The outlook for nuclear power appeared as uncertain as ever following November's cancellation of NuScale's first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear (SMR) project. Yet nuclear energy featured prominently at COP28, with the historic Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy signed by over 20 countries. Please join us for a discussion on the prospects for nuclear power -- from large-scale conventional to SMR technologies -- with Sarah Frances Smith (Georgetown University), Stephen Greene (Nuclear Innovation Alliance and the Atlantic Council), and David O'Keefe (Centrus Energy). The conversation will be moderated by Bret Strogen (Strogen Strategic Sustainability), NCAC Board Member.
NCAC President, TJ Conway, will introduce the webinar. He will also politely ask all members to pay their 2024 dues if they have not already! And to non-members he will humbly request that they register to become members today for only $35 at this link: https://www.ncac-usaee.org/membership! Thank you!
Speaker Bios:
Sarah Frances Smith is a Master of Science in Foreign Service candidate at Georgetown University concentrating in international science and technology policy. Sarah Frances recently completed a graduate internship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy supporting the office’s industrial innovation and net-zero strategy portfolio.
Prior to her graduate studies, Sarah Frances spent two years designing technical assistance programs facilitating clean energy transition in Eurasia as an International Trade Specialist at the Department of Commerce. Her background also includes two years of nuclear energy research in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as a Boren Scholar.
At Georgetown University, Sarah Frances is president of the School of Foreign Service Energy Club and a COP28 delegate with Nuclear for Climate. She is committed to a career spent supporting the establishment of clean, equitable, and reliable energy systems that improve quality of life for communities worldwide.
Stephen Greene is a Senior Fellow at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and an energy and finance executive with extensive experience in commercial and policy issues related to energy. In addition to his role at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Mr. Greene is consultant on energy and finance issues and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center.
Through 2019, he held senior finance roles including Chief Financial Officer and head of Corporate Development and Strategy for Centrus Energy, a public company engaged in the sale of nuclear fuel and the development of nuclear enrichment technology. He led strategy for Progress Energy, an investor-owned electric utility, and served as practice-area leader for the consultant Pace Global Energy focused on energy markets and risk management. He arranged project financing for PG&E National Energy Group (U.S. Generating Company), a leading independent-power developer and energy trader, and subsequently developed the company’s power-market outlook to support project development. Early in his career he worked at USEPA on air-pollution rules.
David O’Keefe is Director of Business Development at Centrus Energy Corp. a trusted supplier of low enriched uranium for commercial power reactors around the world.
Centrus Energy is also operating a demonstration gas centrifuge enrichment cascade for the production of High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) in Piketon, OH, under contract to the US Department of Energy. Mr. O’Keefe has been with Centrus Energy Corp. since 2007 and has served in a variety of roles at the company, including Finance, Operations, and Sales. Prior to joining Centrus, Mr. O’Keefe worked at Pacific Gas & Electric’s National Energy Group, focusing on the management of merchant generation assets in NEPOOL.
Dr. Bret Strogen has more than 20 years of experience evaluating the environmental, economic, and operational impacts of energy and infrastructure innovations across the federal, academic, and private sectors.
Prior to founding Strogen Strategic Sustainability to advance innovative energy solutions in the private sector, Bret spent seven years at the Pentagon—supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Operational Energy Innovation directorate and serving as the Army’s Special Assistant for Energy and Sustainability. Bret also served as the Executive Secretary for a Defense Science Board report on the feasibility of deploying very small (aka “micro”) nuclear reactors to forward and remote operating bases. Bret holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Delaware and a MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He also maintains his Professional Engineer license in Pennsylvania and is a LEED Green Associate.
This event is free for NCAC-USAEE members. The Zoom link will be at the very bottom of the confirmation email from NCAC-USAEE, after you register. Non-members, we strongly encourage you to become NCAC annual members for only $35 at this link https://www.ncac-usaee.org/membership (and then sign-up for the event for free on the website calendar). For those who would prefer to join without becoming members, you can pay $10 for the event.