Nuclear Engineer
Nuclear Engineer

Biography

Garill Coles has 30-plus years of experience in safety and risk evaluations for domestic and international nuclear reactors, critical infrastructure, and other complex systems. He was trained as a nuclear safety analyst and shift technical advisor at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) N Reactor. He has led and participated in an array of Probabilistic Risk Assessments (PRAs) on U.S. and international nuclear reactors and was part of a U.S. team that provided training in PRA and safety analysis to the Russian Federation for the DOE and Department of Defense. He has supported and led numerous hazards and accident analyses, as well as documented safety analyses of Hanford’s nonreactor nuclear facilities.

Coles has also supported risk assessment of oil pumping stations for the Mexican government-owned company PEMEX. He performed risk assessments on health care concerns and has chaired the local Patient Safety organization for the last 13 years. Coles has also led research in nuclear proliferation risk assessment for the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration, leveraging Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) research in techno-socio predictive analytics and helped develop a Facility Safeguard-ability Assessment for the NuScale Small Modular Reactor (SMR).

As a PRA expert, Coles has helped review several Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives Analysis submittals from U.S. nuclear power plants for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He has also supported implementation of risk-informed performance-based strategies for licensing SMRs, as well as research for the DOE Office of Nuclear Engineering that would integrate equipment condition monitoring into PRA. Coles has supported research on the impact of environmental factors associated with nuclear power plant manual actions in response to external flooding hazards that will support human reliability analysis used in risk-informed application. Currently, he supports the NRC as a PRA expert in reviewing risk-informed license amendment requests.

Disciplines and Skills

  • Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA)
  • Nuclear Safety Analysis and Licensing, Regulatory Review of Risk-Informed Applications
  • Hazards Analysis, Accident Analysis, Safety Analysis, Uncertainty Analysis
  • Reliability, Maintainability and Unavailability Studies, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Root Cause Analysis
  • Security Risk Assessment
  • Risk-Informed Cyber Security Analysis

Education

  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, Montana State University, 1981
  • Reactor Physics Certification, UNC United Nuclear Industries, 1983
  • Certificate, Nuclear Safety, Northwestern University, 1985, UCLA Extension Program, 1985
  • Reactor Shift Technical Advisor Certification, UNC United Nuclear Industries, 1986

Awards and Recognitions

  • Excellence Award from DOE National Nuclear Security Administration, May 2022
  • Outstanding Performance Award, PNNL National Security Directorate
  • Outstanding Performance Awards for various PNNL Environmental Technology Directorate achievements, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007
  • Rewards and Recognition Program Awards from PNNL Facilities and Operations Directorate, 2007 and 2009
  • Distinguished contribution to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee Risk Assessment Working Group (RAWG), 2011
  • American Nuclear Society's Winter Meeting, Best Paper Award, 2005
  • Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Honorarium, 2005

Patents

  • U.S. Patent No. 11,206,278, December 21, 2021, "Risk-Informed Autonomous Adaptive Cyber Controllers"
  • U.S. Patent No. 11,206,287, December 21, 2021, "Evaluating Cyber-Risk in Synchrophaser Systems"

Publications

2022

  • Coles G.A., P.P. Lowry, J.R. Phillips, S.M. Short, C.A. Condon, S.J. Maheras, and T.A. Ikenberry, et al. 2022. Parametric Study of Factors that Affect Calculated Dose from TRISO Fueled Microreactor Transportation Accident. PNNL-33607. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Parametric Study of Factors that Affect Calculated Dose from TRISO Fueled Microreactor Transportation Accident
  • Coles G.A., S.M. Short, S.J. Maheras, and H.E. Adkins. 2022. "Risk-Informed Approach for Regulatory Approval of Microreactor Transport." In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM 2022), June 26-July 1, 2022, Honolulu, HI. Los Angeles, California:International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management. PNNL-SA-172477.

2021

2020

  • Landine G.P., C.S. Glantz, and G.A. Coles. 2020. "A PROVEN APPROACH FOR EFFECTIVE COMPUTER SECURITY SELF-ASSESSMENTS AT NUCLEAR FACILITIES." In IAEA International Conference on Nuclear Security (ICONS 2020), February 10-14, 2020, Vienna, Austria, Contribution ID:546. Vienna:IAEA. PNNL-SA-149277.

