Nuclear Innovation: Advanced Reactor Design

Matthew Bubis: Reactor Island Integration Manager – SMR, Rolls-Royce

Matthew has been involved in nuclear reactor design for over ten years, having been a lead systems design engineer over two programmes of future generation submarine reactors. He has worked in fluid systems design, systems integration, control and instrumentation, and research and technology programmes. Matthew is currently the UK Consortium SMR Reactor Island Integration Manager, contributing to the design of the reactor layout, installations, fuel handling, and operations of the SMR.

Ian Scott: President, Moltex Energy Ltd.

Ian Scott went to Cambridge University to study nuclear physics, but was seduced during his first year by the excitement of the biological sciences and made his first career in that field. He became Chief Scientist for Unilever plc before leaving establish a bioactive discovery company, Synergy Biosystems Ltd. In 2012, staggered by the £95 strike price being proposed by EDF for Hinkley Point C, he determined to find a way to give nuclear fission a future beyond decommissioning. The result was the invention of the Stable Salt Reactor and formation of Moltex Energy Ltd and its larger subsidiary Moltex Energy Canada.

David Kingham: Executive Vice Chairman, Tokamak Energy

Dr David Kingham is Executive Vice Chairman of Tokamak Energy, a company that aims to accelerate the development of fusion energy. Fusion power is challenging to develop but it will be safe, clean, cost effective and rapidly deployable at scale. Tokamak Energy is developing compact, high magnetic field, tokamaks and is building on the world leading expertise in fusion, spherical tokamaks and high field superconducting magnets in the UK.

Tokamak Energy has raised £117m of private investment, has recently received a £10m grant from UK government with further grant funding from US Dept of Energy, and has grown to over 110 employees. Tokamak Energy has announced a record breaking, 24 tesla, high temperature superconducting magnet and its ST40 high field spherical tokamak is now recognised as a world leading fusion development device.

Dr Kingham founded Tokamak Energy with two pioneering fusion scientists from Culham Laboratory, Mikhail Gryaznevich and Alan Sykes, and served as the company’s first CEO. He has a PhD in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.

John Eldridge: Engineering Consultant, U-Battery

John Eldridge is the Principal Engineer on U-Battery, a small 10MWth High Temperature Gas cooled Reactor currently under development by Urenco Ltd.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Chartered engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers with over 50 years’ experience predominately in the nuclear sector. His experience covers the design, construction, commissioning and operation of major plant in the UK and overseas.

John is a Visiting Professor at the School of Engineering at the University of Liverpool and a recipient of the Jan Runermark Award from the European Nuclear Society for outstanding service, to the benefit of young professionals.

Mike Drury: Director, Account Director Newbuild & ANT (SMR and AMRs), National Nuclear Laboratory

Mike Drury is the Account Director for Advanced Nuclear Technology (SMR & AMR) for the UK National Nuclear Laboratory working on large scale plants, Generation III+ SMRs and Generation IV Advanced Modular Reactors. He is responsible for developing NNL’s capabilities, R&D and facilities in support of the SMR and AMR markets. He has cross industry experience working in Automotive, Energy and Nuclear, ranging from volume production manufacturing, modular design and construction, through to operation, waste management, final decommissioning and long term geological disposal. With a mechanical engineering background, a qualified practitioner of project management, and an MBA in business he has been fortunate enough to work on a variety of projects including successful manufacturing production of a variety of Jaguars & Landrovers, Design and Construction of Chernobyl New Safe Confinement, support on ITER Fusion reactor systems, Operational support across the UK fleet of reactors Advanced Gas Reactors and delivery of multiple projects in R&D and commercialisation of SMR, Generation IV reactors and Advanced Nuclear Technology projects within the UK. He has worked alongside HMG, developed collaborations and partnerships with international reactor vendors, laboratories worldwide and represented the UK on ANT at the IAEA in Vienna contributing to clean energy solutions

Fiona Reilly: Managing Director, FiRe Energy Ltd.

Fiona is an Energy & Infrastructure specialist with over 25 years of experience encompassing nuclear, oil & gas, renewables and thermal power. She is often involved in large-scale energy and infrastructure projects particularly the development, structuring, international regulatory development and compliance, licensing and financing.

