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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
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Appendix A

Committee and Staff Biographies

Committee Chair

Robert C. Dynes (NAS) was the 18th president of the University of California (UC) and is now an emeritus professor of physics at UC San Diego, where he directs a laboratory that focuses on superconductivity. Dr. Dynes served as chancellor of UC San Diego from 1996 to 2003 after 6 years in the physics department, where he founded an interdisciplinary laboratory in which chemists, electrical engineers, and private industry researchers investigated the properties of metals, semiconductors, and superconductors. Prior to joining the UC faculty, he had a 22-year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he served as department head of semiconductor and material physics research and director of chemical physics research. Dr. Dynes received the 1990 Fritz London Award in Low Temperature Physics, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is the current co-chair of the Intelligence Community Studies Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and has served on the executive committee of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. He currently serves on the board of the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology and advises several technical startups in the San Diego area. A native of London, Ontario, Canada, and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Dr. Dynes holds bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics and an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Western Ontario, and master’s and doctorate degrees in physics and an honorary doctor of science degree from McMaster University. He also holds an honorary doctorate from L’Université de Montréal.

Committee Members

Lisa M. Bendixen is an expert in hazardous materials risk and safety and has addressed risk management, risk assessment, security, and resilience challenges across numerous industries, for fixed facilities as well as transportation systems. She is a vice president at ICF, consulting on critical infrastructure security and resilience, mission assurance, and other risk management issues with the Departments of Defense (DOD), Energy (DOE), and Homeland Security (DHS). She served on the Transportation Security Panel for the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) report Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism and was on the NRC committee that produced the report Terrorism and the Chemical Infrastructure: Protecting People and Reducing Vulnerabilities as well as several other national committees focusing on transportation risks, including spent fuel. She was the project manager and primary author of the Guidelines for Chemical Transportation Risk Analysis, published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Center for Chemical Process Safety, and served on the center’s technical steering committee. Her work with DHS has included long-term support on critical infrastructure security and resilience, including several versions of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, development and implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, and strategic and policy support to the Office of Infrastructure Protection. She has supported DOE on work related to grid security, from natural hazards and adversarial threats. She is also actively supporting DOD on critical energy and communications infrastructure. She has played leading roles in several safety and risk associations. Ms. Bendixen holds a B.S. in applied mathematics and an M.S. in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

Michael S. Bronzini is the Dewberry Chair Professor Emeritus in the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University, where he also served as chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering. He is principal and cofounder of 3 Sigma Consultants, LLC, based in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Bronzini has conducted research and authored more than 250 publications on innovative solutions to complex multimodal transportation systems problems with a focus on freight transportation. He was principal investigator of a project to develop model curricula for transportation of hazardous materials, for the National Academies’ Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP). He led a study of the impacts on Tennessee and the nation of options for transportation of spent nuclear fuel to a geologic repository that would be located in the western United States. From 1990 to 1999, Dr. Bronzini was director of the Center for Transportation Analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and was responsible for overseeing its interdisciplinary transportation research program. He was professor and head of civil engineering at Pennsylvania State University and director of the Transportation Center and professor of civil engineering at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Bronzini is a National Associate of the National Academies and has held numerous leadership positions on the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, including chair of the Inland Water Transportation Committee and chair of the Study Committee on Landside Access to U.S. Ports and inaugural member of the HMCRP Oversight Panel. He is currently a member of the TRB Committee on Transportation of Hazardous Materials. Dr. Bronzini has also served as a consultant and advisor to numerous private and public organizations, including the State of Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office’s Technical Review Committee for the proposed radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain. He received a B.S. in civil engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

