Alan E. Waltar

Senior Advisor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (ret.)

Dr. Waltar was professor and head, nuclear engineering, Texas A&M University from 1998 to 2002, where he helped to build that program into the largest Department of Nuclear Engineering in the nation. He served as president of the 16,000-member American Nuclear Society from 1994-1995. He was elected a fellow of the society in 1984. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering (University of Washington, 1961), an M.S. in nuclear engineering (MIT, 1962), and a Ph.D. in engineering science (University of California, Berkeley, 1966).

His distinguished career with Westinghouse Hanford Company included leadership positions in several areas of advanced reactor technology-mostly related to the regulatory approvals and subsequent operations at the Fast Flux Text Facility (FFTF). He served on the faculty at the University of Virginia where, with Professor Albert Reynolds, he co-authored the Fast Breeder Reactors textbook. Along with the Russian translation, this book has become one of the standard instructional books for fast spectrum reactors. It is currently being updated and will be entitled Fast Spectrum Reactors. In addition to organizing numerous international technical conferences, Dr. Waltar has published over 75 open literature scientific articles. 

Dr. Waltar was instrumental in the formation of the World Nuclear University Summer Institute (SI) and has served as a mentor and a member of the faculty for the Inaugural SI in Idaho Falls, Idaho (2005), the 2006 SI in Stockholm, Sweden, the 2007 SI in South Korea, the 2008 SI in Canada, and the 2009 and 2010 SIs in Oxford, England.  He also led a People-to-People Ambassadors Nuclear Delegation to China in October 2007 and India in 2009.

Dr. Waltar authored America the Powerless: Facing our Nuclear Energy Dilemma in 1995 and in 2004 published Radiation and Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie’s Dream, which articulates the enormous beneficial uses of radiation to society.

Dr. Waltar currently serves as a consultant to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and several private nuclear firms.

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