Nuclear Power Committee

Nuclear Power Committee
Image © Crown Copyright Courtesy of Royal Navy

The Nuclear Power Committee is served by influential individuals speaking for the salient parts of a diverse sector.

The Committee meets three times a year and acts as a technical advisory panel to the Power Industries Board, representing all sectors of power generation.

Committee members represent the following areas:

  • Nuclear regulation
  • New build
  • Power generation
  • Research (fission & fusion)
  • Defence
  • Fuel cycle
  • Decommissioning
  • Contractors and construction
  • Academia.

Committee members

Esther Barrett - Chair

Jacobs

Gordon Tait – Immediate Past Chair

Dounreay

 

Bruce Cletheroe - Vice Chair

AWE

Chris Bennett

Chris BennettReactor Plant Performance Group Lead, Rolls-Royce SMR

Chris graduated with a MEng from the University of Nottingham and then completed a PhD in Advanced Hydrogen Storage with the Advanced Materials Group at the University of Nottingham.

Chris joined Rolls-Royce Submarines as a thermal-fluid engineer where he was responsible for the development and testing of plant performance models for each of the current and Future Submarine classes within the Royal Navy.

Following on from this he joined Rolls-Royce SMR Limited where he looks after a team that is responsible for the development of the thermal-hydraulic plant analysis methods and carrying out analysis to support design activities and Fault Study justifications.

Chris Cheater

Principal Consultant, Abbott Risk Consulting Ltd

Chris is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IMechE, working in the nuclear industry with expertise in nuclear and radiological safety. He is experienced in all stages of nuclear safety case production including hazard identification and analysis, mechanical, electrical and radiological design substantiation, safety case authorship and independent review. He has worked in decommissioning and fuel cycle industries. He also has expertise in nuclear site licence compliance, nuclear safety assurance safety cultural improvement and leadership.

Jennifer Gilmour

Dounreay

Peter Gillard

Engineering Manager
Frazer-Nash Consultancy Ltd

Peter has 25 years of experience working within the Power Industry. This has included work on steam turbines, gas turbines and, for 20 years, civil nuclear power stations. His technical experience covers analysis (fluids, heat transfer, nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics), safety (authoring nuclear safety cases) and technical lead roles on nuclear projects. In his current role he manages a department of 60 consultant engineers working mainly in the nuclear industry.

John Hulme

Magnox

Shaun Kelso

Head of Decommissioning Planning, Sellafield Ltd

Shaun is a Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics; his doctoral research was into ‘Developing wicked strategy: the case of Sellafield Ltd’. Joining BNFL at Sellafield in 1989, Shaun has held senior EHSQ, operations, commissioning, and technical positions across the site – including Magnox reprocessing and MOx fuel manufacture - before becoming a senior policy adviser, leading on post-Fukushima stress testing, and introducing lean thinking into the site’s nuclear operations. Following a 4-year secondment to NDA, leading support to the industrial strategy and nuclear sector deal, Shaun is currently back with Sellafield where he is leading on ‘Remediation 2045’ to enable more effective decommissioning.

Philip Kolodziejczak

Mechanical Team Lead, Jacobs

Phil is an engineering team lead who joined Jacobs in 2020. Degree qualified with 15 years’ experience in oil & gas, nuclear and automotive engineering industries. This experience spans the full engineering, procurement and construction lifecycle from concept, development, build, testing and delivery. Phil has taken lead on several mechanical projects which have been successful in delivery. More recently Phil has been specialising in nuclear fusion research and small modular reactor projects as well as traditional nuclear.

Stephen Nesbeth CEng FIMechE FIET MAPM MCMI

Stephen NesbethSenior Engineering Manager, AWE

In addition to his day job as a Senior Engineering Manager, Stephen is Head of Profession (HoP) for Mechanical Engineering with over 35 years’ experience with AWE in nuclear, explosives and conventional engineering applications. This spans design, manufacture, construction, commissioning and through life maintenance. A Fellow of IMechE and IET respectively and a senior mentor in AWE’s mechanical engineering professional development programme. Stephen has responsibility for the performance and CPD of circa 70 mentors, all of whom are professionally registered and the development of around circa 170 developing engineers (DE).

An ambassador for AWE in these activities and uses these acquired experiences for the benefit of AWE’s DE in professional registration application reviews for IMechE and IET, as well as internal AWE mock interviews supporting IMechE and IET professional registration interviews.

Externally, Stephen is an IMechE Professional Review Interviewer of applicants world-wide, applying for professional registration from Defence and other industries such as Nuclear, Manufacturing, Motor Sport, Aircraft, Railway, Oil & Gas, Academia and the like.

IET Professional Review Interviewer of applicants world-wide applying for professional registration from Defence e.g. HVAC systems for Anti-submarine surface ships, Manufacturing and other industries such as Power Transmission, Power Generation, Power Network, Mechatronics i.e. Drone technology, Sewage Treatment e.g. abroad in Qatar, Hongkong, India, some African countries and the like.

Andrew Paton-Crockett

Engineering Manager, Assystem

Andrew has been involved in projects in the civil and defence industries and has also been involved in nuclear new build projects in the UK and internationally. His experience has involved roles in design, acting as an intelligent customer as well as project management.

Andrew is currently working on an SMR project as a design manager on the conventional Island.

