NWTRB - Key Persons

Allen G. Croff

Job Titles:

Adjunct Professor
Adjunct Professor in the Civil and Environmental Department at Vanderbilt University
by President
Nuclear Engineer

Allen G. Croff was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Barack Obama on February 23, 2015. Mr. Croff is an adjunct professor in the Civil and Environmental Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His areas of expertise include: radioactive waste generation, classification, processing, storage, transportation, and disposal; nuclear fuel cycle systems and economic analysis and regulation; modeling radionuclide production and depletion; radionuclide separation and transmutation; waste repository site identification, regulation, and assessment; and cleanup of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) legacy sites. Mr. Croff worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for almost 30 years. He is a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) and has served on ten committees of the National Academy of Sciences and on its Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. He was also a member of DOE's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee and served on the staff of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. He was Chairman of the Nuclear Development Committee of the Nuclear Energy Agency for ten years and Vice-Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Radioactive Waste Management for four years. Mr. Croff's writings and publications include contributions to five books, ten National Academy of Sciences reports, an NCRP report, and numerous national laboratory reports and peer-reviewed conference papers. Mr. Croff received a B.S. (1971) in chemical engineering from the Michigan State University, a Nuclear Engineer Degree (1974) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. (1981) from the University of Tennessee. Mr. Croff resides in Saint Augustine, Florida.

Bret Leslie

Job Titles:

Senior Professional Staff Member

Chandrika Manepally

Job Titles:

Senior Professional Staff Member

Christopher Burk

Job Titles:

Director of External Affairs
Senior Professional Staff Member

Daniel Ogg

Job Titles:

Executive Director

Dr. Brian Woods

Job Titles:

Head
by President
U.S. Department of Energy As an Engineer

Dr. Brian Woods was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. Dr. Brian Woods is the school head of and professor in the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Oregon State University. He holds the Henry W. and Janice J. Schuette Chair in Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State. Dr. Woods has worked at the U.S. Department of Energy as an engineer within the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management as well as serving for four years in the U.S. Navy as a diver. Prior to coming to Oregon State, he worked as a Nuclear Safety analyst at Dominion Energy's Innsbrook Technical Center outside of Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Woods has been at Oregon State University since 2003 teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on applied thermal hydraulics, nuclear reactor safety, fluid dynamics, nuclear rules and regulations, and the societal aspects of nuclear technology. His areas of research interest include experimental and computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, advanced reactor design, and nuclear reactor and fuel safety. Dr. Woods is the founder of the advanced Nuclear Systems Engineering laboratory at Oregon State and has been actively involved in thermal hydraulic and reactor safety research projects sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Idaho National Laboratory, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Westinghouse, NuScale, Kairos Power, TerraPower, and General Atomics. He has authored over 140 technical publications. He is a past chair of the American Nuclear Society's Thermal Hydraulics Division, past president of the Alpha Nu Sigma nuclear engineering honor society, and a founding member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineer's VVUQ 30 subcommittee on Verification and Validation in computational simulation of nuclear system thermal fluid behavior. Dr. Woods received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1988, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in 1999 and 2001 respectively in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland. Dr. Woods resides in Salem, Oregon.

Dr. Kenneth L. Peddicord

Job Titles:

Director
by President
Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering
Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering at Texas a & M University
Professor of Nuclear Engineering

