2005 Chair’s Message

Welcome to the American Nuclear Society Decommissioning, Decontamination and Reutilization (DESD) Division Website. What an exciting couple of years it has been for us and I would like to thank all of the DESD Division Executive and committee members for their tireless support. Our goal, since being established in the early nineties, has been to advance decommissioning technology and disseminate this knowledge to the nuclear industry. We are very proud of our division’s hard work in achieving this goal and believe we add significant value to the DESD community with the work we perform. Just look at some of our accomplishments in just the last few years:

We continue to issue a DESD newsletter which is now recognized as one of the best methods of capturing and sharing information on decommissioning projects. If you have not had the opportunity to read this newsletter, you are missing out on a great source of D&D information.

This year, we established a DESD awards program to recognize outstanding D&D Projects and personnel annually. The two awards are: The Award Of Excellence and the Life Time Achievement Award. This year, we will be presenting the first awards at the Topical meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Our division is sponsoring a topical meeting this year, DDR 2005, which includes not only domestic attendance, but support from the international community.

We continue to support students in the nuclear industry including providing scholarships and monetary support to allow them to attend and actively participate in ANS meetings.

Our division was directly involved in establishing a policy statement on Low Level waste issues used by the ANS

The DDR division has broadened its scope to include long term stewardship issues and has continued to solicit international participation in its activities.
The DESD Division is an active and important part of the nuclear industry’s decommissioning efforts and will continue to provide this support for years to come. Having only been actively involved in the DESD division for the last 8 years or so, I am impressed with the dedication and participation of our members as well as the level of assistance we receive from companies; both monetarily as well as direct personnel support. However, as in any endeavor, we can always use more support as we grow, expand internationally, and continue to improve. For those of you who may be on the fence or have not participated in the past, I am asking you to support our efforts and become actively involved in the DESD division — share your experience and expertise. Also, you can support our DESD newsletter, which is published twice a year by providing input by contacting me directly, or Vince Likar, our editor at Vincebldr@aol.com. Also, consider actively participating as a committee member, session chair, or presenter at one of our meetings throughout the year.

Thank you for your support and please contact me or others in the DESD division should you have any suggestions, questions or would just like to learn more about what we do.

Joe Carignan

Chair, DESD Division of ANS
423-875-4555