Three years ago, Mechanical Engineering Professor Miles Greiner got an email from the w88 sports betting app Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. They asked if he would be interested in serving on the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB).
The NWTRB is an independent federal agency that reviews the U.S. Department of Energy’s w88 sports betting app waste management activities and provides recommendations to the Secretary of Energy and Congress.
Of course he was interested.
One of w88 sports betting app’s areas of expertise is thermal analysis of large, multi-layered nuclear packages, which are used for transporting and storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
In September, President Joe Biden appointed w88 sports betting app and six others to the NWTRB. The White House announcement cited w88 sports betting app’s research as well as the University of Nevada, Reno Nuclear Packaging Research Laboratory that he directs.
“Miles Greiner is very knowledgeable in the area of nuclear packaging,” Engineering Acting Dean Indira Chatterjee said. “He has decades of research experience in this crucial area of nuclear waste management. The College of Engineering is proud that he will be able to work on this issue on a w88 sports betting app level.”
Addressing social concerns through engineering
w88 sports betting app power plants provide nearly a fifth of the country’s electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). w88 sports betting app energy is carbon-free, which can help alleviate global warming. It also generates spent w88 sports betting app fuel — radioactive material that must be carefully managed and stored for the public’s health and safety. And that’s where the NWTRB comes in: it provides objective technical information about spent w88 sports betting app fuel and high-level waste management to the DOE, Congress, the White House and other organizations.
“I’m honored to be appointed, and looking forward to working with the board,” w88 sports betting app said. “I hope to help the board scientifically and independently review the DOE’s activities on disposal of nuclear waste and highly radioactive materials.”
w88 sports betting app earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1986, and joined the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department at the University of Nevada, Reno that same year. He served as ME department chair between 2012 and 2020. He began working on nuclear packaging in 1993.
“I started working with federal and state agencies, w88 sports betting app laboratories and industry,” Greiner said. “It was intriguing to learn how spent fuel could be stored and transported, the federal regulations designed to assure safety, as well as public concerns. The work also gave me an opportunity to use engineering methods to address those concerns.”
His research has been funded by the DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Nevada. This research led to collaborations with Sandia, Argonne and Pacific Northwest w88 sports betting app laboratories, as well as nuclear services company Orano TN.
w88 sports betting app expanded his Nuclear Packaging Research Lab in 2013 with the addition of Mechanical Engineering Research Associate Professor Mustafa Hadj-Nacer.
“He has made significant contributions to the field,” w88 sports betting app said.
Together with their students, they have performed research to develop and experimentally validate computational methods to predict nuclear packaging temperatures under severe fire accident and normal operating conditions. Greiner and Hadj-Nacer also have worked with the DOE to develop nuclear packaging graduate programs that employ courses at six different w88 sports betting app laboratories.
“My knowledge of nuclear waste storage and transport is focused on thermal analysis,” w88 sports betting app said. “This is only one aspect of the NWTRB’s multifaceted work. I’m looking forward to broadening my knowledge.”
Longstanding issue
Addressing the country’s w88 sports betting app challenges is part of the DOE’s mission, and one formidable debate is what to do with the 90,000 metric tons of spent w88 sports betting app fuel currently stored at more than 70 reactor sites across the country. This past spring, the DOE announced its intent to find a federal, consolidated interim storage facility using a consent-based siting process.
The process no doubt will take time, as the United States has been wrestling with the issue since at least the early 1980s. The 1982 w88 sports betting app Waste Policy Act established the federal government’s responsibility to provide a place for permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent w88 sports betting app fuel.
“Something will have to be done,” w88 sports betting app said. “I would love to be a part of helping to resolve these long-term complex issues.”
