Stanley R. Hatcher (1932-2014)

President 1997-1998

Dr. Stanley Hatcher was a recognized nuclear industry leader throughout his career and during his retirement. He joined the American Nuclear Society (ANS) in 1986 and was later elected president of the Society - one of only two non-Americans ever to hold that office.

Born in England on August 20, 1932, he earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University. Afterwards he immigrated to Canada, where he earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1958. He joined Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) that same year as a research engineer in AECL’s national nuclear R&D program at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, where he worked on the chemistry of CANDU coolant and moderator systems. He spent the next 34 years with AECL. Starting in 1963, he moved to the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment (WNRE) in Pinawa, Manitoba, where he was responsible for coolant development for the organic cooled heavy water moderated reactor.

From 1968 to 1969, he spent a year as the Canadian Liaison Officer to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Risley. From 1973 to 1974, he led a plant operations development team at the Bruce Heavy Water Plant, where he helped to bring the plant to full capacity production. He returned to Whiteshell in 1974 as Director of the Applied Science Division. There he initiated the thorium fuel cycle development program. In 1977 he negotiated a new radioactive waste management program with the Federal Government, and returned to Whiteshell as vice president and general manager (G.M.) in 1978 to establish a joint program with the Federal and Ontario governments.

In 1978, he was appointed vice president and G.M. at Whiteshell, and in 1981, Vice President, Marketing and Sales for AECL’s CANDU reactors. In 1986, he became President of AECL Research, responsible for Canada’s nuclear science and technology R&D programs, and in 1989, president and CEO of AECL. There, he led the restructuring of the corporation towards its new emphasis on support of CANDU and the three new reactor export orders won by the company during the period.

He retired from AECL in 1992 and was for many years a consultant and a Founding Director of Energy Strategists Consultancy Limited in Washington DC. He served on the Nuclear Oversight Committee of Ontario Power Generation, Inc., and was a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He also served as a director of the Canadian Nuclear Association, vice chairman and director of the Energy Council of Canada, governor of the World Energy Forum, vice chairman of the Canadian Nuclear Association, and Vice President of the American Association of Engineering Societies.

Dr. Hatcher was recipient of the Ian McRae Award of the Canadian Nuclear Association, and in 2010 he received the prestigious Global Award of the International Nuclear Societies Council. He was also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Nuclear Society, the International Nuclear Energy Academy, the Canadian Nuclear Society, the Chemical Institute of Canada and the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. He was a Professional Engineer of Ontario.

Dr. Stanley R. Hatcher passed away on November 30, 2014.

Read Nuclear News from July 1997 for more on Stan.