Meet Our Senior Team

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Eric has has been involved in all facets of AFR’s business since April 2004, providing support directly to a number of investor clients and utilities, and took over the company in 2019.  Eric has over 25 years of commercial and technical nuclear fuel experience. Eric is, also, the founder and owner of Rockett Science Inc., a company which provides nuclear fuel consulting services in the areas of fuel procurement and BWR in-core fuel management support.

 Eric was the lead negotiator for the transfer of depleted uranium from the Department of Energy to Energy Northwest for processing into fuel, worth approximately $1 billion at the time, for Energy Northwest and Tennessee Valley Authority reactors resulting in over $100 million in savings to Energy Northwest’s fuel expense.  Eric’s consulting work has supported multiple domestic and foreign utilities fuel procurement activities covering more than $2.5 billion of contracts.

Prior to forming Rockett Science Inc., Eric served for 3 years as the Group Lead – Fuel & Cycle Management for Energy Northwest.  During his employment, Eric led a multi-disciplined nuclear fuel procurement team that negotiated 17 separate agreements with a calculated cost savings (mark-to-market at the time of delivery) in excess of $250 million.  

In addition to fuel procurement, Eric’s group was responsible for special nuclear material accounting, the nuclear fuel budget, dry fuel storage loading development, and nuclear fuel finance.  Prior to joining Energy Northwest, Eric served for over 4 years as lead Nuclear Fuels Engineer for Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) where he was responsible for nuclear fuel management in the areas of fuel assembly design, transient and accident analysis, fuel assembly manufacturing, and vendor oversight.  Eric began his career as a BWR Neutronics Engineer for Siemens Power Corporation after earning is BS degree in Nuclear Engineering from Oregon State University in 1993.

Pam has worked with Eric for 21 years, negotiating and finalizing a myriad of nuclear fuel transactions and contracts.  Pam, also, has extensive commercial nuclear utility experience and handled all legal aspects of a utility’s business operations as Manager of Legal Services at Energy Northwest.  She left Energy Northwest in 2011 to pursue the private practice of law but continued to support Energy Northwest for several years with their nuclear fuel transactions and other contract activity.  

Pam is licensed to practice law in Washington (active) and Texas (inactive).  Pam has a B.S. from Washington State University, a J.D. from Gonzaga University, and a LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Houston.

Barry brings to AFR over 43 years of diverse commercial nuclear experience, focused primarily in the areas of Nuclear Fuel and Reactor Engineering. Barry’s specific areas of expertise include reload core design and licensing/safety analysis, Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) thermal-hydraulic stability, nuclear fuel vendor technical and manufacturing oversight, all aspects of BWR Station Nuclear Engineering, and BWR operation and testing. He has previously served as Chairman of the BWR Owners Group Reload Analysis and Core Management Committee (RACMC), and as a member of the BWR Owner’s Group (BWROG) Detect and Suppress II Stability Committee.

Barry has been consulting for AFR and its wholly owned engineering company, Rockett Science Inc., since 2006 in a wide variety of areas supporting world class nuclear operators such as Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Exelon, Nebraska Public Power District, Energy Northwest, Constellation Energy, and Xcel Energy. Prior to joining AFR, Barry worked for Detroit Edison Company in support of the Fermi 2 reactor, initially as a Startup Test Engineer (BOP, NSSS, S/U), then as a reactor engineer and supervisor, and eventually to his final role as Technical Expert – Nuclear Engineering. Barry’s prior certifications include: Reactor Engineer, Station Nuclear Engineer, Level 3 Fuel Inspector, and Fuel Handler. Barry holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan College of Engineering.

Bill is an accomplished Program/Project Manager with over 40 years of nuclear project and contract management experience, including accountability as a US Department of Energy (DOE) Field Manager for over 12 years. He was responsible for multi-billion-dollar decommissioning projects and the engineering design/construction of multiple capital asset projects; including the DOE’s $500M depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) Conversion Plants at the Portsmouth OH and Paducah KY sites. These nuclear facilities will chemically convert over 700,000 tons of excess DUF6 into safe oxide form for disposal. 

