Session 2: Nuclear Power in Appalachia

Companies in this region face unique challenges to meet the needs and increasing demands of their residential and commercial customers, while also working to hit net-zero target goals. Panelists will discuss their approaches and share best practices and lessons learned from their decarbonization efforts with a focus on nuclear power generation in Appalachia.

Plenary Speaker/Panelist: Glenn Davis

Prior to being appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin as Director of the Virginia Department of Energy, Glenn Davis represented Virginia’s 84^th District in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2014-2023 where he served as Chairman of the House Education Committee and Subcommittee Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Glenn also served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science where he chaired the cyber security and blockchain subcommittees.

Prior to his service in the Virginia General Assembly, Glenn served on the Virginia Beach City Council from 2008-2014.

Professionally, Glenn began his entrepreneurial career out of a one-bedroom apartment when he was 26. In 2007, his telecommunications management firm was named by the Inc. 5000 as one of the 100 fastest growing IT companies in America. After the acquisition of a publicly traded national IT company, Glenn’s company became a national provider of IT and telecom solutions.

Glenn has served as Chairman of Junior Achievement of Greater Hampton Roads, was a founding board member of Green Run Collegiate, a charter school connected to the Green Run community where he grew up, and is a past president of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization of Southeast Virginia.

Glenn attended George Mason University, is a graduate of the EO/MIT Entrepreneurial Master’s program and the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, and received the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award from the Regent University School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship.

Moderator: April Wade

April Wade is the Executive Director of the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) and the founder and President of Wade Strategic Communications (WSC), a public affairs firm. As Executive Director for VNEC, April represents the nuclear industry in the commonwealth, advocating for additional opportunities in commercial power, nuclear medicine, academic research, and defense applications of nuclear energy.

WSC works with corporate and non-profit clients to develop goal-oriented strategies for navigating the state and federal political processes and communicating with stakeholder audiences. In more than 20 years as a Public Affairs practitioner, April has worked with clients ranging from oil and gas services firms, the nuclear power industry, rare earth mining, local and county governments, and women’s causes.

Prior to founding Wade Strategic Communications, April served as the Communications Director for Louisiana Energy Services (LES/URENCO) on the National Enrichment Facility – the first major nuclear facility to be licensed in more than 30 years and the first ever to receive a combined construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Committee.

April’s specialties include: corporate communications, stakeholder relations, government affairs, fundraising, event planning and management, and grassroots organizing.

Panelist: Andrew Campbell

Andrew is responsible for leading TVA’s research and development efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions goals through an initiative designed to develop feasible technology pathways to lower our grid carbon intensity. This effort involves considerable engagement of industry and academic research partners and other external stakeholders, as well as close coordination with Power Operations, Major Projects, R&D, Enterprise Planning, and Environmental. This initiative develops strategic plans that recommend well timed demonstrations of significant high impact technologies that can support TVA’s goals.

Panelist: Jeff Olson

Jeffrey Olson is the Vice President of Business Development
& Finance for Kairos Power, and has over 10 years of
experience managing strategic growth initiatives for energy
technology companies to develop, scale and manage their
businesses. Prior to his direct engagement in the early stage
energy sector, Mr. Olson spent the first half of his career in
management consulting advising Fortune 500 companies on
business growth and systems development.

Prior to joining Kairos Power, Mr. Olson led strategic
partnership development and commercial operations at the
artificial intelligence energy storage provider, Stem, Inc.,
as the company’s Vice President of Partner Operations. Mr.
Olson joined Stem from the fuel cell sector in his roles in
corporate finance and international business development with
Bloom Energy. Mr. Olson also served as an executive with
Accenture’s Strategy Group where he was a founding member
of Accenture’s Global Sustainability Practice.

Mr. Olson graduated from the University of California,
Berkeley with an MBA and a Certificate in Engineering &
Business for Sustainability. He received his B.A. in Economics
from St. Olaf College.

