POWERS TO HEAD UP ORNL’S RESEARCH REACTORS DIVISION
NS&D Monitor
2/07/2014
Tim Powers has been named director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Research Reactors Division, effective immediately, and will be in charge of operations at the lab’s High Flux Isotope Reactor. His appointment is part of a leadership reorganization in key areas following Kelly Beierschmitt’s departure to Idaho National Laboratory. Beierschmitt, one of the original members of the UT-Battelle leadership team, had most recently served as ORNL’s associate lab director for neutron sciences—overseeing the Spallation Neutron Source, as well as the High Flux Isotope Reactor, two billion-dollar research facilities. He was replaced on an interim basis by Ron Crone, the former head of the Research Reactors.
Powers most recently served as director of ORNL’s Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities Division, which included responsibility for the lab’s six Category 2 and 3 nuclear facilities, as well as three “high risk radiological facilities.” He also managed the high-profile plutonium-238 project, which is supporting the reestablishment of a domestic source of space power operations. Before coming to ORNL in 2004, Powers worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory, spent seven years in the commercial nuclear power industry, and served in the U.S. Navy.
Meanwhile, Allen Smith has been named interim director of the Nonreactor Nuclear Facilities Division. For the past six years, he has been the facility manager at ORNL’s Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, which houses a number of hot cells where highly radioactive materials are processed.