Adrian Paterson

Last updated

Adrian Paterson

FRSN FTSE
Nationality South African
Occupation(s)Engineer, scientist
Known forResearch and development on the Pebble Bed modular reactor
Title CEO of the ANSTO
AwardsDoctor of Science (honoris causa), University of Wollongong, 2017

Adrian "Adi" Paterson FRSN FTSE is a South African scientist and engineer best known for his work on Pebble Bed modular reactor research and development. He was CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) from March 2009 till September 2020. [1] [2]

Career

Paterson was educated in South Africa, where he obtained a Bachelor in Science and Chemistry and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cape Town.

In 1984, Paterson joined South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as a research scientist, working on ceramic materials. He was appointed to the organisation's executive in 1994. Paterson ultimately rose to positions of Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at CSIR. [3] In 2001, he took a position at the Department of Science and Technology, which he held for four years. [4]

In 2006, he became General Manager of Business Development Operations at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Company in South Africa, and held the position until December 2008. The Company downsized significantly following his departure. In 2010, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan described the project in Parliament saying that "between 2005 and 2009, it became increasingly clear that, based on the direct-cycle electricity design, PBMR's potential investor and customer market was severely restricted, and it was unable to acquire either [investors or customers]." [5]

He emigrated to Australia in 2008 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer at ANSTO in March 2009. That year, he was named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology, Science and Engineering. Paterson was awarded 2012 Professional Engineer of the Year by the Sydney Division of Engineers Australia [6] and also worked as an advisor on the TV documentary series Uranium - Twisting the Dragon's Tail (2015) . [7]

Paterson is an advocate for nuclear industrial development in Australia. In 2015 he told the Australian Financial Review that "The social licence is an issue, but the science and technology is not." He has also stated that there are likely to be synergies between unconventional gas and waste storage interests in the future, possibly building upon synroc technology. [8]

In 2015, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and was called before the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission in South Australia as an expert witness. He spoke on the topic of Nuclear Education and Skills Development. [9]

He was presented with a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by the University of Wollongong in 2017. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pebble-bed reactor</span> Type of very-high-temperature reactor

The pebble-bed reactor (PBR) is a design for a graphite-moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV initiative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Heights, New South Wales</span> Suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Lucas Heights is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is near to the Royal National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pebble bed modular reactor</span>

The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a particular design of pebble bed reactor developed by South African company PBMR (Pty) Ltd from 1994 until 2009. PBMR facilities include gas turbine and heat transfer labs at the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University, and at Pelindaba, a high pressure and temperature helium test rig, as well as a prototype fuel fabrication plant. A planned test reactor at Koeberg was not built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Flux Australian Reactor</span>

The High Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR) was Australia's first nuclear reactor. It was built at the Australian Atomic Energy Commission Research Establishment at Lucas Heights, Sydney. The reactor was in operation between 1958 and 2007, when it was superseded by the Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor, also in Lucas Heights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor</span> Research nuclear reactor in Australia

The Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor (OPAL) is a 20 megawatt (MW) swimming pool nuclear research reactor. Officially opened in April 2007, it replaced the High Flux Australian Reactor as Australia's only nuclear reactor, and is located at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Research Establishment in Lucas Heights, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. Both OPAL and its predecessor have been commonly known simply as the Lucas Heights reactor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earthlife Africa</span> South African environmental organization

Earthlife Africa is a South African environmental and anti-nuclear organisation founded in August 1988, in Johannesburg. Initially conceived of as a South African version of Greenpeace, the group began by playing a radical, anti-apartheid, activist role. ELA is arguably now more of a reformist lobby or pressure group. Considered by some to be a key voice in the emerging environmental justice movement, Earthlife Africa has been criticised for being too radical, and by others for "working with traditional conservation movements" in furthering the environmental struggle.

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is a statutory body of the Australian government, formed in 1987 to replace the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. Its head office and main facilities are in southern outskirts of Sydney at Lucas Heights, in the Sutherland Shire.

Generation IV reactors are nuclear reactor designs that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) is an international organization that coordinates the development of generation IV reactors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-temperature gas reactor</span> Type of nuclear reactor that operates at high temperatures as part of normal operation

A high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), is a nuclear reactor that uses a graphite moderator with a once-through uranium fuel cycle. The HTGR is a type of high-temperature reactor (HTR) that can conceptually have an outlet temperature of 750 °C (1,380 °F). The reactor core can be either a "prismatic block" or a "pebble-bed" core. The high temperatures enable applications such as process heat or hydrogen production via the thermochemical sulfur–iodine cycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Green (activist)</span> Australian environmentalist

Jim Green is an anti-nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia. Green is a regular media commentator on nuclear issues. He has an honours degree in public health from the University of Wollongong and was awarded a PhD in science and technology studies for his analysis of the Lucas Heights research reactor debates.

