David Kropaczek
David Kropaczek, director of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, or CASL, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been named a fellow of the American Nuclear Society.
He is being recognized for his contributions to the innovative development and application of computational methods to solve nuclear fuel cycle optimization problems for pressurized and boiling water reactor systems, including the first-of-a-kind application of large-scale combinatorial optimization techniques related to the design of fuel assemblies, core loading patterns, operating strategies and multicycle planning.
Kropaczek was recognized in the open plenary session of the 2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting on Nov. 16.
As director of CASL, Kropaczek contributed to the development of Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications, or VERA, a suite of software codes that can predict the behavior of nuclear reactors. VERA provides advanced modeling and simulation capabilities to help improve the performance and lifetime of the current reactor fleet. CASL, a partnership of DOE national laboratories, universities and nuclear industry companies, was established in 2010 as the first DOE Energy Innovation Hub.
Kropaczek has been a member of ANS since 1992. Prior to joining ORNL in 2018 as CASL director, he served as CASL chief scientist and the Duke Energy Distinguished Professor in Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University, one of CASL’s founding partners. From 2007 to 2016, Kropaczek worked in various leadership positions at Studsvik Scandpower Inc., including leading the company as president and chief executive officer for three years. During this time, he also led software research and development activities focused on numerous engineering applications.
He received a bachelor’s degree in engineering science from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s and doctorate in nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University.
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