Last year, we proudly launched the inaugural Nuclear News 40 Under 40 list to shine a spotlight on the exceptional young professionals driving the nuclear sector forward as the nuclear community faces a dramatic generational shift. We weren’t sure how a second list would go over, but once again, our members resoundingly answered the call, confirming what we already knew: The nuclear community is bursting with vision, talent, and extraordinary dedication.

Following the enthusiastic response from the nuclear community in 2024 for the inaugural NN 40 Under 40, the Nuclear News team knew we had to take up the difficult task in 2025 of turning it into an annual event—though there was plenty of uncertainty as to how the community would receive a second iteration this year. That uncertainty was unfounded, clearly, as the tight-knit nuclear community embraced the chance to celebrate its up-and-coming generation of scientists, engineers, and policy makers who are working to grow the influence of this oft-misunderstood technology.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

This month’s Nuclear News pays tribute to the people and projects that keep our nuclear power plants running.

In the nuclear industry, “life extension” is a venerable term that broadly describes the care required to sustain the safe and efficient operation of large, complex energy generation facilities for decades to come, some of which you will read about in these pages.

Of late, however, the general concept of life extension has also taken a firmer hold in our societal consciousness.

Whether we absorb it from Instagram videos about some Silicon Valley techie’s quest for immortality or sense it in one of the thousands of dryly written journal articles documenting our increasing ability to control and change life at the molecular level, the promise of extended life and health has universal appeal—and it’s never seemed more within reach than it does right now.

It's been another successful publishing year for the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear News, Radwaste Solutions, the online Nuclear Newswire, and the NN Daily newsletter.

For Nuclear News, below are the publishing themes for 2025.

If you have story ideas for any of these themes or for Radwaste Solutions, please contact Nucnews@ans.org.

Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear News 40 Under 40! A year in the making, this list was a difficult undertaking for the NN staff, there being so many qualified and enthusiastic candidates to review. The task was further complicated by the great diversity of roles that exist within the nuclear community—from academia to labs and from utilities to government positions. Whatever their specific niche, those selected represent the exceptional talent, vision, and drive that is transforming the nuclear sector across the community. These 40 young professionals have shown remarkable commitment, innovation, and leadership in advancing nuclear science and technology, paving the way for a future in which nuclear power and applications will continue to play a vital role in addressing global challenges.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

October 11, 2024, marked the 70th anniversary of the American Nuclear Society. Taking a long view, we have not looked back and instead have tackled challenges and moved forward with lessons learned. Whether we pull examples from energy or nonenergy aspects of our nuclear enterprise, our planet has benefited from nuclear science and technology, and ANS has been there every step of the way.

As the Society reflects on its own history, let us remember:

• The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s.
• Nuclear energy now provides about 9 percent of the world’s electricity from about 440 power reactors.
• Nuclear provides about 25 percent of the world’s low-carbon electricity.
• Nuclear is the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon power.
• More than 50 countries utilize nuclear energy in about 220 research reactors. In addition to research, these reactors are used for training and for the production of medical and industrial isotopes.

For American Nuclear Society members and Nuclear News subscribers, the 2024 Buyers Guide is now available in the ANS Digital Nuclear Library. The print version will be mailed along with the May “Capacity Factors/Nuclear Security” issue of Nuclear News magazine.

The corresponding ANS online Buyers Guide database is available year-round to all readers—updated with the latest products, services, and suppliers contact information for more than 600 nuclear-related companies.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

"Craig, when you are climbing a mountain, make sure you stop once in a while to enjoy the view.”

An old colleague would sometimes say this to me. It’s hard to believe, but last month marked four years as the Executive Director/CEO of the American Nuclear Society.

If you were an ANS member in the fall of 2019, you know the Society was amid a decade-long decline. Membership numbers were falling, the operational deficit was rising, staff morale was poor, and productivity was low. The fear among the elected leadership was that without significant change, ANS could cease to exist in any meaningful or functional way.

I am immensely grateful for the elected leadership of that time—people like ANS past presidents Bob Coward (2017–2018) and Marilyn Kray (2019–2020), who delivered the ANS Change Plan 2020, which provided a road map for modernizing the organizational structure of ANS.

From the pages of the September 2023 issue of Nuclear News.

For decades, more energy has meant more fuel: fossil fuels.

But nuclear fuel—unlike coal, oil, or even natural uranium—is a feat of engineering, not a commodity extracted from the earth. Now, “more” means more engineering—to boost uranium density or to close the fuel cycle.

Earthbound air travel can be a hassle, even for careful planners. So if you’re heading to the Moon or beyond, it’s time to shift your planning into hyperdrive. Our advice, when there’s no guidebook, no proven vehicle, and your destination is a moving target? Don’t forget to pack your nuclear power bank.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

Dear member:

Hello from our temporary headquarters in Downers Grove, Ill. Yes, after two years of twists and turns, we have finally completed the sale of our legacy La Grange Park property and are in the process of building out our new space, which will be ready for occupancy later this year.

I know many of you have memories made in “the Schoolhouse,” which served as American Nuclear Society headquarters for nearly 50 years. At one time during the golden age of paper recordkeeping, it housed nearly 100 employees. As the business of running a professional society evolved with the information age, however, so too did our workforce and space needs. Stately though it was, 555 Kensington Avenue proved simply too expensive to heat, cool, mow, plow, and otherwise maintain to an acceptable standard.

