2010 – I co-led the multi-laboratory team that developed the DOE Nuclear Energy R&D Roadmap (a report to Congress).  My contributions included origination of the basic structure and objectives ("Imperatives") of the Roadmap, and partnering with another leader within the DOE national laboratory complex to lead a team of senior experts from several national laboratories in creating the detailed content of the roadmap and the related implementation plans.

2010 – I developed the original concept for the Small modular Advanced High Temperature Reactor (SmAHTR) and led the ORNL team that developed the pre-conceptual design.  SmATHR is a game-changing small modular fluoride-salt cooled high temperature reactor for both distributed and central station process heat and electrical power production. (More details on the SmATHR concept will be found elsewhere on this website.)

2010 – I developed the initial concept for the Tennessee Valley Energy Enterprise (TVEE), a regional "energy park" concept integrating energy manufacturing supply chain infrastructure, and targeted energy generation technology deployment.  The TVEE model was ultimately adopted by the DOE Office of Environment Management as a model for duplication around the nation.

2009 – I developed the initial concept for ORSAGE, a game-changing electrical generating plant siting model.  ORSAGE integrates state-of-the-art geospatial population, environmental, and civil infrastructure data, together with power plant resource requirements and regulatory requirements, to deliver a transformational understanding of national, regional, and local power plant siting options and impacts.  Model development is ongoing under DOE and EPRI funding.  ORSAGE has the potential to offer unique insights for energy policy makers and regulatory authorities, and the ORSAGE methodology is extensible to the siting of other critical national assets such as interim spent fuel storage facilities, centralized energy storage facilities, etc.

2008 – I developed the initial concept for the Coupled End-to-End Demonstration Project, the project implementation plan, and staffed the project.  The CETE Demo successfully demonstrated the first reprocessing of commercial light water reactor fuel and refabrication of mixed-oxide nuclear fuel, without generating pure separated plutonium as a by-product.

2008 – I led an interdisciplinary team at ORNL that conducted the first detailed analysis of the issues associated with integrating small nuclear power plants and biorefineries for synthetic fuel production.  The study evaluated the technical, engineering, safety, business, and regulatory issues associated with integration of process heat from small nuclear power plants with biofermentation and thermochemical synthetic fuel refineries. 

2004 – I led the multi-lab team that developed the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's Integrated Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan (IRDDP) for Space Power and Propulsion Reactor Technology.  The IRDDP layed-out a practical, long-term program to develop and deploy nuclear systems for in-space and planetary surface power and propulsion.

2003 – I led the inter-agency DOE/NASA Review of Space Power Reactor System Concepts.  The team consisted of senior experts from DOE's Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and NASA's Glenn Research Center and Marshal Space Flight Center.

1995 – I assembled and led the team that developed the weapons-grade mixed-oxide fuel qualification plan for the (then) DOE Fissile Materials Disposition Program (later NNSA).  Overcoming many challenges, the program was ultimate successful in fabricating four MOX lead test assemblies (LTAs) in AREVA's French MOX fuel fabrication facilities.  The LTAs were irradiated in Duke Energy's Catawba-I nuclear power plant beginning in 2005. The post irradiation examination of these fuel assemblies (in 2009) confirmed the MOX fuel material should perform acceptably in commercial light water reactors and that the European commercial MOX fuel experience base should apply to weapons-grade MOX fuel.  This is an example of a complex, long-term, multi-national project of high strategic value, successfully executed.

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