Daneš BURKET President of the Czech Nuclear Society, Director of the R&D Dept., Centre of Research Řež
After graduating from the Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1994, he worked at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, where he held various positions up to the Head of the Reactor Physics Department. In 2007, he moved to ČEZ's headquarters, where he worked as the Director of the Technical Support Section and was responsible, among other things, for implementing life management programs at nuclear and conventional power plants and preparing documentation for extending the life of the Dukovany NPP. On 2016 he was appointed the Director of the Research and Development section at the Řež Research Center. Daneš Burket received his Ph.D. in the field of nuclear engineering. He was a member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, and of the Supervisory and Scientific Board of the Research and Testing Institute in Pilsen. He took part on work of the WANO Peer Review teams at TEPCO and the Fukushima Daiichi and Kashiwazaki Kariwa NPPs, and also at the Tianwan NPP in China. Since 2010 he has been the President of the Czech Nuclear Society.
Minhwan CHANG Chief Representative of KHNP Prague Office
Mr. Minhwan Chang serves as the Chief Representative of KHNP's Prague Office, where he spearheads and coordinates KHNP's efforts in advancing new nuclear projects within the Czech Republic. Since joining KHNP in 2002, Mr. Chang has amassed extensive expertise in nuclear power plant operations and international project development. Notably, in 2011, he played a pivotal role in the triumphant execution of the UAE Barakah NPP construction project, taking charge of ENEC personnel training and commissioning preparations. In 2014, Mr. Chang has made significant contributions to global nuclear safety by serving as a Peer Reviewer at the WANO Tokyo Centre, furthering the cause of safe NPP operations across the globe. In recent times, Mr. Chang has directed his efforts exclusively towards the expansion of the overseas nuclear sector in Europe, underscoring his commitment to advancing this crucial industry.
Yves DESBAZEILLE Director General, nucleareurope
Yves Desbazeille is French and graduated in electrical engineering from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (“SUPELEC”) in France in 1991 and studied on an MBA program in the early 2000s. During his successful career, he has been involved in different businesses and responsibilities at EDF: nuclear engineering, hydro and thermal power projects management in France, USA as well as in Asia, where he was for 5 years. His previous position as EDF representative for energy in Brussels has provided him with an in-depth knowledge of the EU institutions and Brussels’ stakeholders and of the energy and climate stakes for Europe. nucleareurope is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe. nucleareurope acts as the voice of the European nuclear industry in energy policy discussions with EU institutions and other key stakeholders. The membership of nucleareurope is made up of 15 national nuclear associations.
Vladimír DLOUHÝ advisor, President of Eurochambres
Vladimír Dlouhý is a graduate of the University of Economics and a postgraduate studies of mathematical statistics and probability at Charles University. He also studied at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1978-79. A former Minister of Economy of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic – in this position he contributed significantly to the completion of the Temelín nuclear power plant project. He served as President of the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic from 2014 to 2023 and has been President of Eurochambres, the European Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, since 2023. At the same time, he works for a number of foreign and Czech companies (Meridiam Infrstructure France, Suez, France, Medha Corporation, India and others). He is a member of the CTU Board of Directors and the Trilateral Commission. Previously, he worked for 25 years as an international advisor to the investment bank Goldman Sachs, from 1997-2011 he was also an advisor to ABB, and from 2013-2018 he worked for Rolls Royce. He served as an advisor to the IMF Executive Director from 2009-2013 and was also a member of several National Economic Councils of the Government (NEC). He taught at Charles University in Prague for more than 20 years until 2022.
Tomáš EHLER Acting Director General for Energy and Nuclear Sources, Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade
Tomáš Ehler has been involved in energy and energy policy for a long time, he was previously head of the Nuclear Energy Department at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Elektrárna Dukovany II. Prior to his mission at MIT, he worked, for example, at the Chamber of Commerce and in the diplomatic services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked in Berlin and Vienna, and as a commercial counsellor he headed the commercial and economic department of the Czech Embassy in the Federal Republic of Germany. Tomáš Ehler graduated from Charles University in Prague and the Institute for Industrial and Financial Management, and is currently in the doctoral program at the University of Economics in Prague.
Branislav HATALA Director of Nuclear Safety, Research and Development, Slovak technology company VUJE
He completed his engineering studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava (1995) and in 2008 he received his PhD in nuclear energy from the Slovak Technical University. Since 1995 he has been working in the nuclear safety division of VUJE, a.s. He is currently the Director of the Nuclear Safety Research and Development Division. He has organized a number of large Slovak and international projects dealing with safety analyses, numerical simulations and development of licensing documentation for nuclear safety. Recently, he actively iparticipated in projects dealing with the development of new concepts and advanced nuclear technologies. He is the Slovak representative in the Visegrad Four research organization "V4G4 Centre of Excellence", whose goal is the development generation IV reactors. In the international organization for the development of advanced reactor types "Generation Four International Forum" he is the chairman for the development of fast gas-cooled reactor technology. He has been responsible for the design and management of several projects focused on the development of the ALLEGRO gas-cooled fast reactor prototype. Currently, his team is responsible for the implementation of the physical and energy tests during the start-up of Unit 3 of the Mochovce nuclear power plant.
