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G4SR-5 Committee

Organizing Committee

David Hummel

Conference Chair, Program Committee Chair

David Hummel

Conference Chair, Program Committee Chair

Dr. David Hummel is a Research Scientist at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). He received his Masters and PhD degrees from McMaster University in Engineering Physics. In 2015 he joined the Containment Response Section of what was then the Fuel & Fuel Channel Safety Branch at CNL’s Chalk River site. He has since contributed to the experimental and computational study of containment and radionuclide transport behaviour in support of the CANDU industry, and to the study of advanced reactor and small modular reactor (SMR) accident phenomenology.

Arthur Situm

Deputy Chair and Treasurer

Arthur Situm

Deputy Chair and Treasurer

I'm the CRC Tier 2 in SMR Saftey and Licencing at the University of Regina in the Energy Systems Engineering Program within the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. My research focuses on the corrosion of nuclear materials for SMRs. I am also the current Website Director for the CNS website, co-chair of the Western Branch, and a member of the Business Support Committee.

Ben Rouben

Venue & Facilities Chair, Sponsorship & Exhibits Chair

Chuk Azih

Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, Workshop Program Co-Chair

Chuk Azih

Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, Workshop Program Co-Chair

Chuk heads a Section at CNL that investigates postulated high temperature and pressure scenarios in current and advanced nuclear reactors. He has led several projects at CNL providing support to the programs from a technical stand point, including investigation pertaining to CANDU reactors, the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF) fleet of reactor designs, and CNL’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) initiatives. He is a Canadian representative in the Program Management Board for Thermal-Hydraulics and Safety of the GIF SCWR System Arrangement. He has a diverse range of technical expertise in flow and heat transfer analyses including computational fluid dynamics assessments of complex geometrical flow paths and performing a range of high temperature and pressure heat transfer and fluid flow experiments. He has lead efforts in developing several thermal-hydraulic experimental and assessment capabilities and facilities at CNL to investigate novel SMR safety systems such as heat pipes, natural circulation of molten salts, and other passive systems. He completed his PhD in the field of Mechnical Engineering on Dirrect Numerical Simulations (DNS) and fluid-to fluid scaling of Supercritical Water.

Hazem Mazhar

Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, Workshop Program Co-Chair

Hazem Mazhar

Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, Workshop Program Co-Chair

I am a professional Mechanical Engineer with more than 10 years of experience of experience in the nuclear industry. I completed My PhD in Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University in 2013, on aging of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Then, I joined the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) – Chalk River - as a research scientist in the fuel and fuel channel safety branch, where I led several commercial and federal research projects. I acted as a delegate of the Chief Engineer providing oversight to engineering activities in R&D branches. Currently, I am a specialist with the Engineering Design Assessment Division of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). I am actively engaged in licensing activities of SMRs to assess design compliance with regulatory requirements and codes and standards.

Larisa Logan

Plenary Program Committee Co-Chair

Larisa Logan

Plenary Program Committee Co-Chair

Larisa Logan is a Standards Director at Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group), an independent, not-for-profit membership-based association dedicated to safety, social good, and sustainability. In her role, she provides leadership for CSA’s Nuclear and Petroleum & Natural Gas standards development programs. Larisa and her teams also advance related research, education, and advocacy activities to inform the development and enhance the impact of standards-based solutions.

Matt Dalzell

Communications & Publicity Chair

Matt Dalzell

Communications & Publicity Chair

Matthew Dalzell is a science communicator, strategist and educator. He holds degrees in science education and Geological Sciences from the University of Saskatchewan and has over15 years of experience in public, government and media relations working in scientific institutions including the Canadian Light Source and the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation. Mr. Dalzell is passionate about energy issues, nuclear science, and how we think and talk about risk. He is an active member of the Canadian Nuclear Society, being a co-founder of the society’s Western Branch and the Generation IV and Small Reactor Technology Division, and coordinator of the CNS flagship outreach programs Nuclear 101 and Nuclear for Everyone. Mr. Dalzell is a recipient of the CNS Education and Communication Award, as well as the Queen’s Platinum and Diamond Jubilee Medals and the Province of Saskatchewan Centennial Medal for his service in the Royal Canadian Navy. He currently works as a senior business officer with Prairies Economic Development Canada and is a professional affiliate with the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan.