George E. Dials resigned his executive position with Babcock & Wilcox Corporation in mid-2014 and returned with his wife Pamela to their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For several months, he served as a senior executive advisor to the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory in an established position as director of the Strategic Improvement Office, charged with enabling implementation of the recently published Los Alamos National Laboratory Strategic Plan. In May 2015, Mr. Dials accepted the position as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Pajarito Scientific Corporation (PSC) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Effective September 1, 2017, in order to focus on a number of other family and business interests, he resigned his position as president and CEO of PSC and accepted a role as senior advisor to and member of the board of directors of the company. Mr. Dials’s career spans four decades in energy, national security, waste management, and nuclear technology programs. He has held leadership positions in national security and waste management corporations, and at the Department of Energy (DOE). Previously, Mr. Dials was president of B&W Conversion Services, LLC (BWCS), and served as project manager for the Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Operations, the first-of-its-kind nuclear operation in the United States. Mr. Dials directed the BWCS Lexington project office and is the day-to-day interface with DOE’s federal project director. He also directed operations at the conversion plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky. He joined the B&W Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex, LLC in 2006, serving as president and CEO, where he managed a $1.2 billion annual budget and more than 4,600 employees, leading Y-12 through a period of improvement initiatives’ involving restorations and new builds, and restored the facilities to full production capabilities and operations. Previously, Mr. Dials held executive leadership positions at DOE’s waste disposal facilities, which included the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Yucca Mountain—locations designed to safely manage waste from nuclear operations. He was president and chief operating officer of the privately owned Waste Control Specialists, LLC, operating the hazardous waste disposal facility, and managing licensing of a low-level radioactive waste treatment and storage facility. Formerly, he oversaw design, engineering, and scientific studies of the Yucca Mountain Project as president and general manager of TRW Environmental Safety Systems, Inc., a DOE management and operating contractor. As a member of DOE’s Senior Executive Service, Mr. Dials was manager, Carlsbad Area Office, responsible for WIPP and the National

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

Transuranic Waste Program. He also served as Idaho Operations Office assistant manager in Idaho Falls. Career awards include the DOE Exceptional Service Medal, 1998; New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award, 1998; American Nuclear Society Fellow, 2006; Waste Management Symposia Wendell D. Weart Life Time Achievement Award, 2012; Worldwide Who’s Who Executive; and Nuclear Fuel Cycle, 2013. During his military career, Mr. Dials served in multiple leadership roles, including an assignment as a Military Research Associate to the Los Alamos National Laboratory; Special Weapons Plans Officer, United Nations Command/U.S. Forces Korea, South Korea; and company commander of a combat infantry company, South Vietnam. Military decorations include a Silver Star, four Bronze Stars, and two Air Medals awarded for combat operations in Vietnam. Mr. Dials holds a B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an M.S. in nuclear engineering and an M.S. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Leonard W. Gray retired from E.O. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 2005, and has 50 years of experience in the chemistry, engineering, and physics of plutonium processing. He began his career in 1966 at the Savannah River Site with assignments in both H Canyon (highly enriched uranium-235, neptunium, and low assay plutonium-238 recovery) and F Canyon (solvent extraction of uranium and plutonium), F B-Line (plutonium finishing), H B-Line (neptunium and plutonium-238 finishing), and F A-Line (uranium finishing). After an educational leave of absence to obtain his Ph.D., he was assigned to the Savannah River Laboratory with assignments in the Analytical Chemistry Section where he was the lead chemist for chemical forensics of process upsets and then in the Separations Chemistry Section where he was responsible for developing processes for reactor spent fuels labeled as nonprocessable. He then was the lead chemist for the aqueous recovery of many tons of plutonium scrap residues that had collected at the Rocky Flats Site; this was a multisite program that assigned various Rocky Flats plutonium scraps to Los Alamos, Hanford, Savannah River, and Rocky Flats where these scraps best fit into their respective plutonium recovery operations. He was then transferred to the Savannah River Plant Site to oversee the Separations Technology Laboratory with responsibilities over all chemical unit operations (highly enriched uranium, neptunium, low assay plutonium-238, americium-241, curium-244, weapons-grade plutonium, and depleted uranium) in F and H Canyons; here he continued to work with the Rocky Flats Plant Site to develop a process for the recovery of plutonium and americium from chloride-containing aged plutonium scraps. In 1988, he transferred to LLNL to lead the chemical processing portion of the Laser Special Isotope Separations Program. His previous chemical forensic work at the Savannah River Laboratory resulted in an invitation to visit the Russian Tomsk-7 Processing site to aid in the investigation of an accident similar to one that had occurred at Savannah River. Before retirement he was the chief scientist for the U.S.-Russian Plutonium Disposition Program; this played a major role in the United States-Russian Agreement for each country to dispose of approximately 34 metric tons of excess weapons-grade plutonium in methods that would prevent their return to a weapons program. His assignments have taken him to nuclear facilities in Australia, China, England, France, Russia, and Scotland. He has won numerous awards for his work in chemical forensics and plutonium processing science. These include Award of Excellence for Significant Contributions to the Nuclear Weapons Program (his team was the first team at Savannah River to be awarded the Award of Excellence by the director of Military Applications) and he is the only recipient from LLNL to be awarded the Glenn T. Seaborg Actinide Separation Award. He also served on the Chemical Safety Committee of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Gray remains active in retirement, continuing to mentor young scientists, having served as chief scientist for the safe de-inventory and shutdown of the LLNL Heavy Element Facility and having authored the recent Official Use Only publication “Worldwide Plutonium Production and Processing.” He presently serves as chairman of the Plutonium Experts Panel for the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center of the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Gray received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 1972, his M.S. in chemistry from Texas Technological College in 1967, and his B.S. in chemistry from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1964, and his A.A. from Middle Georgia College in 1961.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