Fiona is described as having a unique blend of skills having worked on global nuclear projects for over 20 years. Her skill include strategic and policy advice and regulatory expertise, deal structuring and financing, project and asset management, claims and disputes. She is recognised as an expert in the development and financing of nuclear projects by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (and IFNEC) and has served as a designated expert for the IAEA and chaired technical meetings: on the financing, development and structuring of nuclear projects; and on decommissioning and waste management issues.  

In January 2018 she was appointed Chair of the Expert Finance Working Group on Small Reactors by Richard Harrington MP and produced the Market Framework for Financing Small Nuclear in September 2018. She continues to work on low carbon projects around the globe, including the deployment of large and small reactors.

Chris Waldon: STEP Delivery Director, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Chris has over twenty five years’ experience spanning the nuclear, pharmaceutical, chemical, refining and power generation sectors in both industrial and publicly funded research settings. During this period Chris has led and grown significant multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of new projects, programmes and services. Chris joined UKAEA 2003 and was the founder of the Central Engineering Department and Authority Chief Engineer (2008-2019). He is a member of the EUROFusion PPP&T (DEMO) Technical Advisory Group member and a contributing author to the EU Research Roadmap to the realisation of Fusion Energy: https://www.euro-fusion.org/eurofusion/roadmap/

Tony Langtry: Principal Engineer, Tokamak Energy

Tony studied Mechanical Engineering at Manchester and an MSc at Cranfield. After Cranfield he joined Marconi to work on aviation equipment, tackling such questions such as the effect of hail at 600 knots on an infra-red window.

Tony then joined a consultancy in Oxford, working on FE analysis of various projects, including a superconducting magnet for use in space.

This led to 15 years on MRI magnets and gradients at GE and Agilent, followed by joining Tokamak Energy to work on Fusion. They designed and built ST40, our current machine, and are now working on the next generation of HTS Tokamaks.

Tim Allmark: Head of Advanced Nuclear Technology, Office for Nuclear Regulation

Tim Allmark is the Head of Advanced Nuclear Technology at the Office for Nuclear Regulation. He has worked in the nuclear industry for over 25 years across a wide portfolio of projects, and roles. Since joining ONR in 2004 he has undertaken leading roles in the post Fukushima assessment of safety, Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of gigawatt size designs, assessment of plutonium burning technologies, and since May of 2020, taken the lead for Advanced Nuclear Technologies. As part of this role, he will be taking forward ONR’s 2025 strategy on regulating Innovation

Dame Sue Ion: Hon President, National Skills Academy for Nuclear

Paolo Ferroni: Fellow Engineer , Westinghouse Electric Compan

Dr. Paolo Ferroni is a Fellow Engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company and Technical Lead of the Westinghouse Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) project. In this role, Paolo oversees design and testing activities aimed at the development of an economically competitive and versatile Generation IV plant based on LFR technology. In doing so, he leverages expertise and lessons learned accumulated by Westinghouse over more than fifty years of nuclear power plant commercialization. With main expertise in reactor thermal hydraulics and fuel performance, after receiving his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Paolo joined Westinghouse where since then he has been involved in multiple development programs, both domestically and internationally, in the field of advanced reactors and encompassing both Light Water and non-Light Water Reactors.

Gustavo Rubio Antón: Senior Project Manager, Bel V

Gustavo Rubio Antón, MSc, PhD, FIMechE, has worked in the nuclear industry since 2007 in Belgium and the UK. He has worked in the development of new nuclear, modifications to existing installations, seconded into the Design Authority of new build companies and as responsible for the licensing of highly innovative projects. In the UK, he led the SMR techno-economic assessment commissioned by the Government, which helped shaping policy on advanced nuclear. Dr Rubio Antón has been invited to teach seminars on nuclear safety in prestigious universities such as the University of Bristol and the Polytechnic Institute of Milan.

Alasdair Harper: Head of Strategy: Advanced Nuclear Technologies, The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Alasdair is strategy lead for Advanced Nuclear Technologies in the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Leading a multi-disciplinary team of technical, regulatory and nuclear industry experts, Alasdair is responsible for developing the UK’s strategic policy framework for small and advanced modular reactors. Alasdair has nearly 15 years’ experience of energy and climate-change policy making in Government, with the past 3 spent on nuclear policy. Developing energy resilience contingency plans for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games still remains a career highlight, but advanced nuclear policy is a close second. Prior to Civil Service, Alasdair was an archaeologist and spent 5 years working for a small contract archaeology business.