Regulatory and technical oversight of contractors performing operations and engineering functions at a defense weapons complex.

Engineer / Lead Auditor for Units 2 and 3 (under construction) at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, SC.

In general, this technical position involved the optimization and issue resolution of chemical processes of radioactive and other hazardous materials. Within my facility, I had complete ownership and responsibility of the overall process. Unit operations within my facilities included: ceramic cross-flow filtration, carbon beds, ion exchange columns (multiple units and resins at various stages in the process), reverse osmosis trains, evaporators, contactors and chemical additions in simple reactor vessels. In addition to design work and special project involvement, chemistry (complex solubility of salts and metals, acid/base, and organic), thermo- and hydrodynamic properties, equipment reliability and failure probability, probabilistic risk analysis, and operating/maintenance costs are trended and monitored. Analyses of this data provided both macroscopic and focused views of each facility that were used for optimization of personnel safety (exposure reduction); utility (energy/steam consumption), process chemical consumption, sampling and maintenance costs and frequencies, upstream and downstream facility restrictions, and system / process equipment failure and maintenance. These optimizations typically result in improvements in safety, product quality, throughput, and cost reduction. All of this is done within the highly restrictive requirements imposed on nuclear, radiological, and high/low hazard industrial facilities. Data and analyses were routinely reported to Engineering and Operations Management in various forms including technical documents and presentations. Other audiences included technical and business units within the company the client (the Department of Energy, DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board (DNFSB), South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC).