The president of Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security & Environmental global business unit, Barbara Rusinko, has been elected to the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Board of Directors and its executive committee. The U.S. based Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) sets broad policy for the nuclear industry, champions the beneficial uses of nuclear technology and provides a unified voice on the global importance of nuclear energy.
“The Nuclear Energy Institute welcomes Barbara Rusinko to its Board of Directors and Executive Committee,” NEI President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Korsnick said. “Barbara’s extensive leadership and operating experience at Bechtel will be a tremendous asset to NEI as we formulate policy for the industry in this critical time. We look forward to Barbara joining us.”
At the start of her more than 30-year career at Bechtel, Rusinko worked as a construction field engineer on the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Along with her experience in the nuclear power sector, she has held senior engineering management roles on complex technical projects including the national used nuclear fuel repository project at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in Washington state.
“It’s a distinct honor to be elected to the NEI’s Board of Directors,” Rusinko said. “I look forward to helping NEI support the advancement of the nuclear power industry.”
Bechtel has been an active member of NEI since the institute’s inception in 1994. The company’s technical specialists and nuclear experts help shape policy for eight NEI task forces, including Seismic, Control Room Habitability, Combined Operating Licenses, Emergency Preparedness, Early Site Permit, New Plant Security, Small Modular Reactor Security, and Small Modular Reactor Licensing. Bechtel has served the nuclear power market for more than 60 years, providing nuclear design, construction, and operating plant support for more than 150 nuclear power plants worldwide including the ongoing front-end engineering and design of a new, two-reactor plant in Wales, UK.
Rusinko is a registered professional engineer and Six Sigma champion with a master’s degree in engineering from The University of Alabama – Huntsville, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of South Carolina. She received a Global Leadership Award from the Society of Women Engineers in 2016 and serves on that organization’s corporate partnership council.
