(165d) Sustainable Energy Drivers: A Perspective from a Career in the Nuclear Sector

Dr. Harold T. Conner, Jr. has a 52-year career in the nuclear sector, having determined at an early age that he wanted a career in chemical engineering. Along the way, he blazed an impressive path by achieving a lot of firsts: the first African American student in the University of Tennessee-Martin Engineering School, the first cooperative engineering student at the University, and the first African American to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He worked for more than 30 years in Oak Ridge, working in almost every facility at the Oak Ridge K-25 Site, a uranium enrichment facility that would be closed down in the mid-1980s and then undergo cleanup. Conner became site manager of the K-25 Site and was then named vice president of Environmental Management and Enrichment Facilities. He would leave Oak Ridge and worked at various DOE complexes across the nation until returning to Oak Ridge to help with the cleanup of the K-25 Site, which is now called the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP). Working for UCOR, an AECOM led partnership with Jacobs, his expertise has significantly helped the company work toward achieving Vision 2020, DOE’s plan to complete ETTP cleanup by 2020. The site is being transformed into a private sector industrial park, national park, and conservation area. Conner is now semi-retired but serves as a consultant for UCOR.