Previous Up & Atom Speakers

2025

Topic: SRNL Updates (November 6, 2025)

Dr. Johney Green Jr. Director, SRNL, and President and CEO of Battelle Savannah River Alliance (SRNL Overview Presentation)

Topic: SRNS – Building on a Legacy;  Preparing for the Future (September 11, 2025)

Dr. Jeffrey C. Griffin, President and CEO, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions

Topic: SRS Interns- 2025 Edition! (July 23, 2025)

Alexander Smith (SRMC), Colette Towles (SRNL), and Kevin Yulkowski (SRNS)

Topic: Using Innovation to Safely Accomplish the Liquid Waste Mission (June 18, 2025)

Dr. Thomas D. Burns, Jr., President and Program Manager Savannah River Mission Completion (Burns’ Presentation)

Topic: Growing Season: Cultivating the Nuclear Medicine Technology Field (May 15, 2025)

Amy Yarshen, Certified Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Professor, and Nuclear Medicine Program Director at Augusta University. (Yarshen’s Presentation)

Topic: Nuclear Energy and the future of Space (April 17, 2025)

Kate H. Kelly, Director for Space and Emerging programs for BWXT

Topic: Membership Breakfast (March 20, 2024)

Board members, committee chairs, and staff.

Presentation can be found here: 3.20.25 Presentation

2024

Topic: Apprenticeships ‘WORC’ because of our Partnerships (November 20, 2024)

Dr. Steven Simmons (Aiken Technical College), Dr. Hadi Hamid (Denmark Technical College), Mylinthia Renee Kelly (Augusta Technical College), Booboo Roberts (SRNS), Mindy Mets (SRSCRO), and Abigail Bowman (SRNS).

Their presentation can be found here: CNTA Apprenticeship Overview 11.20.24

Topic: Regulator, the Reactor, and a Whole Set of Reports: Licensing Advanced Reactor Technology for Domestic Deployment” (September 12, 2024)

Travis Chapman, Director Regulatory & Licensing, BWXT.
(Travis’s Presentation)

Topic: SRPPF: The Future of Production at SRS (July 17, 2024)

Erika Baeza-Wisdom, Deputy Vice President, Pit Production Operations and Programs at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC.

Topic: Experiences from current SRS interns (July 17, 2024)

SRMC, SRNL, SRNS interns provide their observations. 

Topic: NuWadi Consortium & Concept-Based Siting (June 5, 2024)

A consortium led by Clemson University. 

Topic: Fuel Strategy for the eVinci Microreactor (March 13, 2024)

Dr. Kallie Metzger, eVinci Fuel Director, Westinghouse (Metzger Presentation Here)

2023

Topic: Faster Times at SRNS (October 31, 2023)

Dennis Carr President and Chief Executive Officer Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC

Topic: An Encore Performance from SRNL’s Research SLAM Participants (October 3, 2023)

Six early career researchers presented their research in three-minute talks. 

Topic: SRS Interns share their experiences working on site (July 19, 2023)

Justin Vu Le (Savannah River Mission Completion), Zaire Shaw (Savannah River National Laboratory), and Neal Thakkar (Savannah River Nuclear Solutions)

Topic: Vogtle 1-4 Soon-to-be America’s largest reactor site (April 20, 2023)

Joel Leopard, Senior Communications Specialist, Southern Nuclear- Plant Vogtle

Topic: Here Comes the Sun…Almost (March 9, 2023)

Dr. Fred Beranek, Director of Engineering and Fusion Program Manager, Fluor Nuclear Power (Beranek Up & Atom Presentation PDF)

Topic: Savannah River Site: Landlord Transition from DOE to NNSA (February 2, 2023)

Frank Rose, NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator, & Ike White, DOE Senior Advisor for Environmental Management (Presentation Video)

2022

Topic: Capturing History: The Legacy of Savannah River Plant’s Early Photographers (December 6, 2022)

Mary Beth Reed, President of New South Associates (Museum Up & Atom Presentation part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Topic: Apprenticeship- The Pipeline from the SC Technical School System to SRS (October 20 2022)

Dr. Dorian Newton (Program Manager, Apprenticeship & Pipeline Training for SRNS), Aherial Polite (Department Chair of Chemistry, Physics and Nuclear Technology at Aiken Technical College), and BooBoo Roberts (Deputy Program Manager, Apprenticeship & Pipeline Training for SRNS) (Presentation PDF)

Topic: The Road to Completing the Liquid Waste Mission (September 29, 2022)

Dr. David Olson, President & Program Manager for Savannah River Mission Completion

Topic: The Manhattan Project (August 17, 2022)

Alan Carr, Los Alamos National Laboratory Historian (Carr Presentation, Carr’s YouTube page)

Topic: SRS Interns (July 19, 2022)

Interns and intern coordinators from SRMC & SRNS share their experiences

Topic: Fast Times at SRS (June 15, 2022)

Stuart MacVean, President & CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions

Topic: National Laboratory Management and Operations at Battelle (May 12, 2022)

Dr. Mark Peters, Executive Vice President for National Laboratory Management and Operations at Battelle (Battelle Presentation (5.22))

Topic: WORC is Working, Hear how the Workforce Opportunities in Regional Careers (WORC) grant is making a multi-million-dollar impact to help build the future SRS workforce (March 23, 2022)