2019

  • Veeramany A., W.J. Hutton, S. Sridhar, S.G. Gourisetti, G.A. Coles, and P.M. Skare. 2019. "A Framework for Development of Risk-Informed Autonomous Adaptive Cyber Controller." Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering 19, no. 4. PNNL-SA-129745. doi:10.1115/1.4043040

2018

  • Veeramany A., G.A. Coles, S.D. Unwin, J.E. Dagle, and T.B. Nguyen. 2018. "Trial Implementation of a Multihazard Risk Assessment Framework for High-Impact Low-Frequency Power Grid Events." IEEE Systems Journal 12, no. 4:3807-3815. PNNL-SA-124609. doi:10.1109/JSYST.2017.2737993

2017

  • Coles G.A., A.C. Dalton, K.M. Branch, R. Prasad, N.P. Kohn, and A.C. Bittner. 2017. "Framework for Evaluating the Impact of Environmental Conditions on Manual Actions." In Advances in Human Factors in Energy: Oil, Gas, Nuclear and Electric Power Industries: Proceedings of the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors in Energy: Oil, Gas, Nuclear and Electric Power Industries, July 27-31, 2016, Orlando, Florida, edited by SM Cetiner, P Fechtelkotter and M Legatt, 495, 157-169. Cham:Springer International Publishing. PNNL-SA-116565. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-41950-3_14

2016

  • Ramuhalli P., A. Veeramany, C.A. Bonebrake, W.J. Ivans, G.A. Coles, and E.H. Hirt. 2016. "Evaluation of Enhanced Risk Monitors for Use on Advanced Reactors." In 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE24), June 26-30, 2016, Charlotte, North Carolina, V004T14A003; ICONE24-60040. New York, New York:ASME. PNNL-SA-115283. doi:10.1115/ICONE24-60040
  • Veeramany A., G.A. Coles, S.D. Unwin, T.B. Nguyen, and J.E. Dagle. 2016. Trial Implementation of the High-Impact, Low-Frequency Power Grid Event Risk Framework to Support Informed Decision-Making. PNNL-25667. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Trial Implementation of the High-Impact, Low-Frequency Power Grid Event Risk Framework to Support Informed Decision-Making
  • Veeramany A., S.D. Unwin, G.A. Coles, J.E. Dagle, W. Millard, J. Yao, and C.S. Glantz, et al. 2016. "Framework for Modeling High-Impact, Low-Frequency Power Grid Events to Support Risk-Informed Decisions." International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 18. PNNL-SA-115402. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.06.008

2014

  • Ramuhalli P., E.H. Hirt, G.A. Coles, R.M. Meyer, J.B. Coble, and R.T. Wood. 2014. "Controlling O&M Costs of Advanced SMRs using Prognostics and Enhanced Risk Monitoring." Nuclear Plant Journal 32, no. 1:42-44. PNNL-SA-100828.

2013

  • Coble J.B., G.A. Coles, R.M. Meyer, and P. Ramuhalli. 2013. "On Enhancing Risk Monitors for Advanced Small Modular Reactors." Transactions of the American Nuclear Society 109, no. 1:439-440. PNNL-SA-96460.

2012

  • Garcia H., T.L. Burr, G.A. Coles, T. Edmunds, A. Garret, M. Gorensek, and L. Hamm, et al. 2012. "Integration of facility modeling capabilities for nuclear nonproliferation analysis." Progress in Nuclear Energy 54, no. 1:96-111. PNNL-SA-79351. doi:10.1016/j.pnucene.2011.07.007
  • Paulson P.R., G.A. Coles, and S.V. Shoemaker. 2012. "Making Risk Models Operational for Situational Awareness and Decision Support." In 3rd International Conference on Nuclear Power Plant Life Management (PLIM) for Long Term Operations (LTO), May 14-18 2012, Salt Lake City, Utah, 43, Paper No. IAEA-CN-194-006_Paulson. Vienna:International Atomic Energy Agency. PNNL-SA-87823.
  • Zentner M.D., G.A. Coles, and I. Therios. 2012. "A Qualitative Assessment of Diversion Scenarios for an Example Sodium Fast Reactor Using the GEN IV PR&PP Methodology." Nuclear Technology 179, no. 1:70-75. PNNL-SA-63903.

2011

  • Coles G.A., A. Sadovsky, and P. Du. 2011. "Quantifying the Impact of Adverse Events on the Electricity Grid as a Function of Grid Topology." In IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, July 22-26, 2012, San Diego, California, 1-5. Piscataway, New Jersey:IEEE. PNNL-SA-84387. doi:10.1109/PESGM.2012.6345620
  • Coles G.A., S.D. Unwin, G.M. Holter, R.B. Bass, and J.E. Dagle. 2011. "Defining resilience within a risk-informed assessment framework." International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 15, no. 2/3:171-185. PNNL-SA-75420. doi:10.1504/IJRAM.2011.042115
  • Dalton A.C., P.D. Whitney, G.A. Coles, and A.J. Brothers. 2011. "SOCIAL MODELING IN ASSESSEMENT OF A STATE'S PROPENSITY FOR NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION." In Institute of Nuclear Materials Management 52nd Annual Meeting, July 17-21 2011, Palm Desert CA. Deerfield, Illinois:International Nuclear Materials Management. PNNL-SA-80517.
  • Gastelum Z.N., A.C. Dalton, and G.A. Coles. 2011. "Challenges in Implementing Methodologies for Nonproliferation Assessments." In International Nuclear Materials Management 52nd Annual Meeting, July 17-21, 2011, Palm Desert, California. Deerfield, Illinois:International Nuclear Materials Management. PNNL-SA-80930.

