Professor Igor L. Pioro, Editor
The ASME Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science (NERS) celebrates its seventh year (our first issue was published in January of 2015). On this occasion, I would like to congratulate all members of our Journal Board, reviewers (their names are listed at the end of this greeting), authors, and readers with this date!
First of all, I would like to express my great appreciation to our Associate Editors (AEs), whose terms have expired in 2021. Their contributions to our Journal, ASME, and nuclear engineering/radiation science are invaluable!
Associate Editors:
Akos Horvath, MTA Center for Energy Research, Hungary
Yanping Huang, NPIC, China
Michal Kostal, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Frederick J. Moody, Consultant, USA
Masaya Ohtsuka, Hitachi Ltd., Japan
Guoqiang Wang, Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, USA
Also, we would like to admit those Guest Editors (GEs), whose terms have expired in 2021, for their valuable contributions to the Journal and nuclear engineering/radiation science:
Guest Editors:
Iskender Akkurt, Suleyman Demirel University, Turkey
Václav Dostal, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Kevin Fernández-Cosials, Universidad Politécnica de-Madrid, Spain
Ignacio Gomez, CEA, France
Kota Kawai, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., Japan
Thomas Romming, Sanmed GmbH, Germany
Martin Schulc, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Kampanart Silva, National Energy Technology Center (ENTEC), USA
Robert Stakenborghs, ILD, USA
In addition, we would like to welcome the following new Associate and Guest Editors:
New Associate Editors:
Yuko Kani, Hitachi Ltd., Japan
Cecilia Martin-del-Campo, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Shoji Mori, Kyushu University, Japan
Nastasya Mosunova, IBRAE RAN, Russia
Arun Nayak, BARC, India
Martin Schulc, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Georgiy V. Tikhomirov, National Research Nuclear University MEPHI, Russia
Yanlin Wang, NPIC, China
New Guest Editors:
Asif Arastu, Unisont Engineering, Inc., USA
Chukwudi Azih, CNL, Canada
Aljaz Cufar, Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Václav Dostal, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Manuela Fulger, RATEN ICN, Romania
Kellen M. Giraud, INL, USA
Petr Haušild, Czech Technical University Prague, Czech Republic
Shuisheng He, University of Sheffield, UK
Marketa Krykova, Research Center Rež, Czech Republic
Thambiayah Nitheanandan, CNSC, Canada
Alberto Sáez-Maderuelo, CIEMAT, Spain
Luka Snoj, Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Aki Toivonen, VTT Research Center, Finland
Matthew Weathered, ANL, USA
Zhangjian Zhou, University of Science and Technology, Beijing, China
With the abovementioned changes in the lists of Associate and Guest Editors, our editorial team consists of 1 Editor (Ed), 31 AEs, and 16 GEs, who represent 18 countries with nuclear-power reactors (Canada (1 Ed, 2 AEs, and 2 GEs); China (4 AEs and 1 GE); Czech Republic (1 AE and 3 GEs); Finland (1 GE); Germany (2 AEs); India (1 AE); Japan (4 AEs and 1 GE); South Korea (1 AE); Mexico (1 AE and 1 GE); Pakistan (1 AE); Romania (1 GE); Russia (2 AEs); Slovenia (2 GEs); Spain (1 GE); Switzerland (1 AE); Ukraine (1 Ed); United Kingdom (1 AE and 1 GE); and USA (5 AEs and 3 GEs)); and 3 countries without nuclear-power reactors (Israel (1 AE); Italy (2 AEs), and Serbia (1 AE)).
The year 2021 was quite challenging again to everybody and our Journal as well due to the continuous spreading of the coronavirus around the world, quarantine measures, working from home, etc. Also, unfortunately, many nuclear-engineering/radiation-science conferences were canceled, moved to next year, or conducted virtually. Therefore, we would like to invite authors from these conferences to submit their augmented and revised papers to our Journal with the objective to publish them as soon as possible their valuable research/technical results.
We pay special attention to papers from young scientists, researchers, engineers, and students to be sure that we will have a smooth transition from one generation of nuclear experts to another. As such, in addition to regular papers from young specialists, we have managed to prepare a Special Issue (SI) with selected papers from the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) 2020 (Sydney, Australia), and plan to have several similar SIs in the near future.
During our seventh year, we have published four issues electronically and as hard copies (as planned, always on time or ahead of a schedule) with about 100 papers including two Special Issues with selected augmented and revised papers:
(1) Issue 2, April 2021:
SI: Research Center Řež: Nuclear-Engineering Activities in 2020
Prepared by Dr. Michal Košťál and Dr. Martin Schulc with the help of several GEs.
(2) Issue 4, October 2021:
SI: Selected Papers from the IYNC-2020
Prepared by Dr. Kevin Fernández-Cosials, Dr. Ignacio Gomez Garciatorano; Dr. Kampanart Silva; Dr. Kota Kawai, and Thomas Romming (Dipl.-Ing.(FH), MBA).
We would like to share some statistics on papers accepted for publication in our Journal by country, as such, the largest contributors within 2015–2021 were: (1) Canada—131 papers; (2) China—88; (3) USA—83; (4) Czech Republic—65; (5) Japan—52; (6) India—47; (7) Germany—42; (8) France—26; and the UK—24. Also, we have noticed that many countries without nuclear-power reactors including developing ones (Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, DR of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Egypt, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, etc.) have submitted their papers into our Journal. In total, we have accepted papers from 52 countries.
Also, we must keep the highest quality level of published papers. Therefore, we have the following statistics on papers, which have not been accepted for publication: Rejected ∼20%; Withdrawn ∼7%; and Removed ∼11%, i.e., in total ∼38% from all submitted papers. By maintaining a comprehensive, objective, and independent peer-review process, we are publishing papers in the journal that are of a much higher quality and credibility relative to those that have no independent and objective peer review.
Our plans for this year are:
(1) Publish four issues with a larger number of papers and make the “waiting time” for publishing as short as possible.
(2) Publish several Special Issues (SIs) and/or Special Sections with selected augmented and revised papers from:
(1) SI: EU ESFR-SMART project; January 2022.
(2) Special Section: ISSCWR-10; July 2022.
(3) SI: NENE-2020.
The Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science is currently included in the Web of Science, Emerging Sources Citation Index, and Scopus. The title is under review for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) to receive an Impact Factor.
And finally, we hope that you will join us in our Journal as authors of submitted manuscripts and as reviewers. This is indeed a unique international journal, which combines research, industrial operating experience, new designs/systems, safety analysis, applications of nuclear energy, and many other related topics that change the world and our lives for the better! We also hope you will enjoy reading the papers that follow.
On the behalf of the ASME J. of NERS Editorial Board,
