Conference attendees will have the opportunity to add market trend stickers to what they deem is the biggest challenge they are facing on a chart in the main hallway. This exercise will give the audience a real time view of the toughest challenges in today’s SMR market, and will kick-start the conversations around core challenges ahead of the conference.

You will leave the workshop with:
- Shared, cross-role diagnosis of where FOAK execution risk concentrates across the design to construction lifecycle (owners, EPCs, OEMs, fabricators).
- Concrete, practitioner-level picture of what 'design completeness before fabrication' must look like, including implications for gates, data, and governance.
- Peer-validated understanding of how model-based systems engineering and virtual twin execution can close specific data continuity and rework gaps, rather than serving as generic 'digital' overlays.

Speaker: Femi Olubunmi, Industry Business Value Consulting Director, Dassault Systemes

Use this opportunity to hear about networking sessions running throughout the day and make your first connections in this icebreaking session.

• Learn how quadrupling nuclear power in the US by 2050 will impact the nuclear fuel supply chain, and how LIS Technologies’ Project FUEL is designed to help offset the supply risk.
• Gain clarity on some key performance indicators of LIST’s patented, U.S.-origin laser enrichment technology and how it compares to 1st gen Diffusion, 2nd gen Centrifuge and 3rd gen Laser Enrichment technologies to offer practical efficiencies and performance advantages.
• Gain insight into LIST’s plans to build a 5.5 million SWU/year laser enrichment facility on LIST Island, a 206 acre brownfield site adjacent to the historic K 25 complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Speaker: Christo Liebenberg, President, Co-Founder & Chief Technical Advisor, LIS Technologies 

• Experience a first-hand look at a breakthrough solution designed to deliver utility-scale nuclear energy at a cost competitive with fossil fuels and battery-backed solar and wind, as well as immediate gas-fueled power with a seamless transition to nuclear.
• Gain insights directly from the country’s most experienced nuclear engineers and engineering services experts as they reveal the developing technologies, deployment models and real-world models designed to that for hyperscalers, utilities, and ratepayers.
• Understand how the small modular reactor (SMR) design intends to overcome the most arduous challenges to delivering safe, reliable, baseload power at an affordable cost, and limit the majority of first-of-a-kind (FOAK) elements for faster, more predictable deployment.

Speaker: Jeff Kendall, President, US Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis
Mike Reinboth, CEO, First American Nuclear
Moderator: Jennifer Gordon, Director, Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative, Atlantic Council

• Develop strategies for cross-sector partnerships bringing together OEMs, utilities, developers, and emerging players like data center operators, to create a resilient ecosystem that shares risk, leverages complementary expertise, and accelerates project delivery.
• Define clear boundaries between OEM technology delivery and developer/utility project execution to prevent the organizational overreach that has historically bankrupted reactor vendors attempting full-stack delivery.
• Streamline decision-making in pre-FID development phases to enable faster iteration, and foster a collaborative culture that addresses execution challenges as soon as they emerge.

Confirmed Speakers:
• David Hicks, VP Electric Supply Development & Origination, CMS Energy
• Greg Cullen, VP, Energy Northwest
• Jason Willis, VP Nuclear Development, Entergy
• Andy Goggin, SVP Gas Services, Sales Central North America, Siemens Energy
• Aaron Johnson, SVP Nuclear, Aecon
Moderator: Brian Matthews, CEO & Founder, AMPERA

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to add post it notes summarising their key takeaways as we look to harness the collective knowledge of 750+ executives. This will take place in the main hallway.

• Hear about NAYGN’s 2026 career report findings to assess labor shortages in the supply chain
• Discover which professions young workers are looking to advance their careers in the SMR market
• Gain strategies for building and upskilling the workforce to deliver future projects

Speaker: CJ Markum, Career Report & Atlantic Regional Lead, NAYGN

• Energy dominance will require coalitions that move faster than the market.
• The first SMR deals will not just set terms. They will also determine who secures priority access to clean baseload power over the next decade, and who is left waiting.
• Developers, suppliers, investors, and offtakers each bring something others need. The winners will be those who turn early commitment into strategic advantage.

Speaker: Emily Bolon, CCO, Blykalla

• Learn ways to inform smarter planning with design commonality across vendors to reduce licensing, fabrication, and operations risk and create a predictable, lower risk pathway to fleet deployment.
• Deep dive into the role of international standards (IAEA, ASME, etc.) in accelerating the adoption of SMRs at pace.
• Understand the practical lessons from modular licensing frameworks and the potential for “once certified, many times built” for replication, dramatically shrinking approval timelines and unlocking “factory scale” rollout.

