Investable Nuclear Energy

Stephen G. Burns completed his service as a Commissioner of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in April 2019. President Obama had appointed Mr. Burns as a Commissioner on 5 November 2014. Mr. Burns served as the 16^th Chairman of the NRC from 1 January 2015 through 23 January 2017.

Immediately prior to his service as Commissioner, Mr. Burns was the Head of Legal Affairs of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris from 2012 to 2014. He participated as the NEA observer to the IAEA’s International Nuclear Liability Experts’ Group.

Prior to assuming his post at the NEA, Mr. Burns was a career employee at the NRC from 1978 to 2012. He served in a variety of roles during his career, including being appointed as the NRC’s General Counsel from May 2009 until April 2012. Also of note, Commissioner Burns was the Executive Assistant to former NRC Chairman Kenneth M. Carr and the Director of the Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication.

Mr. Burns currently serves as a Senior Visiting Fellow at Third Way, a non-governmental organisation, in its climate and energy program. He was recently appointed by the Director General of the IAEA to chair the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG).

Mr. Burns received his JD degree in 1978 from the George Washington University and his BA degree in 1975 from Colgate University. In 2020 the Government of Japan awarded Mr. Burns the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, in recognition of his contributions to enhancing the co-operation between Japan and the United States on nuclear safety regulation.

Fiona is an executive and non-executive director and consultant with specialist knowledge of the energy (particularly nuclear), infrastructure and construction sectors gained over a 25+ year career. Throughout her career, she has worked with a wide range of stakeholders including engineers, scientists, governments, and financiers, as well as other advisers.

Fiona currently runs her own independent consultancy business. In addition, she is a non-executive Director and Strategy Board Member. She has also chaired a high-profile working group for Her Majesty’s Government and is currently a UK representative and Co-chairman of the EMWG of the Generation IV International Forum.

Fiona chaired the Expert Finance Working Group on Small Reactors for the UK Government and produced the report Market Framework of Financing Small Nuclear. Recently through her role on the Generation IV Forum she brought together a financing task force to produce the report Nuclear Energy: An ESG Investable Asset Class.

At Canada’s nuclear regulator, Lisa Thiele is responsible for the in-house legal team as well as for the Commission Registry, which is the hub for all of the Commission’s functions as a quasi-judicial tribunal and court of record.

Lisa has extensive experience and expertise in nuclear regulatory law at both the national and international levels. An active member of the International Nuclear Law Association, she serves on the Board of Directors of its Canadian branch, the Canadian Nuclear Law Organization. She has been on the faculty of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Law Institute for many years and is a regular lecturer at the International School of Nuclear Law, a graduate diploma program offered at the University of Montpellier. She represents Canada as a member of the Nuclear Energy Agency’s Nuclear Law Committee and chairs its Working Party on the Legal Aspects of Nuclear Safety. She has been privileged to serve also as a lecturer and mentor in the World Nuclear University’s Summer Institute leadership program. Lisa has a strong commitment to excellence in nuclear law and takes a particular interest in encouraging women to be a part of its development.

Lisa was called to the Ontario Bar after a clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada, and she remains a member in good standing of the Law Society of Ontario. She holds undergraduate and law degrees from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Nima is the Senior Director for the Fuel Cycle and Radiation Safety Program team at the Nuclear Energy Institute where he manages a group overseeing policy, regulatory, and market issues associated with uranium recovery, the nuclear fuel cycle, low-level waste, transportation, research and test reactors, and radiation protection. Prior to joining NEI in 2015, he spent 13 years with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a variety of roles. Nima has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in Environmental Planning and Management from the Johns Hopkins University.

Nima is the Senior Director for the Fuel Cycle and Radiation Safety Program team at the Nuclear Energy Institute where he manages a group overseeing policy, regulatory, and market issues associated with uranium recovery, the nuclear fuel cycle, low-level waste, transportation, research and test reactors, and radiation protection. Prior to joining NEI in 2015, he spent 13 years with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a variety of roles. Nima has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in Environmental Planning and Management from the Johns Hopkins University.

Jessica Lovering is the co-founder of the Good Energy Collective, a new organization working on progressive nuclear policy. She completed her PhD in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Her dissertation focused on how commercial nuclear trade affects international security standards and how very small nuclear reactors could be deployed at the community level. She is a Fellow with the Energy for Growth Hub, looking at how advanced nuclear can be deployed in sub-Saharan Africa. She was formerly the Director of the Energy Program at the Breakthrough Institute, a pioneering research institute changing how people think about energy and the environment. Her work at Breakthrough sought policies to spur innovation in nuclear power technologies to drive down costs and accelerate deployment as part of a solution to climate change and economic development. She has a bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from University of California Berkeley and a Master’s degree in Energy Policy from the University of Colorado.