Michael R. Greenberg studies environmental health and risk analysis. He is the Distinguished Professor of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University. He has written more than 30 books and more than 300 articles. His most recent books are Protecting Seniors Against Environmental Disasters: From Hazards and Vulnerability to Prevention and Resilience (Earthscan, 2014), Explaining Risk Analysis (Earthscan, 2017), Urban Planning and Public Health (American Public Health Association, 2017), and Siting Noxious Facilities (Earthscan, 2018). He has been a member of National Research Council committees that focus on the destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile and nuclear weapons; chemical waste management; degradation of the U.S. government physical infrastructure; and sustainability and the Environmental Protection Agency. He chaired the committee for the appropriations committees of the U.S. Senate and House to determine the extent that the Department of Energy emphasizes human health and safety in its allocations for remediating former nuclear weapons sites. He served as area editor for social sciences and then editor-in-chief of Risk Analysis: An International Journal during the period 2002-2013 and continues as associate editor for environmental health for the American Journal of Public Health. Professor Greenberg graduated with a B.A. from Hunter College with concentrations in math and history and an M.A. in urban geography and a Ph.D. in environmental and medical geography from Columbia University.

David W. Johnson, Jr. (NAE), is the retired director of materials research at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, a retired editor-in-chief for the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and former adjunct professor of materials science at Stevens Institute of Technology. His research activities included fabrication and processing of glass and ceramics with emphasis on materials for electronic and photonic applications. He is a member of several professional societies, including a fellow, distinguished life member, and past president of the American Ceramic Society. Dr. Johnson won the Taylor Lecture Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Pennsylvania State University, the Ross Coffin Purdy Award for the best paper in ceramic literature, the Fulrath Award, the John Jeppson Award, the Orton Lecture Award from the American Ceramic Society, and the International Ceramics Prize for Industrial Research from the World Academy of Ceramics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the World Academy of Ceramics. He holds 46 U.S. patents and has published numerous papers on materials sciences. He earned a B.S. in ceramic technology and a Ph.D. in ceramic science from Pennsylvania State University.

Annie B. Kersting is an expert on the environmental behavior of actinides with a particular focus on plutonium. She works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where she manages an active research group in environmental radiochemistry focused on understanding the biogeochemical processes that control actinide (uranium, plutonium, neptunium, and americium) transport in the environment. In particular, she is interested in identifying the processes that control actinide interactions on the molecular scale with inorganic, organic, and microbial surfaces in the presence of water with the goal to reliably predict and control the cycling and mobility of actinides in the environment. Dr. Kersting’s research interests include the fields of radiochemistry, isotope geochemistry, and environmental chemistry. She is currently director of University Relations and Science Education at LLNL, where she oversees a broad range of educational science and technology programs and initiatives that advance the mission and vision of the laboratory. She works with the laboratory’s senior leadership to develop and execute strategies, build strategic partnerships, and foster collaborative research and education initiatives to ensure a workforce pipeline of top-tier science and technology talent. Dr. Kersting previously served as the director of the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute at LLNL for more than 10 years, where she focused on collaborative research between LLNL and the academic community in nuclear forensics, super heavy element discovery, and environmental radiochemistry. Through the institute, she managed a yearly summer program for graduate students in nuclear forensics and environmental radiochemistry. Dr. Kersting was a member of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Research Council from 2010 to 2014, and a member of the Committee for the Technical Assessment of Environmental Programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory of the National Research Council from 2006 to 2007.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

