A nuclear engineer by training, Dave Lochbaum worked in nuclear power plants for nearly two decades. In the early 1990s, he and a colleague identified a safety problem in a plant where they were working, but were ignored when they raised the issue with the plant manager, the utility and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). After bringing their concerns to Congress, the problem was corrected not just at the original nuclear plant but at plants across the country.
Concerned about nuclear safety and frustrated with the NRC’s complacency, Lochbaum joined the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in 1996. Today, he directs the UCS Nuclear Safety Project and is widely considered one of the top independent authorities on nuclear power in the United States. At UCS, he monitors safety issues at the nation’s nuclear power plants, keeps a close eye on the NRC and is a go-to expert for the government, media and public during breaking events like the 2011 nuclear power plant crisis in Japan.
Continue reading at Our Hero: David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists
