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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
Senate EPW Committee to hold Nieh nomination hearing
Nieh
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a nomination hearing Wednesday for Ho Nieh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as commission at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Trump nominated Nieh on July 30 to serve as NRC commissioner the remainder of a term that will expire June 30, 2029, as Nuclear NewsWire previously reported.
Nieh has been vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021, though since June 2024 he has been at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations as a loaned executive.
A return to the NRC: If confirmed by the Senate, Nieh would be returning to the NRC after three previous stints totaling nearly 20 years.
Andrew Zillmer, William Green, Craig Tyler, Brian Gross, Erik Rosvall, Austen Fradeneck, Joshua Fishler, David Reeder, Ryan Marlow, Jagoda Urban-Klaehn, Michael Reichenberger, Mark Hill, Richard Howard
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 1 | December 2022 | Pages S1-S10
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2105774
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Plutonium-238 (238Pu) Production program at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is actively qualifying irradiation targets containing 237Np for the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) to produce 238Pu for future National Aeronautics and Space Administration missions. INL qualified and loaded seven targets in the ATR’s south flux trap for cycle 169A, which occurred in Spring 2021. The irradiation qualification program has expanded to additional ATR irradiation positions after two baseline production targets in three positions validated significant production of 238Pu. The validation model was followed by the PFS-1 experimental test in the ATR Critical Facility that verified 238Pu production cross sections. This paper outlines the progress and status of the 238Pu production program at INL. The qualification effort, safety analysis, hardware status, and future activities for qualification of an updated target design for use in the ATR are discussed.