She served on the Environmental Management Sciences Program Review Panel of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science in 2006 and served as a scientific advisor on the Actinide Migration Committee for Rocky Flats from 2000 to 2003. Since 2013, she has served as an associate editor of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. She has been an active member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Radiation Advisory Board since 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society for excellence in chemistry, leadership, and service. In 2017, she was awarded the Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award for contributions to DOE and the nation for serving on the technical Assessment Team. She holds a B.S. in geology and geophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Michigan. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at LLNL from 1992 to 1995.

M. David Maloney is technology fellow, emeritus, at Jacobs Engineering Group (formerly CH2M), Aerospace-Technology-Environment-Nuclear business line, providing support to operations at Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear sites by identifying, developing, and deploying new technologies—including waste, nuclear material, and used fuel management—to reduce the costs and schedule of decommissioning, remediation, and closure. At Rocky Flats and Hanford, both plutonium mission sites, he partnered with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Science and Technology Program to create a risk/cost-shared approach that became a model and a congressional line item for the weapons complex that saved more than $350 million. This work involved waste material conditioning/treatment, packaging, assay, certification, and shipping to other sites for future processing and to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for disposal. Dr. Maloney participated in workshops on total system performance assessment models for the U.S. High Level Waste repository and on the UK Radioactive Waste Management Directorate waste form/package/near-geoenvironment integration for the UK High-Level Waste/Intermediate-Level Waste Repository. He also managed the 5-year National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention project with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the PA Mayak production and storage site investigating ceramics for waste form and cask applications. For 2 years he served as assistant to the general manager, Energy and Environment Programs, at Argonne National Laboratory where he focused on technology transfer to industry. He has participated in several National Academies’ study panels from 1997 to date supporting DOE EM and NNSA inquiries. Dr. Maloney has a Ph.D. in physics from Brown University. His research associate work was at the Institute for Experimental Nuclear Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Kernforschungszentrum, Germany.

S. Andrew Orrell joined the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in September 2019, where he currently works as an R&D technical consultant, supporting INL initiatives concerning transportation, storage, and disposal of commercial and Department of Energy spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. Prior to joining the INL, he served 5 years as the section head for Waste and Environmental Safety at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) where he was responsible for the development and promulgation of internationally accepted standards, requirements, and guides for the safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel, decommissioning, remediation, and environmental monitoring. In addition, Mr. Orrell oversaw the planning and execution of support to the IAEA Member States for the implementation of the IAEA Safety Standards, and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. Prior to joining IAEA, Mr. Orrell was the director of Nuclear Energy Programs for Sandia National Laboratories, where he was responsible for laboratory development initiatives involving all facets of the nuclear fuel cycle. He provided executive leadership for Sandia's Lead Laboratory for Repository Systems program, managing the completion of the post-closure performance assessment and safety case for a license to construct the nation’s first geological repository for high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Before working on Yucca Mountain, he managed site characterization programs for a deep geological repository for transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and developed transportation optimizations for the National Transuranic

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

Waste Management program. With 30 years of professional experience in nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste management for the United States and several international programs, Mr. Orrell is versed in the complex interdependencies between nuclear energy development, waste management, decommissioning, remediation, and disposal. Mr. Orrell routinely advises government and industry leaders on the technical implications concerning radioactive waste management, including national policy development and regulation, geological repository development and licensing, safety case development, interim storage, stakeholder engagement, and public risk perception.