Speaker: James Walker, CEO and Board Member, NANO Nuclear 

• Leverage hyperscaler demand to secure new revenue streams, accelerate project financing, and position your SMR or advanced‑reactor technology for early commercial uptake.
• Learn which investment models are unlocking capital from Big Tech, and how to position your offering to win these deals.
• Understand how PPAs, co location strategies, and digital infrastructure needs can reduce project risk, enable FOAK projects, and support scalable fleets.

Speakers:
• Scott Hunnewell, Vice President of the New Nuclear Program Operations, TVA
• Patrick Leonard, Energy Principal, Amazon
• Chris Rees, Energy Business Development and Strategy Leader, Meta
James Wyble, VP of APX Project Development, Westinghouse Electric Company
Terry Maxey, Managing Director, Global Power Generation Lead, Accenture
MODERATOR: Denise Owusu, Decarbonization Manager & Lead of the National Public Utilities Council, Motive Power 

12:45 – 13:45 Workshop – Technology Reality Check: From Design to Deployability

To ensure SMRs are buildable at scale with supply chains, workforce, and regulatory infrastructure, this workshop encourages participants to confront deployment realities by stress-testing reactor technologies against real-world constraints. Working in teams, you'll evaluate different SMR designs (light water, molten salt, high-temperature gas, microreactors) not on theoretical performance but on practical deployment questions.

• Assess reactor designs against supply chain realities to appropriately build nuclear-grade components, fuel supplies, and specialized materials (forgings, graphite, HALEU, TRISO) at commercial scale.
• Identify which technologies achieve true plug-and-play manufacturing with standardized components to achieve cost advantages.
• Map regulatory pathways and approval timelines for different technology types to understand which designs face 18-month reviews versus 5-year processes to streamline licensing.

Speakers:
Michael Montecalvo, Director of Licensing, NANO Nuclear
Jay Yu, CEO, NANO Nuclear
James Walker, CEO & Board Member, NANO Nuclear

• Share knowledge between utilities, industrial off-takers, and technology providers to facilitate licensing, siting, to facilitate the commercialization of SMRs and advanced reactors.
• Unlock investment & innovation through collaboration to de-risk capital investment, foster innovation, and open access to new funding streams and global markets.
• Capture growth opportunities by aligning with strategic partners to meet surging energy demand across sectors and geographies.

Speakers: Brian Robinson, CTO, Great British Energy - Nuclear
Moderator: Erik Funkhouser, Executive Director, Good Energy Collective

• Deep dive into Centrus Energy’s progress in bringing robust American LEU and HALEU enrichment to the market.
• Receive a clear status update on Centrus’ ongoing HALEU enrichment operations and its expansion plans.
• Explore how Centrus’ planned LEU enrichment expansion will enable the United States to eliminate its reliance on supply from enrichers owned by geostrategic competitors of the United States and bring diversity of supply to the market.

SPEAKER: Sean Oehlbert, Vice President, Corporate Business Strategy, Centrus Energy

Speakers:
- Giordano Morichi, Chief Business Development Officer & Investor Relations, Terra Innovatum
- Alessandro Petruzzi, CEO, Terra Innovatum

• Explore what it will take to deliver nuclear projects differently – and successfully – at scale, including what is materially different about this new nuclear build cycle – and what risks remain unchanged.
• Deep dive into the primary constraints to scaling SMR and advanced reactor programs including cost and schedule certainty, capacity constraints, and productivity – and key solutions to overcome them.
• Analyze how delivery models, contracting strategies, and early workforce development approaches are evolving to improve predictability and performance.

Speakers: Michael Dubreuil, Managing Partner, PTAG
Andrew Dewey: Director – Program Management & Business Development, PTAG
Nick Revelas: Director – Business Development, Southern US

• How can you construct complete capital stack models that balance public and private sources and optimize the mix of equity, debt, tax credits, and guarantees to minimize cost of capital while maintaining project viability?
• Design revenue structures including long-term PPAs and ownership models that generate reliable cash flows and secure credit-worthy offtake agreements that satisfy lender requirements for project finance.
• Stress-test your financial models against FOAK cost overruns, schedule delays, and regulatory uncertainties and develop contingency strategies that preserve investor confidence through construction challenges.

