Driving Progress: Professor Pete Bryant’s First Week as WNTI CEO

I wanted to start off by thanking all I have met so far in the nuclear and radioactive materials community for making me feel so welcome since the announcement of my future appointment at the WNTI Semi-Annual Members Meeting in December 2024.  

It has been a busy few months since then and fantastic to see the work being undertaken by the WNTI Secretariat, WNTI Regional Representatives, our Working Groups, and through our collaborations with organisations such as the IMO, IAEA, WMU, WNA and INMM (to name a few). We have also explored what more we can do to support our members and the wider industry.

This preparation has allowed me to formerly start last week with a good amount of background and really hit the ground running.

Working with the WNTI Secretariat and Board I am pleased to say I start the role with a formally approved budget for the 2025/2026 Financial Year and cannot wait to start announcing some our new initiatives including a WNTI events programme and investment in new partnerships to expand our reach and ensuring the voice of industry is heard by key stakeholders.

In the last week, we have already made progress on these initiatives from developing new collaboration agreements, looking at how we can improve our websites user experience, ensuring the good work of WNTI is more easily accessible and starting to plan our new events. I also had the pleasure of flying over to Vienna to represent WNTI at the IAEA Technical Working Group on Nuclear Fuel Cycle Options and Spent Fuel Management (where WNTI has been appointed as an observer for the first time), and spoke on the International Commission on Radiological Protections Webinar Panel on “Engaging the Next Generation”, where I reflected on what needs to change to globally tackle the skills shortage across the Nuclear and wider Radiological Sectors.  

Going forward the key focus for the year will be the development of a 5 Year WNTI Strategy with a clear vision and prioritising outcomes and value to our members and wider industry. Simply put I am keen for us to move to a position where we don’t just share knowledge and discuss challenges within the industry, but use WNTI as a vehicle to coordinate and, importantly, implement practical global solutions which may include tackling problems such as the Delay and Denial of Shipments, Skills Gap, managing the Nuclear Legacy, decarbonising transport and enabling deployment of Future Nuclear Technologies.

To enable this there will be a need to ensure that WNTI is operating in the most effective and sustainable way, so I will be working hard with our Secretariat and Board to look at how we continue to develop and evolve WNTI as an organisation whilst ensuring its financial resilience.  

We will be starting work on the 5 Year Strategy over the next few weeks and asking for input from the WNTI Regionals Representatives and our Working Groups, so I encourage you all to engage and look out for updates.

I hope the above provides a snapshot of what the future may hold, and I am excited to work with you all going forward.

Best Wishes,

Pete