Additive manufacturing, cyber security, accelerating technology, "Smart Fuel" and supply chain networks were omnibus topics at an inaugural Summit & Showcase of one hundred key nuclear energy executives and thought leaders held in Idaho Falls in early October. The Advanced Manufacturing & Supply Chain Innovation Leadership Summit was sponsored by the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council (USNIC) in cooperation with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
Keynotes featured the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, Suzanne Jaworowski; Concurrent Technologies Corporation President & CEO Edward Sheehan; Nationally syndicated columnist and commentator Llewellyn King; INL Laboratory Director Mark Peters; Vedigris Capital Managing Director Walter Howes and Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper.
Summit topics embraced technology developer and supplier challenges and opportunities; transformative technologies in advanced manufacturing; additive manufacturing on nuclear components and fuels; meeting future energy system demands; X-energy-Centrus collaboration on advanced nuclear fuel; cyber security for direct digital manufacturing; regional supply chains and factory assembly of small reactors; human capital; the Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Database; and the new Pennsylvania-headquartered Center for Advanced Nuclear Manufacturing.
The Summit & Showcase provided tours of INL's Materials and Fuels Complex and Advanced Test Reactor Complex hosted under the auspices of the Idaho National Laboratory. X-energy and Centrus Energy served as co-sponsors of the Summit with the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Holtec Government Services as Summit Showcase Sponsors.