ANS 2015 Plenary Talks – Part 1 Introduction

Everyone I spoke to about the opening plenary session of the American Nuclear Society annual meeting on June 8, 2015 told me they were impressed. I agree; it was one of the most interesting set of talks that I’ve ever heard in one place at one time.

Dr. Dale Klein, who has had a distinguished career and is well known in the nuclear world as an academic, a capable former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and as an advisor to other decision makers chaired the session.

He and his organizing team successfully put together a terrific panel that included Doyle Beneby, the Chairman and CEO of CPS Energy, the electricity supplier for San Antonio; Tom Fanning, the President, Chairman and CEO of Southern Company which is leading the Nuclear Renaissance as the major customer of the construction project at Plant Vogtle; David Scott, widely recognized as the architect of the UAE’s nuclear program; and Scott Tinker, state geologist of Texas, professor at the University of Texas and the star of the energy documentary Switch.

All four speakers did a terrific job of describing the challenges and opportunities associated with providing clean, affordable, safe, and reliable energy to a growing portion of the world’s people.

My friends that fly fast planes off of aircraft carriers have a saying worth learning “Tis often easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.” In that spirit, I’m going to share my personal recordings of the talks with you. I’ll beg forgiveness if that decision is judged to be inappropriate by those who believe that only paid attendees at the meeting should be able to hear these important talks.

Even though the talks will inspire you and provide valuable information, those who attended the meeting, asked a public question, or took the opportunity to discuss the talks with colleagues over lunch obtained enough additional value to justify their effort and expense in attending the meeting.

I realize that not everyone has the ability to take time from their normally assigned duties or has an employer that budgets appropriate amounts of resources to take advantage of the benefits for both employee and employer when the former is able to regularly attend well-organized technical society gatherings.

The recordings in the ANS 2015 Plenary Talks series will have to suffice as a pale facsimile of the experience offered to attendees.

Once again, I’d like to thank those generous readers and Atomic Show listeners who provided financial resources that enabled me to travel to San Antonio to attend the meeting.

PS – Next time, I think I will ask far enough in advance to make an airline reservation at a reasonable cost. The trip from south central VA to south central Texas provided an interesting look at a part of America that I haven’t visited enough, but four travel days and a total of 3200 miles in a week has left me a little bushed.