Past DOE Nuclear Energy Officials Roundtable

As Senior Vice President at Westinghouse Electric Company, Rita Baranwal leads development and deployment of the AP300™ Small Modular Reactor (SMR). She has over 25 years of nuclear industry experience and has held this role since May 2023.

Prior to this role, Baranwal was Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Digital and Innovation at Westinghouse where she led the clean energy company’s global research and development investments and spearheaded a technology strategy to advance the company’s innovative nuclear solutions.

Previously, Baranwal served as Chief Nuclear Officer and Vice President of Nuclear at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). She had overall management and technical responsibility for the research and development (R&D) activities conducted by EPRI with its global membership related to nuclear generation, providing support to more than 80 percent of the world’s existing and advanced commercial nuclear fleet.

Before joining EPRI, Baranwal served as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in a U.S. President-appointed and Senate-confirmed role. She led efforts to promote R&D on existing and advanced nuclear technologies that sustain the U.S. fleet of nuclear reactors and enable the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems.

Prior to the DOE, Baranwal directed the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative at Idaho National Laboratory. She was responsible for providing the nuclear industry and other stakeholders access to DOE's state-of-the-art R&D expertise, capabilities, and infrastructure to achieve faster and cost-effective development, demonstration, and ultimate deployment of innovative nuclear energy technologies. Under her leadership, GAIN positively impacted over 120 organizations.

Before joining the Idaho National Laboratory, Baranwal served as Director of Technology Development & Application at Westinghouse. There, she led the creation and development of game-changing technologies and managed characterization and hot cell laboratories. Her previous positions at Westinghouse included director of Core Engineering and manager of Materials and Fuel Rod Design. Prior to joining Westinghouse, she was a manager in Materials Technology at Bechtel Bettis, Inc. where she led and conducted R&D in advanced nuclear fuel materials for U.S. Naval Reactors.

Baranwal is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS). She serves on Advisory Boards for the US Nuclear Industry Council (US NIC) and the Nuclear Engineering departments of the University of Michigan and North Carolina State University. She also serves as a Commissioner on the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) High Level Commission on Nuclear Energy and Climate Security, the Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition, and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)’s High-level Group on Stakeholder Engagement, Trust, Transparency and Social Sciences (HLG-SET).

Dr. Baranwal has a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in the same discipline from the University of Michigan.

The Hon. Kathryn Huff is currently a professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her research focuses on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.

Huff served the Biden-Harris Administration as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy before being nominated and confirmed to serve as its Assistant Secretary.

She was formerly a postdoctoral fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California - Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Chicago.

She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, a past chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division as well as the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women's Achievement awards. Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software, she has also advocated for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing.

John Kotek is the Senior Vice President for Policy and Public Affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute. He’s responsible for providing policy and public affairs leadership on economic, electricity market and environmental issues related to the nuclear energy industry. John also serves as President of Nuclear Matters, a national coalition of grassroots advocates working to inform the public and policymakers about the clear benefits of nuclear energy.

Kotek joined NEI from the U.S. Department of Energy. He was appointed in January 2015 as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy and was nominated by President Obama in October 2015 to serve as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. In that role he was responsible for DOE’s research efforts on current and future nuclear energy systems, establishing a path forward for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel management program, and other national priorities.

Prior to his appointment, Kotek was the Managing Partner of the Boise office of Gallatin Public Affairs. He advised energy, natural resources and other clients facing complex communication and government relations challenges.

From 2010-2012, Kotek served as Staff Director to the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which recommended a new strategy for managing nuclear waste in the United States.

From 2003-2006, Kotek was Deputy Manager of the DOE’s Idaho Operations Office. Before joining DOE-Idaho, he worked for Argonne National Laboratory where he directed Argonne’s participation in the Generation IV nuclear energy technology roadmapping project.

In 2002, Kotek was the American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Fellow, serving in the office of Office of Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).

He started his career with DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. He held several positions during his nine years with DOE-NE, including Associate Director for Technology, Associate Director for Management and Administration, and Chief of Staff.

Kotek holds a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He serves on nuclear engineering advisory committees at the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, and Penn State University.

William Magwood, IV, took up his duties as Director-General of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) on September 1, 2014. He has extensive experience in both the regulatory and developmental aspects of nuclear energy, including at the international level.

