Keith Compton

Dr. Compton is a senior reactor scientist at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He is a specialist in analyzing risks to human health from radioactive contamination in the environment and currently focuses on the evaluation of severe accident consequences using the NRC MACCS code. He had previously worked on the NRC preparations for licensing a high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, focusing on the integrated risk analyses of both postclosure (TSPA) and preclosure (PCSA) safety, and was also engaged in NRC efforts to risk-inform and integrate regulatory activities across the back end of the fuel cycle. He came to the NRC in 2003 following a five-year tour at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, where he analyzed health risks from radioactive contamination due to weapons production in the former Soviet Union and also examined tradeoffs between engineered and financial measures for mitigating urban flood risks. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from Rhodes College. Following graduation, he served in the US Navy as a nuclear trained submarine officer and received his PhD from Clemson University in Environmental Science and Engineering.