Former DOE assistant secretary delivers nuclear engineering lecture
Dr. Warren F. Miller Jr., former assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the US Department of Energy (DOE), delivered the 2011 Progress Energy Nuclear Engineering Distinguished Executive Lecture at North Carolina State University on Feb. 17.
Miller spoke to a packed classroom of more than 50 nuclear engineering, civil engineering and materials science and engineering students, faculty and staff in Burlington Engineering Laboratories. His lecture discussed realistic assessments of the future nuclear energy landscape and described opportunities and constraints facing nuclear energy research and development.
The lecture outlined goals ranging from extending plant life with improved performance to building new plants and reactors to enabling sustainable fuel cycles.
Miller also mentioned NC State’s involvement in the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), a partnership of universities, laboratories and industry representatives that uses advanced computer models to explore innovations in nuclear engineering and design. NC State plays a leading role in the initiative; Dr. Paul Turinsky, professor of nuclear engineering, is its chief scientist.
“What you’re doing is critical to CASL,” Miller said.
Prior to his service with DOE, Miller was a research professor and associate director of the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute at Texas A&M University. He served for 27 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a computation physics researcher and senior administrator.
Miller was elected a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society in 1982 and became a National Academy of Engineering member in 1996. He is the co-author of Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, a standard textbook for engineering students around the world.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a PhD in engineering sciences from Northwestern University. Miller is a Vietnam War veteran and earned a US Army Bronze Star and a Commendation Medal.
