Category: Company News

Alva Energy announced today that Pat Gelsinger has joined its Board of Directors. One of America’s most respected technologists, Pat brings decades of leadership at the forefront of the semiconductor industry, most recently as CEO of Intel and previously as CEO of VMware.

An electrical engineer by training, Gelsinger has played a defining role in advancing foundational technologies spanning microprocessors, enterprise computing, and semiconductor fabrication. At Intel—as both CTO and later CEO—he helped drive platform-defining innovation, including serving as the lead architect of the Intel 486 chip and developing technologies which became universal, from USB to Wi-Fi. Most recently, he helped lead Intel’s push back to process-node leadership—anchored by the “five nodes in four years” execution plan and an aggressive roadmap through next-generation nodes including the Intel 18A and 14A—aimed squarely at restoring American dominance in advanced semiconductor fabrication.

“Playground invested in Alva because they’re the only nuclear company designed to deliver at the speed, scale, and certainty this moment demands,” Pat explained to reporters. “Their approach doesn’t rely on theoretical technologies or distant timelines, it unlocks gigawatts of clean power from existing infrastructure. It’s real, it’s financeable, and it’s deployable this decade.”

“Pat is a legend in the global engineering community,” said James Krellenstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Alva. “Few private-sector leaders have deployed tens of billions of dollars of capital while executing some of the world’s most complex EPC projects—under the highest QA/QC standards—and still pushed the leading edge of technology forward. That combination of capital discipline, manufacturing execution, and deep technical leadership aligns directly with Alva’s mission to deliver gigawatts of new American nuclear capacity at a pace not seen in generations.”

Today, Pat is a General Partner at Playground Global, a deep tech venture firm with $1.2 billion under management. He invests in foundational technologies that drive long-term economic strength and national resilience. Pat serves on the boards of several Playground portfolio companies, with a focus on next-generation computing, energy, and infrastructure. Beyond his work as an investor at Playground, Pat is a speaker, board member, author, inventor, philanthropist, investor, husband, father of four, and grandfather of eight.

Alva Energy announced today that Dr. József Bánáti has joined the company as its Principal Thermohydraulics Engineer. At Alva, Dr. Bánáti will lead thermohydraulic modeling and safety analysis for the company’s uprate projects. He will be responsible for developing system-level models that predict the behavior of the nuclear steam supply system and balance of plant under both normal and transient conditions. By drawing clear lines from physics-based models to design margins, József will provide the analytical foundation for Alva’s design choices, licensing cases, and overall safety-analysis approach.

An internationally recognized expert in deterministic safety assessment, Dr. Bánáti has spent his career at the intersection of nuclear research and operating power plants. His early work in Hungary at the KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute (AEKI) and the Paks Nuclear Power Plant included development of the VERONA on-line core-monitoring system, followed by thermohydraulic research on the PMK scaled model of Paks I. He then worked on Finland’s PACTEL test loop for the Loviisa VVER-440 units and to the Halden Reactor Project in Norway, where he co-developed the TEMPO code for thermal-performance monitoring and optimization.

Dr. Bánáti earned his PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland. Later, at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, he led the development of RELAP5 validation models for the Ringhals 3 and 4 power uprates on behalf of the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM). This work established a global benchmark: the Ringhals 4 project stands as the largest power uprate ever successfully executed on a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). By linking scaled experiments with best-estimate codes, Dr. Bánáti helped pioneer the cutting-edge technology required for this historic uprate.

Most recently, Dr. Bánáti served as Head of Deterministic Safety Assessment for the Paks II new-build project. He led the world’s first comprehensive effort to migrate a VVER-1200 design to Western safety codes, running an independent safety-analysis program alongside the NSSS vendor. A highly cited researcher with nearly 80 publications, Dr. Bánáti joins Alva motivated by the opportunity to apply decades of VVER, PWR, and BWR experience to projects that add gigawatts of carbon-free capacity to the grid with uncompromising safety rigor.

Alva Energy announced today that Steven Mannon has joined the company as Chief Engineer, Licensing. Steve will lead licensing strategy and regulatory engagement across Alva’s nuclear projects. He brings decades of nuclear industry experience spanning Licensing, Engineering, Operations, Projects, and Programs, and has worked across the full plant life cycle—from new plant licensing and construction through operations and decommissioning. His training as a nuclear engineer, his experience as a licensed Senior Reactor Operator, and his senior roles in regulatory affairs and system engineering give Steve a unique view of how design, operations, and regulation fit together in practice.

