David Lochbaum

David A. Lochbaum is the Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). A nuclear engineer by training, he worked in nuclear power plants for nearly two decades. Lochbaum has written numerous articles and reports on various aspects of nuclear safety and published two books.

Work with UCS

David Lochbaum is the Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He leads UCS’s efforts to "ensure the safety of nuclear power in the United States by monitoring licensed commercial nuclear plants to identify and publicize safety risks". David Lochbaum has more than seventeen years of experience in commercial nuclear power plant start-up testing, operations, licensing, software development, training, and design engineering. Lochbaum has written numerous articles and reports on various aspects of nuclear safety and published books entitled Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis and Fission Stories.^[1]

In his book Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis, published in 1996, Lochbaum wrote about a scenario similar to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. He described a situation with disastrous consequences that could take place in numerous reactors in the U.S. and around the world. He said "U.S. nuclear power plants are safe as long as natural and man-made disasters do not occur".^[2]

In a 2012 nuclear power safety report with Edwin Lyman, Lochbaum said:

The designs of the Fukushima reactors closely resemble those of many U.S. reactors, and the respective emergency response procedures are comparable as well. But while most U.S. reactors may not be vulnerable to that site’s specific earthquake/ tsunami sequence, they are vulnerable to other severe natural disasters. Moreover, similarly serious conditions could be created by a terrorist attack.^[3]

Before UCS

Prior to joining UCS in October 1996, Mr. Lochbaum served as a Senior Engineer for Enercon Services, Inc., System Engineer for General Technical Services, Reactor Engineer/Shift Technical Advisor for the Tennessee Valley Authority, BWR Instructor for General Electric, and Junior Engineer for Georgia Power.^[1]

In the early 1990s, he and a colleague identified a safety problem in a plant where they were working, but were ignored when they raised the issue with the plant manager, the utility and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). After bringing their concerns to Congress, the problem was corrected not just at the original nuclear plant but at plants across the country.^[4]

Education

David Lochbaum received a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1979. He has been a member of the American Nuclear Society since 1978.^[1]

See also

• Nuclear accidents in the United States
• Nuclear safety in the United States
• Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
• Arnold Gundersen
• Gerald W. Brown
• George Galatis
• List of nuclear whistleblowers
• Mark Cooper
• GE Three

References