About the author
Joe Miller, nuclear engineer
by Joe Miller
Five decades in nuclear power: safety analysis, plant engineering and management, and reviewing new reactor designs for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Career
| Years | Where | What I did |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 to now | EDA, Inc. (Engineering Design and Analysis), founder and president | NRC consultant on the AP1000, EPR and US-APWR design reviews; led the NRC technical evaluation of the AP1000 sump strainer issue and briefed the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; taught NRC courses. |
| 1994 to 1996 | Scientech, Inc. | Assessed the Westinghouse AP600 against test data for the NRC. |
| 1985 to 1994 | Gulf States Utilities / Entergy, River Bend Station (BWR/6) | Director of Nuclear Engineering: led 65 engineers in fuels, reactor design and performance, risk assessment and site engineering. |
| 1978 to 1985 | Black & Veatch | Power plant systems engineering and safety valve testing. |
| 1976 to 1978 | Idaho National Engineering Laboratory | Built the first BWR loss-of-coolant accident model for the RELAP4 code. |
| 1974 to 1976 | NUS Corporation | Safety analysis for PWRs. |
Education and honors
- M.S., Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University (1974); B.S., Mechanical Engineering and B.S., Industrial Engineering, University of Arkansas
- Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); ICONE Award, the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering's highest honor (2012); ASME Distinguished Service Award (2013)
- Technical Program Chair, ICONE17 in Belgium (2009): 800+ attendees from 38 countries and 600+ papers
- Licensed Professional Engineer in Kansas, Louisiana and Maryland
Papers, patents and presentations
Author and co-author of numerous papers in thermal-hydraulics and reactor safety. Selected:
| Title | Where | Year |
|---|---|---|
| A Linear Programming Fuel Management Model for the HTGR | Annals of Nuclear Energy, Vol. 2 | 1975 |
| Alternatives for Reducing Thermal/Hydraulic Loads on the Safety/Relief Valve Discharge Piping | American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting | 1983 |
| Instrument Sensing Line Anomalies in BWRs | American Nuclear Society Summer Meeting | 1986 |
| A Boron Transport Simulation Using RETRAN Control System Models for ATWS Analysis | Fifth International RETRAN Meeting, EPRI-NP-5781-SR | 1988 |
| Best Paper award | ASME Power Conference | 2007 |
| U.S. Patent 5,327,930: Nuclear Reactor Locking Piston Drive System and Valve Assembly (with J. J. Lynch), plus European, Japanese, Finnish and Taiwanese patents | Gulf States Utilities | 1994 |
| Consulting with EDA and the Future of Nuclear Energy (presentation) | SlideShare | 2009 |
My memoir, Critical Mass: Evolution of a Nuclear Engineer, tells the stories behind the career: criticalmassbook.com. Resume and contact: criticalmassbook.com/memoir.html.