Dr. Kenneth L. Peddicord was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Barack Obama on September 25, 2012. Dr. Peddicord was reappointed to the Board by the President on July 1, 2014. Dr. Peddicord is professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University. From 1972 to 1975, he was employed as a research nuclear engineer at the Eidgenössisches Institut für Reaktorforschung (the Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research), now the Paul Scherrer Institut, in Würenlingen, Switzerland. From 1975 to 1981, he was an assistant professor and an associate professor of nuclear engineering at Oregon State University. From 1981 to 1982, he was a Visiting Scientist at the EURATOM Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. From 1983 to 2022, he was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Texas A&M University. At Texas A&M University, Dr. Peddicord has served as Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the College of Engineering, Associate Vice Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System for Research and Federal Relations. From 2007 to 2019, he was director of Nuclear Power Institute, a joint institute of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and Texas A&M University. NPI was a partnership involving universities, community colleges, industry, high schools and junior highs, teachers, students, elected and civic leaders, and government agencies. The focus is to inform, attract, and prepare students for the nuclear industry and to support the development of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy worldwide. Dr. Peddicord has published more than 200 articles, papers, and reports. His technical interests include nuclear engineering education, human resources and nuclear workforce development, advanced nuclear fuels, and small modular reactors and microreactors. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. Dr. Peddicord received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1965 and an M.S. in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1972 in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Peddicord resides in College Station, Texas.

Dr. Nathan Siu - Chairman

Job Titles:

Chairman
by President
Independent Risk Assessment Consultant

Dr. Nathan Siu was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. Nathan Siu is an independent risk assessment consultant. He is recently retired from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), where he was a Senior Technical Adviser for Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) in the NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. His responsibilities included advising management on PRA issues; developing PRA research programs to address key issues; providing PRA-related advice and support to technical staff; supporting PRA-related cooperative research activities with U.S. and international organizations; and supporting technology transfer to other technical communities. Prior to joining NRC in 1997, he was an Engineering Fellow at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, an Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Associate Consultant at Picard, Lowe, and Garrick, Inc. Dr. Siu is internationally recognized for his expertise in risk assessment for nuclear facilities. He is a past Chair of the Working Group on Risk Assessment for the Organization for Economic Cooperation ad Development's Nuclear Energy Agency and recently served as a consultant on an International Atomic Energy Agency project on advanced PRA methods. He has chaired the NRC's Technical Advisory Group on NRC Level 3 PRA and served as a Chair of the NRC's Risk Management Team. He is a past member of the Editorial Board of Reliability Engineering and System Safety and the Board of Directors for the International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management and has served in technical leadership positions in numerous technical meetings and conferences. He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and has authored or co-authored over 180 technical papers and reports focusing on risk assessment methods and applications but also addressing such topics as risk metrics, risk communication, enterprise risk management, and risk-related knowledge engineering.

Dr. Ronald G. Ballinger

Job Titles:

by President
Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science

Dr. Ronald G. Ballinger was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. Ronald G. Ballinger is a Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Ballinger was also Head of the H.H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Professor Ballinger was active in the teaching of graduate and undergraduate subjects in reactor design, fuel performance, radiation effects, corrosion engineering, chemistry, mechanical behavior, and physical metallurgy. Professor Ballinger served for 8 years in the nuclear navy before attending college. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1975. He received his S.M. in Nuclear Engineering in 1977 and in Materials Science and Engineering in 1978. He received his Sc.D. in Nuclear Materials Engineering in 1982. After receiving his Sc.D., he joined the faculty at MIT. Professor Ballinger's areas of specialization are materials selection and engineering of nuclear engineering systems with an emphasis on environmental degradation and life assessment of these systems. Specific areas of research were: (1) environmental effects on material behavior, (2) physical metallurgical and electrochemical aspects of environmentally assisted cracking in aqueous systems, (3) stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement in Light Water Reactor (LWR) systems, (4) failure analysis of engineering structures, (5) the effect of radiation on aqueous chemistry, (6) experimental fatigue and fracture mechanics, (7) degradation of materials properties and their effects on component life, (8) nuclear fuel performance including, gas reactor coated particle fuel and environmental degradation, processing, and storage of metallic uranium fuel, and (9) materials development for advanced reactor and fusion systems including, supercritical water, supercritical carbon dioxide, liquid metal, high temperature gas reactor and cryogenic structural applications. Professor Ballinger was a founding member and still is a member of the International Cooperative Group on Environmentally Assisted Cracking of Light Water Reactor Materials (ICG-EAC). The ICG-EAC is charged with the development of methodology for understanding of LWR materials. Professor Ballinger has served on several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) committees dealing with the stabilization, processing and disposition of metallic uranium fuel from the production reactors as well as from research reactors including teams to evaluate options for the Hanford, Savannah River, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory sites. He has been, a member of several DOE committees to evaluate advanced reactor options and materials for these options. These committees include: (1) Independent Technical Review Group: Design Features and Technology Uncertainties for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, (2) Power Conversion Unit Study Committee, and (3) the Idaho National Laboratory Materials Review Board. Professor Ballinger was a member of the Independent Performance Assessment Review Panel that evaluated the total system performance assessment for the license application for the Yucca Mountain waste repository. Professor Ballinger was appointed to the NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards in 2013. He was reappointed to a third 4-year term in 2021.

