On the History of American Nuclear Society in Oak Ridge Area

In 1954 the American Nuclear Society (ANS) was formed by a group of professionals working in the nuclear industry in various parts of the country. There was a core group of the founding members in Oak Ridge; Dr. Grigorieff, who was working in Oak Ridge, was named Executive Director. Since the position of Executive Director was a part-time job, he opened the ANS staff office here in Oak Ridge. About 18 months later, Dr. Grigorieff accepted an assignment with IAEA in Vienna, Austria. At that time, Octave Du Temple was named Executive Director. He came from Chicago to Oak Ridge and stayed for about a month before moving the ANS office to Chicago.

The Oak Ridge/Knoxville Section of ANS was chartered on October 30, 1957. Later, on March 15, 1976, the charter was reissued. This was apparently due to the fact that the Section had not been very active and some local people did not realize it existed. However, ANS Headquarters did not consider that there has been any lapse in the Section’s existence because in 1983 they issued a certificate commemorating 25 years of continuous service. The Section was incorporated under Tennessee law in 1981.

During the past decades, the Section has specialized in supporting education and public information on the peaceful uses of nuclear technology. It developed two major exhibits for the 1982 and 1984 World Fair’s. Elementary- and secondaryschool level textbooks were developed to complement standard texts in general science and social studies. Annually, the Section conducts teacher workshops, awards an undergraduate scholarship to the University of Tennessee Nuclear Engineering Department and sponsor student participation in Engineer’s Week and the ANS national student conferences. The Section has organized and conducted numerous ANS topical meetings, and it was the host section for the ANS Annual Meeting in 1990. The Graphite Reactor is the second ANS Nuclear Historic Landmark sponsored by the Section, the first being the K-25 gaseous diffusion uranium enrichment facility. Recently, The Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator facility (ORELA) was also named an ANS Historic Landmark.

Peggy Emmett