Fireside Chat: Barriers to New Nuclear (and How to Overcome Them)

Kevin Nordt is the Executive Vice President-Chief Strategy Officer at Dairyland Power Cooperative, headquartered in La Crosse, WI. Nordt is an experienced energy executive, with more than thirty-five years of experience, in the power industry. At Dairyland Power, he is responsible for the overall corporate strategy, power supply portfolio management, resource development, and heads the coop’s advanced nuclear energy program. Over his career, Nordt has worked in both private and public power companies holding various engineering, finance, trading, and senior executive positions. He holds an MS in Nuclear Engineering & Engineering Physics, from UW-Madison, and BS in Mathematical Physics, from St. John’s University, NYC.

Erik Nygaard is the Acting President and Director of Product Development for BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, a subsidiary of BWX Technologies, Inc. (BWXT). Mr. Nygaard is responsible for the development of new products for Advanced Technologies, LLC, which includes commercial microreactors for terrestrial and maritime applications, data science solutions, and advanced manufacturing techniques.

Previously, he served as the director of Research and Engineering leading the organization’s design and technology development efforts for customers like NASA and the Department of Defense. He previously served as the Director of Isotope Research and Development, overseeing the company’s medical isotope technologies. Mr. Nygaard served various roles of increasing responsibility on BWXT’s small modular reactor project—mPower™. He began his career with BWXT as a nuclear analyst and acting chief engineer for MIPS—a solution reactor development program to produce medical radioisotopes. He holds three U.S. patents and two pending for propriety technologies associated with the medical isotope production. Mr. Nygaard holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a student operator of the University’s TRIGA reactor.