Ms. Bielecki joined the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2007 as an Honor Law Graduate in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC). In 2012, she was detailed as legal counsel for an NRC Commissioner. After returning to OGC in 2013, Ms. Bielecki served as Deputy Assistant General Counsel and as Acting Assistant General Counsel for the High-Level Waste, Fuel Cycle, and Nuclear Security Division. She also completed rotational assignments in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, and most recently the Office of the Executive Director for Operations where she served as Deputy Director for the NRC’s Environmental Justice Review Team. Currently, Ms. Bielecki serves as Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Materials, Fuel Cycle, and Waste Programs, OGC.

Matthew (Matt) C. Urie has been a practicing attorney since 1982. After working and litigating in general private practice, Matt returned to academia and received his Master of Laws degree in environmental law from the George Washington University in 1986. He began his career as an attorney with the federal government, first working at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before moving to the Solicitor’s Office at the Department of the Interior for almost 6 years. While there, Matt handled a portfolio that included legal issues associated with land withdrawals, western states water matters, and hard rock mining. Thereafter, Matt transferred to the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Energy where he continued his environmental law practice. Except for 2 years with the Department of Justice where he handled Fifth Amendment takings cases and was part of the team that defended the United States in the case of Cobell v. United States, involving the accounting of Indian trust funds, Matt has represented the Department of Energy, most recently as the Assistant General Counsel for Environment. During his tenure, Matt has been the lead environmental counsel on many National Environmental Policy Act analyses, including the complex-wide spent nuclear fuel management and storage environmental impact statement, the programmatic radioactive waste management environmental impact statement, and other general radioactive waste management initiatives. Matt also managed the General Counsel’s Yucca Mountain, Nevada Project site office as part of the Department of Energy’s effort to obtain a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to construct and operate a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. In 2007, Matt even spent 7 months as the first Energy Attaché in the U.S. Embassy Baghdad working on energy and nuclear materials issues in Iraq. Matt’s wife is a marriage and family therapist practicing in Virginia. They have a daughter and 2 granddaughters living in Utah, and a son in medical school in Chicago.

Dr. Lane Carasik (He/Him/His) is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Carasik is also the Director of the Fluids in Advanced Systems and Technology (FAST) research group that focuses on thermal hydraulics research in advanced energy systems including nuclear fusion/fission and concentrated solar power. Between January 2021 to June 2021, he was the Director of the VCU High Performance Research Computing core facility as a part-time administrative role providing strategic leadership for growing high performance computing needs. Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Carasik was a Nuclear Thermal Fluids Engineer at Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation and before that, Kairos Power as a CFD & Thermal Fluids Engineer. Dr. Carasik is an Associate Editor of the American Nuclear Society Fusion Science and Technology Journal as well as the current chair of the Diversity and Inclusion in ANS committee, an External Affairs Committee member, and a Thermal Hydraulics Division Executive Committee member. Dr. Carasik has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Lastly, he was a co-recipient of the 2020 ASME FED Moody and 2018 ASME CFD Best Paper Awards for work completed while employed at Kairos Power on a DOE GAIN Voucher.

Kathleen Oprea has served as an attorney for the Assistant General Counsel for Civilian Nuclear Programs since 2015.  In this role, she serves as counsel to DOE’s Office of Science, Office of Artificial Intelligence, and lead attorney on uranium issues, for which she was awarded a prize by the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy for her work on the 2017 Secretarial Determination of No Adverse Material Impact of Uranium Transfers.  Recently, Kathleen supported Secretary Granholm at the U.S. Mission to the OECD preparing for the 2022 IEA Ministerial Conference in Paris, France.  Kathleen was selected as a Presidential Management Council Fellow in 2018 and served a detail with the U.S. Navy’s Office of Global Integration, working directly for the Chief of Naval Operations on security cooperation strategy.  After graduating from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Economics, Environmental studies, and minor in French, she received a J.D. from The George Washington Law School in 2013.

Dr. Kathryn Huff serves as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary. Prior to her current role, she served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy. Before joining the Department of Energy, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she led the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles Research Group. She was also a Blue Waters Assistant Professor with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California - Berkeley. She received her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Her research focused on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.

She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division, a past chair of the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women's Achievement awards. Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software she also advocates for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing.

Mr. Kee is the CEO, Founder, and Principal Consultant at Nuclear Economics Consulting Group (NECG) and is an expert on nuclear power economics.

