Laura Price

Phoenix, AZ, USA

Mrs. Laura Price has 37 years of experience in nuclear waste management focused on performance assessment, safety analysis, and regulatory compliance related to radioactive waste disposal facilities. At Sandia National Laboratories and at several private sector companies, Mrs. Price played a key role in supporting the License Application and Safety Analysis Report for the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository. This included developing the compliance and performance assessment strategies and a technical defense plan for the Yucca Mountain Project and review of the Total System Performance Assessment Mode; preliminary performance assessment for a DOE radioactive waste disposal site (which involved developing analytical models, computer codes, scenario selection, parameter definition, and consequence/sensitivity analyses); and technical assistance to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for high-level radioactive waste repository performance assessment.

Her experience includes developing reactor performance criteria for risk-informed licensing; and conducting performance assessment for transuranic waste disposal as well as developing models and computer codes for radionuclide transport, dose assessment, and compliance with the standards at 40 CFR Part 191. She developed a database of DOE-EM spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. Most recently, Mrs. Price’s work has focused on the development of methodologies for evaluating waste forms from advanced nuclear reactors, leading multi-laboratory efforts for conceptual designs of universal and triple-purpose canisters for various waste types (including TRISO-based spent nuclear fuel), and in the conceptual design and generic safety case for deep borehole disposal. She led efforts to model post-closure criticality consequences and advised DOE’s Office of General Counsel on waste form applicability to the Amended Standard Contract.

Mrs. Price has represented the U.S. DOE at the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning TRISO spent nuclear fuel management and led a study on the economic effects of managing fuel cycles using high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

Mrs. Price holds both master’s and bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering from Rice University.

Areas of Expertise

• Advanced reactor waste management
• Licensing
• Regulatory assistance and support
• Repository and recycling economics
• Site selection evaluation for interim storage, DGR, other disposal
• Waste acceptance criteria development