Each year during National Nuclear Science Week in October, our chapters participate in the “Most Reactive Chapter (MRC) Contest.” This is a fun way for the chapters to compete against each other with the goal of promoting the nuclear industry, communicating nuclear science and clean energy to a variety of audiences. In the interest of fair play, the NSW MRC team split the contest to allow for chapters to compete against others in their “chapter size,” determined as large or small. We are so proud of the work the chapters reported on this year for their outreach activities.

We are pleased to announce that for the large chapter entry, once again, the Entergy Chapter has come out on top. Entergy held 18 different events, including a STEM activity at an airshow, several girl scout events, K-12 and college presentations, as well as completing a site tour with personnel from their state’s governor’s office. Entergy made it possible for almost 4000 participants to be exposed to the benefits of the nuclear industry. Additionally, they had, on average, 35% of their chapter participating, sometimes up to 80%!  Entergy continues to be a leader in outreach activities and a huge promoter of what the nuclear industry brings to our communities. Congratulations to the Entergy Chapter!

Our MRC winner for the small chapter category is Dominion Millstone! It is always impressive to see what our smaller chapters can do, and Dominion did a great job. They held 9 different activities that included interactions with employees’ children and local elementary schools with activity/coloring books, reactor tours for middle, high school and college students, and a flyer campaign to promote NSW that went out through all their members to high schools, colleges, and the children’s museum. They managed to grab some great shots of their local 8^th graders performing a dress-down activity and snagged a group photo of a site visit for Yale University graduate students.

We encourage all our chapters to join for Nuclear Science Week this year, slated for October 19-23, 2026. Our outreach efforts are so important, even more so now that nuclear is, dare we say, popular again!? Get creative, use social media, involve your communities, get your members excited! We know you have a competitive streak, let’s have a great Most Reactive Chapter contest this year!