Bill built stakeholder consensus on effective design solutions and obtained Critical Decisions under DOE Order 413.3B process for highly complex and politically charges projects, including the on-site mixed-waste CERCLA disposal facilities at Paducah KY and Fernald OH. He has been responsible for overseeing challenging projects at multiple DOE sites including; Savannah River SC; Oak Ridge TN; Weldon Spring MO; Fernald OH; Shippingport PA; Rocky Flats CO; and the Gaseous Diffusion Plants at Paducah KY, and Portsmouth OH. His last position with DOE as Field Manager for the Portsmouth and Paducah sites involved overall leadership with annual site funding of up to $800M and a total Federal and contractor workforce >3,500 personnel. 

Bill understands the issues and challenges of  capital asset construction projects from the DOE perspective and is experienced in providing independent technical reviews and schedule and cost estimates. He is known for his focus on safety, risk management, problem solving, and regulatory knowledge. As a certified DOE Sr. Technical Safety Manager, he was the Safety Basis Approval Authority with final signature on Documented Safety Analysis and Safety Basis documents for the Portsmouth and Paducah sites’ Category 2 and 3 nuclear facilities. In recognition of his performance, 

Bill received the Secretary of Energy’s Exceptional Service Award and SES Presidential Rank Award, Meritorious Executive. Upon retirement from DOE after 35 years, Bill was selected in 2015 to be the Director of Nuclear Programs at Jacobs Engineering Group in Oak Ridge TN and subsequently selected as the Program Manager for Jacobs’ successful bid on a large US Army Corps of Engineers nuclear waste site remediation project. He retired from Jacobs in 2020 and later joined AFR.

Dr. Higginbotham joined AFR in 2022 as the Director of Licensing following a three-decade career as a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University.  Beyond the traditional professorial responsibilities of research, teaching and service, Jack held progressively responsible administrative positions within the University including, Senior Health Physicist, Reactor Administrator and Director (Interim) of the OSU Radiation Center including the TRIGA Mk II Reactor Facility, Associate Dean of the OSU Graduate School, Associate VP for Research and President of the University Faculty Senate.  His final administrative appointment was as Director of the Oregon/NASA Space Grant Consortium.

Professor Higginbotham’s teaching portfolio is long and broad, most notable classes taught include, Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics, Nuclear Rules and Regulations, Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Reactor Operations, Alternate Energy and Societal Impacts of Nuclear Energy.  His fields of specialization include nuclear instrumentation, decommissioning, radiation shielding, research reactor operations, activation analysis, life cycle assessment, radiation protection and undergraduate STEM education.  Dr. Higginbotham’s most recent research endeavor utilized the NASA Galactic Cosmic Ray beamline facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory to investigate the biological response of Zebrafish organ systems following exposure to extraterrestrial radiation fields.

Jack has B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from Kansas State University, has been licensed as a Professional Engineer, PE (Nuclear) in Oregon and Kansas, held the credential of Certified Health Physicist, CHP and was a licensed NRC Senior Reactor Operator at two nuclear reactor facilities.

Jeff brings more than 31 years of diverse nuclear, financial, and electric utility experience (regulated and unregulated) contributing in senior roles including nuclear fuels engineering, design, and fabrication activities; large nuclear project and cost management; electric distribution and transmission regulatory compliance; electric distribution rate making and design; and has served as a senior financial analyst with budgeting and business planning expertise.  

Jeff supports his local community by serving on the Supervisory Committee of a credit union overseeing various required audits, business operations and compliance to regulations.

Jim joined AFR in January 2023 and brings nearly 40 years of technical, operations and executive leadership experience in the uranium related, nuclear fuel cycle and chemical industries.  Jim has also held leadership positions involving international business in several countries.  Jim earned B.S., M.S. and MBA degrees and completed the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Executive Management Program.