Tom Pritt

Jacobs

Andy Pyle - Past Chair

Andy Pyle Technical and Safety Support Manager, Heysham 2 Power Station, EDF Energy Ltd

Responsible for technical governance and oversight of the broad range of safety and security (approximately 90 staff), including nuclear site licence compliance, quality management, and provision of technical conscience to senior leadership team. The role involves significant external regulator interaction, and management of a range of station and corporate stakeholders. Previous Experience within EDF in a variety of engineering roles, and external experience includes Fellow of the World Nuclear University, WANO technical support mission as a technical expert in engineering. Previous chair of the Nuclear Power Committee.

Phil Rogers

Phil RogersEquilibrion, Director

Phil’s has a broad range of technical and commercial experience in nuclear including operating reactors, new build, advanced reactors, the role of nuclear in net zero, and electric and non-electric applications. This covers roles in consulting, government and national laboratory settings. His recent specialism has been in the application of nuclear for hydrogen, synthetic fuels and direct heat for decarbonisation and the technical, policy and economic enablers for projects to deliver on this opportunity. Phil is now owner and director of Equilibrion Limited, an SME founded in 2021 to develop and deliver compelling cross sector propositions for decarbonisation with nuclear energy.

Matt Rooney CEng MIMechE

Engineering Policy Manager, Institution Of Mechanical Engineers

Sadia Samas

Assystem Energy & Infrastructure

Bernard Swinnerton

Bernard SwinnertonPrincipal Design Engineer, Sellafield Ltd

Graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1986. Chartered Mechanical Engineer since 1990; and prior to working with Sellafield, spent 4 years with NNC on Heysham II Power Station and Berkeley Nuclear Labs; before spending 6 years with DGP Consulting Engineers working for Pharmaceutical, Petrochemical and Nuclear Clients.  I work in the Engineering directorate for the Sellafield site where I supply design and engineering support for the nuclear ventilation and building services discipline.  Responsible for writing and maintaining the NDA Ventilation Engineering Standards and Engineering Guides which are considered as Relevant Good Practice for the UK nuclear industry.

Chair of the National Nuclear Ventilation Forum and its associated sub-groups. Member of the ASME AG-1 Committee on Nuclear Air and Gas Treatment and BSI MCE 21 Committee for Filters for gases and liquids; and through these committees I help to ensure that our Engineering Standards and Guides follow good international practice.

Colin Tait

Colin TaitMechanical Engineering Professional Lead

Colin leads ONR’s team of mechanical engineering specialist inspectors, overseeing regulatory decisions and providing impartial technical advice. As head of capability, Colin is accountable for maintaining and developing ONR’s mechanical engineering talent, capability and knowledge management.

Colin joined ONR over fifteen years ago, and has undertaken a variety of regulatory roles including: design assessment; oversight of major construction/commissioning projects; and inspection of civil nuclear facilities.

Gordon Tait

Innovation Manager, DSRL

Gordon started his engineering career at the Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay moving quickly up the operations chain to become a shift manager until the final reactor shutdown and de-fuelling was complete. With the research work finished, he transferred to nuclear decommissioning, preparing and implementing decommissioning plans and programmes for the wide range of site facilities. This gave him a fantastic opportunity to pioneer new approaches and explore innovative techniques to achieve cost effective decommissioning solutions. After 40 years in operations, he has now become the site Innovation Manager which allows him to focus fully on technology and strategy development while still maintaining the training and development support to our young engineers.

My objective on the committee is the promotion of knowledge sharing across the industry.

Shona Tait MEng AMIMechE

Mechanical Engineering Graduate System Engineering – SIXEP, Sellafield

Shona joined Sellafield in 2022 as a graduate Mechanical Engineer after graduating with a Masters from the University of Strathclyde. She has so far gained experience in Data and Asset Management and Plant Engineering through the scheme. She has also taken on a number of additional roles including Secretary for the Management Safety Committee at Sellafield and sits on the Support Office for the Nuclear Engineering Directors' Forum.

Simon Walker

Imperial College

James Wilson

Senior Systems Engineer, MOD

Over 10 years of experience working within the nuclear sector and IEng status. The majority of this time has been based within defence nuclear sector and focusing on acting as an intelligent customer on infrastructure safety cases.

Dan Wolff

Dan WolffSTEP Commercial Pathway Lead, UKAEA

Dan Wolff leads the team considering the commercialisation of fusion power within UKAEA’s Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme, he has been a chartered mechanical engineer since 2006. He was involved in fission decommissioning early in his career and has worked in fusion since 2008 on both domestic and international programmes

 

What we do

  • Ensure that good engineering practice and exciting innovation in the nuclear sector is propagated to all interested members of the Institution
  • Ensure that the Institution listens and responds to topics members want to hear about
  • Communicate with a wider audience on nuclear engineering matters of public and national interest
  • Arrange events, talks, and web content. Visit our webinar hub to see a library of past talks
  • Engage with the Institution's regional centres 
  • Publish reports and contribute to Institution policy statements and responses to questions from the government, media or the general public.

Objectives

  • Promote the safe use and application of engineering in all aspects of nuclear energy together with its standards 
  • Influence decision makers on the merits of nuclear energy and to advise our Institution on nuclear energy matters 
  • Stimulate debate over the engineering issues which arise in nuclear power generation and provide training/ professional development opportunities, especially for younger engineers 
  • Promote a willingness to share with, inter alia, the engineering institutions, BNES and BNIF in the management and organisation of nuclear related activities, to avoid duplication and to maximise interest and value.

Prizes and awards

Power Industries Division awards the following prizes:

Arthur Charles Main Prize

Edwin Walker Prize

Harold V Disney Prize

View our scholarships and awards

Get in touch

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