Laurence Williams (nuclear engineer)

Last updated

Lorna Susan Rance
(m. 19761997)
Laurence Williams
Chair of Tokamak Energy's Regulatory and Safety Committee.jpg
HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations
In office
1998–2005
ChildrenTwo
Alma mater Liverpool Polytechnic
Aston University

Laurence Glynn Williams, OBE , FREng , FIMechE , FNucl, FLSW (born 14 March 1946) is a British nuclear engineer, health and safety expert, and academic. He specialises in nuclear safety and security. From 1998 to 2005, he was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations. From 2010 to 2014, he was Professor of Nuclear Safety and Regulation at the University of Central Lancashire. He has served as Chairman of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management in the Department of Energy and Climate Change since 2012, and Chairman of the Defence Nuclear Safety Committee in the Ministry of Defence since 2013. [1] [2] He has been described as "one of the world's leading experts in nuclear safety regulation". [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Williams was born on 14 March 1946 to Hugh Williams and Ruby Williams ( née Lawrence). He studied mechanical engineering at Liverpool Polytechnic, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. He later undertook postgraduate studies in nuclear reactor technology at Aston University, and graduated with a Master of Science (MSc) degree in 1972. [1]

Career

From 1970 to 1971, Williams was a design engineer with the Nuclear Power Group and worked on high temperature reactors. [1] [5] From 1973 to 1976, he worked as a nuclear engineer with the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). [1] His work included modelling nuclear flasks, the containers in which active nuclear materials are transported, and investigating the thermal performance of nuclear fuel. [5] During this time, he trained towards registration and qualified as a Chartered Engineer (CEng) in 1976. [1]

Having spent the first six years of his career working as an engineer, in 1976 Williams moved into health and safety. From 1976, he was an inspector with the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)). He was promoted to principal inspector in 1978 and superintending inspector in 1986. From 1991 to 1996, he was Deputy Chief Inspector of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. He then spent the next two years as a divisional head of the Safety Policy Directorate, HSE. [1] From 1998 to 2005, he served as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations. [5] From 2005 to 2008, he was Director of Nuclear Safety, Security and Environment at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). [1] [2] Between 2007 and 2008, he was also the NDA's Chief Engineer. [1] [5] From 2008 to 2010, he worked as a consultant in nuclear safety and security. [1]

In February 2010, it was announced that Williams had been appointed to the United Kingdom's first professorship in nuclear safety, and became Professor of Nuclear Safety and Regulation at the University of Central Lancashire later that year. [3] He stepped down form the professorship in 2014 and was appointed emeritus professor. [1] [2] Since at least 2013, he has been a visiting professor in nuclear safety, security and regulation at King's College London. [5] [6] Since 2014, he has been a senior research fellow at Imperial College London. [1]

Williams was Chairman of the International Nuclear Regulators Association between 2000 and 2002. [7] He was a member of the Nuclear Safety Committee, Office for Nuclear Regulation from 2006 to 2013, and of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority from 2007 to 2008. [1] Since 2011, he has served as UK member of the High Scientific Council of the European Nuclear Society. [1] [2] In November 2012, he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management in the Department of Energy and Climate Change; [6] [8] the appointment is for four years. [2] In 2013, he was appointed Chairman of the Defence Nuclear Safety Committee in the Ministry of Defence. [1]

Personal life

In 1976, Williams married Lorna Susan Rance. Together they had two children; one son and one daughter. Williams and Lorna divorced in 1997. [1]

Honours

Williams was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE) in 1991. [1] In 1998, he was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Nuclear Engineers (FINucE): [1] the Institution merged with another body in 2009 to become the Nuclear Institute, and so he became a Fellow of the Nuclear Institute (FNucI). In 2004, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), the UK's national academy of engineering. [9] As part of the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours List, Williams was awarded the title of OBE for services to Nuclear Safety and Radioactive Waste Management. In 2023, Williams was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear Regulatory Commission</span> Government agency of the United States

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with protecting public health and safety related to nuclear energy. Established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, the NRC began operations on January 19, 1975, as one of two successor agencies to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Its functions include overseeing reactor safety and security, administering reactor licensing and renewal, licensing radioactive materials, radionuclide safety, and managing the storage, security, recycling, and disposal of spent fuel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health and Safety Executive</span> United Kingdom government agency

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. It is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom with its headquarters in Bootle, England. In Northern Ireland, these duties lie with the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland. The HSE was created by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and has since absorbed earlier regulatory bodies such as the Factory Inspectorate and the Railway Inspectorate though the Railway Inspectorate was transferred to the Office of Rail and Road in April 2006. The HSE is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. As part of its work, HSE investigates industrial accidents, small and large, including major incidents such as the explosion and fire at Buncefield in 2005. Though it formerly reported to the Health and Safety Commission, on 1 April 2008, the two bodies merged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dounreay</span> Location of two former nuclear research establishments in northern Scotland

Dounreay is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road nine miles west of Thurso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear safety and security</span> Regulations for uses of radioactive materials

Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the environment from undue radiation hazards". The IAEA defines nuclear security as "The prevention and detection of and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear materials, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities".

