Programme - nucleareurope Events

Powering a Competitive EU

#Nucleareurope2025

4 – 5 June 2025 – Brussels, Belgium

Conference Language: English

The Conference and the High Level dinner will be held at The Mix, Boulevard du Souverain 25, 1170 Brussels

Draft conference programme 4 June 2025

Moderator: Sonja Van Renssen – Chief Strategy Officer, Carbon Pulse

14.00 – 14.30

Registration

14.30 – 16.00

High level Opening Session – Fireside Chats

Xavier Ursat – President, nucleareurope
Wojciech Wrochna – Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure and Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry, Poland
Ditte Juul Jørgensen – Director General for Energy, European Commission
Christophe Grudler – Member of the European Parliament

16.00 – 16.30

Networking break

16.30 – 18.00

Panel 1: Energy Sovereignty & affordability

One of the key issues affecting the competitiveness of European industries is 24/7 access to affordable energy. This panel will therefore focus on:

What the needs are
How homegrown energy sources can support European energy sovereignty and affordability
The policies which will help support all of this.

Panellists:

Tom Greatrex – Chief Executive, Nuclear Industry Association
Charlotte Nørlund-Matthiessen – Cabinet of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, European Commission
Hugues Hinterlang – Head of EU Public Affairs, Orano
Fabien Roques – Executive Vice President, Compass Lexecon
Małgosia Rybak – Climate Change & Energy Director, Confederation of European Paper Industries
Jean-Baptiste Léger – Head of Department, Green Transition, Mouvement des Entreprises de France

Break

19.00 – 22.00

Cocktail & Networking Dinner

Xavier Ursat – Group Senior Executive Vice President, Strategy, Technologies, Innovation and Development, EDF
Tomáš Ehler – Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic
Emmanuel Brutin – Director General, nucleareurope
Ebba Busch – Deputy Prime Minister, Sweden (invited)

5 June 2025

Moderator: Sonja Van Renssen – Chief Strategy Officer, Carbon Pulse

08.30 – 09.00

Registration

09.00 – 09.15

Keynote: Frédéric Lelièvre – Senior Executive Vice President, Sales, Regional Platforms and Instrumentation and Control Business Unit, Framatome

09.15 – 11.00

Three Breakout sessions dedicated to Innovation & Technological leadership

Breakout session

Building a European supply chain for Advanced Modular Reactors

Sponsored by newcleo

This session will focus on the supply chain needed for the rapid deployment of AMRs, including the fuel cycle. It will look at how to scale up manufacturing in Europe in particular.

Speakers

Elisabeth Rizzotti – COO & Managing Director, newcleo
Joanna Drake – Deputy Director General, Planet, People and Science for Policy, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Gianfranco Brunetti – Head of Unit, Nuclear energy, nuclear waste and decommissioning, DG Energy, European Commission
Massimiliano Tacconelli – VP Nuclear & Big Science Director, Walter Tosto
Kris Van Dijck – Member of the European Parliament
Emmanuelle Veran – Director of the Metallurgy and Special Projects Business Unit, ECM Technologies

Breakout session

Digitalisation for nuclear, with nuclear

Sponsored by CAELUS

This session will focus on how digital tools, such as Artificial Intelligence, can help the nuclear industry speed up its processes, for example the licencing of new facilities. Furthermore, it will also touch upon how the increase in digitalisation will trigger demand for net zero electricity.

Speakers

Kristian Vigenin – Member of the European Parliament
Alessio Iuvara – Founder and CEO, CAELUS (tbc)

Breakout session

Role of nuclear in the energy mix

Sponsored by PEJ

This session will focus on how nuclear can support the current energy trilemma: security of supply, affordability and decarbonisation. It will look at how firm capacity, such as nuclear, will be key in a more flexible energy system of the future in order to provide system stability.

Discussions would concentrate on the changing energy mix in the EU with increasing penetration of renewables in particular and consequences for the functioning of the energy system. This should be put in the context of EU energy policy pillars: security of supplies, competitiveness/affordability and sustainability as well as in the context of new EU industrial policy embedded in the Draghi report and Clean Industrial Deal. The role for nuclear in this changing energy and industrial environment should be analysed and further steps should be considered, also in terms of the electricity market design.

Speakers

Wojciech Wrochna – Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure and Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry, Poland
Łukasz Koliński – Director, Green Transition and Energy System Integration, DG Energy, European Commission
Tomáš Ehler – Deputy Minister, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic
Marion Labatut – European Affairs Director, EDF

Moderator: Christopher Jones – Part-time Professor of Energy Law and Policy, European University Institute, Florence School of Regulation

11.00 – 11.30

Networking break

11.30 – 13.00

Panel 2: Reaching NetZero

Opening – video message from Member of the European Parliament Tsvetelina Penkova

Decarbonising Europe’s economy remains a key priority. However, this must go hand in hand with an understanding of how industry operates. This session will therefore focus on:

The challenges which energy intensive sectors face on the road to Net Zero.
Identifying solutions to incentivise the deployment of sufficient clean energy sources to meet growing demand.
Implementing policies which will help reach Net Zero whilst maintaining an industrial base in Europe.

Panellists:

Audrey Goulven Priori – Infrastructure and Clean Energy Director, Dassault Systèmes
Peter Claes – President, IFIEC Europe & Managing Director, Febeliec
Sandrine Devos – Head of Public Affairs, European Industrial Gases Association
Brent Wanner – Head of Power Sector Unit, World Energy Outlook, International Energy Agency
William Todts – Executive Director Brussels (EU), Transport & Environment

13.00 – 14.00

Networking Lunch

14.00 – 14.15

Keynote: Bridget Sparrow – Chief Operating Officer, Urenco

14.15 – 14.45

Feedback breakout sessions

14.45 – 15.15

Networking break

15.15 – 16.45

Panel 3: Skills & Supply Chain

Launch of the Economic & Social Impact Study – Marius Vasilescu – Partner, Advisory, Deloitte Romania

Panel Discussion: Two of the bottlenecks affecting the deployment of nuclear – as well as many other sectors in Europe – is the lack of a skilled workforce at all levels and an adequate supply chain. This session will therefore focus on identifying;

The skills needs across the different sectors & seeing how projects, such as Skills4Nuclear, can help resolve these issues
The challenges which the supply chain is facing in terms of ramping up capacity in Europe to meet current and future demand
Identifying policy solutions which can help ensure that Europe has access to the skilled workforce & supply chain which it needs.

Panellists:

Pietro Francesconi – Commercial Director, Nuclear Division, Tectubi Raccordi
Lavinia Rizea – Nuclear Energy Attaché, Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union
Domenico Rossetti di Valdalbero – Deputy Head of Unit, Euratom Research Unit, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Marius Vasilescu – Partner, Advisory, Deloitte Romania