David Lochbaum
Director, Nuclear Safety Project
Global Security Program

Statement
"If plant owners are going to fulfill their obligation to protect public health, they cannot continue to shortchange safety measures."

Expertise
nuclear power safety
plant license renewal
plant design
nuclear technology
regulatory oversight
plant decommissioning
waste issues

Profile
David Lochbaum is one of the nation's top independent experts on nuclear power. At UCS, he monitors safety issues at the nation's nuclear power plants, raises concerns with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and responds to breaking events, such as current concerns over aging power plants and plant fire safety.

Lochbaum is a nuclear engineer by training and worked in nuclear power plants for 17 years. In 1992, 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 Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They decided to go to Congress, and the problem was eventually corrected at the original plant and at plants across the country. Concerned about nuclear safety and frustrated with the NRC's complacency, Lochbaum joined UCS in 1996.

He has written numerous reports, including The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Report on Safety in America's Nuclear Power Industry, Three Mile Island's Puzzling Legacy, and the book Nuclear Waste Disposal Crisis. He is widely quoted in the media and a frequent guest on network news programs.

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