resort.
Further details on the conference are available online.
Santa Clara, Calif.–based Oklo is planning to build its second and third commercial Aurora Powerhouse nuclear plants in southern Ohio, the company announced yesterday. The advanced reactor developer received a site permit in December 2019 from the Department of Energy to build its initial Aurora facility at Idaho National Laboratory.
According to the announcement, Oklo has signed an agreement with the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI), a community-reuse organization, to deploy two 15-MWe plants on land owned by SODI at the Portsmouth site near Piketon, Ohio. The DOE began transferring parcels of the Portsmouth site—home to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, now undergoing decontamination and decommissioning—to SODI in June 2018 for economic development.
Earlier this year, the American Nuclear Society's newly formed Special Committee on Certification started conducting market research with the help of a third party contractor to determine the viability of a nuclear certification program. An initial survey was sent to the membership back in March with the goal of determining what certification programs were already available and what type of certification program ANS could develop to benefit the community.
The month of April, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, is a time for transformation and growth as we emerge from the depths of winter—and it is also the time we learn of the newest American Nuclear Society members elected to positions of leadership. Not only did members vote for the next vice president/president-elect but the treasurer position was also up for grabs along with six board of director positions. The election opened on February 21 and closed April 11, with 20 percent of eligible ANS members voting (roughly the average turnout over the last few years).
BWX Technologies announced on April 10 that its Nuclear Fuel Services subsidiary in Erwin, Tenn., has been awarded a five-year, $428 million contract from the National Nuclear Security Administration to purify and convert high-enriched uranium (HEU) from an oxide to a metal. The Phase II contract follows the successful completion by NFS of a $57.5 million contract awarded two years ago for a process line design and pilot demonstration.