Sonia Iqbal

Plenary Program Committee Co-Chair

Sonia Iqbal

Plenary Program Committee Co-Chair

Sonia Iqbal is the Program Manager for the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Program at CANDU Owners Group (COG). Prior to joining COG, she held various positions at CSA Group, Candu Energy and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL).

Plenary Program Committee

Ali Siddiqui

Plenary Committee member

Ali Siddiqui

Plenary Committee member

Ali Siddiqui has been with CNL since 2010 serving in various technical and management roles in the S&T mission and corporate office. In his current role his accountabilities include leading of CNL’s Advanced Reactors Directorate including over 170 staff, the associated research, strategic planning, development of new S&T opportunities and support for the SMR deployment project at CNL. He currently represents CNL and Canada on a number of domestic and international working groups and committees. Mr. Siddiqui holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and is a professional engineer in Ontario.

Brett Paquin

Plenary Committee member

Chris Lohse

Plenary Committee member

Chris Lohse

Plenary Committee member

Chris Lohse is the Innovation and Technology Manager for GAIN. In this role he serves as the main interface between the DOE National Laboratories and the advanced reactor vendors. Chris is also the primary contact for the GAIN Nuclear Energy Voucher Program. Through the Voucher Program, private companies can gain access to specialized National Laboratory capabilities to accelerate commercialization of new technologies.

Dan Brady

Plenary Committee member

Dan Brady

Plenary Committee member

Mr. Daniel Brady, P.Eng. Deputy Director, Nuclear Science & Technology, Natural Resources Canada. Daniel joined Natural Resources Canada in 2005 as Program Manager for a climate change technology and innovation program. In 2006, he became a key member of Canada's Gen IV initiative to help further establish and develop Canada's Gen IV National Program. In 2012, Daniel transferred from his position as Program Director of Canada's Gen IV National Program to the Nuclear Energy Division where he currently resides, responsible for several national and international files. When joining Natural Resources Canada, Daniel brought with him 14 years of industry experience in product research and development as well as thermal power station experience. Daniel is currently the Vice-Chair of Regulatory Issues for the Generation IV International Forum.

Iain Harry

Plenary Committee member

Iain Harry

Plenary Committee member

Iain is a Senior Business Advisor in Generation Asset Planning with SaskPower. In that capacity, Iain has led the SaskPower team responsible for advancing SMR development and deployment in Saskatchewan since 2013. In 2022, SaskPower selected the GE-Hitachi BWRX as the preferred SMR for deployment in the early 2030s and set up a project team to bring a construction decision by the end of 2029. Iain's focus will now shift to an evaluation of the potential for advanced SMR deployment in Saskatchewan to support industrial decarbonization. Iain serves on many nuclear industry working groups focused on SMR deployment in Canada and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to joining SaskPower, Iain served as a Senior Advisor to the Premier of Saskatchewan and Vice President of Crown Sector Initiatives with Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan. In that capacity, Iain played a lead role the development of a number of major innovation projects including Saskatchewan’s Uranium Development Partnership, the establishment of the Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, the establishment of the Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences and the development of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project – the first and largest commercial demonstration of carbon capture technology on coal fired power generation in the world. Iain holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan and has more than 30 years of experience in public and crown sector management and public policy development at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Established in 1929, SaskPower is Saskatchewan’s leading energy provider. Our team of 3,000 employees serves 550,000 customers and manages $12 billion in generation, transmission, distribution and other assets. In 2020, SaskPower generated almost $2.9 billion in revenue on the sale of more than 24 million MWh of electricity.

Jill Baker

Plenary Committee member

Kevin Lee

Plenary Committee member

Kevin Lee

Plenary Committee member

Kevin Lee leads the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's (CNSC) team analyzing disruptive, innovative and emerging technology (DIET) and its application in the nuclear industry. The DIET team evaluates DIET and readies the CNSC to regulate DIET. Kevin's duties also include readying the CNSC' s regulatory framework for Advanced Reactor Technology (ART) and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Kevin is also active on numerous other policy and regulatory files at the CNSC including fusion technologies. Kevin also leads the CNSC's Meet the Nuclear Regulator (MTNR) team which provides outreach from the perspective of the CNSC on numerous topics relevant to stakeholders.

