2021 ANS Annual Meeting Plenary Session Speaker

Chris Levesque

President and Chief Executive Officer

TerraPower

Chris Levesque, president and chief executive officer of TerraPower, has overall responsibility for operations and corporate administration. Levesque brings executive leadership to further TerraPower’s growth and pursue the development of its flagship technology, the traveling wave reactor. His proven track record in scoping, planning and implementing projects to meet the highest standards began with his service in the U.S. Nuclear Navy and features more than 25 years of experience in the nuclear power business, most recently leading major nuclear engineering, procurement and construction projects.

Prior to joining TerraPower, Levesque was a vice president at Westinghouse Electric Company and overall consortium project director for the Virgil C. Summer nuclear project, one of the first new reactor construction efforts in the U.S. in several decades. Previously, Levesque was the AREVA deputy project director at Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear project, the largest-ever industrial project in northern Europe. Before his assignment in Finland, he led the formation of AREVA’s joint venture with Newport News Shipbuilding, AREVA Newport News, for which he served as Chairman of the Board and president.

Levesque has extensive experience with the nuclear industrial base and nuclear component manufacturing. Earlier in his career, Levesque served as the manager of engineering and manufacturing at Westinghouse’s Newington, N.H., component manufacturing facility, and he has served in multiple management positions at two nuclear-capable shipyards. Levesque began his career as a nuclear submarine officer and qualified as chief engineer on the USS Boise (SSN 764).

Levesque holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering and naval engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.