Mr. Kee provides strategic and economic advice to companies and governments on nuclear power and electricity industry issues. He has testified as an expert witness in U.S. and international legal and arbitration cases.

Mr. Kee was appointed to the U.S. DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee in February 2022. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC), and the U.S. Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee (CINTAC) have recognized Mr. Kee as a nuclear power industry expert.

Before starting NECG, Mr. Kee held senior consulting positions at NERA Economic Consulting, CRA International, PA Consulting Group, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, and McKinsey & Company. He was a merchant power plant developer and a nuclear power plant engineer (qualified as chief engineering officer on Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers) before becoming a consultant.

Mr. Kee's articles on nuclear power and the electricity industry appear in World Nuclear News, Wall Street Journal Europe, Nuclear Engineering International, ANS Nuclear News, Nuclear Power International, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Electricity Journal, Public Utilities Fortnightly, Energy Law Journal, Atlantic Council EnergySource, Power Economics, and other publications.

Mr. Kee wrote and published the book, Market Failure: Market-Based Electricity is Killing Nuclear Power, in early 2021.

Mr. Kee holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in Systems Engineering (Distinction; Trident Scholar; Colt's Award) from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Dan Stenger is a partner in the Energy practice at the law firm of Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC, specializing in nuclear energy matters. Dan has over 35 years of experience representing owners and operators of nuclear power plants, nuclear suppliers, and fuel cycle companies on licensing and regulatory matters before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Dan has extensive experience with licensing of new nuclear power plants under 10 C.F.R. Part 52, including design certifications for new standard plant designs, environmental reviews for new plants, and the licensing of small modular and advanced reactors. Dan is a graduate of Purdue University, and received his law degree from the George Washington University Law School.

Dr. Robert Ledoux currently serves as a Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy. His areas of interest include the intersection of nuclear physics and non-proliferation, energy production, and transportation.

Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Ledoux served as the Founder, President, and CEO of Passport Systems, a technology company in non-intrusive cargo inspection. At Passport Systems Dr. Ledoux co-invented powerful new technologies with the US Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to aid in the non-intrusive inspection of cargo and co-authored over 20 US and international patents. Prior to founding Passport Systems, he served as Vice President of Pyramid Technical Consultants, developing hardware and software for the control of magnetic scanning systems and accelerator control used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Previously as an Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he studied high-energy nuclear interactions in search of new phases of hadronic matter.

Andrew Sowder is a Senior Technical Executive at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He provides strategic support for the Advanced Nuclear Technology program and Nuclear Sector, including government project development and engagement with the fusion energy technology community. He established EPRI’s advanced reactor strategic focus area and previously managed applied research on advanced nuclear fuel cycles and used nuclear fuel management.

Prior to joining EPRI, Andrew served as a physical scientist and foreign affairs officer at the U.S. Department of State and as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) science and technology policy fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He received a B.S. in Optics from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in environmental nuclear engineering from Clemson University. He is a Certified Health Physicist, serves on the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Standards Board, and is a representative on the Generation IV International Forum Senior Industry Advisory Panel.

As the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for TerraPower, Craighton Goeppele focuses on domestic and international agreements, corporate matters, intellectual property, compliance, risk management and employment law. He has practiced law for over 30 years, including several years in Japan and throughout Europe.  He joined TerraPower in 2013.

From 2011 to 2013, he served as senior counsel at Intellectual Ventures, where he handled global compliance, employment, and various corporate and commercial transactions. From 2009 to 2011, he was senior director, business transactions at Nintendo of America, where he led a team of lawyers and staff handling all contracts and compliance matters for Nintendo’s business in the Western Hemisphere. From 2000 to 2009, Goeppele held several leadership roles in Starbucks Corporation’s legal department, including managing a team of lawyers supporting the business of Starbucks across 26 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and acting as lead lawyer for its global consumer packaged goods businesses. From 1992 to 2000, Goeppele practiced with the law firm of Riddell Williams P.S. (then known as Graham & James/Riddell Williams) in the company’s Seattle and Tokyo, Japan offices, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate, international, and commercial transactions. While in Tokyo, he worked in-house at ITOCHU Corporation’s Tokyo headquarters from 1996 to 1998 on numerous international energy and infrastructure projects throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Ben has been involved in a broad range of energy related work activities for the past 40+ years. Ben is the founder of NuSynergy Energy, LLC, a company focused on the synergistic integration of energy systems and energy collaborations. Ben is a Professional Fellow at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service, where he serves as an Executive In Residence providing support to OU’s efforts to repurpose the DOE Portsmouth Site in Piketon, OH. Previously, Ben was with the DOE Savannah River Site and Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), where he held a variety of technical and management positions. His last assignment at SRNL was as a Senior Advisor for the Clean Energy Directorate providing strategic and technical support to renewable, alternative, and nuclear energy programs and projects. Additionally, Ben provides strategic and technical support to the Federal Southeast Regional Group for Energy Security/Sustainability (SERGES), a collaboration of regional Federal executives with a view to better implement Federal energy requirements and energy related matters in the southeastern United States.