Jani IKONEN Director, Newbuild and Operating Services, Fortum Power and Heat Oy
Jani Ikonen graduated from Lappeenranta University of Technology in 2004. He has since then worked in the energy industry and started in 2009 at Fortum, focusing specifically on nuclear newbuild projects. Mr. Ikonen’s background is in process engineering and computational fluid dynamics, but since the beginning of his career he has worked in numerous roles in newbuild and plant modernization projects, including for instance preparation of technical requirements, vendor assessment, preparation of licensing documentation. He has been involved in all the recent Finnish newbuild projects such as Loviisa 3, Hanhikivi 1, and Olkiluoto 3. Since 2022 he has been leading the Newbuild and Operating Services in Fortum’s Nuclear Services.
Sarah ILLOUZ Offer Director – Czech Republic New Build Offer, EDF – International New Nuclear Development
Sarah Illouz started her career at the French Embassy in Rome, Italy, dealing with bilateral cooperation, she then joined a top French consultancy firm specialized in the Public Sector to implement major State reforms. In 2011, she joined the energy sector at AREVA (now Framatome) to support its business development activities in the nuclear and renewable fields as institutional relationships representative in Italy. She then moved into the AREVA Offshore Wind business where she managed the winning response of AREVA (in consortium with Engie) to one of the very first French public call for tender in the domain for the supply of two 500 MW wind farms in the North of France. After this experience, she came back to nuclear activities joining the AREVA New builds commercial division. In 2017 Sarah Illouz joined the EDF Group, leader of the French nuclear industry, to reinforce its New Nuclear development activities. As such she was involved in the redefinition of major strategic international partnerships, notably with CGN (China) and MHI (Japan), and she led business development efforts in various geographies, notably in the UK. In 2020, Sarah Illouz took charge of EDF’s New Nuclear marketing activities, leading the promotion efforts on EDF’s range of nuclear reactors, namely on EPR (1650 MW), EPR1200 (1200 MW) and NUWARD SMR (340 MW). In 2020 she was also appointed Offer Director for the Czech Republic leading EDF’s offer preparation for the Dukovany 5 bid. Sarah Illouz graduated in Humanities from Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and in Political Science and Public Affairs from Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po Paris), both top and renowned French academic institutions.
Pavel KRÁL Head of Safety Analyses Department, UJV Rez
Pavel received his M.Sc. in nuclear engineering in 1990 from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague and his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Faculty of Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering of the same university in 2015. His entire professional career has been connected with UJV Rez except for two consultancy stays – one at the AEA Technology and one at the Westinghouse. His more than 30 years of work in the field of nuclear power industry is focused on nuclear safety and design. As for his position at UJV Rez, he is head of the Safety Analyses Department and a member of the Supervisory Board of the company. He is also active in international collaborations – in EU associations and projects, OECD/NEA activities, US NRC programmes and others. Among others he is the leader of Technical Area 1 “Plant Safety and Risk Assessment” and co-chair of the Coordination Board of the NUGENIA alliance. He is also a member of the General Secretariat of the SNETP association (Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform).
Lubomír LÍZAL Economist, Associate Professor, Czech Technical University in Prague
Lubomír Lízal graduated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University. In 1998 he obtained a PhD in economics at CERGE, Charles University and in 2006 he qualified as an associate professor in economics at Charles University. Since 1993 he has worked as a researcher at the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 2003–2008 he has been Director of both the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and CERGE, Charles University. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University, and other scientific boards. He was a member of the National Economic Council of the Government and a member of the supervisory board of energy company ČEZ. Lubomír Lízal has been a member of the Czech National Bank Board from February 2011 till February 2017. In years 2018-2019 he has served as the President of the Anglo-American University in Prague and in 2020-2021 he was CEO of Expobank CZ, a.s. Currently he is an associate professor at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics, both at the Czech Technical University.
