Memorial Tributes Volume 12 (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Sol Burstein
Sol Burstein
Pages 60-67
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From page 61... ...
Not content to rest on his laurels in his later years, he undertook consulting work -- largely pro bono -- on nuclear power safety and radioactive waste management. Congestive heart failure led to his death at the age of 79 in Falls Church, Virginia, on January 28, 2002.
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From page 62... ...
Three years later WEP hired him as head of the power plant department, where he began executing that modernization plan, which took roughly two decades to complete. Sol moved up the corporate ladder rapidly, becoming vice president in 1967, senior vice president in 1969, executive vice president in 1973, vice chairman of the board in 1984, and finally vice president and director of Wisconsin Energy Corporation, the parent holding company of Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Wisconsin Natural Gas Company, and nonutility energy subsidiaries, Wispark Corporation, Wisvest Corporation, and Badger Service Company.
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From page 63... ...
He called the engineer and asked what the alternatives were, and the engineer replied that a spun aluminum pole could be bought for $300, but that its design life was only 35 years, whereas the stainless steel version would last 100 years. Sol pointed out that the plant's life was 40 years, and that the actual life was likely to be much longer than the quoted design life.
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From page 64... ...
His election citation reads: "For technical leadership in the design, construction, and highly successful operation of pioneering commercial nuclear electric generating plants." Over the years, Sol was engaged in many important studies. He served on the following National Academies Committees: Committee on Electrometallurgical Techniques for DOE Spent Fuel Treatment; Committee on Decontamination and Decommissioning; Committee on Technical Bases for Yucca Mountain Standards; and Committee on Separations Technology and Transmutation Systems.
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From page 65... ...
Sol had a strong interest in engineering education. A longtime supporter of the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he was a member of the department's industrial advisory board, which worked to improve the nuclear engineering curriculum and research program through the integration of nuclear plant operational and maintenance skills with design and analytical technologies.
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From page 66... ...
He left no hanging threads, neither technical nor human. Sol was devoted to his job, but after his retirement was finally able to find domestic bliss with his companion Joy Taylor and to spend time with his family: his son Paul and wife Dotty, and his daughter Nadine and her husband Jim Hubbell.
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