Collaborative-Based Siting Consortium

As the premier professional and scientific educational organization in nuclear science and technology with 10,000 members, ANS seeks to advance and expand public conversation nuclear science and technology issues. Sociocultural and political complexities shape how society perceives and makes choices regarding nuclear energy and radiation. It is imperative that citizens have access to science information. From the town hall to the classroom, greater transparency into the nuclear field can help communities better evaluate how projects fulfill national imperatives for environmental protection, energy security, climate adaptation and mitigation.

From the local level to the world stage, ANS works with community stakeholders and constituency groups such as labor, faith-based communities and civic society organizations on the issues of nuclear science and technology. ANS programs explore community decision-making practices, expectations for nuclear material management and resource needs to improve the country’s outlook for nuclear energy solutions. ANS has partnered with the South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (SCUREF) and university partners to augment its capacity for outreach, providing training and coaching to the students as well.

The consortium's four university partners are: City College of New York, Northern Arizona University, South Carolina State University, and University of New Mexico. Together, this team provides insights and support and serves as a collaboration hub.

The asset-based approach follows the tradition of action research and avoids a top-down decision-making process. It engages stakeholders immediately in efforts to plan, act, observe and reflect on structured milestones. These milestones include: (1) an initial stakeholder mapping process for defining the conditions for appropriate and informed engagements with engaged communities; (2) identification of partners to nurture informational projects with cooperating organizations while informing further research efforts; (3) identifying stakeholders willing to co-create solutions together; and (4) the sharing of results and tools to iterate and replicate successful collaborative-based decision-making.

Objective: The ANS Asset-Based Collaboration program intends to tap into existing assets already active in local communities to expand and deepen a national dialogue on the future of nuclear waste solutions in the United States.

Strategy: Nuclear professionals are neighbors. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) provides a conduit to independent community-based organizations where Society members already participate in their local schools, faith-communities, and civil society organizations.

Tactics: ANS staff and student participants are to conduct three rounds of qualitative research over a two-year period. ANS will also form a Collaboration Council, consisting of partnering universities' faculty members and current civil society, labor and Tribal partners. These members will support referrals and reviews of the ongoing activities throughout the program.

Activities:

• Round One: ANS staff and student participants make individual calls to “enabling assets” identified through ANS and the Collaboration Council. The first phase will elicit and map public values, interests, and goals regarding effective collaboration regarding nuclear decision-making.
• Round Two: This phase will develop and implement outcomes to support mutual learning among stakeholders, communities, and experts on nuclear topics. Using Round One community-driven insights and referrals, ANS staff and student participants scale the engagement ladder to move individual contacts to build organizational connections. Community input will define how webinars, townhalls, Nuclear News features or installations should be organized, regionally or constituent based. Surveys will be designed and launched to capture topical interests related to education materials. Applications for up to ten outreach events will be cultivated in this period. Honoraria will be available for community-led requests to provide subject matter experts.
• Round Three: The final round formalizes the formation of the ANS Collaboration Hub with the cultivation and collection of memoranda of understanding with interested stakeholders. This would provide ongoing connectivity to ANS educational resources like Navigating Nuclear, Nuclear Daily, and local/student section activities.

In-depth interviews will be catalogued through ANS relationship management software and evaluated for quarterly reports to assess attitudes, resources and shared goals. Progress on the project will be featured in Nuclear News. Ongoing outreach will be documented to maintain points of contact, primary interests and available community assets for future engagement.

American Nuclear Society

Andrew Smith is the Director of Communications for the American Nuclear Society (ANS), where he manages external communications, strategic communications, and media relations, including the ANS Rapid Response Taskforce of technical subject matter experts and scientific analysts. Smith is the lead Principal Investigator for the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear Siting Consortium for Interim Storage of Used Fuel.

Prior to joining ANS, Smith was a Senior Program Manager at Potomac Communications Group in Washington, D.C. With over 10 years in journalism, he spent five years covering nuclear energy, cybersecurity, and the power industry for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a Master of Arts in Journalism from Ulster University in the United Kingdom.

South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation

Cassandra Hicks-Brown, MHSA, SHRM-CP, is an accomplished and goal-driven executive offering 15+ years extensive experience in human resources, operations, and tactical business leadership. As program manager at SCUREF, she ensures effective day-to-day operations. To this project, she brings experience in employee recruitment and retention, staff development, mediation, report writing, program evaluation and conflict resolution. Hicks-Brown holds a Master of Health Services Administration from Strayer University and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Winthrop University. She is SHRM certified and is pursuing her PMP certification. She has over 17 years of experience in the non-profit industry.

Craig Williamson, MA, is the COO of the South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation. He has over 40 years-experience working with various federal agencies in the development, establishment and administration of education and research programs directed toward the enhancement of the scientific and technical human capital development in nuclear science and engineering. He has successfully managed education and research contracts with the U.S. Department of Energy; National Nuclear Security Administration; US Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He oversaw the logistics and reporting for the Blue-Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

He has developed and managed undergraduate research scholarships, graduate fellowships, junior faculty awards, postgraduate, institutional awards, and distinguished faculty awards principally in nuclear science and engineering. Most recently, he published, “Growth in Nuclear Security Education in the United States” in the International Nuclear Security Education Network publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency in July 2022. Williamson holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Tennessee (UT), where he also served as Chair of the Board of Visitors for the UT Political Science Department. He also served as Chair for the University of Florida’s Nuclear Engineering Department. Mr. Williamson has a long history of working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and has served on Advisory Boards at South Carolina State University, Florida A&M University, and Florida International University.