Steven Arndt
president@ans.org

Anyone who has heard me speak about the American Nuclear Society recently knows that I like to remind people of the ANS mission and vision statements. I invite people to read the exact words: Our mission is to “advance, foster, and spur the development and application of nuclear science, engineering, and technology to benefit society”; our vision is to see “nuclear technology . . . embraced for its vital contributions to improving peoples’ lives and preserving our planet.”

The meaning behind these statements is that ANS is here to help the profession save the world. I take that seriously: We are here to save the world. This month, Nuclear News is focusing on nuclear science, engineering, and technology’s role in space exploration both now and in the future. When we look at our mission, this is very fitting. The use of nuclear power systems in space goes back almost to the start of ANS. In 1961, the Transit 4A satellite became the first U.S. spacecraft to be powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). Combined with solar cells, RTGs have been used on the Moon and on satellites and to explore the solar system and beyond. One of the interesting things about these power sources is that they were used to provide both provide electricity and heat to keep the systems they were supporting from freezing. Since then, additional nuclear systems have been designed and developed—including fission power reactors and nuclear thermal propulsion—that will provide significantly more power and faster space journeys.

This year marks the 25th year that ANS's Nuclear News magazine has published its Reference Section, which features a world list of nuclear power plants, maps showing worldwide plant locations, tables with information on U.S. plant renewals, and international data tables and graphics. What follows are interesting tidbits that Nuclear Newswire has picked up from this year's Reference Section, which was published in the March NN.

From the Reference Section
Five power reactors started commercial operations around the world in 2022 and five more closed, leaving the total number of operable nuclear power reactors in this 25th Annual Reference Section at 434, the same as the year before. What’s more, that number is just one more than the 433 power reactors listed in the 1st Annual Reference Section back in 1999. But make no mistake, plenty has changed over 25 years. Read on.

ANS will host a members-only event on December 7 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST with Jigar Shah, director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO). Craig Piercy, ANS executive director and chief executive officer, will lead the interview.

Register now: Hear about the ambitious goals of the Biden administration to decarbonize the power sector by 2035, which were highlighted in Shah’s article in the November issue of Nuclear News. Shah will also discuss how nuclear can be an important part of the decarbonized energy mix in the United States and how he believes the LPO can support the administration’s target.

The Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory announced this week that the sixth major core overhaul of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is complete, after an 11-month outage that began in April 2021. The ATR was built as a key piece of mission support for U.S. Navy programs and first reached full power in 1969. Today it remains “the world’s largest, most powerful and flexible materials test reactor,” in the words of INL—quite a feat for a reactor that was planned over 60 years ago.

This is the first of five articles to be posted today to look back at the top news stories of 2021 for the nuclear community. The full article, "Looking back at 2021,"was published in the January 2022 issue of Nuclear News.

Quite a year was 2021. In the following stories, we have compiled what we feel are the past year’s top news stories—please enjoy this recap from a busy year in the nuclear community. But first, what about ANS itself? Let’s look at some of ANS’s activities in 2021.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

This month’s issue of Nuclear News focuses on the role of probabilistic methods in assessing and mitigating the risk of adverse events at nuclear plants and facilities. It’s a timely topic as we move to launch a new generation of nuclear technologies, but it is only half of a larger question that is universal to the human condition: Are the rewards of a particular thing worth its attendant risks?

Nuclear engineers use hard technical terms like “probabilistic risk assessment” and “core damage frequency,” but other industries have much more colorful ways of describing the holistic risk-reward construct in their world. In finance, it’s known simply as “alpha.” A zero alpha investment suggests that its returns are commensurate with the associated risks. Negative alphas get pushed to the curb, and “high alpha” deals get Wall Street hedge fund managers their house in the Hamptons.

Steven P. Nesbit
president@ans.org

It’s like clockwork. In June of every year, the American Nuclear Society brings in a new elected leader for the next 12 months. I’m Steve Nesbit, the latest in a line of distinguished (and maybe a few not so distinguished) nuclear professionals who have had the honor and privilege of serving as ANS president.

This is your lucky day. Everything you ever wanted to know about me, but were afraid to ask, is in an article in the July issue of Nuclear News (page 28). Instead of plowing that ground again here, I’ll take advantage of my monthly column to cover a few other topics that are hopefully of value.

Nuclear News magazine has just released the 52nd annual Buyers Guide. This nuclear directory lists more than 600 companies worldwide in 475 business categories used throughout the nuclear community.

For more than 50 years, this annual directory has been a useful resource for utility professionals and the broader nuclear community to find the products, services, and partners needed for their next project. In addition to industry use, the Buyers Guide (and the monthly issues of Nuclear News) serves the nation’s nuclear engineering programs and are delivered to the 10,000 members of the American Nuclear Society. This special issue helps keep the current and future workforce and industry leaders informed about vendors and their areas of expertise, as well as about the ongoing projects and new innovations and technologies being used throughout all segments of the nuclear industry.

In an article published on March 5, Axios reviews the ways the world’s maritime companies are trying to decarbonize. The maritime industry, “from ferries to freighters—is trying to navigate a once-in-a-century transition away from fossil fuels to new, cleaner means of propulsion,” the article explains.

Emissions from shipping: The article notes that the world’s economy relies on international shipping, with more than 90 percent of global trade traveling via maritime vessels. The issue, though, is that “the vessels burn about 4 million barrels of oil a day, accounting for almost 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.” The article then cites a United Nations report from 2018 that sets greenhouse gas reduction targets of 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2008 levels.