Nuclear Fission and Fusion: Widening the Path to Net-Zero

Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

On Tuesday, June 15, 2021 the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), in Collaboration with Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC) will be hosting its third Net-Zero webinar, titled Nuclear Fission and Fusion: Widening the Path to Net-Zero.

The webinar will be held from 10:00 a.m. MT to 12:00 p.m. MT. The two-hour long webinar will begin with presentations by speakers Ali Siddiqui, Axel Meisen, and Philip Hildebrandt.

Axel will discuss the challenges and opportunities towards commercialization of fusion technologies, and applications in meeting the net-zero target by 2050. Philip will present his views on the application of existing and emerging nuclear technologies in meeting the net-zero target by 2050. Given the fact the SMR will have a higher per unit energy cost than the large nuclear reactors, Ali will discuss the application of SMR in meeting the net-zero target.

After all presentations, there will be a panel session moderated by Soheil Asgarpour to answer questions from the audience. The focus of this webinar is to discuss the potential of nuclear fission and fusion technologies in providing, safe, secure, clean, economic, and modern solutions to be part of the path in meeting the net-zero target by 2050.

About the Speaker

Ali Siddiqui , Acting Head of Directorate, Advanced Reactors

Ali oversees a diverse range of federal and commercial research projects. He has a range of management and leadership experienced gained though roles including serving as the section head of the thermalhydraulics experiments and analysis group and a three year placement as Corporate Operations Manager working in the office of the CEO over the period spanning AECL-CNL restructuring and stand up of the GoCo contract. In his current role his accountabilities include oversight of CNL’s Advanced Reactors and SMR federal and commercial research projects, strategic planning, development of new S&T opportunities and support for the SMR siting project at CNL. He currently represents CNL and Canada on a number of domestic and international working groups and committees. Mr. Siddiqui holds a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering and is a Professional Engineer in Ontario.