From 2010 to 2011, Ben was a Senior Advisor to DOE-Headquarters’ Asset Revitalization Initiative and member of its core team. This special assignment included defining the “Energy Park” concept for revitalizing DOE sites and developing the framework for its implementation.

Steven Arndt is an internationally recognized expert in the field of nuclear engineering with experience in nuclear power plant simulation, severe accident analysis and nuclear power plant instrumentation and control. In his 40 years in the nuclear industry Dr. Arndt has worked as a researcher, educator, consultant, and regulator including extensive experience in Russia and Ukraine leading the United States support programs to the states of the former Soviet Union following the Chernobyl accident and as part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) response to the Fukushima accident.

Dr. Arndt currently serves as a Distinguished Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where his research involves advance reactor design readiness. Previously he spent 31 years as a senior scientist with the NRC, leading key research efforts and providing authoritative advice to NRC management and staff in the areas of digital instrumentation and control, software reliability, emergency response, cyber security and numerous other technical areas. Prior to his work at the NRC, Dr. Arndt was a Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy. Additionally, Dr. Arndt serves as an Adjunct Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee. In 2012 Dr. Arndt was named the Federal Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the first nuclear engineer to ever be awarded this honor. In 2020 Dr. Arndt was awarded the “NSPE Award” the highest honor given specifically to a professional engineer.

Dr. Arndt holds a B.S. in engineering physics and a M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering all from The Ohio State University, where he was honored by the faculty of the College of Engineering in 2004 as a Distinguished Alumnus. Dr. Arndt also holds a M.S. in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland. Dr. Arndt is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Nuclear Society (ANS), the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).

Dr. Arndt is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee and Maryland and was appointed by the Governor of Maryland in 2006 to the Maryland Board for Professional Engineers, where he served for fifteen years (Three years as Chairman). He has served in leadership roles in a number of professional societies especially ANS. He has served as the ANS Treasurer and as a member of its Board of Directors. He is currently the ANS Vice President and President- Elect. In June of 2022, he will become the 68th President of the ANS.

Jenifer Shafer is a Program Director at ARPA-E and a Professor at the Colorado School of Mines. She is an internationally recognized expert in the development of reprocessing technologies and fundamental chemistry of the f-elements. Professor Shafer completed her BS in Chemistry at Colorado State University and her PhD in Chemistry at Washington State University. Prior to starting at Colorado School of Mines, she was a Staff Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She has participated in many important national service activities, including the most recent National Academy of Sciences decadal review of national technical nuclear forensics attribution and deterrence capabilities. While at ARPA-E, she has actively managed programs related to advanced reactor technologies. She is the co-author of numerous book chapters, roughly 70 technical manuscripts, and has led or collaborated on projects receiving over $35M in funding from the DOE, DOD, DHS and NSF, with ~$5M directly supporting the efforts of her research group.

Giulio Gennaro is the Chief Technical Officer of Core Power, he is an Italian Chartered Mechanical Engineer with more than 20 years experience in the maritime industry, in particular in the field of ship powering (propulsion, energy efficiency, emissions and externalities) and all related to maintenance and failure investigation of mechanical equipment.

He has developed a model for accounting for the total life cycle externalities of ship propulsion, for a combination of prime movers and fuels, including nuclear power.

He as covered roles such as Technical Director, Chief Operating Officer, Forensic Engineer / Expert Witness, Engineering Consultant, Classification and Insurance Surveyor.

He is a member of the Italian Association of Experts in Maritime Casualties, AIPAM, of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of Singapore, SNAME, of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of Singapore, SNAMES, and of the Society of Floating Structures of Singapore, SFSS.

He is a mentor for the National University of Singapore, NUS, under the Pier71 program, advising start-ups and scale-ups in the Shipping 4.0 domain.

Tony is currently Managing Director and U.S. Country Head for Core Power US in Washington, DC.  Core Power is a  UK headquartered maritime innovation company focused on the application of nuclear technology into the marine industry.   Tony’s mandate is to engage nuclear and maritime regulatory bodies, to align co-investments with current and potential future industrial partners and to manage a capital formation strategy for further Core Power expansion and investments.

