Robert J. Burke, Chief Technology Officer and Board Chairman
Dr. Robert J. Burke is the principal author of the concepts for the heavy ion driver and chamber in FPC's fusion power system. After PhD work in plasma physics related to magnetic confinement fusion at the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory (now LLNL), he established the lithium wall to protect inertial fusion chambers from neutron damage in 1973 at the Argonne National Laboratory, and led ANL's heavy ion fusion team from 1976-80. Dr. Burke also has contributed to development of technologies for long-range environmental monitoring, efficient space propulsion, materials and medical research, green transportation, and national security as a manager, physicist and engineer
at Rockwell International, Westinghouse, and National Laboratories
operated for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The
Hertz Foundation supported his graduate work in the field of plasma
physics for fusion energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
from 1964-1972. At the Argonne National Laboratory, he conceived and
developed the concept of the low-radiation and long-lived fusion
chambers for the World Energy system in 1973, and led ANL's Heavy Ion
Fusion Team from 1976-80, drawing upon results of his studies of the
total resource requirements and potential costs of a world energy system
based on various fusion reactor configurations, 1972-1976 also at ANL.
After
the heavy ion fusion program in the USA was diverted in 1979 away from
the mainstream accelerator technology on which it had been founded, he worked on
the Fusion Materials Irradiation Testing Facility (FMIT) at the Hanford
nuclear complex 1980-1985, adding specific experience in management of
large projects with responsibilities including the safety analysis
report, neutron irradiation test cell, lithium target system, and the
accelerator. After the FMIT was rescinded, he proposed design
improvements to increase its capabilities for advanced neutron
scattering research and explored collaboration with the Julich
Laboratory near Aachen, Germany in 1984-85.
At
the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, he led teams and
consortia developing applications of accelerator and laser technology to
SDI, space propulsion, and environmental research from 1986 to 1996. He
conceived the Integrated Transportation System concept in 1987, the
IBus vehicle in 1992, founded ITS Bus
Incorporated in 2000, and built collaborations to develop and sell IBus vehicles with well-known automotive experts in China from 2001-2008.
He holds a
bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova and an MS and a Ph.D. in Applied
Science from the University of California at Davis/Livermore. |
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