UT Resource Center, 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, or view online via Zoom at 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83593964804?pwd=hFnHLJwnQ6xj01625Z256beeMD7J4g.1

Talk begins at 12 noon (EDT)

Doors open at 11:15 a.m. for socializing and eating lunch (light lunch will be available for a donation). 

Scroll down for details of the location, lunch, and Zoom.

Abstract

Our October luncheon speaker is Ivan Selin, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1991-1995). He will discuss "Nuclear Regulation Then and Now, with “Implications for a World of Novel Nuclear Power Initiatives" and he looks forward to aggressive engagement with the in-person audience. 

Summary; Selin wants to discuss evolution in requirements for NRC regulatory philosophy: 1990 vs today (Hint: the difference lies less in the NRC and more in the environment in which it works.) and lead the audience into a discussion of how the NRC might have to change to prepare to review a series of novel, aggressive proposals for nuclear generation of electricity.

Selin says the NRC’s post-Three Mile Island operating philosophy was developed in an era of extreme risk aversion, wherein many nuclear enterprises were proposing old-fashioned pressurized water reactor (PWR) systems, and the Commission could afford to be quite rigid and unresponsive to the situation facing the enterprises, and the PWR technology was changing extremely slowly. It was understandable and inevitable that regulatory innovation was very slow, and interaction with technical innovators quite negative. Today’s situation has changed dramatically; NRC’s philosophy much less so.

He wants to discuss ways in which it would be desirable for this philosophy to change in order to:
1. Support cost control in construction of modern reactors, without compromising control of risk;
2. Consider if a modification in regulatory philosophy might be appropriate for site-specific reactors generating electricity for local consumption (i.e. not connected to the grid);
3. Consider what modifications in regulatory philosophy and analytics would be necessary for regulating (for example) molten salt reactors.

Biographical Sketch

Ivan Selin has 11 years of experience in the public sector and 25 in the private sector as Chairman and/or CEO of a variety of companies.  He has held three presidential appointments in 3 different agencies, and 4 administrations of both political parties as well as a number of pro bono publico positions.

He is the Founding Chairman of the Board of the Smithsonian Institute (SI) National Museum of American History. He was also a long-standing member of Yale’s University Council, its equivalent to a board of visitors. He is involved in a wide range of informal activities across both Yale and SI.

He served four years (1991-95) as the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), appointed by President Bush (41) and retained by President Clinton.  With 3,000 employees and a budget in excess of $500 million, the NRC is charged with all aspects of safety of nuclear power and the use of nuclear materials in the United States.  

From January 1989 until June 1991, he served as Under Secretary of State for Management.  In this job he was charged with management of the foreign policy and foreign affairs resources of the United States.  He was the senior official with day-to-day responsibility for management of the $20 billion inventory of real estate owned by the State Department.    

In 1970 he and four colleagues from DoD founded (and until returning to the government in 1988, he served as Chairman of) American Management Systems, Inc. – at the time one of the largest software companies in the country with more than 7,000 employees and almost $2 billion in annual revenues. 

From 1965 until 1970, he served in the Johnson, and then the Nixon, Department of Defense, ultimately acting as Assistant Secretary for Systems Analysis. (He must have been very successful in solving its problems - the agency no longer exists.)

Before retiring Ivan served in a number of outside organizations: as chairman of the Military Economic Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence (1978–1989); member (1979–1989) and chairman (1988–1989) of the Board of Governors of the United Nations Association-USA; and member of the Advisory Board on the USSR and Eastern Europe at the National Academy of Sciences (1986–88). He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1979.

Ivan earned a PhD and two other degrees in electrical engineering from Yale University, and a Dr ès Sciences in mathematics from the Université de Paris. He has traveled to about 150 countries (more since the break-up of USSR and Yugoslavia) and all 50 states. In addition to English and French he speaks about eight other languages, some fluently.

Event Details

The UT Resource Center is at 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike between Dairy Queen and Applebee's Grill. Use the entrance at the southwest (back) corner of the building. 

A light lunch (half sandwich, chips, cookie, and a drink) will be available for a $10 donation (cash, check or IOU) starting about 11:15 a.m. on a first-come, first-served basis.   Attendees may also bring food to eat.

Meeting Agenda
11:15 a.m.  – Arrive at UT Resource Center to grab a light lunch or chat with colleagues
11:50 a.m.  – Zoom attendees may login and chat with those online until noon
12:00 p.m. – Talk begins following a few announcements and introduction of the speaker.
 

Zoom available about 11:50 a.m.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83593964804?pwd=hFnHLJwnQ6xj01625Z256beeMD7J4g.1

Meeting ID: 835 9396 4804

Passcode: 233878