Kent Welter, Ph.D., feels that the Oregon State University’s College of Engineering is one of the best in the country. When asked how attending OSU impacted his life, he said, “First and foremost I met my best friend and wife at OSU!”
He added that, as a graduate student, he was fortunate to join a research project that provided him with both practical experience and strong connections to potential job opportunities. Welter has experience as an engineering manager, leading industry standards on risk-informed performance-based design and systems engineering best practices.
He has spent much of his career working to deploy advanced reactor technologies in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ukraine, and Japan. He is considered an expert in nuclear reactor safety analysis, risk assessment and safety system testing. He has worked to foster relationships and collaborate with domestic and international energy research institutes to further the advancement of nuclear safety analysis and testing around the world. Kent is an entrepreneur with a passion for helping others.
He is currently the Chief Engineer of Testing and Analysis at NuScale Power, a pioneering company commercializing small modular nuclear reactors. In his spare time, Dr. Welter volunteers as a business mentor at the Oregon State University Advantage Accelerator, which supports regional innovation and entrepreneurship. He loves engaging with startup leaders to bring their ideas to realization. In those collaborations, he strives for planning and execution discipline, technical excellence, and data-driven decision making.
Dr. Welter considers that his company’s small modular reactor design is arguably the leading technology in the field. He is proud that, as the second employee at NuScale, he is helping to grow a company over the last 13 years and commercialize one of the safest and most cost-effective nuclear reactors ever designed. Welter feels that the future of engineering looks bright in his field, and that the nuclear power industry continues to be an important part of the clean energy solution. He believes that next-generation nuclear reactors like the NuScale design are leading the charge.