William C. Ostendorff (U.S. Navy retired) joined the Naval Academy’s Political Science Department as the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security in August 2016. Captain Ostendorff has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate on three occasions to serve in senior administration posts in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He served as principal deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in the Bush administration (2007-2009) and as a commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC, 2010-2016) in the Obama administration prior to joining the Naval Academy faculty. At the U.S. NRC, Commissioner Ostendorff was a strong proponent of regulatory technical competence. He was considered by many to be a key leader on the Commission in the areas of post-Fukushima regulatory decision making and in both physical and cyber security of commercial nuclear facilities. During his more than 6 years as a commissioner, he testified before Congress on 26 occasions and gave more than 180 speeches in the United States and abroad on nuclear safety and security. At NNSA, Captain Ostendorff served as central technical authority for nuclear safety and as chief operating officer of the agency. He played a significant leadership role in developing the future vision for the nation’s national security laboratories and in evaluating options for nuclear weapons complex modernization. From 2003 to 2007, he was a member of the staff of the House Armed Services Committee. There, he served as counsel and staff director for the Strategic Forces Subcommittee with oversight responsibilities for the Department of Energy’s Atomic Energy Defense Activities as well as the Department of Defense’s space, missile defense, and intelligence programs. He served as staff chair for dozens of hearings at both the subcommittee and full committee level including highly visible hearings on the 9/11 Commission, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, and other hearings associated with U.S. strategic forces. Captain Ostendorff was an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1976 until he retired in 2002. Entering the Rickover Nuclear Navy, he served on six submarines. During his naval career, he commanded a nuclear attack submarine and a nuclear attack submarine squadron and served as director of the Division of Mathematics and Science at the U.S. Naval Academy. His military decorations include four awards of the Legion of Merit and numerous unit and campaign awards. He earned a bachelor’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a law degree from the University of Texas, and a master’s in international and comparative law from Georgetown University. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

Tammy C. Ottmer is a nationally recognized expert in nuclear waste transportation safety. She was appointed to her position as Colorado Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) program manager of the Hazardous Materials Section by the governor of Colorado. In addition, she was delegated additional responsibility as manager over Nuclear Materials Transportation Oversight by Colorado State Patrol, including collaborative planning with shippers and carriers intending to move radioactive materials and nuclear waste through Colorado, the western region, and across the nation. She continues to design, develop, implement, and oversee nuclear materials transportation for new transportation campaigns utilizing the WIPP program as a model. A primary focus area continues to be the full implementation of the Western Governors’ Association/Department of Energy (DOE) Cooperative Agreement for the Transportation of Transuranic Wastes. She works at regional and national levels to innovate approaches to ensure the safe transportation of transuranic materials, highway route-controlled quantities, high-level radioactive waste, and commercial spent nuclear fuel shipments in the distant future, whether to interim storage or permanent disposal. Ms. Ottmer has chaired committees chartered to update internal DOE manuals and then integrate them into the internal DOE Order system. These Orders have a direct

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

correlation to safe transportation when they are incorporated into DOE Requests for Proposal for new contracts across the nation. Ms. Ottmer serves as advisor to the governor on nuclear transportation matters including the spent commercial nuclear fuel stored at the Fort Saint Vrain Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation in northern Colorado. Ms. Ottmer has had an opportunity to serve in an international capacity. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, asked specifically for Ms. Ottmer to serve as a consultant. The mission of this consultancy was to review and evaluate international radiological transportation safety guides. The guides concerned transportation accidents involving radioactive materials as well as associated emergency response. She provided recommendations for the revisions of these transportation safety guides. Ms. Ottmer received a B.A. from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Cecil V. Parks’s career has spanned 41 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), where he is currently director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division. Prior to this assignment, he served as director for the former Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division, director of the Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division, and director for the former Nuclear Science and Technology Division. In these senior leadership positions, Dr. Parks has been responsible for line management, strategic planning, and mission execution for diverse research and development organizations engaged in basic and applied science and technology for the nuclear fuel cycle, isotope production, and nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards. He has extensive experience in programmatic business development and execution with a wide range of government agencies including the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC). From 1980 to 2014, Dr. Parks had project or line responsibility for development of the SCALE code system, which is used worldwide to solve challenging problems in reactor physics and depletion, criticality safety, and radiation transport. For 36 years, Dr. Parks has consulted on technical and safety issues associated with transport and storage of fissile and radioactive material. From 1992 to 2012, he supported the U.S. NRC and the Department of Transportation as the U.S. technical expert to the International Atomic Energy Agency on packaging requirements and transport controls for fissile material. Dr. Parks has been active in professional societies and has been a member, facilitator, or leader of various review teams chartered by NNSA, DOE, or the U.S. NRC. Dr. Parks is the author or co-author of more than 150 technical papers, ORNL or U.S. NRC reports, and journal articles, and has been engaged in standards development related to nuclear criticality safety. Dr. Parks has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee and M.S. and B.S. degrees in nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University (NCSU). He also has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from NCSU. Dr. Parks is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society.

