Mark Frei is a Senior Nuclear Program Consultant at Talisman. He retired in 2008 from the U.S. Department of Energy as a Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) for the Office of Environmental Management (EM). He has more than 30 years of technical and management experience with DOE and its predecessor agencies in radioactive and hazardous waste cleanup, nuclear waste disposal, and advanced nuclear power plant development.
Mr. Frei last served as the DAS for Program Planning and Budget in DOE’s EM program where he was responsible for the Department’s $6 billion (annual) environmental cleanup program budget, as well as strategic planning, Congressional liaison, performance measurement efforts, and direction of EM’s special nuclear materials management and disposition program. He has also served as a DAS in DOE’s EM program in various other areas, including overall management of the nuclear waste cleanup program at the Hanford and Savannah River sites and the Idaho National Laboratory, with special emphasis on safe, cost-effective storage/treatment/disposal of HLW, transuranic wastes, LLW, SNF and SNM. Mr. Frei served as Manager, Idaho Operations Office where he focused on improved worker safety, conduct of operations, implementation of Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendations, rigorous management reviews of laboratory and cleanup projects, and an accelerated top-to-bottom cleanup strategy for the Idaho site. Mr. Frei managed the preparation of numerous Environmental Impact Statements and led the multi-disciplinary effort to “open” the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for geologic disposal of DOE’s defense-origin transuranic waste.
Mr. Frei served in various management and technical positions in DOE’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management where he directed the site characterization and licensing of the HLW/SNF repository and Monitored Retrievable Storage facility, the design and development of exploratory test and full-scale repository facilities, systems engineering development and implementation, waste acceptance criteria and process development, and engineered barrier testing and design. He has also served as a nuclear engineer, with responsibility for technical management of nuclear plant component design, development, testing, and fabrication for the Government’s breeder reactor program and projects. Mr. Frei holds a B.S in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California (Santa Barbara) and a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Washington.