Margaret Chu
Managing Director
M.S. Chu + Associates, LLC

Margaret Chu, Managing Director, M.S. Chu + Associates, LLC, holds a B.S. degree from Purdue University in chemistry and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in physical (quantum) chemistry. Her entire career has been devoted to promoting safe nuclear energy and nuclear fuel cycle. She has extensive experience in successfully managing large, multidisciplinary projects, and in negotiating with customers, regulators and stakeholders. Since 2005, she has been providing consulting services to domestic and international clients in nuclear waste management, nuclear fuel cycle analysis, nuclear security analysis, R&D strategy, market analysis, organizational effectiveness, and management strategy.

Margaret served as the Director of Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management at the Department of Energy (DOE) between March 2002 and February 2005. Margaret was nominated by President Bush to this Assistant Secretary level position in November of 2001 and confirmed by the Senate in March of 2002. She received the Secretary’s Gold Award,
Department of Energy’s highest honorary award in January 2005. At this DOE position, Margaret had the responsibility to lead and implement the management and disposal of U.S.’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste into a deep geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Her responsibilities included Congressional budget request, interfacing and communicating with the congress, regulators, National Academy of Sciences, and stakeholders; providing strategic as well as tactical directions, resolving issues under difficult and frequently conflicting constraints. She managed a total of 2000 federal and contractor employees.

Before her DOE experience, Margaret had a twenty-one-year career at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her experience ranged from risk assessment of high-level nuclear waste, space reactor safety analysis, anti-anthrax R&D, to environmental remediation research. She was promoted from technical staff to manager, senior manager, and finally to Center Director. Her leadership, management skills and technical expertise were instrumental in the successful certification of the first operating deep geologic nuclear waste repository in the world, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for the disposal of U.S. defense transuranic waste. At Sandia, she also led highly successful R&D programs on nuclear waste and environmental remediation for the DOE. She received the highest award of recognition for achievement from Lockheed Martin – the management company of Sandia National Laboratories -- the NOVA Award.

Margaret has served on many committees, including the International Board of Counselors of Japan’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NUMO), Science and Technology Peer Review Committee of Idaho National Laboratory, American Nuclear Society International Committee, Johns Hopkins University’s Global Energy & Environmental Initiative Policy Review Panel on reprocessing and Recycling Spent Nuclear Fuel, and International Association of Environmentally Safe Disposal of Radioactive Materials.