As of 2022, nuclear power is provided by six commercial nuclear power plants in Pakistan. Pakistan is the first Muslim majority country in the world to construct and operate civil nuclear power plants. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), the scientific and nuclear governmental agency, is solely responsible for operating these power plants. As of 2018, the electricity generated by commercial nuclear power plants constitutes roughly 7.5% of electricity generated in Pakistan, Pakistan is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Pakistan plans on constructing 32 nuclear power plants by 2050 and envisions 40,000 MW of nuclear power generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear safety in the United States</span> US safety regulations for nuclear power and weapons

Nuclear safety in the United States is governed by federal regulations issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The NRC regulates all nuclear plants and materials in the United States except for nuclear plants and materials controlled by the U.S. government, as well those powering naval vessels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atomic Energy Regulatory Board</span> Board within the government of India

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) was constituted on 15 November 1983 by the President of India by exercising the powers conferred by Section 27 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to carry out certain regulatory and safety functions under the Act. The regulatory authority of AERB is derived from the rules and notifications promulgated under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986. The headquarters is in Mumbai.

The International Nuclear Regulators' Association (INRA) was established in January 1997 and is an association of the most senior officials of the nuclear regulatory authorities of the following countries:

Martyn Thomas CBE FREng FIET FRSA is a British independent consultant and software engineer.

Arnold "Arnie" Gundersen is a former nuclear industry executive, and engineer with more than 44 years of nuclear industry experience who became a whistleblower in 1990. Gundersen has written dozens of expert reports for nongovernment organizations and the state of Vermont. Gunderson was a licensed reactor operator from 1971-1972 on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's zero-power open-pool university research reactor at the Reactor Critical Facility in Schenectady, New York, where he was a nuclear engineering graduate student.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Jaczko</span> Former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Gregory B. Jaczko is a physicist who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 2005 to 2012. While at the NRC, he voted against the opening of new nuclear plants and an inspector general report found that he unilaterally and improperly sought to block the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project from advancing. After leaving the NRC, Jaczko called for a global ban on nuclear power.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is the regulator for the nuclear industry in the United Kingdom. It is an independent statutory corporation whose costs are met by charging fees to the nuclear industry. The ONR reports to the Department for Work and Pensions, although it also worked closely with the now-defunct Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Frederick Michael Burdekin is a British civil engineer, and emeritus professor at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and the University of Manchester.

Geoffrey Frederick Hewitt was a British chemical engineer, and Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, where from 1993 to 1999 he was the Courtaulds Professor of chemical engineering.

Professor Jean Venables CBE, BSc (Eng), MSc, DSc, FREng, CEng, CEnv, FICE, FCGI, MCIWEM is a British civil engineer who in November 2008 became the 144th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the first woman to be elected to the position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Reese</span> British engineering scientist (1967–2019)

Jason Meredith Reese (24 June 1967 – 8 March 2019 was a British engineering scientist, and Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.

Colin P. Smith CBE FRS FREng FRAeS FIMechE was director of engineering and technology at Rolls-Royce plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren F. Miller Jr.</span> American engineering scientist

Warren Fletcher "Pete" Miller Jr. is an American nuclear engineer known for his work in the areas of computational physics, radioactive waste management, transport theory, nuclear reactor design and analysis, and the management of nuclear research and development programs.

The Uganda Atomic Energy Council (UAEC) is a corporate body, established by the Atomic Energy Act of 2008, which was enacted by the Parliament of Uganda.

In 2016 the Women's Engineering Society (WES), in collaboration with the Daily Telegraph, produced an inaugural list of the United Kingdom's Top 50 Influential Women in Engineering, which was published on National Women in Engineering Day on 23 June 2016. The event was so successful it became an annual celebration. The list was instigated by Dawn Bonfield MBE, then Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society. In 2019, WES ended its collaboration with the Daily Telegraph and started a new collaboration with The Guardian newspaper.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 "WILLIAMS, Prof. Laurence Glynn". Who's Who 2016. Oxford University Press. November 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Laurence Williams". GOV.UK. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Two new professors boost UCLan's nuclear expertise". The Cumberland News. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  4. "Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguards". The Samuel Lindow Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Professor Laurence G Williams FREng". King's College London. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Laurence Williams". Nuclear Institute Congress 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  7. "Laurence Glynn WILLIAMS". People of Today. Debrett's. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  8. "New chair for Committee on Radioactive Waste Management". GOV.UK. Department of Energy & Climate Change. 10 July 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  9. "List of Fellows". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  10. Wales, The Learned Society of. "Laurence Williams". The Learned Society of Wales. Retrieved 31 August 2023.