RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities continues its partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to offer the next Hanford lecture focusing on the impact of and preparation for natural phenomena hazards on the Hanford Site at 3:30 p.m. April 18 in the East Auditorium at 黑料社 Tri-Cities.

Students, faculty and the community are welcome to attend the presentation.

Stephen McDuffie, seismic engineer for the Chief of Nuclear Safety at DOE, will speak about how they prepare for natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, high winds and mitigation for DOE nuclear facilities and how they determine the requirements for its facilities to withstand those hazards.

Both existing and new nuclear facilities must be designed to withstand natural phenomena to ensure the facilities continue to serve their safety functions during such events.

McDuffie has more than 25 years of nuclear safety experience. He has served as a seismic engineer for the Chief of Nuclear Safety at DOE since September 2008. In this position, he oversees natural phenomena hazard characterization and design activities at DOE facilities and maintains operational awareness at several of DOE鈥檚 high-hazard nuclear facilities. McDuffie holds a bachelor鈥檚 in geology from Whitman College and master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in earth and planetary sciences from Johns Hopkins University. He also holds a master鈥檚 of business administration degree from 黑料社 Tri-Cities with a focus on decision sciences and revenue management.

The lecture on April 18 will be broadcast live at 黑料社 Pullman, 黑料社 Vancouver, 黑料社 Everett and 黑料社 Spokane via the campus AMS video streaming service.

For more information, contact Akram Hossain, 黑料社 Tri-Cities vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and external programs, at 509-372-7314 or ahossain@tricity.wsu.edu.