No: 16-035 June 22, 2016

Contact: Maureen Conley, 301-415-8200

ACRS Names Four New Members

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has appointed four new members to the Advisory 

Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) for four-year terms effective June 12, 2016. 

The new members are:

• Dr. Margaret Sze-Tai Chu: 

• Dr. Walter Kirchner

• Dr. Jose March-Leuba

• Mr. Matthew Sunseri

The ACRS, a group of experienced technical experts, advises the Commission, independently 

from the NRC staff, on safety issues related to the licensing and operation of nuclear power plants as 

well as issues of health physics and radiation protection. 

Chu is a consultant to international and domestic clients on nuclear waste management, nuclear 

fuel cycle analysis, nonproliferation technologies and nuclear materials management. She is the second

woman to serve on the committee, and this marks the first time two women have served on the 

committee simultaneously.

She has more than 30 years of experience working on issues related to the nuclear fuel cycle, 

with an emphasis on risk assessment and performance assessment as applied to nuclear waste 

management. Chu was director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste 

Management from 2002 to 2005. Before that, she had a long career with Sandia National Laboratory 

that included directing the lab’s Nuclear Waste Management Center and as senior manager of the 

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant program at Sandia. 

Chu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Purdue University and a doctorate in 

physical chemistry from the University of Minnesota. She serves on the DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory

Committee and the National Academies Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. 

Kirchner retired in June 2015 from the Argonne National Laboratory. While there he served as 

an institutional liaison manager following, analyzing, and advising Argonne’s leaders on science and 
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technology policy and programmatic developments in the Department of Energy, other federal agencies 

and Congress. He began his career as a reactor operator/engineering officer on the N.S. Savannah 

before joining the staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory. During his 29 years at Los Alamos, he held 

division and group leader line management positions in construction project management, defense 

programs, nuclear reactor design and safety projects, and applied energy research and development 

activities. Kirchner’s technical expertise is in nuclear reactor design, thermal-hydraulics and nuclear 

reactor safety.

Kirchner holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Merchant 

Marine Academy, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology. 

March-Leuba is the principal of MRU, which specializes on measurements, regulatory and 

uncertainty analysis, and an Associate Professor in the nuclear engineering department of the 

University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He began his career at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where 

he did research into noise analysis and dynamic modeling, and ran tests to determine the stability of 

commercial boiling water reactors. He also developed and installed instrumentation in Russian facilities 

to monitor the down-blending of highly enriched uranium. During his 37-year career as a nuclear 

engineer, March-Leuba developed expertise in reactor thermal hydraulics and dynamics, reactor 

instrumentation and control and protection systems, software development and testing, and 

instrumentation development for international safeguards. 

March-Leuba has a Master of Science in industrial engineering from the Universidad 

Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the 

University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Sunseri is an independent nuclear industry consultant with more than 35 years of experience in 

the safe operation of large commercial reactors. Prior to starting his own executive consulting practice, 

he was president and chief executive officer of Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation. Sunseri has 

a wide range of experience in the operation, maintenance, engineering, oversight and security of the 

nation’s commercial nuclear power fleet. He started his career as a nuclear engineer assigned to the 

construction, licensing, startup and operation of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant.

Sunseri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M 

University and is a graduate of the Advanced General Management Program at Northwestern 

University and the Directors Institute at Emory University.

The other members of the ACRS include: 

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

• Michael L. Corradini, vice chairman, a professor in the Engineering Physics Department at 

the University of Wisconsin, Madison 

• Peter Riccardella, member-at-large, authority on the structural integrity of nuclear power 

plant components
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• Ronald Ballinger, professor of nuclear science, materials science and engineering and head 

of the H.H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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

Inc., Arlington, Va.

• Dana A. Powers, retired senior scientist for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, 

N.M.

• Harold Ray, retired chief executive vice president of Southern California Edison Company, 

Rosemead, Calif.

• Joy L. Rempe, retired laboratory fellow and group leader at the Idaho National Laboratory, 

Idaho Falls, Idaho

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

professional engineer in Pennsylvania and Virginia

• John W. Stetkar, principal of Stetkar and Associates, Lake Forest, Calif.

All biographies are available on the NRC website.