Nuclear Energy Workforce Summit

The conference theme is “Going Critical: Creating a Durable Nuclear Resurgence.” Plenary discussions address how technology, finance, and public policy can sustain nuclear energy momentum, and how public confidence, domestic supply chains, workforce development, investment, and state leadership can support deployment at scale. John Wagner, Laboratory Director at INL, is a featured speaker; the opening plenary also includes U.S. NRC Commissioners Douglas Weaver and Bradley Crowell. The technical program features expert-led presentations and peer-reviewed research on advanced reactors, fuel cycle and waste management, reactor physics, fusion, AI and machine learning, materials science, instrumentation and controls, criticality safety, and robotics. Named session topics include nuclear energy markets, financing and economics; hybrid and integrated energy systems; maritime and data center applications; nuclear safeguards; cybersecurity; molten salt reactor fuels and materials; and advanced/additive manufacturing. Panels address uranium mining remediation, environmental review, digital twins, advanced reactor fuel supply and fabrication, and nuclear deployment pathways.

The program brings together energy, industrial transformation, and advanced manufacturing, with cross-cutting themes of workforce development, standards, finance, AI and digital transformation, policy, and resilience planning. Roundtables, workshops, and demos are designed to address tradeoffs involving affordability, risk, standardization, and deployment speed. Program tracks include Powering Growth, with sample sessions on data-center power and cooling, new nuclear deployment, solar cost reduction, and scaling geothermal; Industry Reimagined, covering industrial heat electrification, next-generation steel, and EPC project-delivery costs and risks; Next-Gen Manufacturing, addressing hardware investment and bankability, additive manufacturing, and sustainability tradeoffs in product design; and Future Workforce, on nuclear workforce readiness, apprenticeships, and aligning training programs with real projects. Additional sessions are in development in areas including energy storage, fusion, industrial efficiency, critical minerals, and sustainability tradeoffs. The listed sessions are samples and subject to change.

Jointly hosted by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute, NECX brings together utilities, advanced reactor developers, suppliers, regulators, policymakers, investors, engineers, researchers, project leaders, and innovators. Programming includes executive plenaries, technical sessions, and expert-led discussions focused on nuclear deployment, commercialization, investment, and industry growth. Focus areas include advanced nuclear deployment; manufacturing and AI innovation; regulatory affairs; project integration; supply-chain sourcing; workforce development; plant reliability and engineering; and emergency preparedness. The expo-hall Spotlight Stage features presentations on emerging technologies, practical insights, and solutions related to nuclear deployment, operations, innovation, and commercialization.

Public power utility leaders meet with experts in technology, energy, and policy. Attendance is limited to facilitate productive dialogue. Sessions address shifts in the global energy landscape, including the energy transition, energy security, geopolitical and economic competition, and investment in energy infrastructure, renewable technologies, nuclear power, and fossil fuels. Other discussions examine reliability and affordability amid growing demand, rising costs, regulatory pressures, and customer expectations; resource adequacy, infrastructure investment, workforce challenges, supply-chain constraints, and emerging technologies; and leadership through outages, cyber incidents, severe weather, safety emergencies, and public scrutiny. The program also explores AI and other emerging technologies, including their utility applications and questions around governance, cybersecurity, workforce impacts, and risk management. Additional topics include evaluating and integrating significant new loads, generation and infrastructure investments, contracts and rate protections, aligning economic development with the public power mission, and workforce development, succession planning, leadership training, and knowledge transfer.

The program spans project execution, nuclear energy, and grids, AI, and infrastructure. Sessions address financing and delivering the U.S. energy buildout; grid capacity, interconnection, transmission, reliability, and cost allocation; and the effects of data-center and industrial demand on power planning. Nuclear topics include power for data centers, first-of-a-kind project cost and delivery, nuclear finance, HALEU and fuel supply, utility choices among large reactors, SMRs, and microreactors, and pathways to SMR deployment. Other sessions cover LNG security, trade, and investment; energy storage and grid-edge technologies; AI in energy operations; and project bankability, permitting, policy, supply-chain, and delivery risks. The program also includes executive roundtables, a project-execution clinic, and an energy startup pitch competition.

The forum brings together policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders to examine energy security, economic competitiveness, clean energy deployment, regulatory modernization, market expansion, affordability, regulation, and nuclear deployment. Participants include professionals across government, utilities, finance, and advocacy. The program includes engagement with federal and state policymakers and the State of the Nuclear Energy Industry address by NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. The forum is open to media.

Examines investment in new nuclear projects, advanced reactors, existing nuclear assets, and the nuclear supply chain. Topics include project bankability, returns and revenue certainty, capital structures, construction risk, customer demand, public-private financing, commercial partnerships, policy frameworks, and project delivery. The summit is designed for finance and investment professionals, utilities, developers, technology providers, energy customers, policymakers, and advisers.

The conference covers radioactive-material management and nuclear-facility decommissioning. Its 12 tracks include crosscutting policies and programs; high- and low-level radioactive waste, spent fuel, and long-lived alpha/transuranic waste; nuclear power plant waste and on-site spent-fuel storage; packaging and transportation; decontamination and decommissioning; environmental remediation; communications and workforce; and advanced reactors and fusion. The program highlights the United Kingdom’s nuclear-sector developments, including waste management and decommissioning for legacy sites, new nuclear capacity, small modular reactors, and advanced nuclear deployment. The featured U.S. Department of Energy site, Savannah River Site, focuses on tank waste cleanup, nuclear materials processing, advanced manufacturing, AI, and applied research and development, as well as partnerships among government, contractors, regulators, stakeholders, and surrounding communities.

A leadership summit and global broadcast focused on deploying small modular reactors and advanced nuclear. Themes include financing, first-of-a-kind project risk, supply-chain resilience, regulation, technology, project execution, and partnerships among utilities, developers, technology companies, finance, and regulators. The event frames nuclear as a scalable option for energy security.