City College of New York

Dr. Liubov Kreminska, Ph.D, M.Eng.,M.Ed., is Program Administrative Director and Professor in Electrical Engineering at CCNY’s Earth System Science and Environmental Engineering Department.

Trained as an engineer and investigator in optics and electronics, Dr. Kreminska later expanded her interest to instructional technology, and the ABET accreditation of engineering training.

To this project, Dr. Kreminska brings experience in coaching students of diverse backgrounds, developing clear tasks, and sparking community interest in discussing critical issues. Having endured the Chernobyl catastrophe as a student, Liubov believes in the need for safe nuclear energy under strict regulation from government organizations. She trusts in progress through education and experience, with dozens of her students now working on projects across four states and three countries.

Northern Arizona University

Dr. Karen Jarratt-Snider, MPA, BS, Chair and Associate Professor of NAU Applied Indigenous Studies.

Dr. Jarratt-Snider has more than twenty years of experience working with Indigenous Peoples, nations, and communities. Her primary areas of expertise are Indigenous environmental policy and U.S. federal Indian policy. Dr. Jarratt-Snider's work encompasses Community-Based Participatory Research and Indigenous-driven research approaches.

South Carolina State University

Christopher J. Carraway, MBA, is a Professor of Accounting within SCSU Department of Business Administration & Information Systems. Carraway has 22 years of professional experience in the accounting industry. In the latter years of his career as an accounting professional, he served as a controller for several corporate entities, overseeing multiple accounting functions, financial reporting, and financial management for complex joint ventures.

Carraway recently completed the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Bridge Program. He has leveraged his practical experience to explain accounting concepts, which has been instrumental in strengthening the student-faculty relationship.

University of New Mexico

Dr. Hyoung “Hank” Lee, Ph.D, MS, is a Professor of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a founding faculty member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Catholic University of Korea. He joined the Nuclear Engineering Program at Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2009 and chaired the program for six years. In 2020, he joined the Nuclear Engineering Department at UNM as the Chair.

Dr. Lee has 29 years of research experience covering a broad spectrum of radiation detection and nuclear imaging topics. His research areas include developing nuclear imaging systems using X-rays, gamma rays, and neutrons; applications of nuclear imaging in medicine, nuclear energy, nuclear safeguards, homeland security, and nondestructive characterization; developing radiation sources for nuclear imaging; machine learning for gamma spectroscopy and nuclear imaging; digital image processing; and computed tomography (CT) reconstruction. He has completed several research projects to provide new methods and solutions in nuclear imaging beyond traditional technologies. With support from DARPA, he has designed and fabricated prototypes of a new flat-panel X-ray source and has built a neutron and X-ray combined CT system at the Missouri S&T nuclear reactor with a DOE NEUP grant. He has also contributed to workforce development for nuclear energy.

Dr. Lee has published 166 peer-reviewed publications and edited a book chapter. He has registered 11 patents, given 30 invited lectures, and 112 abstracted talks. He has attracted 55 research grants and contracts amounting to $34M.

Potentiary

Laura Hermann is an independent consultant working to develop strategies for how to manage societal and technological change. Throughout her career, she has designed education programs on issues ranging from neighborhood safety and emergency preparedness to energy efficiency and data protection. After 14 years building the science practice within Potomac Communication Group, Laura established Potentiary to work with select clients to make and maintain networks that transform organizations and reach net-zero carbon goals.

Hermann applies ethnographic methods to help accomplished professionals gain deeper understanding of audience needs and uses action research to translate insights into impactful interactions that can move programs forward. She holds a master of science degree from Northwestern University and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as an undergraduate at Loyola University Chicago.

Are you, your local community, or organization interested in engaging with the collaborative-based siting process discussion on the future of spent nuclear fuel storage?

Host a virtual webinar or an in-person event at a local venue with the support of a community grant!

Click here to apply for a community grant to fund creative events and programs centered around nuclear energy and the transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Community grants aim to:

• Ensure community ideas become part of a collaborative-based siting process.
• Co-create events focused on nuclear waste issues, such siting and consolidated interim storage.
• Facilitate dialogue among communities, the DOE, and scientific nuclear experts.

Event Ideas:

• Host a "town hall" or panel discussion featuring local organizations, community leaders, DOE representatives, and nuclear scientific experts.
• Hold public discussions on nuclear energy and nuclear waste storage.
• Tour a nuclear facility, such as a nuclear power plant or research reactor.
• Screen an educational documentary—e.g. "Nuclear Now" and "Juice: How Electricity Explains the World"— followed by a Q&A "ask the experts" discussion.

Get involved and help shape our country's energy future by applying today for a community grant!

Here are relevant consensus-reached Position Statements of the American Nuclear Society, reflective of the nuclear professional community:

• “Management of the Nation's Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste"
• “Interim Storage of Used or Spent Nuclear Fuel”

For scientific technical assistance regarding nuclear science and technology, including the management, storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel and waste, contact the consortium’s technical experts of the ANS Consolidated Interim Storage Taskforce at CIStaskforce@ans.org.

Information coming soon.