Dan Galson

Dan Galson

Founder

Dr. Daniel A. Galson has degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (BSc, MSc), and in Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge, England (MA, PhD). Dan has extensive knowledge of radioactive waste management programmes worldwide, and over the last 20 years has contributed to radioactive waste management programmes in Belgium, Finland, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. This work has included conduct of peer reviews and/or licensing support work on behalf of programmes in most of these countries. He has previously worked directly for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) on radioactive waste management performance assessment, safety case, and site characterisation issues.

Dan established GSL in 1992, and has been responsible for the overall financial, technical and administrative management of an international radioactive waste and environmental research and consultancy company now employing some 15 persons.

Relevant project responsibilities have included the following:

Managed GSL’s technical inputs to UKAEA’s BPEO and ESC development process for LLW management/disposal at Dounreay, including work in the areas of ESC development, PA, waste treatment and packaging, historic discharges, disposal and management costs, and the Drigg Option study. This Dounreay ESC is a first-of-a-kind application under the Radioactive Substances Act for a new radioactive waste disposal facility in the UK.
Technical Lead in development of the Disposal System Safety Case (DSSC) Overview Report for NDA-RWMD; this report considers transport, operational and post closure safety.
Technical Director of the regulatory review of BNFL’s PCSC for the LLW disposal site near Drigg (client Environment Agency).
Direct involvement in the preparation of the successful license application for disposal of long-lived radioactive wastes from US defence programmes at the WIPP in New Mexico (clients SNL, Westinghouse, US DOE). Managed and documented the FEP, scenario, conceptual model and assumption screening and development processes. Presented and defended work in public fora and with regulators, and contributed to comment resolution.
Technical Director of top-level BPEO study for decommissioning of Windscale Piles and Windscale IWS study (clients BNG and UKAEA).
Expert Technical Assessor/Reviewer for the Public Inquiry held in 2002-03 to consider Magnox Electric’s proposals for decommissioning of the Trawsfynydd nuclear power plant (client Planning Inspectorate).
Led a Technical and Policy Review of the HMIP radioactive waste repository research programme.
Technical lead for the LP&LS Baseline BPEO study (client BNGSL).
Management of European research on treatment of uncertainty in PA (clients: EC, Nirex, ONDRAF/NIRAS, NAGRA, SKI).