From 2010 to 2014, he served as one of the five Commissioners appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). While a commissioner, he served as global voice for the importance of nuclear regulatory independence and advocated the necessity of maintaining strong, credible and technically sound nuclear regulation in the United States and all countries that use nuclear power.

Prior to his appointment at the NRC, from 2005 to 2010 he provided independent strategic and policy advice to US and international clients on energy, environment, education, and technology policy issues. From 1998 to 2005, Magwood was Director of the US Government’s civilian nuclear energy programme at the US Department of Energy (DOE). During his tenure, he established the Idaho National Laboratory; created activities that reversed the decline of US nuclear technology education; and launched important initiatives such as the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) and US “Nuclear Power 2010,” which helped restart nuclear plant construction in the United States. He was also actively involved in the work of the NEA, serving as a Steering Committee Bureau member from 1999 to 2003, and as Chairman of the Steering Committee from 2004 to 2005.

Prior to his experience at the DOE, Magwood managed electric utility research and nuclear policy programmes at the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, DC, and was a scientist at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Magwood, a US national, holds Bachelor degrees in Physics and English from Carnegie Mellon University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pittsburgh.

Warren “Pete” Miller, Jr. was born in Chicago, IL in 1943 and was an elementary school friend of Emmett Till who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 sparking the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Miller was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1960, graduating in 1964. He is a Viet Nam veteran and is a recipient of the Bronze Star.

He entered Northwestern University in 1969 and was awarded a PhD in Engineering Sciences in 1973. His research was in computational methods of neutron transport and he co-authored a text book on the subject. He served for almost 30 years and retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 2001, achieving the rank of Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology. He has served since then in part time or consultant capacities at the University of New Mexico, LANL, Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, AZIsotopes LLC, Texas A&M University and Kairos Power.

In 2009, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy serving under the leadership of Secretary Stephen Chu in the first Obama Administration.

Miller is a recipient of the Northwestern University Alumni Merit Award and was named by the National Society of Black Engineers as its 2004 Distinguished Engineer.

Miller is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and in 1996 was elected to the National Academy of Engineers.

He is presently a Professor of Practice in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University and a member of the External Advisory Board of Kairos Power.

Dennis Spurgeon is a proven senior executive in both government and private industry. In 2006 he was appointed to fill the newly reestablished position of Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy (NE) at the Department of Energy. In this capacity, Spurgeon served as the senior nuclear technology official in the U.S. Government.

Spurgeon was responsible for the Department’s nuclear energy enterprise, including nuclear technology research and development, management of the e Department’s nuclear technology infrastructure, and support to nuclear education in the U.S. One of his top priorities was to foster government and industry cooperation to accelerate the development and licensing of a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Spurgeon also led the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a comprehensive international strategy aimed at accelerating the demonstration of a more proliferation resistant fuel cycle and bringing the benefits of nuclear energy to the world in a safer and more secure manner, reducing the possibility that nuclear energy could be used for non-peaceful purposes. Additionally, he served as the acting Under Secretary of Energy and was a charter member of the Department’s Loan Guarantee Board.

Previously, Spurgeon served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for USEC, Inc., an international supplier of enriched uranium for nuclear plants, that is also developing an advanced American centrifuge. Prior to that, he served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a principal owner of Swiftships, an international leader in shipbuilding for the offshore oil and gas and military markets that has worked in over 40 countries, involving substantial international negotiations and work to resolve export control and financing issues.

Spurgeon was Assistant Director for Fuel Cycle in the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration. He was a member of the White House task force that developed President Ford’s nuclear policy, and later was responsible for developing the government’s spent fuel storage policy. Earlier in his career, as a U.S. Naval officer, he served as technical assistant to Commissioner Tommy Thompson and later to Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Commissioner Thompson was the lead Commissioner for the nuclear weapons program.

Other industry experience includes executive positions at the former United Nuclear Corporation, where as Chief Operating Officer he managed all manufacturing and services operations, including the manufacturing of reactor cores for the Navy, operation of the DOE’s former plutonium production “N”-reactor, located on the Hanford Reservation, and the manufacture of radioactive waste handling equipment. Earlier, he worked for the General Atomic Company, where he assisted in the development of nuclear reactor plants for electric power generation.

Spurgeon served in the U.S. Navy, achieving the rank of Captain. He graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy. He holds a Master s of Science in nuclear engineering and the post-masters degree of Nuclear Engineer (NUE) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.