Paul Nevitt

Plenary Committee member

Paul Nevitt

Plenary Committee member

Dr Paul Nevitt Dr. Paul Nevitt is VP Science and Technology for the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL). Paul is responsible for definition and delivery of the science and technology agenda that underpins the four strategic focus areas within the laboratory of Clean Energy, Environmental Restoration, Health and Nuclear Medicine, and Security and Non-Proliferation. Paul is also responsible for leading the overall NNL Clean Energy strategic focus area. Previously Paul was the NNL Technical Director for the UK Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme (AFCP), responsible for the technical and strategic outcomes of this significant programme of investment working with over 100 UK organisations. Prior to AFCP, Paul was Chief Technologist and Senior Technical Advisor within the Nuclear Innovation and Research Office (NIRO) providing advice to UK Government on all aspects of nuclear research and innovation. In addition, Paul currently serves as the UK Government Delegate on the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Development Committee Bureau, Chair of the Global National Laboratories Integrated Energy Systems Collaboration, Member of the Governing Board of the EU Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP) and Member of the SNETP Nuclear Cogeneration to Industry (NC2I) Coordination Board, Chair of NNL Science and Technology Board, Member of the International Fusion Technical Advisory Group (FTAG) for UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the UK Working Group lead for the US/UK Civil Nuclear R&D Action Plan on Enabling Actions. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and received both his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Actinide Surface Chemistry from Cardiff University.

Paul Thompson

Plenary Committee member

Paul Thompson

Plenary Committee member

Paul is a Senior Strategic Advisor working in the Advanced Small Modular Reactor team at NB Power. He was a member of the Steering Committee that developed the Pan-Canadian SMR Roadmap and is a member of the Candu Owners Group (COG) CEO SMR Forum Working group and the COG SMR Technology forum. Paul graduated from the Engineering Mathematics program at Queen's University specializing in the fields of Thermal Sciences and Nuclear Engineering. He has spent over 44 years in the Nuclear Power industry working in various technical and senior managerial roles at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and New Brunswick Power. He has a long history of involvement on various industry wide technical and steering committees as well as special projects. Paul has previously held the positions at NB Power of; Deputy chief Nuclear Officer, alternate Station Director, as well as being the NB Power member on the Candu Owners Group (COG) Nuclear Waste Management Leadership Forum, the COG Board of Directors, and the Advisory board for the Centre for Nuclear Energy Research. Paul has twice held the position of President of the Canadian Nuclear Society and is recognized as a Fellow of the Canadian Nuclear Society. In June 2020, Paul received the Canadian Nuclear Society/Canadian Nuclear Association Harold A. Smith Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Rob Whittleston

Plenary Committee member

Rob Whittleston

Plenary Committee member

Rob Whittleston PhD BSc | As Director for Technology, Innovation and Commercialization at Atomic Energy Canada Ltd, Rob is responsible for ensuring AECL and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories are at the cutting edge of technology and innovation by providing strategic leadership and oversight of innovation, technology stewardship, and commercial programmes, with a focus on enabling Government priorities and driving nuclear opportunity for Canada. Prior to joining AECL, Rob has held a number of senior leadership positions and appointments including Vice President, International Affairs, Security & Non Proliferation, and Vice President Strategy, Science and Innovation at the UK’s National Laboratory. Here, Rob established and led teams responsible for devising and executing key areas of corporate strategy, ensuring the UK’s national laboratory plays a vital role enabling the peaceful use of nuclear materials and technology. In 2020, Rob established NNL as the UK’s first formal Collaborating Centre with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Rob has previously served as Member of the Governing Board of the EU Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP), and as an Advisory Board Member at the Royal United Services Institute. Rob has held a variety of other internationally facing management roles spanning the nuclear fuel cycle, including at Hitachi and at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He has previously worked in central government, leading policy development in the rail sector. Originally trained as earth system scientist, with a PhD from the University of Leads, Rob is passionate about the role nuclear technology has to play in protecting our society and planet.

Robin Manley

Plenary Committee member

Robin Manley

Plenary Committee member

Robin was previously Vice-President, New Nuclear Development at Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Robin has spent 30 years in the nuclear industry, including senior roles in Radiation Protection and nuclear power Licensing, and at OPG was most recently accountable for the implementation of Small Modular Reactors and the Darlington New Nuclear Project.

