National Security And International Affairs Power Hitter

he 110-mile roundtrip from the U.S. embassy in Kiev over crumbling Soviet-era roadways to the nuclear ghost town of Chernobyl can take more than three hours and be as harsh as a Ukrainian winter. But for Riaz Awan, the periodic commute is no more challenging than the journey he's taken from a dusty village in Pakistan to become one of the United States' top experts on nuclear security.

Awan, 48, a soft-spoken government engineer for the Energy Department, grew up without electricity on a farm in Pakistan, where his family raised cattle and grew cotton and wheat. As a 12-year-old, he scored high on a nationwide test and qualified for entry into one of the nation's elite military academies. After graduating, he returned to his family's farm, but quickly realized the agrarian life was not for him. At 22, he left his homeland to attend Catholic University in Washington.

"Ever since I was 6 years old I had wanted to go to the United States," says Awan, who recalls learning about America by listening to news reports on a transistor radio with his father.

After earning a degree in mechanical engineering, Awan worked for various government contractors designing and testing nuclear power plants across the United States. In 1986, he saw television reports of firefighters responding to the explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, which killed 30 people instantly and set off fears of a nuclear holocaust. "It reinforced my belief I wanted to work with nuclear power to make it safe," he says.

A decade later, after leaving the private sector to manage nuclear programs for the Energy Department, Awan found himself making regular trips to the site he'd seen on TV to work on the cleanup. By 1999, Awan, his wife and three daughters had relocated to Slavutych, Ukraine, the closest town to Chernobyl. He became Energy's point man for overseeing the safe and permanent closure of the plant, which had been delayed by the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

"Riaz is the go-to guy on nuclear security," says Necia Quest, Awan's supervisor at the U.S. embassy in Kiev.

Key to the cleanup is building a $768 million concrete shelter over the reactor to prevent any radiation leaks from the site for the next 100 years. Standing taller than the Statue of Liberty and measuring hundreds of feet in length and width, the so-called sarcophagus is one of the most daunting engineering projects ever undertaken. Not only has Awan been coordinating the construction, but he's also held together the 26 donors, ranging from the United States to the European Commission, who will foot the bill. The protective shield will be built within the next five years.

In 2001, Awan moved to Kiev, where his expanded responsibilities include the nuclear nonproliferation program as the U.S. energy attaché in Ukraine. Like many of the former Soviet states, Ukraine has many sources of radiological materials, including 13 active nuclear reactors, which could provide the ingredients for building dirty bombs. Awan helped draft security plans for protecting the facilities that house those materials.

Ukraine has a host of former scientists with nuclear expertise. As part of the Energy Department's nonproliferation efforts, Awan not only has secured nuclear sites, but also has helped those scientists find gainful employment in an effort to keep their knowledge out of the hands of terrorists.

Awan, who has come a long way from a small farm without electricity to overseeing some of the largest energy safety programs in the world, says he simply feels lucky. "This nation has given me everything I have ever wanted. I think I am indebted, but I don't think I could ever repay it."