Vern L. Peterson

Proven Experience

Vern Peterson
Vern Peterson
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Dr. Peterson has over forty years of experience in the fields of Nuclear Safety, atmospheric sciences, and related disciplines, including eleven years at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). He specializes in evaluating the consequences and risks to the public and workers of accidental releases of radioactive and chemically toxic materials. He has been the technical lead in numerous safety analysis reports and similar evaluations, some of which have received recognition throughout the DOE complex.

Mr. Peterson was the principal author of the Safety Analysis and Risk Assessment Handbook (SARAH) at RFETS.  He developed the standard tool at RFETS for the evaluation of doses from accidental radiological releases (RADIDOSE) and developed two similar ones for Hanford, one of which includes toxicological consequences evaluations. He was one of the lead authors of the Accident Analysis Guidebook, a DOE/HQ publication. Additional experience includes teaching physics and atmospheric science at the university level, presenting papers at national and international conferences, and being the major professor to M.S. and Ph.D. candidates.

Sustainable Results

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Mr. Peterson was the principal author of the Safety Analysis and Risk Assessment Handbook (SARAH). and of RADIDOSE and RADTOX, tools for evaluating radiological doses and toxicological consequences from postulated accidents. He has developed many other methods and tools that have become standards for consequence evaluations. He has developed methods for deriving atmospheric dispersion parameters from weather data (atmospheric stability classes and the Χ/Q dispersion factor).

Mr. Peterson served as Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for Rocky Mountain Remediation Services, LLC. He has been a senior analyst for numerous Safety Analysis Reports and similar reports. Mr. Peterson has been nationally recognized as an expert in the MACCS2 computer code for accident analysis and has extensive experience in the use of other dispersion codes. He is a former chairman of the Accident Analysis Subgroup of Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) Safety Analysis Working Group (SAWG) and is a member of the Safety Software Expert Working Group (SSEWG).