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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
Standards Program
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
Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Friedrich Niehaus, Harry J. Otway
Nuclear Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | August 1977 | Pages 387-397
Technical Paper | Reactor Siting | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31803
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
By using an idealized model, the reduction in potential radiation risks, as a function of increasing distance between nuclear power plant and load center, was compared to the corresponding increase in power transmission costs. Based on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission guideline of $1000/man-rem, remote siting was not found to be a cost-effective risk-reduction method. However, this guideline applies only to the biological risks of radiation exposure, explicitly excluding measures of the relevant social values. It is suggested that methodologies from many disciplines can be applied within the risk assessment framework to allow the inclusion of value measures in public decisions that regulate the integration of technological and social systems.
