International Expert to Speak on Pilgrim’s Spent Fuel Storage
Dr. Gordon Thompson is the executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS), a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation based in Massachusetts since it was founded in 1984. IRSS conducts technical and policy analysis and public education, with the objective of promoting peace and international security, efficient use of natural resources, and protection of the environment.
Since 2002, Dr. Thompson has been a senior research scientist at the George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.
His presentation will be valuable for the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, elected officials, press, and the public. Plymouth has 4,114 fuel assemblies stored in 61 dry casks stored out in the open. Each cask is made of ½ inch thick stainless steel with a concrete overpack. The casks are located 362 feet from and are visible from a public road, Rocky Hill Road. The casks are subject to corrosion, exacerbated by salt air and to acts of malice. There is no offsite repository to store the spent fuel offsite; the fuel may remain in Plymouth indefinitely.
Dr. Thompson is an expert in risk management related to nuclear facilities, including facilities of the types deployed at Pilgrim Station. Aspects of risk management that he has addressed include safety, security, environmental impacts, facility design, and emergency planning. He has been acknowledged as a qualified expert witness in proceedings before the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the US Department of Energy (DOE), and other US bodies, and also in proceedings in Europe and Canada.
Dr. Thompson received his undergraduate education in science and mechanical engineering from the University of New South Wales in Australia in 1966. Subsequently, he pursued graduate studies at Oxford University and received from that institution a Doctor of Philosophy in applied mathematics in 1973, for analyses of plasmas undergoing thermonuclear fusion.
Since 1977, a significant part of Dr. Thompson’s work has consisted of technical and policy analyses related to nuclear facilities, often from the perspective of risk management. Drawing upon these analyses, he has provided expert testimony in legal and regulatory proceedings and has served on committees advising US and UK government agencies. In a number of instances, his work has been accepted or adopted by governmental bodies such as those in Germany, Ireland, UK, Canada, and the US.
In 2006, Dr. Thompson authored an expert report for the Massachusetts Attorney General discussing the risk of an SNF fire at the Pilgrim-Station nuclear reactor. In 2011, an accident occurred at the Fukushima-Daiichi site in Japan, involving four nuclear reactors of the same design as the Pilgrim-Station reactor. Subsequently, in 2011, he authored a second expert report for the Massachusetts Attorney General, discussing lessons from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident regarding risks at Pilgrim Station.-Mary Lampert, Pilgrim Watch
Pilgrim Watch Decommissioning Handbook
*Expert disclosure of Dr. Gordon Thompson
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