The 2021 ANS Winter Meeting and Technology Expo began this morning with a Opening Plenary Session chaired by Winter Meeting general chair Amir Vexler, president and chief executive officer of Orano USA. It was an opportunity to both celebrate achievements that are already building a “Nuclear Future” and to identify needs and challenges ahead.

Influential speakers from the U.S. Congress, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Energy Institute joined ANS president Steven Nesbit and ANS CEO/executive director Craig Piercy to explore key issues associated with the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle, including supply and demand for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU). They didn’t stop there, however. They took questions from an in-person and virtual audience that probed other requirements of a sustainable nuclear future, including fueling a human resources pipeline.

Commercial nuclear power has accumulated nearly 75 years and 19,000 reactor-years of operating experience around the globe. In that time, nuclear professionals “have developed a proven and effective state-of-the art approach to safety that is a model in any industrial setting, including in the development of next-generation nuclear technology,” states the American Nuclear Society’s Position Statement #51: Safety of Nuclear Power. The Board of Directors approved the revised position statement in October 2021, and it has just been published on the ANS website, replacing a position statement published in 2007.

ANS Fellows hold the highest grade of membership in the Society. Five new Fellows will be recognized during the opening plenary session of the upcoming 2021 ANS Winter Meeting.

The academic publishing industry—an industry that was very stable for over a century—is now experiencing a tremendous shift. Attitudes regarding the use, delivery, and costs of publication are at the center of the matter, causing publishers to investigate new publishing models. These changing attitudes require ANS to think differently to improve content offerings while continuing to generate needed revenue. The focus is on two trends: the elimination of author page charges, and the rise of open access publishing. The latter item is a relatively recent phenomenon that has been gaining traction over the past decade, especially in the medical and biology fields, but the former is an issue that has caused friction between authors and publishers for a generation or more.

Marzano.

The American Nuclear Society has selected Matthew Marzano to serve as the 2022 Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow.

“Matt is in a unique position to provide significant technical assistance to the U.S. Congress on nuclear energy, particularly now as there are important discussions that will shape the future of U.S. energy policy,” said Harsh S. Desai, chair of the ANS Congressional Fellowship Committee and a former congressional fellow himself.

“Members of Congress and their staff will greatly benefit from Matt’s depth of experience in commercial and defense nuclear power plant operations,” Desai said. “The fellowship will also be an opportunity for Matt to develop his policy expertise and learn ‘how the sausage is made.’”

“On behalf of the 10,000 members of the American Nuclear Society, I thank House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Chairwoman Marcy Kaptur, Ranking Member Mike Simpson, and the full House Appropriations Committee for including increased support for nuclear R&D and education and workforce programs in the Fiscal Year 2022 Energy and Water appropriations bill.

In a July 1 letter to President Biden, ANS President Steven Nesbit and ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy stated that a full complement of five commissioners is essential to the effectiveness of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in protecting public health and safety while enabling the deployment and applications of nuclear technology.

The theme of the 2021 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting—Breaking Through to Deployment—is a theme of action. It can take substantial momentum, shrewdly applied, to break through barriers.

The only constant, as the saying goes, is change. Since adopting the American Nuclear Society Change Plan 2020 at the ANS Winter Meeting in 2019, the Society has been in a state of seemingly constant change. Many important improvements have been implemented under the Change Plan—including to this magazine and our news site, ans.org/news—with an eye toward making ANS a more modern and adaptable organization. Some changes also have better enabled ANS to quickly respond to events that were out of our control and forced us to take on new endeavors (thanks, COVID‑19)—a prime example being the 2020 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting and subsequent virtual meetings that followed.

Part 2 of the ANS Board of Directors board-onboarding sessions is scheduled for Friday, May 21 from 12:00 to 2:00 pm EDT. The first hour will be a continuation of the diversity, equity, and inclusion training.

The United States is embarking on a new coordinated federal low-dose radiation research program. With guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science will build a program that integrates the research of past decades, but without treading the same well-worn path. Instead, the new program will focus on how the scientific understanding of low-dose radiation can best be augmented, applied, and communicated.

Arndt

Wharton

The results are in. Steven Arndt, ANS Fellow and member since 1981, has been elected the next ANS vice president/president-elect, and W.A. “Art” Wharton III, ANS member since 2004, was elected for a second two-year term as treasurer.

Four candidates were elected to serve three-year terms as at-large members of the Board of Directors.

The American Nuclear Society recommended that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) consider recognizing the reliability and resiliency benefits that carbon-free nuclear electricity generation provides to the bulk power system. ANS President Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar and Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy submitted these comments in a letter during a FERC meeting on Thursday morning.

This is the fourth in a four-part series spotlighting the candidates for the upcoming 2021 ANS national election. Seven leadership positions are on the ballot.

Today we feature statements from the nominees for the Young Member director position, which was approved by the ANS Board of Directors in September.

The nominees are Benjamin A. Holtzman, of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an ANS member since 2007, and Catherine M. Prat, of Westinghouse Electric Company, an ANS member since 2011.

Ballots will be sent electronically on February 22 and must be submitted by 4 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, April 6.

This is the third in a four-part series spotlighting the candidates for the upcoming 2021 ANS national election. Seven leadership positions are on the ballot.

Today we feature statements from the nominees for the U.S. director at-large positions. There are 10 candidates for four open spots on the ANS Board of Directors. The nominees are Harsh Desai, Nuclear Energy Institute; Julie G. Ezold, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Jess C. Gehin, Idaho National Laboratory; Kathryn D. Huff, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jeffrey C. King, Colorado School of Mines; Stephen P. LaMont, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Jean-Francois Lucchini, Los Alamos National Laboratory; John M. Mahoney, High Expectations International; Jessika V. Rojas, Virginia Commonwealth University; and Tracy E. Stover Jr., Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

Ballots will be sent electronically on February 22 and must be submitted by 4 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, April 6.

This is the second in a four-part series spotlighting the candidates for the upcoming 2021 ANS national election. Seven leadership positions are on the ballot.

Today we feature statements from the nominees for treasurer.

The nominees are Ray Klann, an ANS member since 1991, who is a senior scientist in the National Security Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and W. A. “Art” Wharton III, an ANS member since 2004, who is a vice president at Studsvik Scandpower. Wharton, the current ANS treasurer, is running for a second term.

Ballots will be sent electronically on February 22 and must be submitted by 4 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, April 6.

Today we feature statements from the nominees for vice president/president-elect. The nominees are Steven A. Arndt, an ANS Fellow and member since 1981, who is a senior technical advisor with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and Corey McDaniel, an ANS member since 2008, who is chief commercial officer at Idaho National Laboratory.

Ballots will be sent electronically on February 22 and must be submitted by 4 pm (ET) on Tuesday, April 6.

The first-ever ANS vice president candidate discussion forum will be held Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 6:00-7:00 pm EST. Register now for the event to hear directly from candidates Steven Arndt and Corey McDaniel.

Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar

Happy New Year! I sincerely hope that each of you found time to refresh and rejuvenate over the holidays, or at least have fun. Many indicators suggest that 2021 will be a better year than 2020, including a growing understanding of COVID-19 and its impacts and the availability of a vaccine. So many have suffered from job loss or even loss of businesses in 2020. Even for those of us fortunate enough to be healthy, gainfully employed, and able to work from anywhere thanks to Zoom and its competitors, uncertainty is still a challenging aspect of the pandemic.

The American Nuclear Society and Sociedad Nuclear Española (SNE) on December 10 signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) that creates a partnership between the two societies to cooperate in promoting the development of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes.