Riding with the changing tide

In the November issue of Nuclear News magazine, you will find the third annual cohort of 40 Under 40 honorees. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate each young professional who has been selected for this unique honor. Being marked as one of the rising stars of our industry in 2026 is no easy feat-I hope each of you takes pride in that accomplishment.

Of course, the existence of a 40 Under 40 list in the nuclear world is itself remarkable, too. For years, it was seen as an aging and struggling industry. The membership of our Society skewed much older than it does today, and (in general) young people were decidedly unexcited about nuclear technology.

Today's industry stands in stark contrast to that of the not-so-distant past. Old antinuclear rhetoric is fading away and being replaced by new excitement about the promise of clean energy. In my first months as president of the American Nuclear Society, I have been reminded of the importance of that new excitement time and time again.

There is perhaps nowhere in the world where enthusiasm about the nuclear future is more palpable than in the meeting rooms of ANS Student Sections. In September, I had the opportunity to meet with the student section at North Carolina State University, after having had the opportunity at the start of the academic year to visit with student groups at Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and Liberty University. While these students have divergent interests, plans for the future, and career paths in mind, they nonetheless are knit together by one common shared feeling: optimism.

None of this is to suggest that people on the other side of 40 don't have a key role to play. Surely, there's no substitute for experience, and those of us who have been in the room for a while need to make sure that our experience is preserved and shared. If we are going to be successful, we can't waste time relearning hard lessons, and we need to make the most of the work we've already done.

That's why forums like the upcoming ANS Winter Conference & Expo are so important: They give us the opportunity to exchange and generate ideas, make key connections, and keep building this industry up.

The theme of this year's Winter Conference is "Going Critical: Creating a Durable Nuclear Resurgence," a tagline that touches on much of what I've written about here. Things are changing quickly, and seemingly for the better-so let's make sure we do everything we can to turn this moment into a movement.