Hi folks, Steve Skutnik here-you may know me from The Neutron Economy blog. I'm also currently an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee. I'll be here with Suzy Hobbs-Baker (of PopAtomic Studios) and Laura Scheele live-blogging the public hearing on the use of surplus weapons plutonium in MOX fuel. I've also got a healthy contingent of eager students from the University of Tennessee here as well, eager to speak up for the nonproliferation benefits of disposing of surplus plutonium in MOX fuel.

WHO:          

On August 16, G. Ivan Maldonado, PhD, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, attended a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board Meeting on behalf of the American Nuclear Society to present comments on the use the of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel technology to accomplish the timely disposition of surplus weapons-grade plutonium.

The 121st weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Next Big Future.

Running a nuclear reactor is so easy that undergraduates can do it. And they do, at the research reactor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon (by the way, that's where Steve Jobs went to school).

Labor Day is the traditional marking point for the end of summer-and time for back-to-school activities for K-12 students. Back to School season also provides an opportunity to help students understand the kind of work that nuclear engineers and scientists do. Your participation can interest a young person in pursuing an engineering career!

The 120th weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at The Hiroshima Syndrome.

On Friday, August 31, Yes Vermont Yankee passed a milestone of 200,000 page views. Yes Vermont Yankee covers Vermont energy issues and favors the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.

America's first new nuclear energy reactors in 30 years are currently under construction at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke County, Georgia.  The ANS Nuclear Matinee takes viewers behind the scenes of this amazing project (courtesy of Southern Nuclear Company who produced the excellent video updates).

The September 2012 edition of the technical journal Nuclear Technology is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

The August 2012 edition of the technical journal Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society member subscribers and others.

The 119th weekly Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers is up at Yes Vermont Yankee

NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission is scheduled for launch early on Thursday morning, August 30. How and why? An ANS Nuclear Cafe double feature matinee:

On Friday, March 11, 2011, one of the largest earthquakes in the recorded history of the world occurred on the east coast of northern Japan. The earthquake generated a major tsunami, causing nearly 20,000 deaths.

The August 2012 issue of Nuclear News is available electronically and in hard copy for American Nuclear Society members.

February 25-28, 2013 • Albuquerque Marriott, N.M.

Gale Hauck, engineering project manager at Westinghouse Electric Company, is the new chair of the American Nuclear Society's Young Members Group (YMG). YMG Secretary Elia Merzari caught up with her and asked her to introduce herself, as well as her plans for the YMG.

Mettallic Butterfly ~ photo by: Margaret Harding

The Carnival is the collective voice of blogs by legendary names that emerge each week to tell the story of nuclear energy.

Idaho National Laboratory's Computer Assisted Virtual Environment (CAVE) at the Center for Advanced Energy Studies allows scientists and engineers to literally walk into their data and examine it.

The question is how big is the bird and will any of the proposed deals fly?