The majority of Tony’s 30+ year career in finance has been focused on emerging markets in Asia, and emerging technologies globally.   His broad investment experience spans public and private markets as a multi-strategy hedge fund manager and regulated asset management company CEO/CIO.  He has seeded early stage investment managers and businesses via angel investing and guided companies he founded through to IPO and trade sales.

Prior to moving to Singapore in 2011, Tony lived and worked in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, London, Sweden and his native NY.  Since 2018, Tony has been instrumental within Core Power as a Board Advisor, angel investor and now early stage Country Head.  He continues to serve as a Board Advisor to a top decile digital trade finance fund group.  Tony was an Honors student at the University of Michigan, graduating with a BA in Asian Studies and minor in Chinese Language. He conducted post graduate work at New York University in math and Chinese in Taiwan.

Dan Stenger is a partner in the Energy practice at the law firm of Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC, specializing in nuclear energy matters. Dan has over 35 years of experience representing owners and operators of nuclear power plants, nuclear suppliers, and fuel cycle companies on licensing and regulatory matters before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Dan has extensive experience with licensing of new nuclear power plants under 10 C.F.R. Part 52, including design certifications for new standard plant designs, environmental reviews for new plants, and the licensing of small modular and advanced reactors. Dan is a graduate of Purdue University, and received his law degree from the George Washington University Law School.

Steve Nesbit founded LMNT Consulting in 2019 following a distinguished career with Duke Energy Corporation. LMNT Consulting supports clients on matters related to the nuclear fuel cycle, advanced nuclear energy systems, and nuclear nonproliferation.

Steve’s career at Duke Energy began in 1982 performing safety analyses in support of nuclear power plants. Between 1996 and 2005, he led Duke Energy’s efforts related to the use of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in its nuclear power reactors as a part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project to dispose of surplus plutonium from nuclear weapons. He also managed used nuclear fuel activities for Duke Energy. For nine years prior to retirement from Duke Energy, he was responsible for developing the company’s policy positions related to nuclear power, and interacting with industry and government groups on used fuel management and related issues. In addition to nuclear utility activities, during his career Steve worked on several DOE projects including the New Production Reactor Project, the Yucca Mountain Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Project, and the Centralized Interim Storage Facility Project. He supported the U.S. Department of State on outreach to countries with developing nuclear power programs. He also served on the International Panel of Experts for the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s 2016, 2018 and 2020 Nuclear Security Index reports. He testified on spent fuel policy issues to the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2017 and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2019.

Steve received Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Virginia. He is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina. He is a past adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he taught nuclear engineering. He became President of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) in June 2021 and will serve in that role through June 2022. Some of his past roles with ANS include Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Technical Group, Chair of the Public Policy Committee, member of the ANS Board of Directors, and Chair of the Piedmont Carolinas ANS local section. Steve lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Shelley, and he enjoys skiing and hiking in his spare time.

Adam Rodman founded the investment firm Segra Capital Management in 2013 believing that the institutionalization of the fund management industry was leading most firms to focus on too narrow of an opportunity set. Outsized (and uncorrelated) returns are found where others aren’t looking. The market crowding caused by benchmarking, volatility and liquidity constraints and shortened investment timelines, has created enormous opportunity for capital that is not bound by those parameters. Segra Capital’s goal is to be a source of unconstrained capital in unique investments globally. Before founding Segra Capital, Rodman was a partner and senior analyst at Corriente Advisors, a Fort Worth, TX based manager of hedge funds founded by Mark L. Hart III. At Corriente, Rodman specialized in emerging market and commodity-related cross-asset investments. Rodman started his career at Bank of America in the Global Corporate and Investment Banking Division after graduating from Amherst College with a BA in Political Science, cum laude.

Tony is currently Managing Director and U.S. Country Head for Core Power US in Washington, DC.  Core Power is a  UK headquartered maritime innovation company focused on the application of nuclear technology into the marine industry.   Tony’s mandate is to engage nuclear and maritime regulatory bodies, to align co-investments with current and potential future industrial partners and to manage a capital formation strategy for further Core Power expansion and investments.

The majority of Tony’s 30+ year career in finance has been focused on emerging markets in Asia, and emerging technologies globally.   His broad investment experience spans public and private markets as a multi-strategy hedge fund manager and regulated asset management company CEO/CIO.  He has seeded early stage investment managers and businesses via angel investing and guided companies he founded through to IPO and trade sales.

Prior to moving to Singapore in 2011, Tony lived and worked in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, London, Sweden and his native NY.  Since 2018, Tony has been instrumental within Core Power as a Board Advisor, angel investor and now early stage Country Head.  He continues to serve as a Board Advisor to a top decile digital trade finance fund group.  Tony was an Honors student at the University of Michigan, graduating with a BA in Asian Studies and minor in Chinese Language. He conducted post graduate work at New York University in math and Chinese in Taiwan.

