No: 13-046 June 4, 2013

CONTACT: Maureen Conley, 301-415-8200

 

NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Appoints New Members

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has appointed Dr. Peter Riccardella and Dr. Ronald 

Ballinger to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) for four-year terms.

Riccardella has more than 45 years’ experience working on the structural integrity of nuclear 

power plant components. He is an authority in the application of fracture mechanics to nuclear pressure 

vessels and piping and has made significant contributions to the diagnosis and correction of materials 

degradation concerns at operating plants. He has been a principal investigator on a number of Electric 

Power Research Institute (EPRI) projects and served more than 20 years as a member of the American 

Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Subcommittee on Nuclear Power Plant Inservice Inspection.

Riccardella earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering 

from Carnegie Mellon University, and is a Fellow and Life Member of the ASME.

Ballinger is a professor of nuclear science, materials science and engineering and is head of the 

H.H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His areas of 

specialization are materials selection, nuclear engineering systems, environmental degradation and life 

assessment of these systems. In addition to the courses he has taught at MIT, Ballinger has also 

developed and taught several industrial courses on environmental degradation with EPRI and the 

Materials Aging Institute.

Ballinger has a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He 

earned master’s degrees in nuclear engineering and materials science and a doctorate in nuclear 

materials engineering from MIT. He is a member of several professional societies and has chaired the 

Materials Science and Technology Division of the American Nuclear Society.

The other members of the ACRS include:

 J. Sam Armijo, chairman, adjunct professor of materials science and engineering at the 

University of Nevada, Reno

 John W. Stetkar, vice chairman, principal of Stetkar and Associates, Lake Forest, Calif.

 Harold Ray, member-at-large, retired chief executive vice president of Southern California 

Edison Company, Rosemead, Calif.
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 Sanjoy Banerjee, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Institute for Sustainable 

Energy Technologies at the Grove School of Engineering at City College of New York, N.Y.

 Dennis C. Bley, president of Buttonwood Consulting, Inc., Oakton, Va.

 Charles H. Brown, Jr., senior advisor for electrical systems for BMT Syntek Technologies, Inc., 

Arlington, Va.

 Michael L. Corradini, professor and chairman of the department of engineering physics at the 

University of Wisconsin, Madison

 Dana A. Powers, senior scientist for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.

 Joy L. Rempe, laboratory fellow and group leader at the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, 

Idaho

 Michael T. Ryan, principal of Michael T. Ryan and Associates LLC, Lexington, S.C.

 William J. Shack, retired associate director of the energy technology division, Argonne National 

Laboratory, Argonne, Ill.

 Gordon R. Skillman, independent consultant in nuclear power plant design and registered 

professional engineer in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

All biographies are available on the NRC website.