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Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
N. Baglan, S. B. Kim, C. Cossonnet, I. W. Croudace, M. Fournier, D. Galeriu, P. E. Warwick, N. Momoshima, E. Ansoborlo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 250-253
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T3
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Many methods allow analysing the various forms of tritium in environmental samples; however, there are no published standard methods for measuring organically bound tritium (OBT). Furthermore, there are no certified reference materials of OBT for environmental samples. In environmental samples (plants and animals), the measurement of the various tritium fractions requires extraction of the free water, often through freeze drying processes. Combustion of the dry sample is then carried out to recover organically bound tritium in the combustion water. By measuring these water fractions, the tissue-free water tritium (TFWT) and the OBT concentration can be assessed. However, these techniques are tricky and sometimes not available in all monitoring labs. Indeed, most of them measure only the TFWT fraction in food samples, such as wine or milk. Researches to promote the use of validated procedures are on-going in several countries. However, for almost all comparison exercise organisers it is difficult on a yearly basis to provide the samples and to realise the statistical treatment of the results. Therefore, to improve OBT analytical skills, an international task group devoted to the improvement of OBT analytical procedures was created to overcome these limitations. For the first exercise about 20 labs from 8 countries were registered. The samples, specially-prepared potatoes, were provided in March 2013 to each participant. Technical information and results from this first exercise are discussed here for all the labs which have realised the five replicates necessary to allow a reliable statistical treatment. From this work an optimised procedure can start to be developed to deal with OBT analysis and will guide subsequent planned OBT trials by the international group.