Kathleen Oprea has served as an attorney for the Assistant General Counsel for Civilian Nuclear Programs since 2015.  In this role, she serves as counsel to DOE’s Office of Science, Office of Artificial Intelligence, and lead attorney on uranium issues, for which she was awarded a prize by the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy for her work on the 2017 Secretarial Determination of No Adverse Material Impact of Uranium Transfers.  Recently, Kathleen supported Secretary Granholm at the U.S. Mission to the OECD preparing for the 2022 IEA Ministerial Conference in Paris, France.  Kathleen was selected as a Presidential Management Council Fellow in 2018 and served a detail with the U.S. Navy’s Office of Global Integration, working directly for the Chief of Naval Operations on security cooperation strategy.  After graduating from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Economics, Environmental studies, and minor in French, she received a J.D. from The George Washington Law School in 2013.

Mr. DePuma is an electronics engineer in the Spacecraft Electronics branch of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He is currently on detail to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense’s Operational Energy Innovation team where he is the portfolio lead for the both the Nuclear and Electrifying the battlespace portfolios. His previous work has been predominantly on Space Systems, though his new portfolios have programs that will deploy subsea, terrestrially, and in space.

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Merrifield, a former presidential appointee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is widely recognized as an international thought leader on nuclear energy and the deployment of complex energy systems for the avoidance of carbon generation.  Jeff has over three decades of wide-ranging involvement in the energy industry, having worked in the U.S. Senate, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and private industry.  He is considered a leader in advanced nuclear deployment and has assisted large and developing nuclear utilities, suppliers and governments.  Jeff currently serves as a board member and chairs the Governance Committee and the Advanced Nuclear Task Force of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council (USNIC); he is also the Chairman and founding board member of E4 Carolinas, a 150-member energy association based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Judi Greenwald is Executive Director of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. Ms. Greenwald has over 35 years of energy and environmental policy leadership experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, including the U.S. Congress, the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES, formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change). Highlights of her distinguished career include working on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments as congressional committee staff; overseeing energy and environmental programs at C2ES and DOE; co-founding the Carbon Capture Coalition; advising U.S. state and regional greenhouse gas initiatives; and collaborating with stakeholders to advance both economic and environmental goals.

She has focused extensively on deep decarbonization through the interplay of public policy, technology innovation, human behavior, and markets. She served as Deputy Director for Climate, Environment, and Energy Efficiency at US DOE's Energy Policy and Systems Analysis Office, and the Senior Climate Advisor to the Energy Secretary. She is a fellow at Princeton University's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Ms. Greenwald received a B.S. in Engineering, cum laude, from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University.

Peter D. Wolf is Founder and President of Nuclear Energy Solutions Inc., which is a consulting firm and also is co-founder and partner in NuclearEnergyTV.com, an internet TV channel presenting a broad spectrum of programming relating to nuclear energy.

Mr. Wolf is a practicing attorney and member of several Bar Associations, including the American Bar Association (ABA), where he is a member of the Nuclear Law Committee; the ABA recently posted his podcast with former NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield dealing with the proposed regulations for advanced nuclear reactors.

Earlier Mr. Wolf was an Officer on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, and was an executive of various shipping companies.  Mr. Wolf holds an AB degree from Grinnell College, a JD Degree from the Northwestern University School of Law, and a postgraduate law degree (LLM) from Pace University Law School in Environmental Law.

Mr. Greg Lamarre is the Head of Division of Radiological Protection and Human Aspects of Nuclear Safety at the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA/RP-HANS).

In this capacity, he works closely with the Director-General, his team and national delegates in the implementation of the Division’s mandate as it relates to advancing nuclear safety specifically in the areas of radiological protection and the human aspects of nuclear safety. Greg has over thirty years of experience as a systems engineer and leader in both the military and later the federal public service as a nuclear regulator. He joined the NEA-OECD from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in Ottawa where he was most recently the Director General, Safety Management Directorate. In this role, he was responsible for leading a number of divisions responsible for providing the organization with world-class technical expertise in the areas of safety management, including management systems, human and organizational performance, operator certification and training. Greg previously worked at the NEA-OECD for a three year period as deputy head of the nuclear safety division. Prior to commencing his career in the nuclear industry, Greg served as a marine systems engineering officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. A Canadian national, Greg holds an undergraduate (Chemical Engineering) and graduate degree (Nuclear Engineering) from the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Ottawa.  He is a licensed professional engineer in his home province of Ontario.

