This discussion will explore the opportunities and challenges of a new nuclear landscape. How quickly can advanced reactors move from development stages to commercial deployment? Are licensing and regulatory frameworks keeping pace? And what issues need to be resolved to address new security, transportation, liability, safeguards, and waste-disposal challenges as nuclear technologies and supply chains become more complex and geographically dispersed?
AI and data centers, combined with growth in global energy demand, are driving an urgent need for more reliable power. Nuclear energy is increasingly seen as part of the answer, both for its energy output and for its climate benefits. Governments and private companies worldwide are racing to speed up deployment, build advanced and small modular reactors, and bring nuclear power into new emerging markets.
The pivotal question is whether governance can keep pace with innovation. Stimson’s own David Kenneth Smith will moderate a conversation with experts Amy Roma and Peter Hastings, who bring complementary backgrounds in nuclear law and policy and in reactor regulation and commercialization. Our panelists work across law, policy, industry, and regulation, and they’ll explain what should change — and what shouldn’t — as nuclear energy enters this new era.
Featured Speakers
Amy Roma, Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Amy Roma is a Partner at Orrick in Washington, D.C., and a leading advisor on the commercialization and deployment of advanced nuclear energy. Her work focuses on bringing new nuclear technologies to market and creating the commercial, regulatory, and financing frameworks that enable deployment at scale. Amy works at the forefront of the nuclear industry’s expansion into new technologies and markets, from first-of-a-kind projects through fleet deployment. Her practice combines deep nuclear industry and regulatory experience with a focus on how projects are structured, financed, licensed, and ultimately built. Increasingly, her work is shaping the convergence of nuclear energy with AI and data centers, industrial growth, space, defense, and national security.
Amy has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress on nuclear energy and energy policy, including advanced nuclear deployment, fusion energy, grid reliability, decarbonization, and national security. She is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and a Senior Fellow in Nuclear at the Tulane University Energy Law & Policy Center. The Financial Times has named Amy one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Lawyers in North America and recognized her as the Most Innovative Lawyer in Technology for her work advancing new approaches to nuclear energy, fusion, and emerging technologies.
Peter Hastings, Senior Fellow, Nuclear Innovation Alliance; Principal & Founder, The Hastings Group
Peter Hastings advises domestic and international governmental and nongovernmental clients on emerging energy policy issues and nuclear technology deployment. He also serves as a board director and advisor to nuclear development initiatives. Peter previously served as Vice President of Regulatory, Quality, and Public Affairs at Kairos Power, where he led teams advancing the development and licensing of advanced reactors. He has also provided management and regulatory advisory services to the Electric Power Research Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Southern Company, and several advanced reactor developers on regulatory frameworks for advanced nuclear technologies. Earlier in his career, he held positions with Generation mPower, NuStart Energy Development, and Duke Energy and participated in numerous nuclear energy technical and regulatory working groups.
Alexandra Bochnakova, Corporate & International Counsel, Office of General Counsel, Finca Impact Finance; President, Washington Foreign Law Society (Introductory Remarks)
Alexandra Bochnakova is an international lawyer licensed in France and the United States, with over 15 years of transactional and litigation experience. She currently serves as Corporate & International Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at Finca Impact Finance in Washington, DC, a microfinance institution with subsidiaries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Eurasia. Previously, she was Head of Corporate Affairs at Pierre Fabre Group in France, handling corporate and regulatory matters for nearly one hundred companies at the Group in France and worldwide and serving as Corporate Secretary of the holding’s Board of Directors.
David Kenneth Smith, Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Center (Moderator)
David Kenneth Smith contributes to Stimson’s nuclear security initiatives, combining technical expertise with policy and international engagement. He spent more than three decades in senior leadership and technical roles at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working on nuclear weapons testing effects, countering nuclear smuggling, and establishing nuclear forensics programs domestically and abroad. From 2010 to 2020, he served as a senior nuclear security officer/coordinator (P5) at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Division of Nuclear Security, leading its nuclear forensics and radiological crime scene management team as well as developing technical assistance programs for Member States. Smith holds merit awards from the IAEA and the U.S. Department of State.