Matthew K. Silva served for 10 years as the chemical engineer and 4 years as the director of the New Mexico Environmental Evaluation Group until its closure in 2004. As mandated by federal law, the organization provided an independent technical evaluation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant project to ensure the protection of the safety and health of the people of New Mexico. He holds a B.S. in basic science and an M.S. in petroleum engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Additionally, he holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Staff

Jennifer Heimberg has been a senior program officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine since 2011. She has directed studies within the Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS) and Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE). Her work within DELS’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board focuses on nuclear security, non-proliferation, and nuclear environmental cleanup. Reports include Reducing the Use of Highly Enriched Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors; Performance Metrics for the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture; and Best Practices for Risk-Informed Decision Making Regarding Contaminated Sites: Summary of a Workshop. Within DBASSE, she directed two separate studies resulting in the reports Valuing Climate

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×

Damages: Updating the Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide and Reproducibility and Replicability in Science. Prior to coming to the National Academies, she worked as a program manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) for nearly 10 years. While at APL she established and grew its nuclear security program with the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. She received a B.S. cum laude in physics from Georgetown University, a B.S.E.E. from Catholic University of America, and a Ph.D. in physics from Northwestern University.

Kevin D. Crowley has been an advisor to the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board (NRSB) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC, since entering phased retirement in August 2017. His professional interests focus on the application of science and technology to improve societal well-being, advance public policy making, and enhance international cooperation, particularly with respect to the safety, security, and efficacy of nuclear and radiation-based technologies and applications. He previously held several positions at the National Academies, including senior board director of the NRSB (2005-2017), director of the Board on Radioactive Waste Management (1996-2005), and principal investigator for a long-standing cooperative agreement between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy to provide scientific support to the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan (2010-2017). Before joining the National Academies staff in 1993, Dr. Crowley held teaching/research positions at Miami University of Ohio, the University of Oklahoma, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, both in geology, from Princeton University.

Richard “Dick” Rowberg is currently on phased retirement and is a senior advisor for the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to retirement from the National Academies, he was deputy executive director of its Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. He has served at the National Academies since 2002. From 1985 to 2001, he worked for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. From 1994 to 2001, Dr. Rowberg was a senior specialist in science and technology with the Resources, Science, and Industry Division, and from 1985 to 1994, he was chief of the Science Policy Research Division. From 1975 to 1985, Dr. Rowberg worked for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). From 1975 to 1979 he served as an analyst in and deputy manager of the OTA Energy Program, and from 1979 to 1985, he was manager of the OTA Energy and Materials Program. From 1969 to 1974, Dr. Rowberg was a research engineer and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Texas at Austin. He received a B.A. in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1961 and a Ph.D. in plasma physics from UCLA in 1968. In 2010, Dr. Rowberg was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
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Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Committee and Staff Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Energy's Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25593.
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Page 121
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In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued an Interim Report evaluating the general viability of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration's (DOE-NNSA's) conceptual plans for disposing of 34 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a deep geologic repository near Carlsbad, New Mexico. It provided a preliminary assessment of the general viability of DOE-NNSA's conceptual plans, focused on some of the barriers to their implementation. This final report addresses the remaining issues and echoes the recommendations from the interim study.

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