United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 97-143 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Friday, September 26, 1997)

NRC NAMES DR. ROBERT E. UHRIG

TO ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has appointed Dr. Robert E. Uhrig to its

independent Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS).

The ACRS was established in 1957 by the Congress to advise the former Atomic

Energy Commission, and subsequently the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with regard to the

safety aspects of proposed and existing nuclear facilities and the adequacy of related safety

standards. The ACRS also performs such other special assignments as the Commission may

request, such as the review of NRC research programs.

Dr. Uhrig received his B.S. degree (with honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the

University of Illinois in 1948, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

from Iowa State University in 1950 and 1954, respectively. In addition, he is a 1976 graduate of

the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School.

He currently holds a joint (50-50) appointment as Distinguished Professor of

Engineering in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee and as

Distinguished Scientist in the Instrumentation and Control Division at the Oak Ridge National

Laboratory under the UT/ORNL Science Alliance Program. His work at both institutions

concerns the application of artificial intelligence to nuclear power plant systems.

Dr. Uhrig worked for the Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) from 1973-86 and was

Vice President for Advanced Systems and Technology of FPL prior to his retirement in 1986.

From 1960-74, he was on the faculty at the University of Florida, serving as Dean of the College

of Engineering from 1968-73. He was an Associate Professor at Iowa State University and

Research Engineer for AEC’s Ames Laboratory from 1956-60, served as an instructor at the

U.S. Military Academy at West Point while on active duty with the U.S. Air Force from 1954-56,

and held various teaching and research positions at Iowa State University while pursuing

graduate work from 1948-54.

He previously served as a member of NRC’s Nuclear Safety Research Review

Committee from 1989-95.
He received the 1992 Glenn Murphy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nuclear

Engineering Education from the American Society for Engineering Education. Dr. Uhrig is a

Fellow of three professional societies - the American Nuclear Society, the American

Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Mechanical

Engineers.

A list of other ACRS members follows:

CHAIRMAN: Dr. Robert L. Seale, Professor Emeritus of Nuclear and Energy Engineering,

Department of Nuclear and Energy Engineering, College of Engineering and Mines, University

of Arizona, Tucson, AZ;

VICE-CHAIRMAN: Dr. Dana A. Powers, Manager, Nuclear Facilities Safety Department,

Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM;

Dr. George Apostolakis, Professor, Nuclear Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute

of Technology, Cambridge, MA;

Mr. John B. Barton, retired Vice-President, GPU Nuclear Corporation, Parsippany, NJ;

Dr. Mario H. Fontana, Adjunct Professor, Nuclear Engineering Department, University of

Tennessee, and retired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN;

Dr. Thomas S. Kress, retired Head of Applied Systems Technology Section, Oak Ridge

National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN;

Dr. Don W. Miller, Professor and Chair, Nuclear Engineering, Department of Mechanical

Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH;

Dr. William J. Shack, Associate Director, Energy Technology Division, Argonne National

Laboratory, Argonne, IL.

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