Gavrilas named NRC’s executive director for operations

NRC jobs: Gavrilas has been the head of NSIR since 2020, where she has been responsible for developing and implementing security and emergency preparedness policy. Since becoming a senior executive in 2014, she has held management positions for research and test reactors, risk assessment, and reactor systems in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Among her most notable contributions to the NRC mission are the Be riskSMART decision-making framework, a methodology for the probabilistic treatment of safety margins; the construction permit review for Shine Technologies’ medical isotope production facility; the NRC’s original accident-tolerant fuel plan; and security considerations for licensing advanced reactors. She has also led efforts to develop new regulatory frameworks for accident-tolerant fuels and novel molybdenum-99 production facilities.

Background: Gavrilas began her NRC career in 2004 as an engineer in the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.

She holds a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland–College Park and a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also served as a postdoctoral fellow.

Prior to joining the NRC, she taught nuclear engineering classes, advised master’s and doctoral candidates, and conducted experimental and computational thermal-hydraulic research as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland–College Park.