Rita Baranwal is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center and senior vice president at Westinghouse Electric Company, leading the technical development and global deployment of the AP300 Small Modular Reactor. She has more than twenty-seven years of nuclear industry experience. 

Previously, Baranwal was chief technology officer and senior vice president of digital and innovation at Westinghouse, where she led the clean energy company’s global research and development (R&D) investments and spearheaded a technology strategy to advance the company’s innovative nuclear solutions.  

Prior to that role, Baranwal served as chief nuclear officer and vice president of nuclear at the Electric Power Research Institute. She had overall management and technical responsibility for the research and development activities conducted by EPRI with its global membership related to nuclear generation, providing support to more than 80 percent of the world’s existing and advanced commercial nuclear fleet. 

Before joining EPRI, Baranwal served as assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy in the US Department of Energy (DOE). She led efforts to promote R&D on existing and advanced nuclear technologies that sustain the US fleet of nuclear reactors and enable the deployment of advanced nuclear energy systems. 

Prior to the DOE, Baranwal directed the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative at Idaho National Laboratory. She was responsible for providing the nuclear industry and other stakeholders access to DOE’s state-of-the-art R&D expertise, capabilities, and infrastructure to achieve faster and cost-effective development, demonstration, and ultimate deployment of innovative nuclear energy technologies. 

Before joining the Idaho National Laboratory, Baranwal served as director of technology development and application at Westinghouse, leading the creation and development of technologies including the eVinci microreactor. Her previous positions at Westinghouse included director of core engineering and manager of materials and fuel rod design. Prior to joining Westinghouse, she was a manager in materials technology at Bechtel Bettis, Inc., where she led and conducted R&D in advanced nuclear fuel materials for US Naval Reactors. 

Baranwal is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society. She serves on the Nuclear Energy Agency’s High-level Group on Stakeholder Engagement, Trust, Transparency and Social Sciences; the inaugural board of directors for the US DOE’s Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation; and as a commissioner on the Council on Strategic Risks High Level Commission on Nuclear Energy and Climate Security. She also serves on advisory boards for the US Nuclear Industry Council and the nuclear engineering departments of the University of Michigan and North Carolina State University. 

Baranwal has a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree and PhD in the same discipline from the University of Michigan.