March is Women’s History Month—a time to highlight and honor the contributions of women to events in history and in the present day.
We’re celebrating by asking the first woman chief nuclear officer in the United States and NEI’s President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Korsnick about how she got to where she is today and women leaders who inspired her along the way. We’re also asking how the nuclear industry can promote women in the workforce and what she would tell women interested in entering the field. Hint: the sky’s the limit.
Tell us about your background in the nuclear industry and how you got to where you are today.
I studied nuclear engineering and when I graduated, I went to work at a power plant and my big plan was to work there for, say, two years, and then go to work for another company. And 30 years later, I was with the same company, and I had such a wonderful opportunity in that career. It didn't feel like I had been there for 30 years. So, I went from engineering to operations. I got my license in the control room. I went into a variety of other jobs. Ultimately, I was a site vice president, and I ran one site and then I was a chief nuclear officer, and I ran five reactors at three sites. And I really appreciated what the nuclear industry brings, and I wanted to better communicate that to policymakers and to decision makers to help nuclear thrive here in the United States and around the world. And that's what brought me to NEI and the job that I have today.
What originally sparked your interest in nuclear?
I always really loved math and science, so I knew when I went into college that I wanted to study something with that. I'll be honest, I started out as a chemical engineer, with a minor in nuclear engineering. Then I flipped it, and I ended up having a major in nuclear engineering and a minor in chemical engineering. I don't know, you know, you take classes and they're interesting and enjoyable and I fell in love with nuclear mostly because around the time that I was in college, actually just before I entered college, Three Mile Island happened, and it brought a lot of conversation about nuclear and left a lot of question marks in my mind. And I think I was actually drawn to nuclear engineering to help answer those question marks for myself and then to be able to understand and explain. So, in an odd way, something maybe not so good in the nuclear industry actually drew me to nuclear.
Who are some women leaders who have impacted you?
One I'd have to select, I think, is Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska. I really appreciate—I've spent some time with her. She does a fundraiser for breast cancer every year, and I've attended that. So, it's taken me out to Alaska to spend some time with her and her family and others. She's very sincere in what she does and she's also very driven and you can see in some of the positions that she has taken that she's okay to take a position that's a little different than maybe others around her or others in her party. And I really respect that she is driven in that way, and it's very important for her to stand up for principle. And so, I really appreciate how she operates. I think that has sort of given me somebody to look up to.
I think the other woman leader I would pick is my mom. And she was a stay-at-home mom, but I look at her as sort of the leader in many ways as a family. And she had eight kids—I was the last one. So, she dealt with quite a bit of chaos, and in all that chaos, she always kept very high standards. She had great communication skills. She really made you understand how you could fit into things and that you were accepted for how you were. I carry her with me every day.
We’ve come a long way but we still have a long way to go…what is the most important thing the industry can do to promote women in our workforce?
I think one of the things that we do to promote women is to demonstrate that we have successful women in our workforce, and we have many. You know, at the time when I got my license, as a senior nuclear operator, I was the only female. I was the first female that went into operations class. This was obviously many years ago, but now you look around and there are many other women in operations and that's wonderful because that's the pipeline to other positions. Normally, if they're going to pick a plant manager or a site VP, they're very interested in that person having that operational experience. So, getting women into the pipeline positions so that in the future they can even rise to higher positions—because it's wonderful for the new entrants to the industry to be able to see that these are opportunities. And you know, I'll be honest, I always was allowed to take on anything that I asked. My career in this industry, I never felt like I was prevented from getting in anything as a woman, but at the same token, I would look around and you didn't really see other women. So, I think it's so important for us to have these examples for other women to see and appreciate that the sky's the limit.
What would you like to tell women thinking about entering this field?
Oh my gosh, there's never been a better time to enter the nuclear field than it is right now. I've been in this industry for over 35 years and the things that we're talking about and the things that we're doing today, the new technology, the innovation, the thirst for more nuclear energy and not just in the United States, but around the world, it's a fabulous time to get into the nuclear industry.
