Education and Training Series #78: International Knowledge Management and Preservation Of Sodium Fast Reactors

Mr. Joel Guidez graduated from “Ecole Centrale de Paris” in 1973. Over his career, he was the head of several activities on Phenix, Superphenix, and Osiris at CEA, France as well as responsible of the High Flux Reactor, Petten, Netherlands and the Nuclear representative at the French Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Since his retirement in 2020, Mr. Guidez has been a scientific advisor of several startup companies, a member of the symposium committee, honorary president of SFEN/ST7, writer of articles and scientific lecturer. His book entitled “ FAST reactors: A solution to Fight against Global Warming” will be published in September by Elsevier edition.

Mr. Hiroki Hayafune, with JAEA, Japan, serves as the Deputy Director General, Sector of Fast Reactor and Advanced Reactor R&D. He joined JAEA in 1988 and has participated in Monju and SFR developments. Mr. Hayafune is recognized as a Subject Matter Expert in advanced reactor design.

Dr. Ron Omberg graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD in Nuclear Engineering in 1969 and currently serves as a Principal Technical Advisor at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Since 2000, Mr. Omberg has been responsible for the Fast Flux Test Facility Knowledge Preservation Program for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He worked on the design of the Fast Flux Test Facility, Westinghouse Hanford from 1970 to 1980; participated in the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) from 1976 to 1980; participated in United States/Soviet Union Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, 1999 to 2009, and served as a Member of DOE/NE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee (NEAC) Subcommittee on Infrastructure from 2000 to 2020.

Mr. Patrick Alexander started his career and developed his passion for the nuclear industry as a Reactor Operator on a Nuclear Submarine. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Energy Engineering Technology from Thomas Edison State University and a Master in Engineering Management from the University of Texas at Arlington. He joined the Commercial Nuclear industry at Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant as an I&C Technician and ultimately became a Senior Reactor Operator, Shift Technical Assistant and a qualified Shift Manager. His passion for the future of nuclear power brought him to TerraPower as Principal Engineer for Operations, and where he now serves as the TerraPower Operations Manager.

Mr. Cal Doucette, with ARC Clean Energy Canada, has over 30 years of engineering experience in the petrochemical, wood products, air pollution control, solvent recycling, telecommunications, consulting engineering, and nuclear industries. Most recently, Mr. Doucette served as a design engineering section head and system responsible operations specialist with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. In addition, Mr. Doucette was the project manager for emergency core cooling strainer installations, lead engineer for the NRU vessel leak repair project and responsible for the processing of legacy liquid waste through the CNL liquid waste immobilization system. Mr. Doucette earned his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from McGill University.

Dr. Patricia Paviet, our moderator for this panel discussion, is the Group Leader of the Radiological Materials Group, at PNNL and National Technical Director of the DOE Molten Salt Reactor Program. She is also the Chair of the GIF Education and Training Working Group. Previously, she was the Director of the Office of Materials and Chemical Technologies at DOE, Office of Nuclear Energy, responsible for the R&D activities on the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. She has 25+ years of innovative R&D and has worked in government, academia, industry, and national laboratories. She earned her PhD in radiochemistry from the University Paris-Orsay, France.