After the SL-1 experience, I directed work on conducting critical experiments for the Air Force and for NASA Lewis Research Center, primarily for space propulsion applications, including a gas-core (using uranium hexafluoride) critical experiment. In 1965, I became chair of the Idaho Local Section of ANS.
In 1969, I took a part-time sabbatical from Idaho National Laboratory to chair the nuclear engineering program at the University of Utah. Upon returning full-time to INL, I became director of the Nuclear Technology Branch and was involved in design calculations for experiments with the 250-MW Advanced Test Reactor, as well as operation of three critical experiment reactors. During this time, I was very involved with ANS, chairing a division, chairing a topical meeting, and winning a best paper award as a member of the Aerospace Division. I also passed the two-day exam in 1971 to become a licensed Professional Engineer, maintaining licensure through 2025.
In 1973, the Atomic Energy Commission declared that further research on light water reactors was unnecessary, because there were already 100 in operation or under construction with another 100 in the design phase. With 50 reactor physicists threatened with unemployment, I decided to investigate developing geothermal energy utilization in Idaho.
I was elected to a three-year term on the ANS Board of Directors in 1978. During this time, I also was a U.S. representative to the International Energy Agency, headquartered in Paris, and to the NATO Committee for Concerns of a Modern Society on geothermal energy for direct heat applications.
From 1978 to 1983, I was president of Energy Services Inc., an engineering consulting firm that developed 14 geothermal energy district heating systems from New Mexico to Alaska. Additional projects involved ground-source and groundwater heat pumps.
I moved my family in 1983 to Columbia, Mo., when I was appointed department head of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri, which has the largest research reactor (10 MW) of any university in the United States. Interest in nuclear power was waning at the time, so I focused the department on new developments in nuclear medicine—computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, single-photon emission tomography, and ultrasound, among other topics. One focus was on lecturing and presenting technical papers on the effects of low-level radiation and on efforts to negate the validity of the linear no-threshold hypothesis.
I remained active in ANS after I moved, becoming chair of the Central Missouri Local Section in 1987. In 1992, I was chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization. I also became a CHP (certified health physicist) in 1993, maintaining certification through 2025.
I returned to Idaho in 1995 as dean of engineering at Idaho State University—a position I held until 2006—and served on an advisory committee for a division at Argonne National Laboratory from 1997 to 2002. Also, I was named a Fellow of ASME in 1999.
From 2003 to 2006, I was a member of ANS’s Decommissioning, Decontamination, and Reutilization Division executive committee. My research focus was on laser isotope enrichment and on underground siting of nuclear power plants. My ANS association has been not just helpful in my profession but rewarding in the developed friendships, including being on a first-name basis with Octave du Temple (the first executive director) and with 14 of the 47 ANS presidents between 1974 and 2020.
From 2006 to 2017, I was the reactor administrator for reactor operating licenses and special nuclear materials licenses with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. From 2010 to 2013, I served as chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department at Idaho State University. During my 28 years at ISU, I usually taught two courses per semester, focusing on helping students get a true laboratory experience with a nuclear reactor, and on understanding the forms of energy that were competing with nuclear.
I “retired” in 2013 as professor emeritus but still taught half time. Full-time retirement came my way just this year.