Before joining Alva, Steve spent nearly two decades in senior licensing leadership roles at AECOM. He directed the AECOM team leading Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s APR1400+ Design Certification, delivering the NRC’s fastest and cheapest reactor design certification in history—an essential prerequisite for startup of the Barakah units in the UAE.

He also served as Programs Director and Regulatory Affairs Manager for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) decommissioning project—the largest ongoing nuclear project in the United States. At SONGS, he led licensing and regulatory programs for decommissioning activities, emergency preparedness, corrective action, operating experience, and 10 CFR 50.59 / 72.48, including the transition to ISFSI-only operations. Steve’s portfolio further includes leading licensing work for US-APWR and ESBWR applications, Fukushima Near-Term Task Force response efforts for U.S. fleets, TVA’s Bellefonte restart licensing basis evaluation, and early licensing activities for Holtec’s SMR-160.

Prior to joining AECOM, Steve spent more than 20 years with PSEG Nuclear at the Salem and Hope Creek stations, where he was in the middle of the turnaround from one of the industry’s most troubled performers to a consistently high-performing fleet. He held a Senior Reactor Operator license on Salem Units 1 & 2 and served as a Nuclear Shift Supervisor, led system and reliability engineering organizations across Salem and Hope Creek, and later took on roles including Engineering Manager, Project Manager, and Regulatory Assurance Manager. He managed large multidisciplinary engineering teams, drove equipment reliability and performance programs, oversaw major capital projects and cooling-water system upgrades, and served as an emergency responder in the Technical Support Center.

This combination of hands-on operations experience, fleet-level engineering leadership, and front-line regulatory responsibility underpins the practical, operations-aware licensing perspective that Steve will bring to Alva’s work with regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders.

Alva Energy announced today that Rich Kalman has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Projects, where he will provide the execution backbone for Alva’s power-uprate and new-build programs. With more than 40 years in nuclear construction, operations, and large-scale project management, he has overseen tens of billions of dollars in capital work across the full nuclear lifecycle—from planning and licensing through construction, major component replacements, decommissioning, and license termination. Rich has set multiple U.S. and world records in nuclear construction, including the fastest Reactor Vessel Closure Head replacement with an Integrated Head Assembly ever performed worldwide and the fastest Steam Generator Replacement in U.S. history  (and second-fastest globally), achievements that earned NEI’s TIP Award for World Class Performance.

Before joining Alva, Rich served as Executive Sponsor for the $1.8 billion firm-fixed-price decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), the largest commercial nuclear D&D project ever undertaken in the United States. Over eight years, he held full P&L responsibility and led a joint AECOM/EnergySolutions team across safety, environmental compliance, cost, schedule, and stakeholder engagement. Under his leadership, the project became a reference case for complex decommissioning—recognized for its safety performance, rigorous environmental stewardship, and on-schedule, on-budget execution.

Prior to SONGS, Rich was President of SGT, an AECOM/Framatome joint venture that was the world’s leading company for major NSSS component replacements. He led SGT through a period of significant growth and diversification, expanding the business from a single-focus replacement contractor into an agile EPC provider capable of projects ranging from sub-$50 million jobs to the largest, most complex nuclear construction efforts in the U.S. He also helped establish SGRT, a Canadian joint venture with AECON, and secure its first contract at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, opening the door to $800 million in additional project work.

Earlier in his career, as Senior Vice President of EPC Operations at Parsons, Rich managed engineering, project controls, and construction for energy-sector projects worldwide, including the Humboldt nuclear D&D and the National Enrichment Facility, where he developed and championed an approach to seismic Class I structures that accelerated the project’s critical path. His previous roles at Peach Bottom and Limerick, as well as recovery work on Saudi Aramco’s Qurayyah Seawater Injection Plant, further honed his ability to stabilize and deliver challenged projects. Rich began his career finishing construction at TMI Units 1 and 2 and held leadership roles at major EPC firms and utilities, helping to bring dozens of nuclear units into operation in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the last great wave of U.S. nuclear plant construction.

A civil and structural engineer by training, Rich’s leadership philosophy balances strategic oversight with hands-on engagement: he dives to the right level of detail, sets clear accountability, and pushes teams toward ambitious but credible “stretch goals” of early, under-budget completion—the same discipline he will now apply to Alva’s uprate fleet.