Council of the Society
The Council carries out functions to organize the activities of the Society and manage the Society. It consists of members of the Society who took part in its creation. They have equal rights in decision-making and are listed below according to the order of their entry into the Society.
Yuri Spirochkin
Graduated from the N.E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School (currently: N.E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University) with a degree in mechanical engineering in the field of spacecraft construction. At different periods of his life, he worked in the aerospace industry, nuclear energy, and was also involved in developments in the field of information technology and bioengineering. Has a PhD.
One of the achievements of his work at the Scientific and Production Association Energia (now the S.P. Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energia) was the creation of a mathematical model of the Soviet aerospace vehicle Buran and the study of its possible emergency landing.
During his further work in the Russian nuclear power industry, he was involved in rulemaking: developing guidelines and standards for the design of equipment and pipelines for nuclear power plants (NPPs) and managing their life cycle. For some years, he worked as a visiting expert at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), participating in the development of the VERLIFE standard.
His area of activity also included certification of pipeline supports manufactured by the German company Lisega for delivery to the Leningrad NPP-2 under construction, as well as analysis aimed at extending the service life of the units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria.
Currently, he is an independent researcher on the design problems and knowledge management. Volunteer expert in the field of aerospace technologies for the International Consultancy and Analysis Agency Aviation Safety.
Author of technical reports, regulatory documents, patents, articles and books - see his website.
Dimitar Popov
Graduated from Sofia University with a master’s degree in physics (Physics of Space, Earth and Atmosphere). Yet as a student, he interned in the aerospace industry, participating in the projects: Bulgaria-1300 Satellite and NASA data center at the Stara Zagora National Observatory of the Space Institute of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
He worked in the field of astrophysics and was the head of the anti-hail test site (radars, missiles, weather forecast).
The next period of his life was connected with nuclear power. He worked for 23 years at the Kozloduy NPP, holding the positions of chief nuclear operator, reactor technologist, head of the engineering support group for emergency procedures and thermodynamic analysis.
Participated in a number of international projects at the IAEA, EU and World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). Specialized in severe accidents at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with Prof. Emeritus R. Sehgal and Prof. T.N. Dinh, conducted experiments at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK), completed an internship at Westinghouse, USA, and SERCO Insurance, UK, on probabilistic methods of ensuring safety, etc. A list of the most important publications can be found at ResearchGate.
In the period 2006 - 2014 he was a member of the High Scientific Council to European Nuclear Society (HSC ENS) in Brussels.
From 2017 to 2022 he worked at the Olkiluoto NPP, Finland, as part of Areva’s team of authors of emergency procedures and then in the Operations Department as an Administrator of Operational Manuals (OM) / Nuclear Testing Manuals (NTM) for European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). Developed techniques for validating procedures whose scenarios are beyond the scope of the EPR simulator, as well as for revalidating procedures during fast design changes.
His current interests lie in the areas of artificial intelligence, the future of nuclear energy and interdisciplinary research.