Jiří MAREK NERS 2023 Conference Chairman
Jiri is the consultant in the field of power industry and is the Partner & Head Executive of JMM Consulting, Ltd. – a company focused on advisory services and organization of professional activities. After graduating from the Czech Technical University, Faculty of Technical and Nuclear Physics, he worked in research; he has been working in the power industry field since 1974 (until 1996 in ČEZ). For the last more than twenty years, he was the advisor of the Minister of Industry and Trade, chairman and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board of ČEZ, a member of supervisory boards in several energy distribution companies and an advisor of Deputy Ministers of Finance. In these positions, he was dealing with the reorganization of state administration in power industry, the development of state energy policy, the establishment of the State Office for Nuclear Safety and with the preparation of the privatization of Czech power industry. He is occupied by publication activities, mainly in the field of nuclear power industry and has wide experience in organizing of international and specialized professional conferences and meetings. His positions are quoted on TV, radio and in economic periodicals. In 2014 Jiri was elected the President of the Association of Czech Nuclear Veterans.
Vojtěch PETRÁČEK Rector of the Czech Technical University in Prague
Vojtěch Petráček is a Czech nuclear physicist and university teacher. He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University. In the years 1999 – 2003, he worked at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2004, he has been working at the Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he received the title of Associate Professor in 2007 and is engaged in teaching and research activities. He teaches experimental physics, relativistic heavy ion physics and subatomic physics. His main fields are the ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions physics and particle physics, the experimental and theoretical aspects of which he tries to link together with students and colleagues as part of research at the faculty. He is the co-author of several scientific papers. From 2010 to 2015, he was the Vice-Rector for Scientific and Research Activities at the Czech Technical University in Prague and since 2018 he has been the Rector of this university. Since the beginning of the pandemic associated with Covid-19, he has been actively involved in the fight against this virus, helping to resolve the crisis situation that arose, and his opinions have been widely quoted in the media. In October 2021, he was elected by the Academic Senate of the CTU in Prague to a second term as CTU Rector, which began on 1 February 2022.
Zuzana Monika PETROVIČOVÁ Head of Unit, Nuclear energy, nuclear waste and decommissioning, Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission
Zuzana Petrovičová has an MBA in economics and finance and MA in international affairs from the George Washington University in Washington D.C., as well as experience in the private sector (banking and finance) and public sector. Her career in the public sector includes the European Commission’s economic and financial departments, as well as the department for energy. Since 2015, she has worked in the unit responsible for "Nuclear energy, nuclear waste and decommissioning" within the Directorate for "Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER", where she is Head of Unit since 2019. The main activities of the unit are economic analysis of the EU’s nuclear energy market, decommissioning, radioactive waste and spent fuel management, as well as general policy setting in the back-end of the life cycle of nuclear power plants.
Andrzej SIDŁO Chief Expert, Ministry of Climate and Environment, Republic of Poland, Nuclear Energy Department
Andrzej graduated from Cracow University of Economics Poland, master in banking-corporate finance and French Lille University I, DESS in company management. Since 2012 in Ministry of Energy responsible for industrial issues in the field of Polish nuclear programme: supply chain and localization, technical regulations, gap analysis of local competencies, trainings activities for local industry and foreign expansion on global nuclear markets. Currently this agenda is managed under the Ministry of Climate and Environment, where Andrzej acts as Chief Expert. Before joining Polish Government Andrzej has been working 15 years as project manager in Polimex Mostostal and was responsible for numerous foreign projects in petrochemical, waste and energy sector, including nuclear.
Jan SKOPEČEK Deputy Speaker, Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of the Czech Republic
Jan Skopeček graduated in economics and management at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and then in economic policy and administration at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Economics in Prague, where he also completed his PhD studies. His professional interests focus on the history of economic thought, economic integration theory and public sector economics. He is one of the leading economic experts of ODS (Civic Democratic Party – right wing party, now the leading one of the governmental coalition). He has been active in politics for twenty years, since 2017 he has been a deputy and since November 2021 he has been a deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
Petr ZÁVODSKÝ Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Boards at ČEZ daughter SPV’s Elektrárna Dukovany II, a. s. and Elektrárna Temelín II
Petr Závodský joined CEZ Group in 1994, started at Nuclear Power Plant Temelín during construction of Units 1&2, among others as Manager of Independent Verification and Validation of the Safety Systems Software. In autumn 2006, when CEZ decided to prepare New Nuclear Built, Petr was one of the first members of the new team, responsible for technical part. In April 2009 he becomes Director of NPPs Construction Department responsible for nuclear new build within ČEZ Group, i.e. New NPPs at Dukovany and Temelín (in the Czech Republic) as well as at Jaslovské Bohunice (Slovakia). Currently he is Chairman of the Board of Directors at ČEZ daughter SPV’s Elektrárna Dukovany II, a. s. and Elektrárna Temelín II a. s. as well as Chief Executive Officer of those companies. Additionally, he is Vice-Chairman of Board of Directors at ČEZ Bohunice, a. s.