METIS Final Symposium

The METIS project will be organising its final event of the project on 21 May 2025 at Paris-Saclay, hosted by EDF R&D. Please note that this event will take place on-site.

The day will be dedicated to presenting the METIS project’s outcomes and results from the last five years which have sought to develop tools and methodologies for Probabilistic Safety Assessment of nuclear power plants. The day will also harness new outlooks on further research needs looking beyond the project.

The following two days, 22-23 May, will be dedicated to the METIS Consortium, EAB, IAB, and EUG, to conclude the METIS project, more information here for the Consortium.

METIS SPEAKERS

Irmela Zentner, METIS Coordinator, EDF R&D (WP1 Lead)

Philippe Martinuzzi, EDF Energy UK R&D (WP2 Lead)

Dimitrios Vamvatsikos, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA)

Oleksandr Sevbo, Energorisk (WP7 Lead)

Dmytro Ryzhov, State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC NRS)

Gabriele Ameri, Seister

Shadi Fathabadi, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität (RPTU) (WP6 Lead)

Paolo Bazzurro, Scuola Superiore Studi (IUSS) Pavia (WP5 Lead)

Marco Pagani, GEM (WP4 Lead)
Vinicius Alves-Fernandes, EDF (WP3 Lead)
Mohamed Zouatine, Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität (RPTU)
Charles Droczsz, Géodynamique & Structure (GDS)

INVITED SPEAKERS

Zeynep Gulerce, Nuclear Safety Expert, IAEA (METIS EAB)

Zeynep Gulerce is a Nuclear Safety Officer and the project manager of the extra-budgetary tasks related to external hazards at IAEA. Before taking her position in IAEA, she had worked as a full-time faculty member and consultant for the Turkish Nuclear Regulatory (NDK). Ms. Gulerce’s research efforts were focused on the state-of-the-art in seismic hazard assessment, characterization of design ground motions, and geotechnical earthquake engineering, which led to the publication of numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and technical reports. She has more than 20 years of experience in the analysis of earthquake hazards/risks, as a civil engineer working in a seismically-active country. She had provided technical consultancy to several large-scaled construction companies of Turkey, specifically on the analysis of geo-hazards for site characterization, inspection, review and assessment of hazards for defining the site parameters, and licensing procedures.

John Richards, Senior Technical Executive, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) (METIS EAB)

John Richards is a Senior Technical Executive in the Risk and Safety Management program of the Nuclear Power Sector at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). His research activities focus on development and application of methods and tools for seismic evaluation of nuclear power plant structures, systems, and components.

John joined EPRI in 2012 and leads EPRI’s seismic risk research, focusing primarily on seismic probabilistic risk assessment (SPRA) methods and applications of seismic risk insights.  Prior to joining EPRI, John worked for 30 years at Duke Energy, where he performed and managed all aspects of seismic qualification activities at Duke Energy’s nuclear plants.

Manuel Pellissetti, Senior Expert Seismic Safety, Framatome (METIS EUG)

Undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from TU Graz (Austria). Master of Science and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA). Habilitation in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Innsbruck. Joined Areva (now Framatome) in 2009 as safety analyst in the PSA (probabilistic safety assessment) team. Responsible for multiple seismic risk studies for NPP, both for the installed-base and for new-build projects. Senior expert on seismic safety.