Professor Receives Bush Appointment to Nuclear Waste Review Board
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2006
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Professor Receives Bush Appointment to Nuclear Waste Review Board
California State University, Chico professor William Murphy has been appointed by President Bush to serve on the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), an independent agency of the U.S. government that oversees the Department of Energy's management and disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Murphy, a member of CSU, Chico's Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, will begin a four-year term on the board April 19. The NWTRB is composed of 11 part-time members well known in the fields of science and engineering. The National Academy of Sciences recommends candidates for the board, and then the President makes appointments from that list.
"I'm pleased that my expertise in this field is recognized, and I'm hopeful that this board position will enable me to make a constructive contribution to solving the problem of nuclear waste," said Murphy.
Murphy, a CSU, Chico faculty member since 2000, has been studying geologic disposal of nuclear waste for 20 years. He recently has worked as a consultant for the NWTRB and is an administrative judge for the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 2004, Murphy was a session chair and speaker at the Symposium on the Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in geology in 1985.
Murphy has published a number of articles concerning the Yucca Mountain geologic repository project, which was selected in 1987 by Congress as a potential site for spent nuclear fuel. The NWTRB was established in that same year as part of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to review Department of Energy activities relating to nuclear waste disposal.
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