Dr. Shripad T. Revankar
With its successful publication since 2015, the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science founded by the Nuclear Engineering Division (NED) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), has established itself as a high quality journal serving the global community in the spirit of ASME's mission of disseminating and communicating research advances in radiation science, nuclear energy engineering, and technology. I have been involved with ASME activities since 1987 and I have been on the NED Executive Committee for 8 years. I am honored to be serving as the current chair of the division. As a Chair of NED, I am proud of the journal's success and congratulate the chief editor, associate and guest editors, and reviewers for this success. I sincerely thank all the authors and readers for their loyalty and contributions to the journal. It is true that the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science is one of the premium services the ASME NED provides.
ASME as an international nonprofit organization has been a global leader serving global community, enabling collaboration, sharing knowledge, and developing skills across all engineering disciplines. Founded in 1880, ASME has grown to be one of the largest professional societies with more than 150,000 members from 151 countries from diverse groups ranging from college students to engineers, to corporate leaders and executives. Over 33% of these members are students and early career engineers. ASME hosts wide-ranging quality programs in continuing education, training and professional development, codes and standards, research, conference publications, government relations, and other associated activities.
Among ASME's 36 technical divisions, the NED is one of the largest divisions with over 6000 members and over 1000 technical committee members. The NED belongs to the Energy Conversion Group of ASME and is responsible to promote nuclear engineering all over the world. Since its inception as a formal division, NED has grown both in membership and activities and last year celebrated its 60th year. The focus areas of the NED are in the design, analysis, development, testing, operation and maintenance of nuclear power systems and components, nuclear fusion, heat transport, nuclear fuels technology, radwaste systems, radioactive high- and low-level waste and numerous applications of radiation including diagnostics, treatment, and material irradiation. The NED goals are to establish and promote the international understanding of nuclear engineering and to disseminate accurate nuclear engineering information worldwide. NED does this through the use of forums for presentation and discussion of technical subjects at meetings, conferences, workshops, and symposia. The NED encourages and supports the continuing education and professional growth of young mechanical engineers in nuclear engineering technology by interaction with experienced engineers.
The NED is the major sponsor and co-host of the annual event, International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE). ICONE is the premier global conference on nuclear reactor technology and is co-hosted by NED along with the Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) and the Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS). This conference is a “must-attend” for anyone who wants to stay technologically current and on top of industry trends and developments. It features industry forums, technical presentations, keynote and plenaries, and poster sessions, plus workshops where international subject matter experts and future professionals present their views and expertise on current topics of importance to the world-wide nuclear community. The success of this conference is tied to our strong international collaboration with JSME and CNS. ICONE is held each year with rotation of the venues in North America, China, Europe, and Japan. In May 2019, we saw major success of the 27th ICONE (ICONE-27) held in Tsukuba, Japan. The ICONE-27 was attended by 965 participants and over 753 technical presentation papers. It should be noted that 240 papers were presented by students at ICONE-27 showing our strong support for new generation of nuclear engineers. The next 28th ICONE (ICONE-28) will be held from Aug. 2–6, 2020 at Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim, CA. The conference will provide opportunity for professionals to discuss real day-to-day operating, maintenance, and equipment issues, inform about the latest methods and cutting-edge technology, and engage in discussions with other professionals in the nuclear energy field. The conference will be highly educational and beneficial to plant engineers, design engineers, researchers, energy policy makers, students, early career engineers and professionals in power plant management, business and economics, plant operations and maintenance, and project and product development. The conference timing coincides with arrival of new attraction at Disneyland Park: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. So ICONE-28 will not only provide an opportunity for scientific exchanges and discourses but also for family retreat.
This year NED has been busy besides planning and organization of ICONE-28. It hosted a congressional briefing on nuclear energy early this year in April in Washington DC with senators and congressmen. A two-day 2019 Advanced Clean Energy Summit (ACES2019) supported by NED was held in September in Denver, where energy industry professionals and innovators in clean energy technology and management deliberated recent advances in the technology and industry and challenges and opportunities for clean energy. It was a successful inaugural summit resulting in planning for next year summit ACES2020 again in Denver. In coming years, the NED will continue to pursue necessary activities to improve education and acceptance of nuclear power for the public, policy makers, and the news media. The NED will continue to sponsor several important society-wide and division-level awards. The NED will also continue to move forward for professional development and student programs. The NED will continue to promote nuclear engineering-related publications, including a new series of concise monographs on nuclear technology, and the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science.
Finally, I am grateful to all the NED members, especially the members and past chairs of the Executive Committee, whose wisdom, hard work and loyalty, and above all vision, has kept the NED stronger and vibrant. I would like to sincerely thank all the volunteers of NED and the ASME staff. It takes the collective contributions from all of us for the NED to be successful. With all the dedicated volunteers' support, I am very optimistic that the NED activities and businesses for serving the nuclear engineering and scientific community, including this journal, will continue to sustain and succeed in future years. I invite all of you to connect and interact with the activities of NED and help to build up the success of the nuclear technology that provides clean energy, useful radioactive materials, and a number of benefits to us and environment.
