After graduation in 1982 and working in commercial nuclear power as a reactor physicist, David Heinrichs transitioned to criticality safety at the Rocky Flats Plant.  In 1991 Heinrichs joined LLNL as a criticality safety engineer and since 2006 is the Division Leader responsible for the LLNL Criticality Safety Program.

Heinrichs is an elected member of the DOE Criticality Safety Support Group (CSSG) and Nuclear Data Advisory Group (NDAG).  He is also the NNSA POC for JOWOG-30-23 (criticality safety) and a lifetime member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS).

Research Interests

Heinrichs’ research interests include criticality safety, reactor physics, radiation shielding and dosimetry, particle transport and its underlying nuclear data.  He is the responsible manager for LLNL’s COG code.

MSE, Nuclear Engineering, University of Michigan, 1982

BS, Applied Mathematics, Physics, University of Michigan, 1980

Soon S. Kim et al., “Application of COG to Deuteron Transport Benchmarks,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society: 123 (1) 1189-1191 (2020)

D. P. Heinrichs et al., “International Benchmarks Intercomparison Study for Codes and Nuclear Data Validation,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Nuclear Criticality, ICNC 2019, Paris, France (2019)

C. Percher, D. Heinrichs, “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Nuclear Criticality and Reactor Physics Experimental Training Assemblies and Activities,” Proceedings of an International Conference in Nuclear Education and Training, NESTet 2016, Berlin, Germany (2016)

William J. Zywiec, David P. Heinrichs, “A Solid of Revolution Time Study using COG11.1 and MCNP6,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society: 114 (1) 488-490 (2016)

David P. Hickman et al., “Steady State Neutron and Gamma Measurements of the Godiva Reactor,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society: 111 (1) 777-779 (2014)

David Heinrichs et al., “Application of Performance Metrics in Assessing the LLNL Criticality Safety Program,” Transactions of the American Nuclear Society: 110 (1) 317-319 (2014)

Dann C. Ward et al., “Dosimetry for Criticality Accidents,” ANSI/HPS-N13.3-2013, Health Physics Society (2013)

M. B. Chadwick et al., “ENDF/B-VII.0: Next Generation Evaluated Nuclear Data Library for Nuclear Science and Technology, Nuclear Data Sheets: 107 (2006) 2931-3060

David P. Heinrichs, Steven C. Wofford, “A Brief History of the Lawrence Livermore Radiation Laboratory Critical Facility,” Nuclear Science and Engineering: 145 (2) 173-180 (2003)

• NNSA Excellence Award for Excellence in Nuclear Criticality Safety Leadership (2022)
• NNSA Excellence Award for LLNL Support of the Kilowatt Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) Criticality Experiment (2018)
• American Nuclear Society, Nuclear Criticality Safety Division Award for Technical Excellence for Technical Direction in Establishing a “Hands-On” Criticality Safety Training Course and Contributions to Nuclear Methods and Data in Support of Nuclear Criticality Safety (2006)

• https://esh.llnl.gov/html/nsfa_crit.php
• https://cog.llnl.gov/
• https://ncsp.llnl.gov/