PVP#52 Thomas Popik on EMPact Radio

Thomas Popik, founder of the Foundation for Resilient Societies, talks about the connection between nuclear safety and protection from electromagnetic pulse. As recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have shown, nuclear power plants are dependent on electric power to keep critical cooling systems operating.

The Foundation for Resilient Societies has a proposal pending with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require long-term backup power and cooling systems for spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants. This proposal, in the legal form of a Petition for Rulemaking, is the only petition currrently accepted for the NRC rulemaking docket for 2011. The Petition makes extensive use of reports from the congressionally-chartered EMP Commission to make the case that the electric grid is vulnerable to EMP and that long-term backup power systems at nuclear plants should be required.

Mr. Popik holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Previously an officer in the US Air Force, Mr. Popik investigated unattended power systems for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line, a system of 33 radar sites in Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.