Speakers: Hooman Shahidi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Opus Bloom Capital

Hackathons are strategic discussions held by a small group of executives in breakout roundtables in the conference room, to tackle a key challenge facing the market that can be solved over the next 6-12 months. A challenge will be presented to the audience who will join tables to brainstorm strategies, ideas and actionable solutions to feed back and take to the office for implementation.

• Map your reactor's supply chain dependencies and identify actual qualified vendors to discover the gap between what your design requires and what actually exists.
• Solve the chicken-and-egg financing dilemma by designing mechanisms that incentivize supplier investment before firm orders exist to enhance visibility.
• Assess how to secure investment in new domestic suppliers versus sole-sourcing from foreign vendors, to ensure a continuous pipeline of components critical for construction.

Ryan Darnell, VP Sales & Marketing, Fusion Enterprises, and Mark Maybee, CEO & Founder, Fusion Enterprises

• Interrogate what’s genuinely different this time in nuclear supply chain finance - tackling the challenge of past boom‑and‑bust cycles to unlock more credible, repeatable investment pathways.
• Unpack today’s critical bottlenecks, from FOAK cost overruns to fragile vendor capacity - addressing the financeability gap so capital can flow where it accelerates deployment rather than amplifies risk.
• Map the financing structures and capital stacks gaining traction - confronting the scale and coordination challenge to show how private and public capital can actually mobilize at SMR scale over the next 10–15 years.

Speaker: Julien Tizorin, Managing Director - Head of Power and New Energy, Credit Agricole CIB
Moderator: Rob Edwards, Managing Director, Hamilton Clark

Roundtable 1 – Finance – Beyond the Balance Sheet: Creative Financing Models for Utilities
• Explore special purpose vehicles, consortium ownership and joint venture agreements that enable utilities to share capital requirements and risk across multiple stakeholders while maintaining operational involvement in SMR projects
• Examine how hyperscaler partnerships, corporate offtake agreements, and strategic investor participation can provide upfront capital and long-term revenue certainty, reducing the financial burden on utility balance sheets.
• Discuss how utilities can leverage project finance techniques, government loan guarantees, and phased deployment approaches to match capital deployment with revenue generation and minimize balance sheet strain during extended construction periods.

• Moderator: Julie Kozeracki, Chief Investment Officer (acting), U.S. DOE Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF)

Roundtable 2 – Finance – The Investor's Perspective: What Would Make You Write the Check?
• Understand the specific risk thresholds, return profiles, and de-risking mechanisms (such as regulatory certainty, technology validation, and construction guarantees) that investors require before committing capital to SMR projects.
• Address investor expectations around project timelines, capital lock-up periods, exit strategies, and milestone-based funding structures that align with institutional investment mandates and portfolio requirements.
• Identify the critical gaps – whether in offtake agreements, government support, proven supply chains, or operational track records – that currently prevent SMR projects from crossing the threshold from compelling concept to fundable investment opportunity.

• Moderator: Matt Kittell, Director, Sustainable Finance, Societe Generale

Roundtable 3 – Why the UK? Enabling Advanced Nuclear Projects to Choose the UK - Andrew Cooke, Hayley Goldsborough, UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Roundtable 4 – Technology – The Modular Myth: Is Your SMR Actually Small, Actually Modular, or Just Smaller?
• Explore whether SMR deployment means replicating proven designs with minimal changes, or if each project still involves significant engineering iteration to build and operate reactors.
• Discuss how variations in foundations, excavation requirements, and ground conditions at different sites impact the modular promise, and whether these unavoidable site-specific factors fundamentally undermine the standardization advantages that justify the SMR business case – and how to overcome the differentials of siting in standardization.
• Examine what is needed for extensive site-specific engineering, specialized labor, and custom modifications that deliver the promised cost and schedule benefits of modularity.

Moderator: Brian Robinson, CTO, Great British Energy - Nuclear

• Delve into the US administration's expected impact on new nuclear globally for the planning of future power generation.
• Discuss how geopolitical factors, regulatory developments, and supply chain resilience are influencing planning strategies and appetite for SMRs.
• Gain insights into the role of Integrated Project Delivery and Industrial Integrated Project Delivery across the world to assist in reducing project risk and accelerating timeline.

