Membership Newsletter: Nuclear Science Week, Southeast Regional Conference Takeaways, and Webinars (Past and Upcoming)

Nuclear Science Week Prep and Resources

If you are not excited yet, get excited because Nuclear
Science week is right around the corner! 
We’ve got a ton of events and resources to share so put your PPE on, do
a safety brief, and get ready to digest this information.

1. Send your electronic postcard on October 15!  If you had the opportunity to attend Hill Day in June, remember to reach out to the staffers and invite your elected officials and staffer connections to Nuclear Science Week events!  Don’t forget to screenshot your postcard and send a quick email to info@nuclearmatters.com for a chance to win a prize!
2. Let us know if you are celebrating Nuclear Science Week with George’s Energy Adventure with #GeorgeAdoresEnergy.  If Marie joins in the festivities, use #ReadWithMarie.
3. Attend a Nuclear Science Week local event by checking out this list here.
4. There is a Millennial Nuclear Caucus on Thursday, October 17 in Washington, D.C.  Register now!
5. Post a picture of yourself to Twitter with #ActualLivingScientist (and #NuclearSciWeek) and a two sentence description of what you do in the nuclear science industry.  Tag @NA_YGN and you will be retweeted to our 5,300+ followers!

We’ve uploaded all of the information (Resources, Post Cards, Flyers, etc.) to our PI library under “2019 Nuclear Science Week”.

More information and resources for #NuclearSciWeek will be published soon!  If you have any questions, please contact pi@naygn.web.zuul.work.

Southeast Regional Conference Takeaways

On September 18 - 20 the Southeast region held their 2019
regional conference in Chattanooga, TN at the Historic Chattanooga Read House.
The Conference was hosted by the Tennessee Valley Authority chapters, Browns
Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar.

The conference featured presentations from Tim Rausch (TVA Chief
Nuclear Officer), Jill Levine (former Principal Ambassador Fellow for the
United States Department of Education), Dr. Jamie Coble (Associate Professor of
the University of Tennessee’s Department of Nuclear Engineering), Cayla
Thompson (NAYGN Professional Development Chair), and a host of other great
presenters.

Topics presented at the conference ranged from the effects of having a nuclear plant decommissioned to changing the public perception of the nuclear industry. During the conference Southeast Regional chair, Mike Hayes of TVA challenged attendees to Go Beyond and tell their stories on why they advocate for nuclear. “We have to realize that we are the Beyond in our industry,” Mike said, “we are the future CEOs and CNOs of this great industry, what we do matters and I hope this conference served as a tool for our attendees to grow both professionally and in their advocacy for nuclear power.”

For more information and access to the presentations, email your inquiry to naygn@tva.gov.

Career Progression – Becoming a Leader Webinar Recap

On September 24, the webinar committee hosted part 1 of a webinar series geared at highlighting the nuclear leaders throughout our industry.  The first series highlighted Donna Christiansen, the Training Director at Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant.

If you missed the webinar, we’ve uploaded the link to our Professional Development, Webinar page and also included it here. 

More details on part 2 and part 3 to be announced soon!

NRC Reactor Oversight Process Comment Period

In an effort to revise and improve the Reactor Oversight
Process (ROP), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff recently proposed
targeted, near-term ROP enhancements to the Commission, described in SECY-19-0067,
‘‘Recommendations for Enhancing the Reactor Oversight Process,’’

The NRC staff is currently evaluating possible long-term ROP
enhancements in the following areas:

• Problem identification and resolution inspection
  program
• Cross-cutting issues process
• Radiation protection inspection procedures
• Inspection program for Independent Spent Fuel
  Storage Installations (ISFSI)
• Significance Determination Process (SDP),
  particularly for the emergency preparedness cornerstone.

The NRC is soliciting comments from the public on potential
improvements in these areas, along with other areas of the ROP.  Any comments received on SECY-19-0067 will be
forwarded to the Commission for its consideration.

If you are interested, we encourage you to review and provide comments on the enhancements.  No expertise in the existing reactor oversight process is needed in order to weigh in – though we can direct you to subject matter experts if you would like to discuss it further.

NRC Reactor
Oversight Process Enhancement Initiative

Submit Comments

View
Submitted Comments

A few example comments:

• A static regulatory framework is a barrier to innovation and modernization.  The NRC is globally recognized as the premier safety regulator in the world in part, due to the NRC’s willingness to evolve its requirements, policies, and practices. This global leadership in nuclear regulation must be continued.
• NRC has identified that some of its processes need to be modernized to regulate an evolving nuclear industry and enable innovation – the ROP is a great example.  We applaud these efforts which are a prerequisite to support meeting carbon reduction goals and for re-gaining our global leadership in nuclear technology.   
• Legacy approaches will not help us reach our goals – adaptation of the regulatory process is essential if we want to make progress on climate.  If the NRC cannot optimize their safety focus for the existing fleet with which they have approximately 50 years of experience, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so for advanced designs.  We support the Commission’s efforts to make enhancements to the ROP.

Comments should be filed no later than October 7, 2019.

A Blog from NAYGN President Lee Causey

Recently, NAYGN president, Lee Causey, shared a blog on Nuclear Matters highlighting the impact of nuclear energy in his home state of North Carolina.  He discusses the importance of the recent Duke Energy net-zero carbon emissions announcement and how nuclear energy must continue to be a part of the solution.  In North Carolina, this is evident by Duke Energy’s announcement to seek license renewals for all eleven of their nuclear reactors! 

Even though this is excellent news for our industry, Lee states; “Every clean energy source feels the pressure of cheap and abundant fossil fuels, and North Carolina is no exception.” We must all continue to be advocates for our industry and its capacity as the largest CARBON-FREE provider of electricity in the United States.

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