Svetlana Lawrence

I am the manager for Risk Phenomena Modeling department at Idaho National Lab and the lead for Risk-Informed Systems Analysis (RISA) Pathway under DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.
LWRS program conducts R&D that supports U.S. nuclear industry with the aim to improve economics, reliability, and sustain safety of existing nuclear power plants and RISA pathway supports LWRS program goals by providing scientific bases to better represent safety margins and factors that contribute to costs and safety and by developing modern technologies that reduce operating costs.
As the manager of Risk Phenomena Modeling department, I further explore opportunities how better understanding of risk phenomena can reduce costs, both capital and O&M, for existing and new nuclear plants, a very important topic given that the largest risks and roadblocks for new nuclear deployment are costs. Better understanding of risks allows to properly allocate resources to manage risks without placing a set of unnecessary conservatisms to account for uncertainties typically imbedded in simplified risk assessments.
I have a BS degree in civil (structural) engineering, MS in Reliability Engineering, and I hold a professional engineer license. Lastly, I am pursuing a PhD in Systems Engineering at Colorado State University.