Sharing his goal of “Getting It Done,” Dr. Thomas L. Sanders, president of the American Nuclear Society, interacted with NPRE students and faculty October 19 and 20 and presented the Department’s Tuesday graduate seminar while visiting the Urbana campus.
The “It” Sanders refers to is the U.S. nuclear renaissance. There’s been a lot of talk about “it” in the past decade, Sanders maintains, but now is the time for action. For example, he believes, U.S. industry could now exploit a considerable worldwide market by building inside factories smaller, more affordable reactors that could then be deployed in the field. These “right-sized” reactors could provide nuclear energy benefits to all nations while simultaneously eliminate the need for those nations to produce materials of proliferation concern. Sanders’ advocacy for these opportunities was the subject of his seminar talk, “Global Energy Needs: Defining a Role for a ‘Right-Sized Reactor’.”
Sanders further believes the 11,000-member ANS, dedicated to advancing and promoting nuclear science and technology, can play a major role in the licensing and decision-making processes for the new plants. Sanders has been active in ANS since the mid 1970s, when he served as student branch president at the University of Texas. There, he earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering with a focus on nuclear science and engineering.
As president, Sanders’ ANS duties include traveling the world to promote nuclear energy. His visit to Champaign-Urbana included speaking at the Central Illinois Section ANS meeting October 20 as well as visiting with NPRE faculty and students. Sanders toured several NPRE laboratories, including the virtual reality lab where he experienced immersion in 3D, virtual and interactive models of nuclear facilities. The models can be used for training purposes.
In addition to his ANS duties, Sanders is Co-founder and former Vice President of the American Council on Global Nuclear Competitiveness. Since 1997, he has served as Sandia National Laboratory’s Manager/Integrator of the Global Nuclear Materials Management and Nuclear Futures Initiatives.
As such, Sanders has led the development of topical meetings, policy papers, news articles, partnership events with other countries and non-government organizations, and caucus events on Capitol Hill to articulate that a healthy and thriving U.S. nuclear energy infrastructure (from education to labs, suppliers, operators, and NGOs) is key to global proliferation risk management in the future. He has developed a complementary partnership initiative between seven U.S. and nine Russian lab directors. This message has been delivered at Presidential summits, White House and Congressional briefings, and to numerous champions throughout government, industry, labor, and academia.
Sanders assumed the ANS presidency in June, upon the conclusion of NPRE alumnus William E. Burchill’s term as president. Burchill continues serving the organization as past president.
Contact: Susan Mumm editor/alumni affairs coordinator, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, 217/244-5382 (campus office), 217/821-6866 (cell) 217/347-2166 (home office).