Sara Dolatshahi

Plenary Committee member

Sara Dolatshahi

Plenary Committee member

Sara Dolatshahi is a 22 year nuclear veteran with 15 years of power plant operations experience, 5 years of which were in the control room of a nuclear power plant at Ontario Power Generation. She is among a few select female individuals to have held a Shift Manager license from the Federal government to run a nuclear power plant in Canada and the first female Control Room Shift Supervisor at Pickering Nuclear Power Plant Units 5-8. She has a masters in nuclear engineering from McMaster University and is a licensed professional engineer in Ontario. In her current role as the Director of Strategic Projects at Nuclear Waste Management Organization, she is providing recommendations for integrated strategy of all nuclear waste in Canada. Sara lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters and enjoys traveling for fun. She has been to more than 35 countries and 150 cities in the world.

Vanessa White

Plenary Committee member

Vanessa White

Plenary Committee member

Vanessa is the Executive Director, Clean Technology in the Clean Resources Division at Alberta Innovates, where she leads a team accountable for the program areas of grid modernization, clean heat and power, energy storage, critical minerals, carbon, capture, utilzation and storage and hydrogen. Prior to joining Alberta Innovates, Vanessa spent more than 20 years in the upstream petroleum industry, where she drove innovation and developed her diverse background in project management, technology development and pilot operation. Vanessa is passionate about energy literacy. In 2016, she founded a company informing elementary and junior high students about the value of diversity in the Canadian energy portfolio. Vanessa is a Professional Engineer and past member of the Board of Directors for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Canadian Educational Foundation (SPECEF) where she was the founding chair of the organization’s Energy Literacy Committee. Vanessa’s current board positions include the Decentralized Energy Canada’s Board of Directors and Foresight Clean Tech Accelerator’s Alberta Advisory Board.

Weina Chong

Plenary Committee member

Weina Chong

Plenary Committee member

Weina Chong is the Director of Business Development - Nextgen at Bruce Power. She leads the exploration of new nuclear opportunities at Bruce Power, and is responsible for conducting pre-development activities to support the Bruce C project. With over 14 years of dedicated experience in the nuclear industry, she has seamlessly transitioned through diverse leadership roles at Bruce Power, encompassing engineering, strategic support, project management and construction, supply chain, and business development. Weina has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Engineering in advanced design and manufacturing from the University of Toronto.

Zaid Keldani

Plenary Committee member

Technical Program Committee

Kevin Lee

Technical Committee member

Kevin Lee

Technical Committee member

Krishna Podila

Technical Committee member

Krishna Podila

Technical Committee member

Krishna Podila is a Principal Scientist in the Thermalhydraulics and Safety Analysis Branch at Canadian Nuclear Laboratory. He is Section Head for Computational Fluid Dynamics and has been working as a thermalhydraulics analyst at CNL since April 2010. His research areas include computational thermalhydraulics for both conventional and advanced nuclear energy systems. He has extensive experience in the application, validation and development of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software as well as a strong background in single-and multiphase systems. Krishna has contributed towards a variety of technical initiatives through projects under FNST and commercial framework and by participation in international benchmarking activities organised by OECD/NEA, IAEA. Dr. Podila has authored many international journal publications in the field of CFD and has presented at several leading international conferences. He received his Ph.D. and M.A.Sc degrees in Chemical Engineering from Dalhousie University, Halifax in 2005 and 2010 respectively. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and has served on NSERC mechanical engineering committee.

Larkin Mosscrop

Technical Committee member

Larkin Mosscrop

Technical Committee member

Larkin Mosscrop started her career in the sciences, having her masters in science in biology from Queen’s university. She has been in the nuclear industry for over 10 years but has been an educator for over 20, with 15 years specifically related to science communication and education. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Public policy looking at energy literacy in youth. She has worked across the nuclear sector, from decommissioning and waste management, operations to science and technology. She currently works for Kinectrics leading a team in environmental services and clean energy. She is passionate about energy and believes that the future energy system must be a mix of non-emitting sources to power our future. She volunteers with the CNS education program, the Renfrew County science fair as ethics director, Women in Nuclear Canada as VP, and Riverview Rescues as the Foster Director and is a recognized leader in energy education. She is an outdoorsy person and can often be found hiking with her rescue dogs in a forest.