Panelist: Dr. Benjamin Reinke

Dr. Reinke is an energy executive with expertise in science and innovation, clean energy technology development, industries of the future, nuclear systems, critical minerals and materials, space science and technology, and the nexus of energy security and national security. His policy development and implementation experience spans both the legislative and executive branches.

Dr. Reinke leads the Business Development organization at X-energy and is responsible for end-to-end commercial reactor business development and sales – strategy and marketing, analytics, organizational management, customer relationship development, contract negotiations, capture management, and early-phase project management.

Prior to joining X-energy, Dr. Reinke served as the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy of the Department of Energy (DOE). As the senior policy advisor to the Secretary, he spearheaded high-priority energy initiatives and led an interdisciplinary team of experts in crafting long-term, cross-cutting DOE strategies. Before moving to DOE, Dr. Reinke served as majority professional staff on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where he led departmental oversight and development of law spanning a range of energy issues including technology development, batteries and grid storage, workforce, microgrids and integrated energy systems, nuclear energy, and university R&D. He first joined the ENR team as the 2016 American Nuclear Society Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Fellow. As the chief architect of legislation and strategies in these roles, Dr. Reinke has worked with researchers and innovators across economic sectors.

Dr. Reinke holds his Ph.D. and M.S. in nuclear engineering, as well as his B.S. in physics and French from the Ohio State University, where he was a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow and a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fellow. His graduate studies included radiation damage in advanced materials for space applications and the development and characterization of high-temperature radiation detectors for nuclear safeguards in molten salt reprocessing environments. His research experiences also include studying the cultural and political context of the development of the French nuclear program and serving as a research assistant in a High Energy-Density Physics laser research group.

Panelist: Curtis Sharpe

Mr. Sharpe was appointed to the IBEW Tenth District staff as an International Representative in July 2019. Mr. Sharpe is responsible for servicing the local unions with IBEW members working under the General Agreement. He also serves as Secretary-Treasure of the Annual Trades and Labor Council serves on the Code of Excellence Core Committee, and serves on the Agency Health and Safety Committee. Mr. Sharpe services 13 IBEW Local Unions working on TVA property, 5 of which work directly with the 7 TVA Nuclear units.

In his role as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) representative and instructor of Code of Excellence for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Curtis Sharpe served along with craft representatives from six other unions, TVA Labor Relations management, and TVA Senior Vice President of Transmission & Power Supply. Sharpe provided craft union oversight of the Code of Excellence efforts across the entire TVA fleet, which included facilitating training through a partnership with the TVA Enterprise Improvement group. His efforts through the Code of Excellence are part of the greater goal of affecting positive change in employee culture at TVA.

One recent accomplishment for Sharpe in this role has been identifying and training 15 craft union facilitators. These facilitators and Sharpe trained approximately 5,000 TVA employees across seven states. This goal was accomplished cooperatively with TVA management in five short months.

Sharpe started his career with TVA in 1993 as an Operations trainee at the Widows Creek Fossil plant. He completed his training at the Johnsonville Fossil Plant, where he obtained the Unit Control Room Operator qualifications. Upon returning to Widows Creek, he continued work as a Unit Control Room Operator and Electrical Switchyard Control Room Operator. His switchyard experience prepared him to transfer to TVA Hydro Operations at the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage facility in 2004. Sharpe worked in various roles at the Raccoon Mountain facility, having achieved the role of Hydro-Tech Level III, Senior Operator of Pump Storage in 2007, where he worked until he transitioned into the Code of Excellence Instructor role in the spring of 2018.

During his tenure with TVA, Sharpe has served as an IBEW job steward before being elected to the Assistant Business Manager/Vice President role for IBEW Local 721 in 2007. He served the membership of his IBEW local in this capacity until being elected Business Agent/President in 2011 and taking his role as an IBEW International Representative.

Education:
1985 – 1989 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
1989 – 1993 Pipe Organ Builders Apprenticeship