Senior Vice President (SVP) Mr. Ken Kurko joined Fauske & Associates, LLC in 2003.  He has overall management responsibility for all FAI product areas while continuing to consult to the chemical process safety and nuclear industries. He has a thorough background in the identification and quantification of chemical reaction hazards using a wide variety of techniques and is expert at kinetic modeling and relief system design. 

His technical background includes designing and coordinating calorimetry testing services aimed at kinetic modeling, thermal stability analysis, as well as determining emergency relief requirements and evaluating reactive chemical hazards.

Mr. Kurko is proficient at DIERS vent sizing methodologies for reactive and non-reactive chemistries, including Fauske’s simplified methods as well as Leung’s ω-method for two-phase flow. He is also experienced with effluent handling design such as header sizing and conceptual design of catch tanks, knockout pots, and quench tanks.

As Chief Operations Officer (COO), Mrs. Lorenz is responsible for the following areas:

Investment:

• Manage facility capital and operating investment budget
• Manage key operating budgets for FAI (EHS, QA, equipment maintenance, facilities, and remaining cost center budgets)

Compliance:

• Develop and implement process to ensure company compliance with regulations and procedures
• Develop and maintain comprehensive safety and quality programs

Operations:

• Lead day-to-day operational issues
• Manage FAI administrative, financial, IT, and other critical operational needs
• Manage FAI licenses, certifications

 James P. Burelbach, PhD, has overall responsibility for FAI business development and marketing activities. As Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) he works closely with FAI product managers and technical leaders to integrate their specialized expertise into high quality content for evolving digital marketing platforms. He cultivates strategic relationships through collaboration with industry partners, intermediaries, and customers to expand FAI’s global presence and strengthen the Fauske brand across a broad range of industries. He directs an international sales network that distributes and markets FAI products and services. Dr. Burelbach continues to advise colleagues and customers on reactive chemical hazards and the application of calorimetry data to emergency relief system design, and he continues to support development and deployment of innovative computational tools and calorimetry methods.

Since joining FAI as a Senior Chemical Engineer in 1988 Dr. Burelbach has been active in fundamental research, product and software development, process safety consulting, and global instrument sales. His diverse technical experience at FAI includes severe accident analysis, waste stream modeling, and experimental work, activities in support of commercial nuclear plants and processing facilities such as at Hanford (US) and Sellafield (UK). He is familiar with MAAP and FATE software and contributed to their early development, has experience in accident simulator applications, and supported advanced reactor thermal-hydraulic calculations using RELAP5. Other experience includes plant risk assessment, nuclear and chemical plant walkdowns, waste sludge characterization, waste solvent fire testing, hydrogen/air mixing and equipment qualification testing. He led development of PrEVent emergency vent sizing software for runaway chemical reactions and deflagrations.

Dr. Burelbach has enjoyed traveling in support of our global customers through technical training, product demonstrations, and conferences, applying extensive hands-on expertise in developing and applying our VSP2 and ARSST adiabatic safety calorimeters and vent sizing software. He previously managed FAI’s Chemical Testing and Consulting Services, responsible for all aspects of our contract testing business while specializing in runaway chemical reactions and DIERS emergency relief system (ERS) design methods.

Martin G. Plys, Sc.D., is a Vice President of Waste Technology & Post-Fukushima Services at Fauske & Associates, LLC (FAI), an affiliate of the Westinghouse Electric Company. After receiving Sc.D. from MIT in 1984, he began his career at FAI developing severe reactor accident models for the MAAP computer code. In 1988, he became Manager of Methods Development responsible for MAAP stewardship. In 1992, he was promoted to Vice President and moved to Brussels to assist Westinghouse with development of MAAP models for Russian reactor designs. In 1993, with MAAP/VVER completed, he moved back to the U.S. and began to focus on process safety and safety of wastes stored at the U.S. DOE Hanford site. Most recently, he has been a primary contributor to the technical bases for safe processing and storage of Hanford spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and sludge, explosive hazards analysis of the waste treatment plant (WTP) vitrification facility, and disposition of cesium and strontium waste capsules.

Dr. Plys has led development of FAI's general nuclear and chemical facility analysis program which is routinely used for a variety of Hanford projects including WTP, SNF, tank farms, and waste capsules. Model applications include in-facility combustion, fission product release, deposition, and transport, and fire hazards; in-vessel reactive waste transients; and evaluation of reactive metallic fuel and sludge processing, transport and storage. For the WTP, Dr. Plys has authored hydrogen design technical guidance, participated in management transition and due diligence, and was technical lead for the original explosive hazards analysis. His contributions to the Hanford SNF project included technical bases for pyrophoric behavior of SNF, process design and modeling, and post-process water content, radiolysis, chemical reactions, and long-term behavior. He is author of the advisory panel summary report for disposition of Cs and Sr waste capsules. Dr. Plys has also worked on litigation support defending Hanford contractors for Plutonium Finishing Plant operations. Dr. Plys' modeling contributions in severe reactor accident analyses include general flammability and combustion of gases, reactor material behavior during core melt, fission product release, aerosol transport and deposition, and general chemical equilibrium model development. In 2015 he was named a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and also was named Consulting Engineer, Engineering Center of Excellence for FAI’s parent company, Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC.

Fellow Engineer, Westinghouse Electric Company LLC
Vice President, Dust & Flammability Testing and Consulting Services

• Electrostatic Hazards – field measurements, discharge potential, charge transfer and ignitability,
• Dust Explosibility Hazards – ease of ignitability and explosion severity,
• Flammability Hazards – ease of ignitability and explosion severity of liquid and vapor explosions,
  Thermal Stability and Reactivity Hazards – by Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Dewar Tests,
• Hazard Analysis and Risk Mitigation – using HAZOP, FMEA/FMECA, and FTA.

• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Member E27 Committee overseeing test standards to assess the hazard potential of chemicals.
• ASTM E27.05 Subcommittee chairman overseeing dust explosibility test standards.
• National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
• NFPA Technical Committee Member for NFPA 664 (wood dust), NFPA 61 (agricultural dust), NFPA 484 (metal dust), NFPA 654 (chemical dust), NFPA 91 (pneumatic transport of dusts) and NFPA 655 (sulfur dust)
• Editorial Board of Powder and Bulk Solids
• Editorial Board of Journal of Loss Prevention

Recognized as an industry expert, his work has appeared in numerous journals and publications, and he has been a featured presenter at more than 23 conferences.

Dr. Paik’s extensive experience and research interests focus on the fields of thermal hydraulics, severe accident phenomena, and developing severe accident codes for several types of reactors. During his career at FAI, Dr. Paik’s major contributions include directing and performing:

MAAP5 Fukushima enhancement project to augment and improve specific models: This project implemented new code developments to calculate core debris mass, location, and chemical composition in Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-3 reactors. These code enhancements were made specifically to provide results to plan and implement clean-up operations of damaged Fukushima reactors.

Development of MAAP PWR, BWR, CANDU codes: Major developments designed and implemented for severe accident phenomena models for MAAP5 and MAAP4 PWR, BWR, and CANDU codes, for severe accident code MAAP-ATR for advanced thermal reactors in Japan, for MAAP4-CANDU for Ontario Hydro/AECL, and for ISAAC for CANDU plants in Korea.

Analysis of severe accident phenomena: Analysis focused on areas such as hydrogen generation, core melt progression, lower plenum debris pool response including in-vessel retention, Molten-Core-Concrete-Interaction, containment thermal hydraulics, and fission product release and transport. Additional analysis conducted of spent fuel pool accidents and accidents during low power shutdown conditions.

Validations of MAAP5 and MAAP4 codes: Experiments and projects included validations against plant transients and additional experiments such as the TMI-2 accident, BETHSY tests, PHEBUS FPT tests, CORA tests, HDR containment experiments and OSU experiments for AP600/AP1000.

Global lecturer and author: Dr. Paik lectures and provides severe accident training courses for utility personnel throughout the world. Dr. Paik also develops training materials and has published over 40 articles in the area of nuclear safety.

Dr. Hans K. Fauske (1935-2021)

It was with great sadness that we saw the passing of our company founder and namesake Dr. Hans K. Fauske, DSc. Hans touched the lives of countless people around the world through his illustrious career of technical leadership in nuclear and chemical process safety. Beyond his many scientific publications and awards he was an inspiring leader, patient mentor, tireless competitor, and devoted family man. We remember his intelligent companionship and are proud to continue the tremendous legacy he leaves in the process safety community. 

Since leaving Argonne National Laboratory in 1980 to found Fauske & Associates, Inc., Hans was involved in many innovative projects covering a wide range of safety issues in the nuclear power and chemical process industries. He served as Senior Consultant to the Industry Degraded Core Rulemaking program (IDCOR) which resulted in the MAAP computer models for analyzing severe accidents in commercial nuclear power plants worldwide.  He also provided overall technical direction for the AIChE Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS) which led to state-of-the-art methodology and laboratory tools for characterizing chemical systems and designing relief systems for storage and process equipment worldwide.

Dr. Fauske’s detailed obituary can be found here.

Dr. Robert E. Henry is Emeritus Senior Vice President, Regent Consultant and co-founder of FAI which was founded in 1980. In this position, he has been responsible for developing the understanding of pressurized and boiling light water reactors during severe accident conditions. This knowledge base has been integrated into a large system code called MAAP (Modular Accident Analysis Program). MAAP has gained widespread acceptance in the domestic and foreign nuclear industry. This computer code models such phenomena as when core damage would (and would not) occur, core overheating, hydrogen formation, distribution, and combustion within the containment, debris distribution, debris bed coolability, challenges to reactor vessel integrity, core-concrete attack, fission product release, transport and deposition, etc.

He was a member of the EPRI (industry) team that assessed the reactor behavior following the Three Mile Island - Unit 2 accident and he was also one of the Industry Representatives in the U.S. delegation to IAEA /Vienna to evaluate the Russian interpretation of the Chernobyl Unit 4 accident. In addition he has served on NRC review panels to evaluate ongoing research. As a result of his experience, Dr. Henry was chosen to author the EPRI Technical Basis Report for supporting the development of Severe Accident Management Guidelines for all four U.S. reactor types.

Dr. Henry’s areas of expertise are severe accidents, two-phase flow and boiling heat transfer as well as waterhammer phenomena. In particular, he, along with Dr. Fauske, authored the Henry-Fauske two-phase critical flow model which has been used to analyze the blowdown behaviors for nuclear plants in all of the nuclear power countries.

Previously Dr. Henry held a number of responsible research and development positions at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) from 1969 to 1980 including Associate Director of the Reactor Analysis and Safety Division.

Dr. Henry has published more than 150 articles in the areas of nuclear safety and engineering and has authored, or co-authored six U.S. patents as well as a book on the accident management lessons from the TMI-2 accident. He is a member of the American Nuclear Society and in 1985, he received the Tommy Thompson Award: the highest honor the American Nuclear Society gives in the field of reactor safety. Dr. Henry also received an Award for Outstanding Engineering Accomplishment from the College of Engineering, University of Notre Dame, in 1990.

EDUCATION:

University of Notre Dame, BS, MS, and Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, 1962, 1964, and 1967

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