Speaker: Glenn Davis, Senior Energy Advisor, West Virginia Office of Energy

• Apply lessons from large reactor projects: Translate proven practices from conventional reactor builds into scalable approaches for deploying multiple SMRs within budget constraints.
• Prevent cost escalation and project abandonment: Identify patterns that lead to cancellations and learn how utilities can structure projects to remain financially viable.
• Coordinate across stakeholders for speed and efficiency: Develop integrated models for permitting, site preparation, and cost-sharing to streamline timelines and reduce delays.

• Scott Hunnewell, Vice President of the New Nuclear Program Operations, TVA
• David Hicks, VP Electric Supply Development & Origination, CMS Energy
• Majid Afana, Global Director of Nuclear BD & Sales, ATS Automation
• Yasmine Rifai, AI and Digital Transformation Leader | Former CTO, Public Sector, ex-Microsoft
• David Garcia, Founder & CEO, Waymaker Resource Group
• Moderated by: Tom Greatrex, CEO, NIA UK

Experience Austin's favorite sausage house and craft beer garden on Rainey Street. Enjoy scratch-made sausages, extensive beer selection, and live music with SMR executives.

From capital projects and outage support to autonomous workflow generation, PGNs delivers experienced nuclear professionals and purpose-built technology for the most demanding regulated environments.

Most AI sessions tell you where the nuclear industry is going. This session, which brings together selected leaders from utilities, developers and fleet operators, asks where you actually are.

Nuclear executives are navigating AI decisions without a playbook - balancing boards that want ROI, regulators still writing the rules, retiring workforces, and safety cultures built on irreplaceable human judgement. This workshop, held under Chatham House Rule, is structured around four questions the industry has been reluctant to ask out loud - and designed for senior leaders who are ready to answer them honestly.

• Is your AI actually working - or are you funding very expensive pilot program?
• When the CFO asks who AI is for, do you have a real answer?
• What happens to your safety culture when the most experienced person in the room is a machine?
• What would have to be true for AI to be the most valuable investment your organization makes this decade?

Nathan Berry, President, Power Generation Nuclear Services
Andres Paez, VP of Nuclear Operations, Power Generation Nuclear Services

Share lessons on how to enable deployment of first reactor units.
Demonstrate how systems thinking can be used to drive down learning‑curve costs across planning, licensing, financing, and construction.
Identify strategies to build new nuclear without taking first‑of‑a‑kind risks.

David Brock, VP, Nuclear Development, SaskPower

• Establish realistic contingency frameworks that maintain investor confidence through construction and prove commercial viability for subsequent builds.
• Challenge the assumption that utilities must be first movers and explore alternative ownership models where Hyperscalers, consortiums, or strategic investors absorb initial deployment risks.
• Deconstruct the capital stack requirements for FOAK projects and create innovative risk-sharing mechanisms between public and private stakeholders that protect all parties.

Speakers:
• Ted Roosevelt, Chairman of Barclays Cleantech Initiative, Barclays
• Jason Willis, VP Nuclear Development, Entergy
• Julie Kozeracki, Chief Investment Officer (acting), U.S. DOE Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF)
• Suzanne Jaworowski, Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources, State of Indiana
• Alexei Viarruel, Executive Director, JP Morgan
Moderator: John Tormey, Partner, Mayer Brown

Find conversation cards on tables in the main hallway that ask the most pertinent questions and kickstart conversations on topics you care about with peers from across the industry.

• Deep dive into the recently launched UK Government Advanced Nuclear Framework, designed to unlock privately led advanced nuclear projects in the UK.
• Explore the Framework along with the new UK Advanced Nuclear Pipeline and Project Readiness Assessment which highlights the process and criteria for projects seeking to join the Pipeline.
• This is a key session for international private projects looking to deploy in the UK to understand the Framework and wider policy landscape to take their next step.

Speaker: Andrew Cooke, Deputy Director, UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

This interactive session invites real-time questions from the floor—whether you're clarifying technical points, validating strategy, or testing assumptions, the conversation is shaped by what attendees want to know.

• Get immediate answers to pressing questions about engineering and technical challenges.
• Pose direct, unfiltered questions to industry experts and thought leaders in an open forum format, allowing you to address the specific challenges, concerns, or curiosities that matter most to your business.

Speaker: Rob Edwards, Managing Director, Hamilton Clark

• Reinventing reactor architecture for manufacturability: How Apollo Atomics is reducing system complexity and footprint through compact steam generator design and fully integrated nuclear island concepts.
• De-risking FOAK through testing and iteration: Insights from MIT-based prototyping and the upcoming 1 MW non-nuclear test facility to validate performance under PWR conditions.
• Using AI to accelerate nuclear engineering and cost reduction: Leveraging AI-driven design, simulation, and digital engineering workflows to reduce indirect costs and compress deployment timelines.

