The next opportunity to earn professional engineer (P.E.) licensure in nuclear engineering is this fall. Sign up now to enhance your studying with the help of the online module program from the American Nuclear Society.
Hash Hashemian
president@ans.org
The 2025 ANS Annual Conference in Chicago was a powerful springboard to begin my term as president. With over 1,400 attendees, it was one of our most dynamic gatherings in recent memory—full of energy, ideas, and a shared commitment to advancing nuclear science and technology.
As we move forward, my focus is clear: to elevate the role of nuclear in environmental protection, national security, energy diversity, and grid stability. These priorities are not just strategic—they are essential to a cleaner, more resilient future.
The goals I laid out at the conclusion of the Board of Directors meeting in June are simple, but I am sure they will be effective in engaging our community.
One simple change to start is the move away from the term meetings—the American Nuclear Society now uses the term conferences to describe its two yearly flagship gatherings, to more appropriately reflect the more than 1,000 attendees that these events bring together.
With this year’s awards already presented at the American Nuclear Society Annual Conference in June, the ANS Honors and Awards (H&A) Committee has set its sights on planning for next year’s distinctions. To that end, the H&A Committee is now soliciting suggested topics for the 2026 Special Award.
Kasper
Hayes
The American Nuclear Society has officially selected two of its members to serve as its 2026 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellows. Alyssa Hayes and Benjamin Kasper 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, starting next January.
“The Congressional Fellowship program has put ANS in a unique position to provide significant technical assistance to Congress on nuclear science, energy, and technology, with great results,” said Congressional Fellowship Special Committee chair Harsh Desai, himself a former Congressional Fellow. “This once-in-a-lifetime professional development opportunity will allow them to learn the art of policymaking and potentially pursue it as part of their careers beyond the fellowship.”
Christensen
Woosley
Mike Woosley and Jacob Christensen, the 2025 recipients of the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship, are now more than halfway through their stints on the Hill. Their fellowships will draw to a close in December.
To update the Society on what they have accomplished in Washington, D.C., so far, Woosley and Christensen recently gave Nuclear News a midterm update on which offices they ended up in and what they hope to do with their remaining time in the Capitol.
When I was 10, in October 1963, my family moved to Richland, Wash., so that my father could work for Vitro-Hanford Engineering Services, later for Bechtel, on the design of the Fast Flux Test Facility. I was a “new” kid throughout my excellent education in the Richland School District. It was the mid-1960s, and I wanted to be a rocket scientist or aerospace engineer. I took all the math and science that Richland High School (RHS) had to offer. What struck me during our tour of Hanford’s N-reactor with my physics class was the loudness of the steam turbine room compared to the hydro turbine rooms in the dams along the Columbia River. I am now establishing a residence on Columbia Point Drive in Richland.
Five of ANS’s past Congressional Fellows recently shared their unique experiences on Capitol Hill and gave insights into how they were able to have an impact on federal policy related to nuclear, exploring what they learned about the policymaking process and how ANS can continue having an impact in Washington.
The Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX) is a new joint conference hosted by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. The inaugural offering of the conference, NECX 2025, will be held September 8–11 in Atlanta, Ga.
To register for the event and reserve your room at the host hotel, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, click here.
The last time the American Nuclear Society Board of Directors approved a strategic plan was back in 2018 under the direction of past president Bob Coward. Realizing a lot has changed with both ANS and the wider nuclear community, the current Board of Directors decided it was time to give our strategic plan a fresh look. Following the November 2024 ANS Conference, the Board has undertaken a comprehensive strategic planning process to align the Society’s direction with the realities of the rapidly changing energy and technology landscape.
The American Nuclear Society hosted a webinar this week featuring key leaders from the nuclear community in Texas to discuss the shape of the industry today and where it is heading.
Honoring the achievements and legacy of the WWII generation of nuclear pioneers — and remembering all those affected by Trinity.
By Craig H. Piercy, CEO and Executive Director of the American Nuclear Society
Eighty years ago today, at exactly 5:29:45 a.m. local time* on July 16, 1945, the United States Army detonated the world’s first nuclear bomb in the Jornada del Muerto desert of southern New Mexico. The searing flash and thunderous shockwave marked the culmination of the Manhattan Project, a secret, three-year national effort to harness nuclear fission and hasten the end of the Second World War.
The Trinity Test, overseen by Manhattan Project director Major General Leslie Groves and Los Alamos Laboratory director Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, was the final act of that race to build the atomic bomb. Hoisted atop a 100-foot steel tower, the plutonium implosion device, known as the Gadget, unleashed a blast equal to 21,000 tons of TNT and temperatures hotter than the center of the sun.
From ten miles away, observers wearing darkened welder goggles looked on in stunned silence. “We knew the world would not be the same,” recalled Oppenheimer.
Applications are now open for the summer 2025 testing period for the American Nuclear Society’s Certified Nuclear Professional (CNP) exam. Applications are being accepted through July 25, and only three testing sessions are offered per year, so it is important to apply soon.
The test will be administered from August 12 through September 9. To check eligibility and schedule your exam, click here.
Applications are officially open for the second cohort of the American Nuclear Society’s newly redesigned mentoring program. Mentor Match is a unique opportunity available only to ANS members that offers year-round mentorship and networking opportunities to Society members at any point in their education.
The deadline to apply for membership in the fall cohort, which will take place October 1–November 30, is September 17. The application form can be found here.
The day before the 2025 ANS Annual Conference officially began in Chicago, the air was abuzz with the crackle of Geiger counters at Argonne National Laboratory in neighboring Lemont, Ill., where about 100 visitors from across the country attended an outreach and education event hosted by the American Nuclear Society.
The next opportunity to earn professional engineer (PE) licensure in nuclear engineering is this fall, and now is the time to sign up and begin studying with the help of materials like the online module program offered by the American Nuclear Society.
The newest student section of the American Nuclear Society has been launched at New Mexico State University. Formally approved and celebrated at the 2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo, this newest community is the 59th active ANS student section, not including two sections currently in the process of revitalization.
On May 23, President Donald Trump signed four Executive Orders (EOs) designed to “usher in a nuclear energy renaissance” by building on federal policies and programs and directing efficiencies in the licensing, siting, development, and deployment of advanced reactor technologies.
In order to evaluate the specific proposals contained in the EOs, a group of experts was convened from various sectors of the U.S. nuclear technology enterprise, under the auspices of the ANS External Affairs Committee, to compare the EOs against existing ANS board-approved Position Statements and to offer constructive input for subsequent implementation by the Trump administration.
The group’s findings and feedback, which were delivered by ANS CEO Craig Piercy to ANS President Lisa Marshall and the Board of Directors, are listed below, grouped by individual EO.
Applications for the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship are due June 6. ANS will be sponsoring two Fellows for the 2026 term, both of whom will be selected in July and will each receive a stipend of $95,000. The term of the fellowship will run from January to December 2026.
ANS encourages interested members to apply. Application instructions can be found here.
The American Nuclear Society’s 2025 Annual Conference is right around the corner, taking place June 15–18 in Chicago at the Downtown Marriott.
Make sure to register for the meeting, make hotel reservations, and see the full conference program.
The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series on May 2.