2010

  • Coles G.A., A.J. Brothers, J. Olson, and P.D. Whitney. 2010. "Assessing State Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: Using Bayesian Network Analysis of Social Factors." In Proceedings of the Pacific Northwest International Conference on Global Nuclear Security - The Decade Ahead, April 11-16, 2010, Portland, OR. Deerfield, Illinois:Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. PNNL-SA-72126.
  • Coles G.A., B. Fuller, K. Nordquist, S. Weissenberger, L. Anderson, and B. DuBois. 2010. "Three Kinds of Proactive Risk Analyses for Health Care." Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 36, no. 8:365-375. PNWD-4204.

2009

  • Coles G.A., Z.N. Gastelum, A.J. Brothers, and S.E. Thompson. 2009. "Utility of Social Modeling for Proliferation Assessment - Preliminary Findings." In Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). Deerfield, Illinois:Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). PNNL-SA-66885.
  • Whitney P.D., A.J. Brothers, G.A. Coles, J. Young, K.E. Wolf, S.E. Thompson, and D.A. Niesen, et al. 2009. "Technosocial Modeling of IED Threat Scenarios and Attacks." In AAAI 2009 Spring Symposium: Technosocial Predictive Analytics, SS-09-09, 142-147. Menlo Park, California:AAAI Press. PNNL-SA-62879.

2008

  • Coles G.A. 2008. "Prospective System Assessments Used to Enhance Patient Safety: Case Studies from a Collaboration of Engineers and Hospitals in Southwest Washington State." In Safety Engineering, Risk Analysis, and Reliability Methods: ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, November 11-15, 2007, Seattle, Washington, 14, 117-126. New York, New York:ASME. PNWD-SA-7830.
  • Young J., S.E. Thompson, A.J. Brothers, P.D. Whitney, G.A. Coles, C.L. Henderson, and K.E. Wolf, et al. 2008. "The Use of Dynamic Stochastic Social Behavior Models to Produce Likelihood Functions for Risk Modeling of Proliferation and Terrorist Attacks." In International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference: PSAM 9, May 18-23, 2008, Hong Kong, China, edited by TM Kao, E Zio, V Ho. Hong Kong:Edge Publication Group. PNNL-SA-59107.

2007

  • Coles G.A., and M.D. Zentner. 2007. "Application of the Decision Tree Modeling Approach to Evaluation of Proliferation Resistance." In 48th Annual Meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), 317. Tucson, Arizona:Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. PNNL-SA-56053.
  • Coles G.A., and M.D. Zentner. 2007. "Application of the Event Tree/Fault Tree Modeling Approach to the Evaluation of Proliferation Resistance." In Safety Engineering, Risk Analysis, and Reliability Methods: international Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, 14, 139-148. New York, New York:ASME. PNNL-SA-56057.

2006

  • Coles G.A. 2006. "A Procedure for Using FMECA to Assess High-Risk Healthcare Processes (PSAM-0266)." In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management: PSAM 8, May12-18, 2006, New Orleans, Louisiana, edited by MG Stamatelatos and HS Blackman. New York, New York:ASME Press. PNNL-SA-46006.

2005

  • Coles G.A., B. Fuller, K. Nordquist, and A. Kongslie. 2005. "Using Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis for High-Risk Processes at Three Community Hospitals." Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety 31, no. 3:132-140. PNNL-SA-42286.

2004

  • Glantz C.S., G.A. Coles, and R.B. Bass. 2004. "A Cyber Security Self-Assessment Method for Nuclear Power Plants." In Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 91, 45-6. La Grange Park, Illinois:American Nuclear Society. PNNL-SA-42797.

2003

  • Glantz C.S., R.B. Bass, J.R. Cash, G.A. Coles, A.J. Currie, D.J. Gower, and J.J. Heilman, et al. 2003. "A Cyber Security Self-Assessment Method for Critical Infrastructure Protection." In Proceedings of the 2003 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Nov 15-21 2003, Washington, DC. Engineering Technology Management - 2003: Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Technology and Society, Engineering Business Management, Homeland Security, 195-198. New York, New York:American Society of Mechanical Engineers. PNNL-SA-39260.