Nuclear Energy Conference 2020

Speakers

Oda Becker

Oda Becker (Physicist) is an independent self-employed scientific consultant for nuclear safety. She studied physics and education science at the University of Hanover. From 2006 – 2011, Oda Becker had a professorship at the University of Applied Science and Arts, Hanover.

Since 1999, she has participated in several studies of nuclear power plants and storage facilities, among others, analysing the accident scenarios resulting from possible terror attacks or flooding events. Her clients include the Austrian Federal Government as well as several non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Recent work includes expert statements and studies of safety issues at the German and European NPPs ((for example: Temelín NPP, Czech Republic; Mochovce NPP, Slovakia; Paks NPP, Hungary; Hinkley Point, UK; Fennovoima, Finland); studies of the situation at the Chernobyl NPP; and studies concerning the European “Stress Tests” in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.

She is member of International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group (INRAG).

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Georg Günsberg

Georg Günsberg works as an analyst and political consultant with a focus on energy and climate challenges. Being a political scientist he has worked for different non-governmental organisations (e.g. GLOBAL 2000, ÖKOBÜRO), for the local city council in Vienna and the Austrian Parliament, primarily on climate and energy issues but also on general strategy and program development.

In 2007 Günsberg started his own consulting firm based in Vienna, and is - among other functions - special advisor to the annual Austrian World Summit, The Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative. He is author of the Factcheck Energy Transition publication series published annually by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund and of different studies and research projects related to energy scenarios and the finance sector, e.g. on climate-related risks in investment portfolios. Current research projects (“RiskFinPorto”) analyse transition risks to investors and the role of the divestment movement.

He regularly published analysis papers on the annual IEA World Energy Outlook providing a critical view on the underestimating of disrupting market and technology developments. Georg Günsberg is also a speaker and facilitator at international conferences and in workshops.

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David Reinberger

Mag. David Reinberger (born 1976) works at the Vienna Ombuds Office for Environmental Protection, where he is in charge of technical environmental protection and assumes the tasks of the City of Vienna commissioner for protection from nuclear power. A theoretical physicist, he studied theoretical nuclear physics and particle physics at the University of Vienna.

Besides communication with relevant authorities of neighbouring countries, the tasks of the City of Vienna commissioner for protection from nuclear power include development of information materials for the population and decision makers, as well as representation of Vienna in transboundary proceedings and papers on accident protection.

Besides own papers, such as those for "The technological and economical future of nuclear power“ (Springer, 2019) or "Nukleare Katastrophen und ihre Folgen" (Nuclear catastrophes and their consequences; Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2016), he maintains close scientific collaboration, e.g., with the Austrian Institute of Ecology and the Institute of Safety and Risk Sciences of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences.

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Martin Sedlák

Martin Sedlák is currently the programme director of the Modern Energy Union, an umbrella platform of associations in the area of renewable energies, energy storage, smart grids, energy services and combined heat and power generation. In his position, he is in charge of coordinating the Union’s work contents, media outputs and commenting on legislation.

In 2012, he co-founded the Alliance for Energy Self-sufficiency, an independent association commenting on developments in both Czech and European energy systems. He is also the executive director of the news portal Obnovitelne.cz, which brings information about technological advances in modern energy systems. He is a member of the project team on research projects focused on the role of energy systems in circular economies and on the potential for development of energy self-production, which he implements in collaboration with BIC Brno s. r. o. with support from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.

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Benjamin K. Sovacool

Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Energy Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School in the United Kingdom. There he serves as Director of the Sussex Energy Group. He is also Professor of Business & Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Energy Technologies at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Professor Sovacool works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to global energy policy and politics, energy security, energy justice, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. More specifically, his research focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, the ethics of energy, and building adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change. He is a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), due to be published in 2022, and an Advisor on Energy to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation in Brussels, Belgium. He has played a leadership role in winning collaborative research grants worth more than $22.2 million in directly managed funds (on proposals worth more than $156 million), including those from the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program of Denmark, the Danish Council for Independent Research, and the European Commission. In the United Kingdom, he has served as a Principal Investigator on projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

He is the recipient of multiple national and international awards and honors, including the “Distinguished Graduate Alumni Achievement Award” from his Alma Mater Virginia Tech, the 2019 USERN Prize for his work on “Social Justice in an Era of Climate Change and Energy Scarcity,” the “Dedication to Justice Award” given by the American Bar Association, and a “Distinguished Visiting Energy Professorship” at the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. With much coverage of his work in the international news media, he is one of the most highly cited global researchers on issues bearing on controversies in energy and climate policy.

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Reinhard Uhrig

Reinhard Uhrig has been an anti-nuclear activist from his youth. He has worked in publishing (political non-fiction, school textbooks) and has joined Friends of the Earth Austria / GLOBAL 2000 in 2010 as anti-nuclear campaigner, since 2012 he is head of campaigns.

He has worked on the campaigns to stop subsidies for new nuclear plants in Europe that resulted in Austria challenging the European Union Hinkley Point C and Paks II state aid decisions at the European Court of Justice. Most recently he has led the campaign to stop Mochovce 3 start-up in 2019 that raised serious issues with the information of several engineers (whistleblowers) which resulted in Austria's prime minister voicing concerns and thus enabling an international mission investigating the building site.

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Ben Wealer is an industrial engineer by training and currently works as a research associate at the Workgroup for Economic and Infrastructure Policy (WIP) at Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin), as a guest researcher at DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research), and as a political consultant. His field of research is nuclear power economics with a focus on decommissioning, radioactive waste management, nuclear power plant new build, and the dual-use issues of nuclear power. He is a founding member of a research project on nuclear energy in Germany, Europe, and abroad run jointly by TU Berlin and DIW Berlin. Since 2018, Wealer is a contributing author to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report and co-author of the World Nuclear Waste Report.

For a list of publications, see https://www.wip.tu-berlin.de/menue/kontakt_mitarbeiterinnen/ben_wealer/.

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