Jon Wentzel serves as NEI’s vice president of communications and a member of the organization’s executive leadership team. In his role, he oversees all external, advocacy and marketing communications. Jon is responsible for communications strategy and oversees a team of external and marketing communications experts, creative designers and event planning professionals. He leads an integrated communications programs that articulate and deliver upon the brand promise of commercial nuclear carbon-free energy.

Jon has more than three decades of experience assisting public and private sector brands as they manage brand reputations. Previously, he served as U.S. chief client officer of Burson-Marsteller. In this role, he worked across practices to ensure the quality of work delivered to clients. He provided strategic counsel to a number of clients and was the U.S. public relations lead for Walgreens Boots Alliance. He also led the agency’s U.S. consumer and brand marketing practice from 2015 to 2017.

Prior to joining Burson-Marsteller, Jon was the corporate and public affairs practice lead for the Western Region for Ogilvy. In this role, he was responsible for the agency’s corporate communications, crisis and risk, sustainability and public affairs work in the region. He provided direct reputation and issues management counsel to the American Chemistry Council and Covered California among other clients. Additionally, Jon was the U.S. public relations representative for the global sustainability practice OgilvyEarth. He was responsible for providing senior counsel on environmental and sustainability issues to clients across the country.

Jon has lived in Washington for more than 30 years. He attended Grinnell College and earned bachelor's degrees in anthropology and in women’s studies.

Larry Brown has worked in the field of nuclear energy law, and related industrial and national security fields for more than forty years. He served in the Bush Administration as a Senior Policy Advisor for nuclear, spent fuel, non-proliferation, and nuclear security issues, and in both the Bush and Obama Administrations as a Member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Mr. Brown has spoken at public events, nuclear safety workshops and conferences on the future of commercial nuclear power, and as an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University Law, he introduced the course in Atomic Energy Law in the energy law curriculum.

Kimberly S. Nick is the Head of the Division of Nuclear Law at the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. In this position, Ms. Nick is the lead counsel for nuclear safety and regulatory affairs, provides secretariat services to the NEA Nuclear Law Committee as well as the Working Party on the Legal Aspects of Nuclear Safety, and directs the legal education and publication programmes, including as editor of the Nuclear Law Bulletin.

Ms. Nick has written extensively on nuclear law issues, focusing on nuclear regulation and regulatory reform, oversight of nuclear activities, environmental protection and long-term operation. On that, Ms. Nick also led more than 80 high-level legal experts from 25 countries on the publication of an extensive, first-of-a-kind report on the Legal Frameworks for Long-Term Operation of Nuclear Power Reactors. She is also the co-editor of the first textbook on international nuclear law, Principles and Practice of International Nuclear Law.

Prior to arriving at the NEA in April 2014, Ms. Nick served as Legal Counsel to Commissioner William C. Ostendorff at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). As the chief legal advisor to the Commissioner, she was responsible for providing legal and policy advice on a wide range of significant issues, such as the licensing and adjudication of the high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the agency’s regulatory responses to the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, new reactor licensing and the NRC’s Waste Confidence rulemaking.

Before joining the Commissioner’s office, Ms. Nick was an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the NRC and litigated critical enforcement actions against individuals and licensees as well as the licensing of the US Department of Energy’s Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.

Ms. Nick received her JD degree, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law, where she was an editor on the American Journal of Law and Medicine. She received her Bachelor’s degree, with distinction, from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Christopher Cahill was born in Huntington, NY and grew up on an apple orchard in nearby Fort Salonga. His education includes a BS in Geochemistry from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia (1993) and a PhD in Chemistry from SUNY-Stony Brook (1999). He joined the faculty of GW in 2000 after a one-year post-doctoral position in the Environmental Mineralogy group at the University of Notre Dame. He is an expert in solid-state and materials chemistry with a particular emphasis on X-ray crystallography.  His synthesis expertise includes high temperature techniques, as well as hydrothermal systems to produce novel hybrid materials of relevance to the nuclear fuel cycle. He has published over 150 peer reviewed papers in a range of areas related to the synthesis and structural characterization of materials and minerals. Current research areas include exploring the behavior of uranium and transuranic species under environmentally relevant conditions, as well as the synthesis of lanthanide containing sensor materials. Chris is the first physical scientist at GW to hold a joint appointment in the Elliott School of International Affairs, where he develops and delivers technical curricula targeting non-technical nuclear policy professionals. He is a recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award (2004), a Bender Teaching Award (2005), a Fulbright Scholarship (2008) and the Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching (2013), the Graduate Mentorship Award from the Vice President for Research at GW (2021), and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2021).   He is a past President of the American Crystallographic Association (2014-2016), a member of the Cosmos Club and has held visiting researcher positions at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Argonne National Laboratory. More recently, he spent a sabbatical (2015-2016) as the American Institute of Physics State Department Science Fellow at the US State Department’s Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism on the Nuclear Forensics Team. Chris served as Acting Director of the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at GW from January to June 2018, and is currently the Chair of the Chemistry Department.

