My story: Stanley Levinson—ANS member since 1983

That choice began in middle and high school in Rochester, N.Y., where I excelled particularly in mathematics and science. Even though my understanding of engineering was not well formed, my interests and skills were leading me in that direction. But why nuclear in particular? From my advanced physics coursework in high school, I eliminated mechanical, aeronautical, electrical, and civil engineering. I thought about chemical engineering, because I enjoyed chemistry. (It was much later when I learned that chemical engineering was not really about chemistry.) At that time, Rochester was well known for many things like Xerox, Kodak, Eastman School of Music . . . and the R. E. Ginna nuclear power plant, located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Rochester Gas & Electric, which operated Ginna, was proud of its single nuclear power plant—there were many commercials on TV about this wonderful technological marvel while I was growing up. So, after discounting the “mainstream” engineering choices, I found myself drawn to nuclear. I applied only to schools with nuclear engineering programs, and ultimately decided to go to RPI, where I earned my bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D., all in nuclear engineering.

As I continued my education, I became more interested in the safety aspects of commercial nuclear power plants from the systems perspective, which led me to probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). For reasons that are not important here, I was not able to do my master’s work in PRA; instead, I did a project involving neutron spectrum calculations and cross-section analysis using a single-user computer with a computer graphics interface, which was quite revolutionary in 1978–1979. From that experience, I learned not only valuable technical skills, but also that my career would not involve cross-section analysis.

The road to my professional career in PRA began in earnest when I was offered a Ph.D. fellowship in the reliability/risk analysis field. This opportunity was sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Liability–Property Insurance Association (NEL-PIA); today operating as American Nuclear Insurers), the organization that insured commercial nuclear power plants as required by the Price-Anderson Act. In the aftermath of the Browns Ferry fire in March 1975, NEL-PIA’s interest was focused on fire safety in nuclear power plants. While most fire research focused on the impact of the ability of a plant to mitigate the consequences of a fire, assuming certain systems were rendered inoperable due to the fire, I concentrated my energies on the effectiveness of existing fire protection systems, e.g., fire detection and suppression systems, that if worked reliably would leave safety systems able to perform their designed functions.

After I completed my Ph.D., I accepted a job in the PRA group at Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), which was still quite busy in the aftermath of the incident at Three Mile Island. For the next 40 years, I worked for B&W and its successor companies (i.e., Framatome, AREVA) in PRA and related fields as a full-time engineer, and later as a part-time contractor.

I climbed the technical ladder, eventually retiring from Framatome as a technical consultant, where I performed PRA and reliability analyses on a variety of mechanical, fluid, and electrical nuclear power plant systems with varying objectives related to safety, performance improvement, and licensing issues. I also participated on the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI’s) task forces—most notable was the Risk Applications Task Force, which maintained cognizance and provided input (to policymakers) on several risk-informed technical specification initiatives; risk-informing 10 CFR Part 50; Regulatory Guide 1.174 submittals; and other risk-informed-related issues.

While working with the B&W Owners’ Group (later, the Pressurized Water Reactor Owners’ Group) and NEI, I provided support for the industry to use risk-informed justification to reduce regulatory burden. Working with Westinghouse and Combustion Engineering Owners’ Groups, I participated in the development and implementation of the industry PRA certification process (adapted from Boiling Water Reactor Owners’ Group’s efforts), published as NEI 00-02, which eventually evolved into the industry’s PRA peer review process. I led the initial NEI 00-02 reviews (“Certifications”) for the five B&W plant sites; led follow-on/focused peer reviews; and led the Level 3 PRA peer review for the NRC.

In addition to supporting the commercial nuclear power industry, I applied my risk and reliability analysis tools in many other interesting venues:

• Economic analysis to help justify the financial viability of nuclear power plant license renewal.
• Failure modes and effects analysis for subsystems of ITER’s Tokamak cooling water system.
• Support of the waste package development at Yucca Mountain by providing PRA expertise for the development of the following: probabilistic criticality analysis for the waste package design, a spent nuclear fuel misload model, and a waste handling building HVAC reliability model.

I also was actively involved in a number of industry endeavors as a volunteer: I was a founding member of the American Mechanical Engineering Society’s Committee on Nuclear Risk Management and the ANS’s Risk-Informed Standards Consensus Committee, which later merged to form the Joint Committee on Nuclear Risk Management (JCNRM), responsible for the development of industry consensus PRA-related standards. I worked on writing groups for the Level 1 and Level 3 PRA standards as well as leadership positions on various subcommittees. For my 25-plus years of supporting PRA standards, I was awarded the ANS Standards Service Award and the ASME/JCNRM Outstanding Service Medal.

In addition, as an ANS member, I served on the Executive Committee of the Nuclear Installations Safety Division, the Accreditation Policy and Procedures Committee (APPC), the Professional Engineering Exam Committee (PEEC), and served many stints on the Technical Program Committee for the ANS PSA conferences. In concert with the APPC, I trained to be an ABET reviewer, subsequently served on the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission and the ABET Industrial Advisory Council, and then represented ANS on the ABET Board of Delegates and Area Delegations. Through PEEC, I became involved with the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, where I wrote and reviewed questions for the Nuclear Engineering Professional Engineering Examination, and compiled and reviewed exams. I have been a licensed Professional Engineer since 1990. In my retirement, I still serve on APPC and PEEC and continue to support ABET and NCEES. I also am a charter member of the Society for Risk Analysis, was awarded the SRA’s Outstanding Service Award, and am an SRA Fellow.

My passion for math has not been limited to my professional life. For more than 30 years, I have volunteered to support MathCounts, a national math enrichment program for middle school math. I worked as a grader, scorer’s room coordinator, emcee of the Countdown Round, and a coach for my son’s team. For many years, continuing today, I am a proofreader/problem solver for the MathCounts workbooks and competition questions.

I have had a wonderful, fulfilling, and rewarding career providing technical acumen and support, and fostering the development and implementation of risk-informed methods, standards, insights, and paradigms for the commercial nuclear power industry and beyond. I reached the apex of the engineering/technical ladder and gave back to the industry through my volunteer activities. But more than that, through my work at Framatome, attending conferences, and performing volunteer work, I have worked with amazing, skilled, dedicated, and talented individuals. While I am happily retired, I do miss the people I worked with for almost four decades.

Postscript—I had always wanted to teach at the college level but couldn’t squeeze it in while working full time. In my retirement, I have been able to do so as an adjunct assistant professor of mathematics at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., where I taught an introductory statistics class.