Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane today fielded questions from in-person and virtual attendees at a live, unscripted 60-minute webinar on nuclear energy issues. The event-"Bloggers' Roundtable"-was held in Washington, DC, and was a collaborative effort of the NRC and the American Nuclear Society. The webinar provided an opportunity for nuclear bloggers and social media personalities to discuss the NRC's perspectives on a wide range of nuclear-related issues.

The 225th Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival is being hosted this week right here at the ANS Nuclear Cafe.  Every week, the world's top pro-nuclear authors and bloggers submit the most popular or most important articles from that week; the selections are then compiled at one of a set of rotating sites and featured as the "Carnival."  Let's jump right in to this week's significant contributions.

I'd like to take this opportunity to ask you a question: Have you considered attending the American Nuclear Society's Winter Meeting yet? Before you answer, I'd like to give you a few compelling reasons to do so from my own personal experience.

The 224th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors has been posted at Things Worse Than Nuclear Power.  Click here to see this latest installment in a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.

This new video from AREVA takes a fascinating look at the "brain and nervous system" for controlling a nuclear power plant: the plant's Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system.

I recently attended a Safeguards Education Roundtable at the Argonne National Laboratory sponsored by the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI).  University professors and nonproliferation experts from U.S. national laboratories met at this event to discuss safeguards education at universities. The goal of NGSI is to "to develop the policies, concepts, technologies, expertise, and infrastructure necessary to sustain the international safeguards system" as it evolves in the future. A major pillar of the program is developing the next generation of professionals to work in the nonproliferation and safeguards field-and to make sure that the next generation of nuclear professionals is aware of nonproliferation and safeguards issues.

The American Nuclear Society will host an online webinar for nuclear bloggers-an unscripted question-&-answer session with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane-on Thursday, September 11, 2014, from 9 AM-10 AM Eastern Time

The 223rd edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to access this latest post in a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.

Dr. Edward Calabrese recently published a paper titled The Genetics Panel of the NAS BEAR I Committee (1956): epistolary evidence suggests self‐interest may have prompted an exaggeration of radiation risks that led to the adoption of the LNT cancer risk assessment model.

For too long, graduate students have been inadvertently marginalized due to a lack of status recognition in the American Nuclear Society, but those days are now past. The ANS Board of Directors has unanimously approved the joint Student Sections Committee (SSC)/Young Members Group (YMG) proposal to offer free YMG membership to graduate students. This is a great day for all Young Members, regardless of whether they're still in graduate school or not.

The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan has gained favor with some nuclear energy advocates. An extensive analysis of the proposal, however, reveals that current nuclear generating capacity would largely suffer under the new carbon rules. In fact, the results of an evaluation performed by my fellow graduate student Justin Knowles and myself show that 15 states are actually incentivized to shut down all of their nuclear units and replace them with natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) generation. In effect, this plan allows for increasing carbon emissions; a far cry from the stated goals of the Clean Power Plan.

In January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) concerning 40 CFR 190-the regulations that govern public exposure and release of radioactive materials resulting from normal nuclear power plant operations (it does not pertain to nuclear accidents). The public comment period for the proposed rulemaking ended on August 3.

The 222nd edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors has been posted at Atomic Insights.  You can click here to access the latest installment in a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.

Got a minute (and 22 seconds)? Catch a quick update on the first new commercial nuclear energy in the United States of the 21st century-in Tennessee.

Shika NPP Unit 2. Courtesy Hokuriku Electric Power Co.

Yesterday, the saga of nuclear energy in post-Fukushima Japan reached an important milestone as the final utility that owns nuclear power plants in that country applied to the regulator for restart, in an event that snuck under the radar of most news venues.

Vermont Yankee will go into decommissioning at the end of its current fuel cycle. The last day of operation for the nuclear plant is now set for December 29, 2014. Entergy, the owner, elected this course last year after financial analysis indicated the plant's unprofitability in a future of projected low natural gas prices.

It's time for the 221st edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors.  This event circulates among the top pro-nuclear blogs, and each week highlights those items submitted to the host as most important or most timely.  Of course, every week, there is a post made right here at ANS Nuclear Cafe to direct you to the Carnival - but on a rotating basis we host it here, and this week is one of those occasions.  Let's go in!

Heavy lifts equal heavy progress at the construction site of V.C. Summer-2 and -3 in South Carolina. Following is the latest update on recent major milestones completed at what will be the first new commercial nuclear energy reactors in the United States in 30 years.

In April 2014, ANS Nuclear Cafe published a valuable historical account and analysis of the Three Mile Island accident titled TMI operators did what they were trained to do.

The 220th edition of the Carnival of Nuclear Bloggers and Authors has been posted at Next Big Future.  You can click here to access this latest installment of a long running tradition among pro-nuclear authors and bloggers.