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| 5-16-00 Contacts: Dan Bullen, Mechanical Engineering, (515) 294-6000 Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917 PRESIDENT CLINTON REAPPOINTS ISU PROFESSOR TO NUCLEAR WASTE BOARD AMES, Iowa -- President Bill Clinton reappointed Iowa State professor Daniel Bullen to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). Bullen is an ISU associate professor of mechanical engineering. The board oversees the technical efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the safe shipment, storage and disposal of high-level radioactive wastes. A primary concern of the board is DOE work on determining a site for the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes. Bullen was first appointed to the NWTRB in 1997. His reappointment is for four years. "I'm very happy to continue my work with the board," Bullen said. "Our task is very challenging and that makes it inherently interesting from an engineering point of view." The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board was created by Congress in 1987 as an independent agency responsible for evaluating the scientific and technical validity of DOE activities in the high-level radioactive waste management program. Bullen is one of three members to be reappointed by President Clinton. The other two are Debra Knopman, director of the Center for Innovation and the Environment of the Progressive Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.; and Priscilla Nelson, director of the Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems for the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation. The Board consists of 11 members who are nominated by the National Academy of Sciences for appointment by the president. Members are selected on the basis of their distinguished service and serve four year terms. Bullen's expertise is in the area of performance assessments of engineered barrier systems. These systems will ultimately shield the high-level radioactivity emitted by the wastes and are a crucial element in the overall nuclear waste repository. The board's primary job is to provide guidance and technical insight to the DOE as it works out details for a long-term repository for high-level nuclear waste from commercial reactors and from the production of nuclear weapons. A Yucca Mountain, Nev., site is currently being characterized as a potential site for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive wastes. Bullen joined the ISU faculty in 1992 as an associate professor of nuclear engineering. From 1993-1996, he served as nuclear engineering program coordinator. He also serves as the director of the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory at ISU. Prior joining the ISU faculty, Bullen held faculty appointments at Georgia Institute of Technology (1990-92), Atlanta, and North Carolina State University (1989-90), Raleigh. He has worked in industry and at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. - 30 - |
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