Rama T. Ponangi is an India-trained lawyer specializing in nuclear law. He is currently a Research Assistant and an LLM Candidate ’22 in Energy and Environmental Laws at the George Washington University Law School as a GW Merit Scholar and Randolph C. Shaw Environmental Fellow. He has completed multiple niche academics in nuclear law such as a Diploma in International Nuclear Law from the International School of Nuclear Law, University of Montpelier, France and attended the Nuclear Law Institute, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria. Before coming to the United States, Rama has interned in the Nuclear and Treaty Law Section, Office of Legal Affairs, IAEA.

Adam Rodman founded the investment firm Segra Capital Management in 2013 believing that the institutionalization of the fund management industry was leading most firms to focus on too narrow of an opportunity set. Outsized (and uncorrelated) returns are found where others aren’t looking. The market crowding caused by benchmarking, volatility and liquidity constraints and shortened investment timelines, has created enormous opportunity for capital that is not bound by those parameters. Segra Capital’s goal is to be a source of unconstrained capital in unique investments globally. Before founding Segra Capital, Rodman was a partner and senior analyst at Corriente Advisors, a Fort Worth, TX based manager of hedge funds founded by Mark L. Hart III. At Corriente, Rodman specialized in emerging market and commodity-related cross-asset investments. Rodman started his career at Bank of America in the Global Corporate and Investment Banking Division after graduating from Amherst College with a BA in Political Science, cum laude.

Paul M. Murphy is the Founder and Managing Director of Murphy Energy & Infrastructure Consulting, LLC. Paul focuses on multiple aspects of the nuclear industry – from legal and policy matters, including international regulatory and treaty frameworks and issues regarding nuclear liability, to strategies for creating and financing nuclear power programs and the identification and mitigation of associated risks – representing governments, developers/owners, investors, lenders, and contractors on nuclear projects internationally. He is recognized as an expert in the development and financing of nuclear power programs by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC), and the US government. Paul currently serves (as a six-time appointee) to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Civilian Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee, as well as the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SMR Working Group, and he has served on ASME’s Clean Energy Technology Advisory Panel. Paul is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs and a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Mehul Shah founded Clean Core Thorium Energy in 2017 to revolutionize nuclear power generation using their patented Thorium/HALEU nuclear fuel. The ANEEL fuel, Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life, enables numerous benefits in today's worldwide fleet of CANDU/PHWR nuclear reactors. Before founding Clean Core, Mehul served as the Founder and CEO of multiple global enterprises over three decades while acting as an angel investor into several advanced nuclear R&D efforts for over a decade. His diversified companies have spanned multiple industries and global markets including garment manufacturing, CPG, and chemical coatings. After the successful exit of these enterprises, Mehul has focused his full time and energy on the R&D and commercialization of the ANEEL fuel as well as the deployment of nuclear energy for society’s decarbonization and energy security needs.

Stephen G. Burns completed his service as a Commissioner of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in April 2019. President Obama had appointed Mr. Burns as a Commissioner on 5 November 2014. Mr. Burns served as the 16^th Chairman of the NRC from 1 January 2015 through 23 January 2017.

Immediately prior to his service as Commissioner, Mr. Burns was the Head of Legal Affairs of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris from 2012 to 2014. He participated as the NEA observer to the IAEA’s International Nuclear Liability Experts’ Group.

Prior to assuming his post at the NEA, Mr. Burns was a career employee at the NRC from 1978 to 2012. He served in a variety of roles during his career, including being appointed as the NRC’s General Counsel from May 2009 until April 2012. Also of note, Commissioner Burns was the Executive Assistant to former NRC Chairman Kenneth M. Carr and the Director of the Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication.

Mr. Burns currently serves as a Senior Visiting Fellow at Third Way, a non-governmental organisation, in its climate and energy program. He was recently appointed by the Director General of the IAEA to chair the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (INSAG).

Mr. Burns received his JD degree in 1978 from the George Washington University and his BA degree in 1975 from Colgate University. In 2020 the Government of Japan awarded Mr. Burns the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, in recognition of his contributions to enhancing the co-operation between Japan and the United States on nuclear safety regulation.