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WIPP: Lessons in transportation safety
As part of a future consent-based approach by the federal government to site new deep geologic repositories for nuclear waste, local communities and states that are considering hosting such facilities are sure to have many questions. Currently, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is the only example of such a repository in operation, and it offers the opportunity for state and local officials to visit and judge for themselves the risks and benefits of hosting a similar facility. But its history can also provide lessons for these officials, particularly the political process leading up to the opening of WIPP, the safety of WIPP operations and transportation of waste from generator facilities to the site, and the economic impacts the project has had on the local area of Carlsbad, as well as the rest of the state of New Mexico.
Gail H. Marcus is currently an independent consultant on nuclear power technology and policy.
From 2004-2007, she served as Deputy Director-General of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in Paris, where she oversaw work on nuclear safety and regulation, economic and policy analyses of nuclear power, radiation protection, radioactive waste management, and nuclear law.
Prior to that, she served as Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. There she provided technical leadership for DOE’s nuclear energy programs and facilities, including the development of next-generation nuclear power systems.
From 1998-1999, she spent a year in Japan as Visiting Professor in the Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Institute of Technology, conducting research on comparative nuclear regulatory policy in Japan and the United States.
Before that, Dr. Marcus was at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). She served there in a variety of positions, most notably as technical assistant to a Commissioner, providing advice and recommendations on a broad range of technical and policy issues and rulemakings, including rules for nuclear power plant license renewal and for the standard design certification and combined licenses for new nuclear power plants.
She also served in a number of other positions at NRC, and was detailed for five months to Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry, where she was NRC’s first assignee to Japan, studying Japan’s licensing of the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor.
From 1980-1985, Dr. Marcus was Assistant Chief of the Science Policy Research Division at the Congressional Research Service, where she was responsible for policy analysis and legislative support for Congress covering all fields of science and technology, and played a lead role in policy analysis and the development of legislation for energy, nuclear power, and risk assessment and management.
An active ANS member for over 40 years, she has chaired several committees, one division, and a local section. She has also been active in the AAAS, and in 2007-2008, was Chair of the AAAS Engineering Section. She is a Fellow of the ANS and of AAAS. She was a member of the 1989-1990 National Research Council Committee on the Future Needs of Nuclear Engineering Education, and served three terms on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Nuclear Engineering Department.
Dr. Marcus’ many publications include a book, Nuclear Firsts: Milestones on the Road to Nuclear Power Development, chronicling the major technical and institutional steps in the development of nuclear power. In 2013, she received the ASME Engineer-Historian Award for that book.
In 2014, she was selected as the first recipient of the American Nuclear Society E. Gail de Planque Award for outstanding accomplishments by a woman in nuclear science and engineering. Dr. Marcus has an SB and SM in Physics, and an ScD in Nuclear Engineering from MIT. She is the first woman to earn a doctorate in nuclear engineering in the United States.
Read Nuclear News from July 2001 for more on Gail.
