Paul Frattini, PhD

Paul Frattini is a Senior Technical Executive in the Nuclear Sector’s Fuel and Chemistry Department at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

His research activities focus on chemistry optimization in light water reactor coolants, primarily with respect to corrosion mitigation, fuel performance, and radiation management. Dr. Frattini joined EPRI in 1996 as a Senior Project Manager in the Chemistry, Low Level Waste, and Radiation Management program. He quickly became Team Leader for Chemistry, including manager for the Steam Generator Management Program TSS as well as founding manager for the Fuel Reliability Program P-TAC, which addressed CIPS.

He is credited with initiating many technical innovations that resulted in significant improvements in water chemistry and fuel performance, including use of dispersants for Steam Generator iron control and development of EPRI patented technologies in Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning for corrosion product control on fuel (a 2005 R&D 100 Award winner), Capillary Electrophoresis for rapid, ion determinations, and Cobalt Sequestration Resins for cleanup of transition metal derived, aqueous radioactivity. He is also credited with joint discovery of bonaccordite in high duty, PWR fuel deposits. He co-authored or managed revisions to nearly every major, nuclear industry consensus, EPRI guideline in water chemistry and is known internationally for expertise in reactor and secondary system coolant chemistry control.

Before EPRI, Dr. Frattini held faculty positions in chemical and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and was adjunct chemical engineering teaching faculty at San Jose State University. He holds three ChE degrees: a BS from RPI; and, an MS & PhD from Stanford University. He has been honored as an NSF Presidential Young Investigator, a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar, a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow, and a Hertz Foundation Fellow in the applied sciences. He is published and patented.