Title:

Moving Beyond LWRs: Challenges and Opportunities

Speaker:

Mr. CJ Fong

Affiliation:

United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

When:

Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Boggs Building, Room 3-47

Host:

Dr. Anna Erickson
anna.erickson@me.gatech.edu
404-385-0419

Abstract

There is a significant and growing interest in deploying advanced reactor systems for a variety of purposes in the United States and abroad. The NRC expects commercial licensing applications both in the near term and over the next 1-2 decades. Despite perceived economic, safety, and security advantages over the current light water reactor fleet, significant challenges must be overcome prior to deployment of a commercial advanced reactor. This presentation offers an NRC perspective on both technical and policy-based challenges related to advanced reactors and is intended to spark a dialogue on the role that the academic community might play in resolving them.

Biography

CJ Fong joined the NRC in 2001 as a co-op student, while studying NRE as an undergrad at Georgia Tech. Initially, he was assigned to the NRC’s office in Atlanta, where he held a variety of technical positions related to nuclear engineering and reactor inspection including reactor inspector, construction project inspector, and senior construction project inspector. From 2006 - 2008, he participated in the NRC's Graduate Fellowship Program, earning a Master's Degree in nuclear engineering at MIT under the advisement of Commissioner Apostolakis. Working closely with Dr. Erickson, he developed techniques used to assess the reliability of passive safety systems for advanced reactors. In 2011, CJ was selected to serve as the NRC’s on-site representative (resident inspector) at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, TN. CJ currently works as a reliability and risk analyst in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation at NRC headquarters in Rockville, MD. He has published several papers on probabilistic risk assessment and he holds an active professional engineer’s license in the state of Georgia. His personal interests include music, cooking, and baseball.