Nuclear Energy for Latvia

International conference, May 24, 2023
Riga, Smerla 1

Record
Program
Speakers
Moderator
Presentations
Location
Organizers
Contacts
Partners

2022 conference

Record

Program

Note that times are in Eastern European Summer Time (EEST)

09:30	10:00	Registration, coffee
10:00	10:15	Opening, Līga Kurevska, State Secretary of the Ministry of Climate and Energy
10:15	10:40	Nuclear energy in Latvia's energy balance, Andris Šternbergs, Vice-President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia
10:40	11:05	Small Modular Reactors — lower power and heat prices in Estonia and Latvia, Kalev Kallemets, CEO at Fermi Energia
11:05	11:30	Place of SMR's in the Baltic electricity market, Oļegs Linkevičs, Head of Development Department at Latvenergo AS
11:30	11:55	Should we be afraid of nuclear energy? I used to think so, Zion Lights, Co-Founder of Emergency Reactor
11:55	12:40	Coffee Break
12:40	12:45	Memorandum of cooperation on energy strategy of Latvia, Andris Kulbergs, Chairman of Environmental, Climate and Energy Subcommittee of the Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee of the Parliament.
12:45	13:05	Olkiluoto 3 — The Greatest Climate Act of Finland Juha Poikola, Public Relations Manager at Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO)
13:05	13:25	Challenges and opportunities of implementing electrification of the largest Baltic-region infrastructure project in the last 100 years — Rail Baltica, Anri Leimanis, Chief ESG Officer and Vice-Chairperson of the Management Board
13:25	13:45	Development of nuclear human resource in Estonia, Marti Jeltsov, Researcher at Nuclear Science and Technology (KBFI)
13:45	14:05	Normative regulation needed for the nuclear energy industry in Latvia, Gunārs Valdmanis, Director of the Energy Market Department of the Ministry of Climate and Energy
14:05	14:25	Nuclear energy in food industry, Agris Auce, Fission project manager in the University of Latvia
14:25	14:30	Closing

Speakers

Zion Lights

M. in Science Communication, Co-Founder of Emergency Reactor
Zion Lights is a Science Communicator who is known for her environmental advocacy work. She is founder of the evidence-based climate activism group Emergency Reactor and author of book "The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting". Zion has become a world-leading speaker on clean energy, specifically nuclear energy, and also lectures on effective science communication, tackling misinformation, and climate action.

Juha Poikola

M. in Forestry, MBA, Public Relations Manager at Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO)
Juha is TVO's expert in energy and climate policy and he is responsible for communication in Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. He actively participated in education about nuclear energy to make positive decisions to build Olkiluoto 3 and Olkiluoto 4 power plant units, what Finnish parliament made in 2002 and 2010. He has worked for energy sector for 21 years, before that he worked for forest industry.

Kalev Kallemets

Ph.D. in energy economics, co-founder and CEO of Fermi Energia.
He has been working in private and public sector in Estonian private energy company, Ministry of Economic Affairs as deputy director of Geological Survey of Estonia and as Member of Parliament of Estonia. Is author of several publications regarding to energy production and economy.

Marti Jeltsov

PhD in Physics, Co-Founder and CTO at Fermi Energia.
Marti also works as researcher at Institute of Chemical and Biological Physics (KBFI). He worked on quantitative analysis of power markets, development and implementation of demand forecasting models, structuring and valuation of new renewable energy projects. He has studied risk and safety analysis of nuclear reactors and he participated in the development of Verification, Validation, Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis framework for robust decision making process in implementation of nuclear energy.

Līga Kurevska

Ph.D. in Energy and Economics, State Secretary of the Ministry of Climate and Energy.
Līga has been the deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Economy for energy issues and the director of the Energy Department of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, researcher at the Energy Institute of Riga Technical University and the head of the Data Analysis Group of Augstsprieguma tīkls (High Voltage Network).

Andris Kulbergs

B. in International Business. Member of the Parliament of Latvia, Chairman of Environmental, Climate and Energy Subcommittee of the Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee of the Parliament. Before being elected in 2022, Andris was the chairman of the board of SIA "VK Development" and the association "Automotive Association", as well as a member of the Council of Employers' Confederation of Latvia.

Andris Šternbergs

Dr. habil. Phys., Vice President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences
He is a laureate of the LAS Grand Medal, he has been the director of the Institute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia for almost 15 years, currently the deputy director in the field of science. Author of more than 250 scientific publications He has studied radiation defects in various materials at the Salaspils nuclear research reactor. He is the Scientific Director of the Latvian organization of the European Consortium for the Development of Fusion Energy EUROfusion, as well as the Latvian representative on the Board of Fusion for Energy (F4E) in Barcelona.

Oļegs Linkevičs

Dr. Eng., Professor at Riga Technical University, Head of Development Department at Latvenergo AS.
Has conducted research in power plant and microgrid operation modeling and development of modeling algorithms. Author of 55 scientific publications. Participated in Visagina NPP project working group and in trainings of different nuclear reactor technology developers. Provides training for students in the basics of energy, electricity generation and transmission, power stations and substations. Member of VGB Power Tech e.V. technical council and working group of the EURELECTRIC Association.

Anrī Leimanis

M. of Laws, MBA, Chief ESG Officer and Vice-Chairperson of the Management Board of RB Rail AS
Anrī Leimanis has 25 years of business experience in corporate governance. He served in Rail Baltica project since 2014. He has held senior positions in telecoms and wealth management companies. In 2022 Anrī Leimanis successfully concluded his doctoral studies program and continues work on his dissertation related to international regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence. As part of his civic activities Anrī chairs the Latvian PPP Association and also actively participates in the work of other NGOs.

Gunārs Valdmanis

Dr. energy, environment and natural resources law, M. Ing. environmental science, Director of the Energy Market Department of the Ministry of Climate and Energy.
Gunārs was acting as Executive Director of Latvian Association of Power Engineers and Energy Constructors and as Deputy Director of the Energy Market and Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Economics. He has been journalist for Latvian Radio and several print media ("Diena", "Dienas Bizness") and news agencies, managed SIA "Mediju Monitorings". He is the author of several publications on security and economic policy.

Agris Auce

PhD in Nuclear Physics, Fission project manager in the University of Latvia
Agris has been one of the key owners and developers of the most successful pharmaceutical startup in Latvia – SIA Silvanols. He is owner and founder of the oldest insurance broker and risk consulting company in Latvia – SIA A TurboC 4U. Agris is also member of the Consultative Financial Market Council of the Bank of Latvia.

Moderator

Ansis Bogustovs

Journalist at RadioLatvia and TV24

Presentations

Location

Organizers

Conference is organized by the association "Development and Innovation Training Center"
Conference coordinators:

Contacts

Conference coordinator: Ieva Vitolina, e-mail: ieva.vitolina@gmail.com