3/9/2009 Colloquium - Peter Lam

Peter Lam U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Event Info

Title:  Risk Assessment, Operating Experience, and Public Safety

Date: Mar 9, 2009
Location: 3105 Etcheverry Hall
Time: 4-5pm

Abstract

A number of significant issues in nuclear reactor safety involve relatively rare scenarios with very serious consequences. This is one result of the application of the fundamental concepts of redundancy, diversity, and physical separation in the design and installation of engineered safety features and the implementation of detailed operating and emergency procedures. The rare frequency of these accidents with unacceptable consequences make it paramount that more should be learnt about them. Two parallel approaches have been found fruitful. One is to identify accident precursors systematically, to analyze them in depth, and to take remedial actions promptly. Another is to combine the insights from the analysis and evaluation of more than 2,000 reactor years of operating experience, with the systematic, constant, and appropriate application of probabilistic risk assessment. These approaches form an important element in enhancing the protection of public health and safety.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Peter Lam, administrative judge emeritus of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is an international authority of nuclear reactor operating experience, and a leading expert of nuclear reactor safety and risk assessment. Dr. Lam is now the principal of EMM International, a consulting company with a group of experts in the nuclear industry. In his 18 years of public service as an administrative judge, Dr. Lam has presided over numerous public proceedings to decide technical issues of national and international significance involving the use of nuclear energy and materials. Judge Lam’s jurisdiction covered all 104 nuclear power plants, some 21,000 medical and material licensees, and nuclear waste storage in the United States. The ultimate resolution of these significant technical issues has contributed to the enhancement of nuclear reactor safety.

Prior to his judicial appointment 18 years ago, Dr. Lam had extensive technical and managerial experience in the nuclear energy business over a period of 20 years. He was a nuclear engineer at General Electric Company, participating in the design and analysis of BWR advanced fuels. Dr. Lam served as a program manager at Argonne National Laboratory, managing the research and development of advanced fast reactor metal fuels. He was a manager at Science Applications, Inc., and a consultant at NUS Corporation, both major consulting firms in the nuclear industry. Dr. Lam’s responsibilities there involved the management of probabilistic risk assessments of operating nuclear reactors. He managed a group of technical specialists in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the analysis and evaluation of nuclear reactor operating experience. Dr. Lam was also a visiting faculty member at California State University at San Jose, and at George Washington University.

Dr. Lam has published 71 technical papers and reports in national and international journals and in proprietary company publications, which focus on major issues in nuclear transport theory, nuclear reactor fuel design, nuclear reactor operating experience, and nuclear reactor safety. Judge Lam has also issued over 110 published judicial decisions related to some 50 cases of litigations. These judicial decisions resolve a wide range of technical and legal issues regarding nuclear reactor safety, nuclear waste disposal, and other civilian use of nuclear technology.

Dr. Lam has presented lectures at IAEA international conferences at Austria, Korea, and Spain, on significant results in comprehensive analyses of nuclear reactor operating experience. He has chaired an IAEA working group to develop a technical treatise for the analysis and evaluation of operating experience of the world’s nuclear reactors. These activities contribute to the international exchange of important information to improve nuclear reactor safety.

Dr. Lam earned a Ph.D. and a M.S., both in nuclear engineering, from Stanford University in 1971, and 1968, respectively. He earned a B.S., in mechanical engineering, from Oregon State University in 1967. His 4-year undergraduate study at Oregon State University and his 4-year graduate study at Stanford University were fully funded by eight consecutive scholarships and fellowships.