Herron named deputy director of U.S. ITER

Suzanne A. Herron has been appointed deputy project director for the U.S. ITER Project, which is based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. According to today’s announcement, she will share the leadership responsibilities with Ned Sauthoff, who is directing the U.S. involvement in the international fusion energy project.Herron succeeds Carl Strawbridge, who retired Sept. 30 following an 11-year tenure at ORNL that included a key role in the construction and development of the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source. Before coming to Oak Ridge, Strawbridge spent 25 years in the U.S. Navy.

Herron previously was the U.S. ITER’s senior manager for project controls. Like Strawbridge, she also worked on the SNS, a $1.4 billion science project that was completed within budget and ahead of schedule.

The announcement by the U.S. ITER Project Office said she has more than 30 years of diverse experience working on Dept. of Energy and industry programs.

The United States is working on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project with the People’s Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.

The experimental fusion device is being built at Cadarache, France.

Here’s the project description:

“The ITER Project is an international collaboration of scientists and engineers with the mission of designing and constructing a burning plasma experiment to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. The goal is to produce fusion power that would be at least ten times greater than the external power delivered to heat the plasma.”

Herron holds a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in industrial and systems engineering, both from Ohio University.