Our Technical Experts
Sam Swan, P.E.
Mr. Swan has over 35 years of experience in the risk assessment of critical systems serving commercial, industrial and electric utility operations. He was the primary investigator for a program sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in conjunction with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), in studies of effects of earthquakes to power plants and large industrial facilities. The purpose of this research was to quantify the earthquake vulnerability (seismic fragility) of types of equipment critical to nuclear power plant safety. Mr. Swan has performed numerous other studies estimating the seismic failure probability of critical components of utility systems and industrial operations. He has developed seismic risk assessments using equipment fragilities based on experience from past earthquakes. Other areas of expertise include risk assessments for industrial and commercial facilities for flood, resulting from extreme rain, hurricane storm surge or man-made causes such as pipeline rupture. He obtained a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona and an M.S. degree from Stanford University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of California.
Dr. FRANK HAND (NSA)
Dr. Hand has over 40 years of experience in conceptual design, design engineering, seismic analysis, system engineering, and safety analysis. He has performed seismic analyses and testing for commercial nuclear power plants; research, design, and analysis of nuclear-hardened structures; and stress analysis for aircraft. He has served as the principal engineer for natural phenomena hazard identification, definition, and analysis (seismic, wind, flood), and performed wind and seismic evaluations of five structures at the Department of Energy (DOE) Nevada National Security Site (formerly Nevada Test Site (NTS)), six structures at DOE Mound site, and one structure at the DOE Idaho site, and a flood evaluation at the DOE Nevada site. He has provided structural seismic analyses, soil-structure interaction analyses, soil dynamic analyses of dams, in-ground buried piping and electrical conduit bank analyses, foundation investigations, earthquake ground motion parameters, and earthquake probability and risk analyses. He has developed site-specific earthquakes including ground motion time histories and response spectra for three nuclear plants and one DOE location. He has participated in seismic margin evaluations for several nuclear power plants (Watts Bar, Brown’s Ferry and Sequoyah units). He developed and directed a full-scale testing program for seismic qualification of cement-mortal-lined carbon steel pipe for commercial nuclear power plants. He has performed seismic inspections of building and interior components. He has performed numerous walkdowns for as-built drawings, structural evaluations, and other reasons. He obtained a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University, and a Ph. D. degree in Civil Engineering from University of Illinois. He is a registered PE in the State of Michigan. He holds a Q clearance from DOE.
TONY CHUNG (NSA)
Mr. Chung has over 35 years of experience in design engineering, including thermal, seismic, structural and dynamic impact analyses. He has served as the principal engineer for natural phenomena hazard analysis (seismic, wind, flood), and performed many structural and stress analyses of buildings and systems, including nuclear power and weapons facilities, for the U.S. NRC and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). He has also developed seismic capacity margins for non-reactor buildings, and performed structural walk-downs, reviews of seismic, tornado, and aircraft crash accident analyses, and provided predictions of the structural integrity for various DOE high-hazard facilities. Mr. Chung has developed nonlinear dynamic capacity-spectrum to find the ultimate structural collapse threshold capacity for buildings, including missile impacts on walls, planks, cages, and specific facility equipment. He has performed thermal, structural dynamics and impact analyses for spent-fuel shipping casks during storage, and handling accidents. He also performed soil-structural interaction analysis for buried underground pipes and buildings with water sloshing in firewater storage tanks. He has prepared equipment and structural qualification documentation for nuclear facility FSARs. He obtained a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Chung-Hsing University in Taiwan, and the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University. He is a registered PE in Structural Engineering at the State of Idaho.
GUS ARAMAYO
Mr. Aramayo has over 45 years of experience in engineering in the areas of seismic analysis of facilities and components; structural dynamics; vibration analysis of systems and components; failure analysis of equipment and components; Natural Phenomena Hazard (NPH) assessment of facilities; blast analysis on equipment and facilities; development of mathematical models for the determination of seismic response of facilities and equipment; flutter analysis; impact of equipment and vehicles to assess crashworthiness capabilities; solution of complex non-linear engineering problems using finite elements procedures using massive parallel computer programs; weldment analysis and design; development of computer programs for the implementation of material models; missile penetration analysis for low and high velocity regime; fluid structure interaction using arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian techniques. Mr. Aramayo obtained a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering and a M.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa. He is a registered PE in the State of Tennessee.
