Nashville, Tenn. — Vanderbilt Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Mark D. Abkowitz has been appointed by President Bush to a four-year term on the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board to provide advice on transportation issues.
NWTRB reviews the Department of Energy’s activities related to the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Abkowitz will be the only person on the 11-member board with expertise in transportation of nuclear waste, an area that will become increasingly important as the spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste shipping campaigns intensify. He also brings expertise in risk management and information technology to the position.
According to the NWTRB web site, members are “eminent in a field of science or engineering – including environmental and social sciences – and are selected solely on the basis of distinguished service.” Individuals are recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.
Abkowitz, a Vanderbilt faculty member for 15 years, directs the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies. He has served previously on several national and international committees of the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board Committee on Hazardous Materials Transport and as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.. He is the author of more than 70 journal publications and study reports.
Contacts: Vivian Cooper-Capps, (615) 322-2762, vivian.f.cooper-capps@vanderbilt.edu
David Salisbury, (615) 343-6803, david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu