Dr. David Luxat develops new analytical methods, strategies, and computer codes to resolve nuclear safety/risk issues to enable innovation in the nuclear energy sector. He has supported both the nuclear industry and regulators in the U.S. and internationally. He grows and leads teams of experts in multi-disciplinary safety and risk modeling and simulation across multiple organizations, driving organizational change to support enhanced rates of innovation.
Dr. Luxat is a leading and published authority in the enhancement of plant safety under design basis and severe accident conditions, having led multiple U.S. industry initiatives following the Fukushima Daiichi events to enhance safety while at JENSEN HUGHES (formerly ERIN Engineering). These initiatives ranged from forensic evaluation of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors utilized in Japanese decommissioning and decontamination planning to enhancement of Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMG) given insights from Fukushima Daiichi. He led methodology development for the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI’s) study to identify safety important severe accident mitigating measures that was critical to the resolution of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Containment Protection and Release Reduction (CPRR) rulemaking. As a result of this initiative, the nuclear industry successfully identified economic measures to enhance safety, preserving the viability of many nuclear power plants in the United States.
Since 2019, Dr. Luxat has been leading the MELCOR program at Sandia National Laboratories. He is currently leading the development of accident progression and source term analytical capabilities in MELCOR for advanced, Light Water Reactor (LWR) and non-Light Water Reactor (non-LWR) concepts. These extensive initiatives have been and are continuing to be pivotal to realize NRC regulatory readiness and U.S. nuclear industry transformation.
dlluxat@sandia.gov
Office: (505) 844-1981