Honorary Opening Remarks
William D. MAGWOOD, IV
Director-General, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
Mr. Magwood took up his duties as Director-General of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) on 1 September 2014. He has extensive experience in both the regulatory and developmental aspects of nuclear energy, including at the international level.
From 2010 to 2014, he served as one of the five Commissioners appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While a commissioner, he advocated the importance of nuclear regulatory independence and the necessity of maintaining strong, credible and technically sound nuclear regulation in the United States and all countries that use nuclear power.
Prior to his appointment at the NRC, from 2005 to 2010 he provided independent strategic and policy advice to US and international clients on energy, environment, education, and technology policy issues. From 1998 to 2005, Mr Magwood was Director of the US Government’s civilian nuclear energy programme at the US Department of Energy (DOE). During his tenure, he established the Idaho National Laboratory; created activities that reversed the decline of US nuclear technology education; and launched important initiatives such as the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) and the US “Nuclear Power 2010,” which helped restart nuclear plant construction in the United States. He was also actively involved in the work of the NEA, serving as a Steering Committee Bureau member from 1999 to 2005, including a term as Chair of the Steering Committee from 2004 to 2005.
Prior to his experience at the DOE, Mr Magwood managed electric utility research and nuclear policy programmes at the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, DC, and was a scientist at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr Magwood, a US national, holds Bachelor degrees in Physics and English from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pittsburgh.
Instructors
We are pleased to have these world-renowned experts to lead our program.
Dr. Todd Allen is Professor at the University of Michigan and a Senior Fellow at Third Way, a DC base Think Tank, supporting their Clean Energy Portfolio. He was the Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Idaho National Laboratory from January 2013 through January 2016. Prior to INL he was a Professor in the Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin, a position held from September 2003 through December 2012 and again from January 2016-December 2018. From March 2008-December 2012, he was concurrently the Scientific Director of the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility at INL. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin, he was a Nuclear Engineer at Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho Falls. His Doctoral Degree is in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan (1997) and his Bachelor’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering is from Northwestern University (1984). Prior to graduate work, he was an officer in the United States Navy Nuclear Power Program.
Dr. Michèle Coeck holds a PhD in Physics and works at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN since 1994. She started as scientific researcher at the BR2 reactor department and prepared her PhD thesis in the field of semiconductor sciences on the study of neutron irradiated silicon. In 1998 she became a scientific collaborator at the radiation protection department, where she was responsible for the Nuclear Calibrations Laboratory and participated in dosimetry research.
Adrien Couet’s research includes the study of materials degradation in extreme conditions with a focus on current and advanced nuclear reactors. Couet studies how materials, their environment, and the stresses with which they come into contact, tend to couple in ways that are less than fortuitous for the maintenance and safety of a nuclear power plant. At the MaDCoR (Materials Degradation under Corrosion and Radiation) laboratory, Couet and his research group investigate high-temperature corrosion and irradiation effects in materials as well as the design of these materials to better withstand these aggressive conditions.
Prof. Fratoni teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in nuclear reactor theory, and nuclear reactor design and analysis. His research covers multiple areas including advanced reactor design, computational methods, and nuclear fuel cycle. Current projects focus on accident tolerant fuels for light water reactors, molten salt reactors for used fuel transmutation, and thermal analysis of generic repository.
Carlo Fiorina is a scientist at the Laboratory of Reactor Physics and Systems Behaviour, EPFL.
Marty Fisher has owned and managed Sherpa Marketing since 1996. Marty brings “Big Idea” thinking, marketing intelligence, and business acumen to every customer interaction.
Marty is a graduate of the University of Guelph, faculty of Economics & Finance. He has grown Sherpa from a one-person shop, to its current state, a provider of full-stack of marketing services for clients across North America (including fortune 500 businesses) and a staff of almost thirty talented employees.
With his 30 years of experience, Marty loves to invest in, and mentor young founders. Currently he has investments in and actively mentors the founders of Kief Cannabis and Ukko Robotics.
Industry Experience: Financial services, Fintech, Life Science, Post Secondary Institutions, Manufacturing
Prof. Hurlbert has worked on many research projects in relation to building community energy futures, citizen engaged water and climate governance including a SSHRC grant in relation to “Water governance and climate change: the engagement of civil society” and SSHRC Insight Grants, “Facilitating Knowledge Mobilization at the Science/Policy Interface,” and “Implementing Community Citizen Engaged Best Management Practices through Adaptive Management.” Prof. Hurlbert will be able to assist in analyzing the data and build concrete recommendations for creating socially inclusive policies and practices at local and provincial levels.
