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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
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.
J. E. Klein
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 416-419
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T42
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reduction in hydride absorption rate due to ”blanketing” can be explained in terms of a reduced hydrogen partial pressure in the bed due to the accumulation of inerts (i.e. non-hydrogen isotopes) in the bed void volume. Literature results show reduced absorption rates when protium for bed absorption contains helium with low-end inert compositions in the 0.6 to 1% range. A hydride bed containing 9.66 kg of LaNi4.25Al0.75 (LANA0.75) metal hydride - a nominal capacity of 1400 STP-L, was cycled repeatedly to decrepitate the hydride material into smaller particles for bed strain measurement. The hydride cycles added and removed nominally 1000 to 1100 STP-L of protium per hydride cycle. Consistent and repeatable absorptions results were observed for different absorption cycles. During one of the absorption tests, slower absorption results were obtained due to the use of typical grade (500 ppm inerts), instead of research grade, protium which blanketed the bed. The impact of 0.05% inerts in protium on bed absorption rate is shown and explained in terms of an increase in inert partial pressure as the bed was loaded.