Current U.S. Nuclear Power Plants produce some of this country's most economical power due to the relatively low cost of nuclear fuel; but there have been no new orders for nuclear power plants in the U.S. since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.  This could all be changing now.  With about 20% of the world's electricity supply coming from nuclear power plants, and with energy demand increasing and petroleum costs escalating, President Bush has said that he wants to see increased emphasis on nuclear energy in the U.S., including starting construction of new power plants by the end of the decade.  On December 30, 2005 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified the design of a new reactor – the first certification in years.  Has the technology progressed to the point where concerns over safety and waste disposal can be addressed successfully?

 

On Tuesday March 28th, come listen to what our experts have to say about this.  Presented by the Oakland-East Bay Chapters of the IEEE Power Engineering Society and Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, as well as the Association of Energy Engineers, welcome Dr. Dave McCallen of LLNL and Prof. Jasmina Vujic of UC Berkeley as they present a panel discussion on the State of Nuclear Energy.  The meeting will be held at Scott's Seafood in Jack London Square in Oakland from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; appetizers and no host bar will be provided.  If you wish to attend please RSVP to Carole at carole@salasobrien.com or call (408) 282-1500 x213.  Cost is $5 for members and $15 for non-members; fee waived if you sign up to be a member at the meeting.

 

Scott's is located at the bottom of Broadway in Oakland.  Click here for a Google map with the capability to plot a route.  Here is a link for the restaurant.

 

Click here for Professor Vujic's slides.

 

 Panelists:

 

Dr. Jasmina Vujic - Professor and Chair, Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

 

B.Sc. - Electrical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Belgrade, 1977
M.Sc. - Engineering Physics, University of Belgrade, 1984
M.Sc. - Nuclear Science, University of Michigan, 1987
Ph.D. - Nuclear Science, University of Michigan, 1990

Field of specialization and areas of interest:  Numerical methods in reactor physics, neutron and photon transport, reactor core design and analysis, shielding and radiation protection, biomedical application of radiation, optimization techniques for vector and parallel computers

Click here for more details.

Click here for a description of Dr. Vujic's 5/16/01 NPSS talk, which includes a list of other professional activities, as well as her PowerPoint presentation for that meeting.

 

 

 

Dr. David McCallen - Director of the Engineering Technology Center for Complex Distributed Systems, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

 

Ph.D. - Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics, UC Davis

The Center is responsible for developing Engineering's capabilities in agile distributed sensor networks for data gathering and advanced techniques for combining simulation and sensing for enhanced characterization of complex systems.  His expertise is in the area of structural dynamics and the response of structures to extreme events.

Click here for more details.