Education


Sign up for the Certified Nuclear Professional exam

July 3, 2025, 12:00PMANS News

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.

Recent surveys confirm high levels of U.S. nuclear support

July 1, 2025, 11:57AMANS Nuclear Cafe
Bisconti survey findings from 1983 to 2025 to the question, “Overall, do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity in the United States?” (Source: Bisconti Research Inc.)

Surveys have consistently indicated that public support in the United States for the use of nuclear energy has been increasing in recent years. Four recent surveys continue to suggest that near-record-high numbers of Americans support nuclear energy. However, the survey results differ—sometimes widely—in the details of their findings.

Prepare for the 2025 Nuclear PE Exam with ANS guides

June 23, 2025, 9:30AMANS News

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.

West Virginia couple use ANS Geiger counters for nuclear education

June 20, 2025, 7:10AMNuclear News
Ann Gibeaut (center row, second from left), Tim Adkins (center row, far right), and other volunteer educators with Civil Air Patrol cadets. (Photo: Boone Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol)

Husband-and-wife team Timothy Adkins and Ann Gibeaut are using Geiger counters supplied by the American Nuclear Society to educate young people in West Virginia about nuclear science and ionizing radiation. In 2022, ANS donated some old nonfunctioning Geiger counters to Tim and Ann, who recalibrated them and got them working again.

K-State to offer NE bachelor's degree starting this fall

June 17, 2025, 12:00PMNuclear News
Looking down into K-State’s research reactor. (Photo: Kansas State University)

The Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University is adding nuclear engineering as its 15th bachelor of science degree program. Offered through the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, the curriculum of 123 credit hours will be officially available starting in the fall this year.

New Mexico State University: Home of the newest ANS student section

June 16, 2025, 7:01AMANS News
Olivia Belian and Joseph Holles hold the official chapter certificate awarded to the group last semester. (Photo: NMSU)

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.

NuScale Energy Exploration Center opens at George Mason University

June 5, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
The SMR control room simulator in NuScale’s newest E2 Center began operation at George Mason University. (Photo: NuScale /George Mason University)

NuScale Power Corporation has opened another Energy Exploration (E2) Center—this one at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Just last month, a NuScale E2 Center opened at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. The newest E2 at George Mason is the company’s 11th center.

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NuScale Energy Exploration Center opens at SC State

May 27, 2025, 9:42AMANS Nuclear Cafe
Zadok Tahsoh, an SC State senior nuclear engineering student, works with the control room simulator at the university’s Energy Exploration Center. (Photo: SC State)

NuScale Power Corporation’s latest Energy Exploration (E2) Center has opened at South Carolina State University, in Orangeburg. E2 Centers are designed to provide visitors with hands-on experiences in simulated scenarios of operations at nuclear power plants. NuScale has established 10 such centers around the world. The company officially presented the fully installed E2 Center to SC State on May 21, after a collaborative setup and training process was completed.

Purdue’s research reactor aids in advanced reactor development

May 22, 2025, 9:30AMANS Nuclear Cafe
A digital twin of Purdue’s reactor appears on monitors in Stylianos Chatzidakis’s lab. Chatzidakis observes PhD student Zach Dahm, seated, as he toggles through different views. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)

A research reactor built in 1962 that was converted to digital control and operation in 2019 is aiding the development of advanced nuclear reactors, such as small modular reactors and microreactors. An article published by Purdue University describes how Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1), currently the only facility to be licensed for a fully digital safety and control system by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is being used to perform “first-of-a-kind experiments that are unique to the nuclear sector.”

IAEA starts its “SMR School” with workshop in Kenya

May 20, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
Participants listen to a speaker at the IAEA SMR School in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: IAEA)

An initiative to educate government, regulatory, and industry representatives around the world about small modular reactors has been launched by the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the first such “SMR School” workshop, which was hosted by the government of Kenya in the capital city of Nairobi from on May 5–9.

Natalie Cannon is passionate about nuclear policy

May 13, 2025, 7:03AMNuclear News
Natalie Cannon (center) with fellow LANNS researcher Alex England (left) and Prof. Anna Erickson (right) work with the Clinical Linear Accelerator at Georgia Tech. (Photo: Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech)

Some people are born leaders, and some people make themselves leaders. Take Natalie Cannon, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been driven to succeed since she was a teenager in Southern California, when she was inspired by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

Tokyo high school students visit NEA headquarters

May 7, 2025, 9:31AMNuclear News
William Magwood (center, yellow tie) and the visitors from Japan. (Photo: OECD NEA)

As part of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s engagement with the next generation of nuclear energy scholarship, Director General William Magwood IV and Deputy Director General Nobuhiro Muroya hosted students earlier this year from Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School.

Student encounters

May 6, 2025, 7:01AMNuclear NewsLisa Marshall

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

There is much I could have written about for this month’s issue of Nuclear News, and I have decided to reflect on conversations with our greatest asset: students. When we consider what the industry needs, I think about what students need to thrive. The educational ecosystem requires both enthusiasm and resources in and out of the classroom.

To attract and retain students, we must pay attention to cocurricular programming. Scholarships, fellowships, travel grants, internships, and co-ops—as well as our time and efforts—make a difference. Whether at schools, meetups and student conferences, or national and international meetings, we must continue to pour into our students at all levels. We also need to create an environment that pays attention to external factors that impact academic performance. This lift is a mightier one but just as important.

Amy Whitley selected for the 2025 Barry Sloane Memorial Scholarship

April 30, 2025, 6:48AMANS News

Amy Whitley has been selected by the American Nuclear Society and American Society of Mechanical Engineers to receive the 2025 ANS/ASME Barry Sloane Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, which was established in 2024 to recognize an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in mechanical or nuclear engineering, honors contributions of the late Barry Sloane, a past member of the ANS/ASME Joint Committee on Nuclear Risk Management (JCNRM).

ANS webinar tackles radiological risks

April 22, 2025, 6:44AMNuclear News

A recent American Nuclear Society webinar laid the basic groundwork in understanding radiation and the risks it presents. Robert Hayes, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University and joint faculty member at Savannah River National Laboratory, presented “Radiological Risk in Perspective,” the latest online event in ANS’s Educator Training offerings.

Mizzou announces contract signing for NextGen MURR project

April 16, 2025, 12:11PMNuclear News
A reactor operator retrieves a sample can from the MURR, as seen from above. (Photo: University of Missouri)

The University of Missouri announced today that it has signed a $10 million contract for the initial design phase of the $1 billion-plus state-of-the-art NextGen MURR research reactor project.

UIUC and NANO Nuclear reboot plans for a FOAK research reactor

April 15, 2025, 9:30AMNuclear News
Concept art of NANO Nuclear’s KRONOS MMR research reactor that UIUC plans to operate on its campus in Champaign, Ill. (Image: NANO Nuclear)

Plans to bring a university research reactor like no other to the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) were punctuated last fall by the news that Ultra Safe Nuclear, the developer of the gas-cooled reactor technology selected for the Illinois Microreactor Project, had declared bankruptcy.

The advantages and challenges of nuclear-powered data centers

April 11, 2025, 7:03AMANS Nuclear Cafe

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has posted a list of the advantages and challenges of using nuclear energy to power AI data centers, which some estimates suggest could consume as much as 12 percent of U.S. energy production by 2028. The DOE also posted a brief video on its YouTube channel to accompany the list.