Luke Yaraskavitch

Technical Committee member

Luke Yaraskavitch

Technical Committee member

Luke is an applied physicist in the Advanced Fuel and Reactor Physics Branch at the Chalk River site of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Since he started at CNL in 2015, his work has primarily been as a ZED-2 (Zero Energy Deuterium) experimenter proposing, planning, overseeing execution, and/or analysing zero power reactor experiments. In 2021 he joined the CNL SLOWPOKE maintenance team for the refuelling of the Royal Military College SLOWPOKE-2 reactor, and is now a trained SLOWPOKE Engineer. Luke is also a member of OECD/NEA-led Technical Review Groups for the International Criticality Safety Benchmark and International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Projects, reviewing benchmarks for use in code and nuclear data validation. He has a keen interest in the past, present, and future of experimental reactor physics measurements using zero power or demonstration reactors, including those relevant to advanced reactor technologies. Prior to joining CNL, he studied at the University of Waterloo for both BSc. and MSc. degrees in Physics (condensed matter), and subsequently worked at University of Waterloo and Toronto Metropolitan University.

Meghan Gerrish

Technical Committee member

Michael Fuetterer

Technical Committee member

Michael Fuetterer

Technical Committee member

Michael A. Fütterer has served as an engineer, project and line manager at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in the Netherlands since 2002, and before in several companies in the US, Sweden and France. He holds a doctorate degree in Process Engineering from ISTC Toulouse (1993) and a diploma in Nuclear and Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Karlsruhe (1990). He has more than 25 years of experience in project and network development with focus on feasibility studies, irradiation testing of fuel and materials, system design and analysis for High Temperature Reactors (HTR), nuclear cogeneration, production of hydrogen and its derivatives, and energy system integration. He currently manages the JRC project portfolio on nuclear energy for decarbonization. Michael was and is active in most EU projects on HTR and has supported the European Nuclear Cogeneration Industrial Initiative from the start. In the Generation IV International Forum he has been for several years the chair of the VHTR System Steering Committee and he is a member of the new GIF Task Force on non-electric applications of nuclear energy.

Mihaela Ion

Technical Committee member

Natalie Alderson

Technical Committee member

Natalie Alderson

Technical Committee member

Nathan Tedford

Technical Committee member

Nathan Tedford

Technical Committee member

Paul McClelland

Technical Committee member

Penny Neal

Technical Committee member

Pronnapa Sanongboon

Technical Committee member

Pronnapa Sanongboon

Technical Committee member

Pronnapa heads the Operations Research section in the Computational Techniques Branch at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) where she conducts research and studies to support federal S&T and commercial projects. She has largely contributed to the development of CNL's Hybrid Energy System Optimization (HESO) model, a techno-economic assessment tool, formulated as a large-scale optimization. The tool has been used to perform several technical and economic feasibility studies of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems in serval aspects. Recently, she and her team received D.F. Torgerson Award for the development of the HESO tool. She has represented Canada in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) technical meetings on energy modelling tools for sustainable energy development and energy systems. Currently, her research focuses on the improvement and applications of the HESO model along with other energy system tools to investigate the roles of nuclear energy in low-carbon energy systems beyond power generation. Dr. Sanongboon received her Ph.D. in Engineering with core expertise in optimization and artificial neural networks.

Ran Kong

Technical Committee member

Robert Ion

Technical Committee member

Robert Ion

Technical Committee member

Robert Ion has over 25 years of experience in the nuclear engineering field, most of them in the licensing and safety areas. Robert has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. Robert is leading the Terrestrial Energy (TEI) team in its licensing interaction with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) during the CNSC’s vendor design review (VDR) of the IMSR400 SMR design. Robert has been supporting SMR technology organizations for the last 5 years. Prior to working with SMRs, Robert has been with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL)/Candu Energy on numerous projects and assignments most of which related to new CANDU designs such as ACR and EC6.

Saad Khan

Technical Committee member

Saad Khan

Technical Committee member

Saad Khan Saad Khan is a Senior Advisor in New Nuclear, Nuclear Regulatory Affairs Strategy at Ontario Power Generation (OPG). He has over 17 years of experience at OPG in nuclear regulatory affairs, nuclear safety, nuclear engineering, projects and modifications, and Darlington nuclear outage control. Currently, he provides regulatory affairs and licensing support to OPG’s Darlington New Nuclear Project and other new nuclear initiatives. Saad also participated in the Pan Canadian Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Roadmap, the OPG new nuclear selection due diligence process and the DNNP SMR technology assessment. Saad Khan has a Bachelor’s of Nuclear Engineering (B. Eng. Honours) from University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

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