Maria Korsnick

Last updated
Maria Korsnick
2024 Maria Korsnick.jpg
in 2024
Bornc.1962
Education University of Maryland
Occupationnuclear engineer
Employer Nuclear Energy Institute
SpouseMichael Korsnick

Maria G. Korsnick is an American engineer and lobbyist. She was the first American woman to be a chief nuclear officer, and served as president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade organization.

Life

Korsnick was born in about 1962 in Falls Church, Virginia. [1] She graduated from the University of Maryland in nuclear engineering. [2] She became interested in nuclear engineering when she tried to understand the Three Mile Island accident. Only one in ten nuclear engineers are women. [3] She joined the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group in 1986 as an engineer and rose to be the Chief Nuclear Officer. [4] She left Constellation and became the senior vice-president of Northeast Operations for the Exelon Corporation. She has held a senior reactor operator license and she was in charge of the operation of several nuclear power plants. She looked after plants at Calvert Cliffsin Maryland, the R.E. Ginna in Ontario and Nine Mile Point one and two in New York state. [4] She was the first American woman to be a chief nuclear officer. [3]

Valerie Derouet, Isidro A. Baschar, Yoh-shik Nam and Korsnick at the IAEA International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in 2022 - Valerie Derouet,2,Maria Korsnick Panelists (79).jpg
Valérie Derouet, Isidro A. Baschar, Yoh-shik Nam and Korsnick at the IAEA International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in 2022

She became the president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Korsnick is an advocate for the increased use of nuclear energy. In 2022 she and her husband funded the Maria and Michael Korsnick Nuclear Engineering Innovation Award. The university's mechanical engineering has its own reactor. This award is given to students at her alma mater who are interested in nuclear enginnering. [5] In 2024 she went with US Assistant secretary Michael Goff to Finland to discuss their plans for nuclear power. [6] When Bill Gates invested a billion in the proposed Terrapower reactor with sodium cooling she was quoted saying "We are shaping a brighter, cleaner future for our nation." [7]

Related Research Articles

Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide, some 440 nuclear reactors in 32 countries generate 10 percent of the world's energy through nuclear fission. In the future, it is expected that nuclear fusion will add another nuclear means of generating energy. Both reactions make use of the nuclear binding energy released when atomic nucleons are either separated (fission) or brought together (fusion). The energy available is given by the binding energy curve, and the amount generated is much greater than that generated through chemical reactions. Fission of 1 gram of uranium yields as much energy as burning 3 tons of coal or 600 gallons of fuel oil, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EPR (nuclear reactor)</span> Third-generation pressurised water nuclear reactor design

The EPR is a Generation III+ pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and by Siemens in Germany. In Europe this reactor design was called European Pressurised Reactor, and the internationalised name was Evolutionary Power Reactor, but is now simply named EPR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosatom</span> Russian state-owned nuclear technologies company

State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation,, or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that specializes in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy goods and high-tech products. It was established in 2007 and comprises more than 350 enterprises, including scientific research organizations, a nuclear weapons complex, and the world's only nuclear icebreaker fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station</span> Closed nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, United States

Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is a shut-down nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania on the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. It has two separate units, TMI-1 and TMI-2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant</span> Nuclear power plant in Maryland, US

The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant (CCNPP) is a nuclear power plant located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near Lusby, Calvert County, Maryland, in the Mid-Atlantic United States. It is the only nuclear power plant in the state of Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exelon</span> American utility company

Exelon Corporation is a public utility headquartered in Chicago, and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Exelon is the largest electric parent company in the United States by revenue and is the largest regulated electric utility in the United States with approximately 10 million customers. The company is ranked 99th on the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Reactors</span> U.S. government office

Naval Reactors (NR), which administers the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, is an umbrella term for the U.S. government office that has comprehensive responsibility for the safe and reliable operation of the United States Navy's nuclear reactors "from womb to tomb." A single entity, it has authority and reporting responsibilities within both the Naval Sea Systems Command and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NA-30). Moreover, the Director of Naval Reactors also serves as a special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Naval Nuclear Propulsion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology</span> White House advisory board

The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST was established by Executive Order 13226 on September 30, 2001, by George W. Bush, was re-chartered by Barack Obama's April 21, 2010, Executive Order 13539, by Donald Trump's October 22, 2019, Executive Order 13895, and by Joe Biden's February 1, 2021, Executive Order 14007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear Energy Institute</span> Nuclear industry trade association

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is a nuclear industry trade association in the United States, based in Washington, D.C.

Walker Lee Cisler was a noted American engineer, business executive, and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Spurgeon</span>

Dennis Ray Spurgeon is a former Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy within the United States Department of Energy. He was sworn in on April 3, 2006, becoming the most senior nuclear technology official in the American government. In addition, he is the leader of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a strategy aimed at accelerating the demonstration of a more proliferation resistant closed fuel cycle and reducing the possibility that nuclear energy could be used for non-peaceful purposes. In his capacity as Assistant Secretary, he has previously served as Acting Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear renaissance in the United States</span> Potential U.S. nuclear power revival

Between 2007 and 2009, 13 companies applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for construction and operating licenses to build 31 new nuclear power reactors in the United States. However, the case for widespread nuclear plant construction has been hampered due to inexpensive natural gas, slow electricity demand growth in a weak US economy, lack of financing, and safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear accident at a plant built in the early 1970s which occurred in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TerraPower</span> Nuclear reactor design company

TerraPower is an American nuclear reactor design and development engineering company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. TerraPower is developing a class of nuclear fast reactors termed traveling wave reactors (TWR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear power in South Africa</span>

South Africa is the only country in Africa with a commercial nuclear power plant.

The Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) is an agency of the United States Department of Energy which promotes nuclear power as a resource capable of meeting the energy, environmental, and national security needs of the United States by resolving technical and regulatory barriers through research, development, and demonstration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shelby Brewer</span> American physicist

Shelby Templeton Brewer was an American nuclear energy sector executive in private and public positions since 1978. He was Chief Executive Officer of ABB-Combustion Engineering Nuclear Power, one of the world's leading nuclear companies for ten years (1985–1995). He was the top nuclear official in the Reagan Administration from 1981–1984, serving as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. R. Srinivasan</span> Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical engineer (born 1930)

Malur Ramasamy Srinivasan, is an Indian nuclear scientist and mechanical engineer. He played a key role in the development of India's nuclear power programme and the development of the PHWR. He received the Padma Vibhushan Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sekhar Basu</span> Indian nuclear scientist (1952–2020)

Dr. Sekhar Basu was an Indian nuclear scientist who served as the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). He also served as the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Project Director of Nuclear Submarine Program, and later as the Chief Executive of the Nuclear Recycle Board at Bhabha Atomic Research Center. He was a recipient of India's fourth highest civilian honor Padma Shri in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Stanke</span> Miss America 2023

Grace Marie Stanke is an American pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss America 2023 on December 15, 2022. A native of Wausau, Wisconsin, she is the third Miss Wisconsin to win the national title. She is a nuclear engineer and national advocate for nuclear power.

References

  1. Adams, Thomas (2005-08-26). "This high-energy exec leads a nuclear plant". Rochester Business Journal. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  2. "Maria Korsnick". Energy.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  3. 1 2 "Beating The Odds To Become First Female Chief Nuclear Officer". NPR. May 11, 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Maria G. Korsnick President and Chief Executive Officer". NEI. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  5. "Donor Spotlight: Maria Korsnick". enme.umd.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  6. "Minister Mykkänen discussed the future of nuclear energy with U.S. Assistant Secretary of energy Michael Goff". Finnish Government. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  7. Schlott, Rikki (2024-06-18). "Bill Gates' $1B commitment to nuclear energy is a wake-up call" . Retrieved 2024-10-21.