Jim began his professional career in 1966 working in isotope development and production at Oak Ridge National Laboratory working for its contractor Union Carbide Nuclear Division (UCND) at the time.  Jim left UCND to accept a role with former Allied Chemical Corporation (ACC) (now Honeywell) in re-start of ACC’s Metropolis, Illinois Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6) Conversion and Fluoride Products Plant (MTW).

He worked 12 years for ACC in various technical and management roles. Jim advanced in increasing responsibilities of Process Engineer, Technical Supervisor, Technical Superintendent, MTW Plant Manager and Corporate Manager of Process Technology of Specialty Chemicals and ACC Nuclear Division.  While working for ACC, he led a team of engineers in development of a Best Pollution Control Technology Available and design/build of a treatment facility for meeting fluoride water quality discharge standards.  Jim also assisted Illinois Pollution Control Board in promulgating a water quality fluoride standard for the State.  As a result of MTW industrial wastewater facility design/operation, ACC received the State of Illinois Best Pollution Control Industry Award.

Jim re-joined UCND in a team project assisting Department of Energy (DOE) assessment in funding laser enrichment technology.  Upon completion of the project, Jim accepted management responsibilities at DOE’s Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP) where he worked nearly 18 years for DOE contractors UCND and Lockheed-Martin (LM); then working during the transition of the Uranium Enrichment Privatization Act, for United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC).  Jim led several organizations during his time at PGDP including Operations Planning, Production Engineering, Plant Protection& Security, Environmental, Safety and Health (ESH) Division and Maintenance Division & Capital Projects.  While working for Lockheed-Martin, Jim received the LM President’s Team Honors Award and a LM Plant Performance Improvement Award.

Upon USEC’s completion of uranium enrichment privatization as a publically held company, Jim was hired as USEC Corporate Manager of Advanced Technology Engineering (ATE).  He organized an ATE team and established an office in the Paducah, KY area.  USEC acquired exclusive rights to the SILEX laser enrichment technology while simultaneously developing an Advanced Centrifuge Program. ATE had responsibility for developing SILEX as a commercial process including demonstration project/facility near Sydney Australia.  Jim lived in Australia most of 4 years and remotely managed the Paducah ATE office.  ATE completed the USEC SILEX mission while providing support to USEC’s ACP project. Upon completion of SILEX work, Jim returned to U.S. continuing to lead ATE team.  After working for USEC 6 years Jim decided on early retirement at end of 2004.

Jim was requested in 2006 to join Polypore International, a manufacturer of synthetic membranes, to help resolve environmental issues at some Polypore’s facilities.  He accepted the job as ESH Director for Polypore’s DARAMIC energy storage business.  DARAMIC issues were resolved quickly and Polypore promoted him to Corporate Vice President Worldwide of all domestic and international business segments; Energy Storage, Medical and Ultra-Filtration. Jim had certain functional responsibilities of 6 U.S. facilities and 9 overseas facilities located throughout Europe and Asia.

In 2008 Jim started his engineering/management consulting firm; Advanced Process Technology Systems, LLC (APTS). He signed a contract with International Isotopes, Inc. (INIS) to provide technical, project management and regulatory licensing services to INIS’s DUF6 and Fluorine Extraction Process (DUF6/FEP) proposed project. APTS supported INIS in selecting a site for the proposed project, developing conceptual design, conducting integrated safety analysis (ISA) and environmental assessment and providing market/financial analysis for the project. INIS received an approved 40-year NRC Part 40 license in October 2012.  After the Fukushima incident, due to market conditions INIS decided in 2013 to suspend project final design and construction. Jim retained APTS ownership and continues to provide services as needed in other business opportunities.

Jim also has been involved in community activities during his career including having been a Board Member of Metropolis Chamber of Commerce, Advisory member to David Lipscomb College, Murray State University (MSU) Industrial Advisory Board, Rotary Club, and past sponsor of children’s events at the Paducah Carson Center of Performing Arts. He taught graduate courses in MSU Applied Engineering Technology Department (now the Institute of Engineering) as an adjunct faculty member for nearly 30 years while working full time in industry.