EPRI Vice President and CNO Rita Baranwal joins the Atlantic Council Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition Press Release
Former Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy brings deep public and private sector experience on nuclear policy and technology
WASHINGTON, DC – April 1, 2021 – The Atlantic Council announced today that Dr. Rita Baranwal, vice president of nuclear and chief nuclear officer at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), has joined the Atlantic Council Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition. Baranwal, who previously served as assistant secretary for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, brings a wealth of public and private sector experience advancing nuclear policy and technology in the United States and abroad.
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Indian American nuclear expert Rita Baranwal, who had been serving as the assistant secretary for the office of nuclear energy in the U.S. Department of Energy since 2019, announced Jan. 8 that she was leaving the job at the end of the day.
Baranwal managed DOEâs portfolio of nuclear research for existing and advanced reactors and new designs.
âToday is my last day as Assistant Secretary of @GovNuclear,â Baranwal tweeted using the official account. âIt has been an absolute honor to serve in this capacity to help advance our U.S. nuclear energy R&D. I plan to continue to use my talents to promote, lead, and advance our nationâs largest source of clean energy so that our nation and my family will have a cleaner and more sustainable planet to protect.â
We still don’t have all the technologies we need to address climate change.
Fortunately, the incoming Biden administration might have the biggest opportunity in more than a decade to drive innovation in climate-friendly technologies.
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Consider the terrain. In December, for example, Kairos Power announced plans to build a prototype of its novel salt-cooled high-temperature nuclear reactor at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a campus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Kairos, like dozens of other companies in the advanced nuclear power industry, hopes to build reactors that are smaller, simpler, and easier to manufacture and deploy that conventional nuclear technologies. Climate action will depend largely on the success or failure of companies like Kairos, and government agencies like the National Laboratories are deeply invested in their success.