On January 10, Professor Ron Ballinger of MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering will speak on Restarting Decommissioned Nuclear Power Plants.

Professor Ron Ballinger will discuss how the growing demand for electricity stimulated by EVs and data mining has led, for example, to consideration by Microsoft to restart the decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. What are the technical hurdles to doing this and how is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission responding?

Ronald G. Ballinger is a Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served for 8 years in the nuclear navy before attending college. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1975, his S.M. in Nuclear Engineering in 1977 and in Materials Science and Engineering in 1978 and his Sc.D. in Nuclear Materials Engineering in 1982 from MIT. After receiving his Sc.D., he joined the faculty at MIT. Ballinger was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Joseph Biden on October 25, 2022. He has served on several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) committees dealing with the stabilization, processing and disposition of metallic uranium fuel from the production reactors as well as from research reactors including teams to evaluate options for the Hanford, Savannah River, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory sites. He has been, a member of several DOE committees to evaluate advanced reactor options and materials for these options. These committees include: (1) Independent Technical Review Group: Design Features and Technology Uncertainties for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, (2) Power Conversion Unit Study Committee, and (3) the Idaho National Laboratory Materials Review Board. Professor Ballinger was a member of the Independent Performance Assessment Review Panel that evaluated the total system performance assessment for the license application for the Yucca Mountain waste repository. Professor Ballinger was appointed to the NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards in 2013.