Dr. Scott W. Tyler

Job Titles:

by President
Professor

Dr. Scott W. Tyler was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. Dr. Tyler is professor emeritus in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is also co-director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported Center for transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs Community User Facility focusing on the development and application of fiber-optic based sensing of environmental temperature and strain. His research spans the atmospheric boundary layer, through the vadose zone and into the deep groundwater. With training in mechanical engineering and hydrogeology, he has extensive experience in the fate and transport of high- and low-level commercial and defense-related radioactive waste in the subsurface, in both fractured rock and soils. His early work in radionuclide transport ranged from pore-scale analysis of water and solute transport in soils to reconstruction of modern and paleo-groundwater recharge through the thick unsaturated zones at the Nevada Test Site, related to radionuclide migration from nuclear weapons testing and from low-level waste disposal. He has also studied deep groundwater circulation beneath saline lakes, pore scale modeling of root/soil interactions, evaporation and transpiration in hyper-arid regions of the world, and processes of convection in groundwater systems. His recent work focuses on the measurement of the dynamics and thermal evolution of Antarctic ice shelves and the ocean waters below. As part of the NSF-supported International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration project, he has designed and developed fiber-optic moorings on the Thwaites Glacier to monitor temperature in both the floating ice shelf and the underlying ocean that has been operating at Thwaites since 2020. Tyler has published 130 peer -reviewed journal articles and book chapters in the fields of hydrology and hydrogeology. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of American and the Soil Science Society of America. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and Hydrogeology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the University of Nevada Reno. He is a member of the University of Connecticut's Academy of distinguished Engineers and has served as chair of the Hydrogeology Division of the Geologic Society of America and President of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union.

Dr. Steven M. Becker

Job Titles:

by President
Professor of Community and Environmental
Professor of Community and Environmental Health

Dr. Steven M. Becker was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Barack Obama on September 25, 2012. Dr. Becker is Professor of Community and Environmental Health at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. He is a leading international expert on emergency planning, disaster preparedness and response, public health preparedness, and risk communication for radiological, chemical and nuclear incidents as well as other new and emerging health challenges. Dr. Becker has served as principal investigator for several major research studies aimed at improving emergency messages for the general public, first responders, and hospital and healthcare professionals. In addition, he has extensive on-the-ground experience at the sites of accidents, emergencies, and disasters around the world. In 2011, he was a member of a three-person assistance team invited to Japan in response to the earthquake-tsunami disaster and the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. While on scene, the team carried out a rapid site assessment, interfaced with Japanese disaster professionals, and provided training to more than 1,100 Japanese hospital and healthcare personnel and emergency responders. Dr. Becker's research on emergency preparedness, public health, and risk communication has been recognized with awards from such scientific organizations as the Health Physics Society and Oak Ridge Associated Universities. For the last 19 years, he also has been an invited faculty member for the Harvard School of Public Health training course on radiological emergency planning. Dr. Becker holds a B.A. from George Washington University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. He also was a Dozor Visiting Scholar at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and a Visiting Fellow at the Japan Emergency Medicine Foundation and National Hospital Tokyo Disaster Medical Center. In 2017, Dr. Becker was named a member of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Steven M. Becker, Ph.D., is a Professor of Community and Environmental Health, in the College of Health Sciences, at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.