The National Board has announced Kenneth R. Balkey, P.E., will address the General Session this May at the 81^st General Meeting in Nashville. The topic: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Update.

 

Mr. Balkey is senior vice president of ASME Standards and Certification and chair of the ASME Council on Standards and Certification. He is a consulting engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is approaching 40 years of service in the nuclear power industry. He provides consultation and advises technology developments related to codes and standards and risk management initiatives.

 

Over his lengthy career, Mr. Balkey has performed and directed reliability and risk evaluations for nuclear and non-nuclear structures, systems, and components. He has produced more than 140 publications and documents relating to risk evaluations of the integrity of piping, vessels, and structures, and the performance of components using state-of-the-art probabilistic assessment techniques. He holds two patents related to reactor pressure vessel integrity and risk-informed inspection of heat exchangers. Mr. Balkey is the past vice chair of ASME Standards and Certification Board of Directors, past vice president of Nuclear Codes and Standards, and past chair of ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards. He also served as an active member of the ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards leading the Board Task Group on Risk Management and the Board Task Group on Nuclear Education and University Relations. 

 

His honors include ASME’s Dedicated Service Award (1991), the Bernard F. Langer Nuclear Codes and Standards Award (2002), the Melvin R. Green Codes and Standards Medal (2008), and several other awards from ASME, Westinghouse, and other institutions. His most recent distinction is that of ASME Fellow.

 

Mr. Balkey earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 2010 he has served as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh Nuclear Engineering Program co-leading a graduate course called, “Case Studies in Nuclear Codes and Standards.”