Speaker: Assil Halimi, CEO, Apollo Atomics

• Benchmark international regulatory equivalency frameworks to enable cross-border license recognition and eliminate redundant review processes.
• Mobilize coordinated advocacy efforts to secure dedicated NRC staffing resources that address the current bottleneck in processing multiple SMR designs simultaneously.
• Differentiate regulatory pathways for inherently safe reactor designs to reduce emergency planning requirements to shorten approval cycles

Speakers:
• David Brock, VP, Nuclear Development, SaskPower
• Mustafa Latif-Aramesh, Member, UK Government Nuclear Taskforce
• Elisa Gleeson, Deputy Director, Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office
• Mike King, Executive Director for Operations, U.S. NRC
• Michelle Catts, Executive Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Licensing, First American Nuclear
• Moderated by: Steve Catron, Director, Business Strategies, Certrec

• Apply proven mega-project Front-End Engineering Design methodologies and establish clear decision frameworks to prevent schedule compression and learn from nuclear builds around the world.
• Leverage operational expertise by embedding all engineering teams from day one to ensure constructible, maintainable designs that reflect real-world requirements for the SMR market.
• Execute supply chain coordination through early procurement commitments and vendor qualification and nuclear experience to prevent component bottlenecks from cascading into construction delays.

Speakers:
• Angela Buckhart, New Nuclear Engineering Director, Duke Energy
• Manu Sivaraman, SVP for New Nuclear and Transmission Projects, TVA
• Cédric Couffignal, Executive Vice President, Nuclear New Build, Arabelle Solutions
• Charlie Bowser, SVP of Engineering, Construction & Ops, Blue Energy
• Christina England, Former DOE and NRC Senior Counsel

• Victor Ibarra, Senior Manager, Nuclear Energy, CATF

• Identify the fundamental barriers preventing private capital from financing nuclear projects independently to unlock new investor confidence through proven risk mitigation strategies.
• Evaluate emerging ownership and operational structures to attract institutional investors and establish bankable project frameworks that reduce perceived technology risk.
• Demonstrate how strategic government participation can catalyze rather than replace private investment and accelerate the transition to self-sustaining market-driven financing models.

Speaker: Gary Greenblatt, Vice Chairman, Marathon Capital
Moderator: Rob Edwards, Managing Director, Hamilton Clark

Each table is focused on a different topic and led by its own moderator. After a quick introduction from the Chair, you’ll join your chosen table for a focused, hour long conversation. There’s no feedback to the main room, so all your time goes into meaningful discussion. Each table has prompt questions, which moderators can adapt as the conversation evolves. It’s an informal dialogue with a purpose, ending with clear takeaways created by your group.

• Licensing: "Now that we've spent two days discussing regulatory pathways – what's the single most actionable change that would cut licensing timelines without compromising safety?"
Glenn Davis, Senior Energy Advisor, West Virginia Office of Energy

• FOAK Risks: "Based on everything we've heard this week – what's the one FOAK risk you're going back to address immediately in your own projects?"
Serge Gorlin, Head of Membership and Business Development, World Nuclear Association

• Financing: "After hearing from utilities, hyperscalers, and financiers – who actually needs to move first to break the chicken-and-egg financing dilemma?"
Jayen Veerapen, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Finance, Bank of Montreal

• Partnerships & Collaboration: "Given all the partnership failures we've discussed – what's the non-negotiable governance structure you'd insist on in your next collaboration?"
Jennifer Gordon, Director, Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative, Atlantic Council

• Identify key risk categories – construction, technology, regulatory timeline, organizational – and assign ownership models that overcome financing hesitation.
• Address how to deploy credit enhancement strategies using proven backstops such as loan guarantees, utility partnerships and offtake commitments to transform FOAK projects into bankable transactions.
• Establish the pilot to scale pathway by quantifying engineering cost reductions to define deployment volumes and achieve cost competitiveness.

• Daniel Moynihan, Director, MUFG
• Matt Kittell, Director, Sustainable Finance, Societe Generale
• Sarfraz Taj, Vice President of Business Development, Terrestrial Energy
• Adam Banack, Partner, Projects & Infrastructure Practice, Mintz
- Elisa Gleeson, Deputy Director of Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office, Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office