The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), formerly the Bragg Institute, is a landmark neutron and X-ray scattering facility in Australia. It is located at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation's (ANSTO) Lucas Heights site, 40 km south-west of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear programme of South Africa</span>

As a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, South Africa uses nuclear science for peaceful means. South Africa's nuclear programme includes both nuclear energy and nuclear medicine. In the past there was also a military component, and South Africa previously possessed nuclear weapons, which were subsequently dismantled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Boldeman</span>

John William Boldeman is an Australian nuclear scientist and winner of many scientific awards and medals, including an ANZAAS Medal in 2007, the Clunies Ross Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as an being officer of the order of Australia. He was born in Longreach, Queensland, the eldest of seven children born to Harold and Eileen Boldeman. He spent much of his childhood in Maryborough, Queensland and attended the Maryborough Christian Brothers High School and then Nudgee College in Brisbane. He went on to study physics at the University of Queensland and joined the then Australian Atomic Energy Commission on graduation, continuing his studies in association with his work. Boldeman worked at the AAEC, and then ANSTO, for 42 years, rising to the position of Director of Physics. He was awarded a PhD from Wollongong University, and a D.Sc from University of New South Wales in 1984. He organised the purchase and installation of the Antares accelerator in 1988 at ANSTO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Zelinsky</span>

Alexander ‘Alex’ Zelinsky, is an Australian computer scientist, systems engineer and roboticist. His career spans innovation, science and technology, research and development, commercial start-ups and education. Professor Zelinsky is Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Newcastle joining the university in November 2018. He was the Chief Defence Scientist of Australia from March 2012 until November 2018. As Chief Defence Scientist he led Defence Science and Technology for Australia's Department of Defence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Irwin</span>

Tony Irwin is a nuclear engineer and technical director of Australian company, SMR Nuclear Technology. For three decades he worked commissioning and operating nuclear reactors in the UK for British Energy. He emigrated to Australia in 1999 and took a position with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), where he remained for ten years. Irwin chairs the Nuclear Engineering Panel of Engineers Australia and lectures at the Australian National University and University of Sydney on nuclear science. Irwin has a degree in electrical power engineering.

Benjamin "Ben" Heard is a South Australian environmental consultant and an advocate for nuclear power in Australia, through his directorship of environmental NGO, Bright New World.

Jim McDowell is a lawyer and defence sector businessman based in South Australia. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Nova Systems; a global engineering services and technology solutions company. Prior to joining Nova Systems in November 2020, McDowell was the Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet of the Government of South Australia. He is a former CEO of BAE Systems Australia and BAE Systems Saudi Arabia.

Vivek Vinayak Ranade is an Indian chemical engineer, entrepreneur and a professor of chemical engineering at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the Queen's University, Belfast. He is a former chair professor and deputy director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his work on bubble column, stirred and trickle-bed reactors and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy. and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2004.

Dr Ian Duncan is a businessman active in the Australian resources sector. He is a past president of operations at the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia under Western Mining Corporation. He was Chairman of the London-based Uranium Institute in 1995-1996. From the 1990s to the present, Duncan has advocated for nuclear industrial development in Australia, specifically the development of facilities to store and dispose of nuclear waste and the legalization and development of nuclear power plants for the generation of electricity. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology, Science and Engineering (ATSE), the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), and Engineers Australia.

References

  1. ↑ "Leadership changes at ANSTO | ANSTO". www.ansto.gov.au. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  2. ↑ "Leadership Team - ANSTO". www.ansto.gov.au. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "Media Profile: Dr Adi Paterson - Chief Executive Officer" (PDF). ANSTO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 May 2013.
  4. ↑ "Adi Paterson | LinkedIn".[ permanent dead link ]
  5. ↑ "SA mothballs Pebble Bed Reactor". www.southafrica.info. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Leadership Team - ANSTO". www.ansto.gov.au. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  7. ↑ "Adi Paterson". IMDb. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  8. ↑ "Repository rather than warehousing solution required for nuclear waste". Financial Review. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  9. ↑ "Paterson Adrian" (PDF). nuclearrc.sa.gov.au. February 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "Adi Paterson". University of Wollongong. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.