Dr. John C. Luxat is the Senior NSERC/UNENE Industrial Research Chair in Nuclear Safety Analysis, Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University.
Dr. Luxat is a leading researcher in the field of nuclear science, with expertise in severe accident analysis and in experimental testing and analytical modeling of nuclear thermal hydraulics, subjects in which he is widely published.
He is a world-renowned expert with an established record of key technical contributions in the modeling and analysis of systems, components and physical processes in nuclear power plant with a focus on predicting consequences of severe accident scenarios. He is also developing alternative nuclear power plant risk analysis approaches that address severe accidents induced by extreme natural hazards.
Dr. Matei currently serves the scientific community and nuclear industry in her capacity of Corporate Business Officer at the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada.
She started her career as a scientist at the Radioisotope Production Centre of the largest Nuclear Physics Institute (IFIN-HH) in Romania, where she became involved in the production of radiopharmaceuticals.
In 2009, Dr. Matei worked as postodoctoral fellow at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada and was a member of the team focused on early studies for production Tc-99m by a cyclotron.
As R&D radiochemist at Best Theratronics in Ottawa, Dr. Matei learned elements of cyclotron design, got in-depth knowledge of targetry radiochemistry and continued to work on cyclotron produced Tc-99m. Later, Lidia worked on processing of low specific activity linac produced Mo-99 and on processing, extraction, and purification of linac Mo-99 and Cu-67 as Radiochemist at Canadian Isotope Innovations in Saskatoon.
Gaston Meskens holds master degrees in theoretical physics and nuclear engineering from the University of Ghent (Belgium). He works part-time with the Science and Technology Studies group of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK•CEN and with the Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Ghent.
He has twenty+ years of experience in participative and transdisciplinary research related to the ethics of governance of issues such as sustainable development, energy, climate change and radioactive waste management and with the policy processes of the UNFCCC, UNCSD, UN-NPT, and of the research-related activities of the EC.
Since 2006, he is member of the steering committee of the Constituency of Research-oriented Independent NGOs towards the UNFCCC and was chair of the constituency from 2016 to 2018.
In the previous years, he also participated as invited expert in Belgian parliamentary and public hearings on the ethics of risk-inherent technology governance, in several Technical Committees of the IAEA and of the OECD and in UN missions in the frame of sustainable development. At SCK•CEN Gaston Meskens is now working as researcher, writer, lecturer and mediator of dialogue on ethics in relation to science, technology and democratic decision making.
Dr. David Novog is an internationally recognized researcher and engineer with 25 years of experience in academia and industry and holds an Industrial Research Chair in Nuclear Safety.
His research interests include reactor risk assessment methodologies, severe accident mitigation, and emergency planning and served in an advisory role on the recent Ontario Nuclear Emergency Response Plan update.
An emerging area of research in Dr. Novog’s group examines the vital role of large and small modular reactors (SMRs) in reducing humankind’s CO2 footprint and he is the Principal Investigator for the federally funded Small Modular Advanced Reactor Training (SMART) program.
Jean C. Ragusa is a Professor and Associate Director of the Institute for Scientific Computation (ISC) at Texas A&M University.
His research interests include
- Numerical Methods for Multiphysics Simulations
- Computational Techniques for Neutral Particle & Electron Transport
- Nuclear Fuel Assembly & Reactor Design
Dr. Jeremy Rayner is a Professor with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan Campus and he is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Science and Innovation Policy (CSIP) and Research Lead of the Energy Policy Research Cluster.
Dr. Rayner’s research focuses on governance arrangements for complex policy problems, especially at the intersection of energy, climate change and forests. He is Principal Investigator on a multidisciplinary project funded by the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation ‘Finding a Niche: Northern Communities as Protected Spaces for Small Modular Reactors’ and Principal Investigator on a research project examining the influence of social learning and attitudes on the perception of risk from low dose radiation funded by Candu Owner’s Group (COG).
Dr. Rayner recently participated in the Canada UK nuclear energy dialogue and presented at the Nuclear Energy Agency workshop on ‘The nuclear and social science nexus: Challenges and opportunities for speaking across the disciplinary divide’. In collaboration with Dr. Margot Hurlbert on energy justice, they have published ‘Reconciling power, relations, and processes: The role of recognition in the achievement of energy justice for Aboriginal people’.
Pavel V. Tsvetkov is an Associate Professor and Faculty Graduate Advisor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University.
His research interests include:
- System Analysis & Optimization Methods
- Complex Engineered Systems
- System Design
- Symbiotic Nuclear Energy Systems
- Waste Minimization
- Sustainability
- High Temperature Gas Reactors (HTGRs) & Co-Generation Systems
- Direct Nuclear Energy Conversion Systems