Students win nuclear essay contest http://www.postregister.com/articles/news-todays-headlines/2017/05/01/students-win-nuclear-essay-contest# May 1, 2017 By KEVIN TREVELLYANktrevellyan@postregister.com Skyline High School students David Hill and Phil Ma will receive $1,500 scholarships after winning an essay contest about nuclear technology.
The Idaho Section of the American Nuclear Society initiates the contest each fall. This year’s topic: why would a commercial entity build a reactor on a national laboratory site and how will the electricity be used?
The prompt came on the heels of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems choosing a spot at the U.S. Department of Energy’s desert site for the small modular reactor being developed by NuScale.
The reactor, currently under review by the U.S. National Regulatory Commission, is slated to provide electricity for dozens of community-owned utilities.
“We thought it was a good time to have students look into that subject and learn more about a project that may actually occur locally; we think it’s relevant to the INL and local community,” society education committee chair Roger Mayes said.
Four judges reviewed submitted essays on content and clarity.
Hill won the 9-10 grade level contest with his essay titled, “A Small Modular Reactor, In Idaho?”
In the 11-12 grade level contest, Ma won with his essay, “NuScale SMR Technology Comes to Historic Nuclear Site.”
Scholarships will be awarded at a society dinner meeting May 18 at the Energy Innovation Laboratory, 775 University Blvd. Society president Andrew Klein will speak.
A social time begins at 6 p.m.; dinner and the program will follow at 7 p.m. Dinner is $20.
For dinner reservations, RSVP to Danielle Perez at IdahoAmericanNuclearSociety@gmail.com by May 15.
Reporter Kevin Trevellyan can be reached at 542-6762.