Mindy Mets (SRSCRO), Crystal Ratliff (ATC), and Brooke Stagich (SRNL) (Work is Working PDF)

2021

Topic: Seventy Years of Ecological Research – The History and Mission of UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Lab (December 8, 2021)

Dr. Olin (Gene) Rhodes, Jr., Director of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory

Topic: Amentum- Solution Provider to the U.S. Government (October 13, 2021)

Tom Foster, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Nuclear & Environment for Amentum

Topic: SRNL Update & Future Direction (August 25, 2021)

Dr. Vahid Majidi, President of BSRA & Director of SRNL (Presentation PDF, Video of Presentation)

Topic: SRR’s Success at the Savannah River Site (July 21, 2021)

Philip Breidenbach, President & Project Manager for Savannah River Remediation (Plus two summer interns!)

Topic: Workforce Development – Short-Term, Long-Term, Nuclear, and Beyond (June 23, 2021)

Dr. Forest Mahan, President of Aiken Technical College (Presentation PDF)

Topic: NNSA Capital Projects Update (May 27, 2021)

Dave Olson, Executive Vice President, NNSA Capital Projects for SRNS (Video of Presentation)

Topic: National Security in 2021 (Virtual February 24, 2021)

Admiral Charles Munns (Video of Presentation)

2020

Topic: The Nuclear We Need (Virtual December 2, 2020)

Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, CTO of BWXT (PDF of Presentation) (Video of Presentation)

Topic: Update on Construction at Vogtle 3 & 4 (Virtual November 11, 2020)

Brian Reilly, Senior Vice President & Project Director for Bechtel

Topic: Savannah River Remediation: Delivering Results in 2020 (Virtual October 7, 2020)

Phil Breidenbach, SRR President & Project Manager (Presentation PDF) (Video of Presentation)

Topic: Nuclear Power in America (Virtual August 26, 2020)

David Amerine (Presentation PDF) (Video of Presentation)

Topic: State of SRS Environmental Management (February 20, 2020)

Mike Budney, DOE-SR Manager (Presentation PDF)

Topic: Huntington Ingalls Industries: Leveraging The Legacy (January 2020)

Michael Lempke, President, Nuclear & Environmental Group, HII Technical Solutions (Presentation PDF).

2019

Topic: I Didn’t Know DOE Had an Office of Intelligence (October 2019)

Steven K. Black, Director, Office of Intelligence & Counterintelligence, U.S. Department of Energy

Topic: High-Precision Nuclear Forensics-
The Case of the MK18A Target Assemblies (September 2019)

Richard Meehan, Director of the Office of Nuclear Materials Integration (NNSA) (Presentation PDF)

Topic: SRNS: Leaning Forward (August 2019)

Stuart MacVean, President & CEO of Savannah River Nuclear Solutions

Topic: Recruiting & Retaining Top Talent Engineers: Good for our Company and Good for our Community (July 2019)

Phil Breidenbach, Chief Engineer & two SRR Summer Interns

Savannah River Remediation

Topic: Research at South Carolina Universities (June 2019)

South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation (Presentation PDF)

Clemson University (Presentation PDF)

South Carolina State University (Presentation PDF)

University of South Carolina (Presentation PDF)

Topic: National Security Implications of U.S. Nuclear Power in the 21st Century
(May 2019)

David Gattie, Associate Professor of Engineering, University of Georgia’s College of Engineering
Resident Fellow, University of Georgia’s Center for International Trade and Security
Presentation PDF

Topic: Introducing Nicole Nelson-Jean (February 2019)

Nicole Nelson-Jean, Manager National Nuclear Security Administration
Savannah River Field Office

Topic: Proactive Tactics for Cybersecurity in Complex Facilities
(January 2019)

Dave Trask, Principal Engineer Information & Control Systems Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
Gus Tomé, Cyber Business Unit Leader Jacobs Engineering, Blue Canopy Group

2018

Topic: Air Force Global Strike Command Brief
(November 2018)

Dr. Rodney L. Miller, Chief Scientist
Air Force Global Strike Command

Topic: The Future of Nuclear Energy – Plant Vogtle (September 2018)

Mr. Michael McCracken, Communications Director Southern Nuclear Company, Plant Vogtle

Topic: State of SRS (August 2018) 

Mr. Michael D. Budney, Manager USDOE Savannah River Operations Office

Topic: What Is SRR Doing to Get Ready for the Salt Waste Processing Facility? (July 2018)

Mr. Tom Foster, President and Project Manager
Savannah River Remediation, LLC

Topic: Nuclear Innovation in Support of Mars Mission (June 2018)

Dr. Jonthan Cirtain, Vice President of Advanced Technologies,
BWX Technologies, Inc.

Topic: Introducing Dr. Majidi and Spotlight on Young Professionals
(May 2018)

Dr. Vahid Majidi, Director, Savannah River National Laboratory

Topic: Radioactive Wildlife: The Secret Life of Wildlife Inhabiting Chernobyl and Fukushima (March 2018)

Dr. Jim Beasley, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and
The Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources

Topic: SRNL’s Role in Homeland Security (January 2018) 

Rick Reichel, Director of Global and Homeland Security Programs,
Savannah River National Laboratory