Organizers

General Chair

Tanya Hamilton

Senior Vice President Nuclear Corporate, Duke Energy

Tanya Hamilton serves as senior vice president, nuclear corporate for Duke Energy. In this role, she is responsible for accelerating the company’s efforts to transform operations and position the nuclear fleet to serve customers well into the future. She has responsibility for nuclear corporate operations, engineering, regulatory affairs, strategy and innovation.

Hamilton has more than 25 years of experience in the nuclear energy industry. Before assuming her current position in December 2019, she served as site vice president of the Harris Nuclear Plant near New Hill,

N.C. In that role, she was responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the single-unit, pressurized water-reactor nuclear generating facility. She directed station and facilities management, operations, maintenance, chemistry, radiation protection, engineering, nuclear and industrial safety, and business operations. She also served as plant manager of Harris.

Hamilton joined Duke Power in 1992 and held various engineering positions prior to being appointed as training manager at McGuire Nuclear Station in 2004. Additional leadership positions include safety assurance manager, work control superintendent and engineering manager at Catawba Nuclear Station and corporate engineering functional area manager for nuclear generation.

Hamilton serves on the nuclear engineering accreditation oversight board for North Carolina State University and provides strategic consulting to the board of directors for Community Health Service in Union County, N.C.

Technical Program Chair

Norm Kunkel

Fleet Engineering Director, Duke Energy

Norm Kunkel is the new nuclear development and strategy engineering director for Duke Energy. He works closely with senior management in developing nuclear options for net zero carbon emission generation strategy.

Kunkel was Engineering General Manager at McGuire Nuclear Station from 2015 to 2020 and Engineering Central Functional Area Manager and EGM for Centralized Components Engineering from 2020 to 2022 where he was responsible for nuclear fleet engineering performance. He was named to his current position in 2022. He has worked in various leadership positions in plant engineering, design engineering, operations, performance improvement, and work management. He joined Duke Energy in 1990 as a design engineer.

Kunkel is a graduate from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He served as a nuclear submarine officer from 1985 to 1990 and qualified as a navy engineering department leader in 1990. Kunkel earned a senior reactor operator certification at McGuire Nuclear Station.

Technical Program Chair

Dan Churchman

Fleet Engineering Director, Southern Nuclear

Daniel L. (Dan) Churchman is an Engineering Director for Southern Nuclear Operating Company.

Dan joined SNC in 2014 as the Nuclear Fuel & Analysis Director and became the Fleet Engineering Director in 2016. In 2019, Dan was asked to serve as the Fleet Liaison for integrating the new Vogtle 3&4 plants into the operating fleet. Prior to joining SNC, Dan held various leadership positions with Westinghouse Electric Company, TetraTech, and Black & Veatch. He began his nuclear career serving in the Navy Nuclear Program for 8 years followed by an opportunity to join Entergy as a Shift Engineer at Arkansas Nuclear One. While at Entergy, Dan held various positions in Operations, Engineering, and Project Management. He received an SRO license on ANO Unit 2 and attended the Senior Nuclear Plant Manager Course. Dan has a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He was also certified as a Naval Nuclear Engineer and has a Project Management Certification (PMP).

Technical Program Chair

Dan Doran

President, Exelon Power Labs

Dan Doran has held many positions in Constellation Generation throughout his 31 years of nuclear industry experience. Prior to his current position as President of Constellation PowerLabs, Dan held leadership roles in Engineering, Maintenance, and Work Management at the Limerick Generating Station where he served for 24 years and then as a Corporate Engineering Director for 4 years. Dan received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and Villanova University respectively. Dan also received a BWR SRO certification.