Susan Gallier

From left, Moe Khaleel, ORNL associate laboratory director; NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams; U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann; ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer; and William Wheeler, ORNL site office manager at the ATOLL ground-breaking ceremony. On June 3, Brandon Williams, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to break ground on the Advanced Testbed and Operations Learning Laboratory (ATOLL).

Operational nuclear power sites in China, May 2026. (Source: EIA, with additional data from World Bank, Global Energy Monitor, Global Nuclear Power Tracker, and the IAEA. Image: EIA) China’s nuclear power capacity has increased from 31.4 gigawatts in 2016 to 58.7 GW in May—an 87 percent increase in the last 10 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

June 9, 2026, 10:55AMANS News Twice per year, the American Nuclear Society confers Presidential Citations on individuals who have demonstrated outstanding efforts benefiting ANS or the broader nuclear community. Last week at the opening plenary of the 2026 ANS Annual Conference in Denver, Colo., immediate past president of ANS Hash Hashemian named this season’s recipients of the award.