Prashant K. Jain

Dr. Prashant Jain is the Fission Program Manager within the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate (FFESD) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In this role, he directs the strategic vision, program development, and execution governance for ORNL’s comprehensive nuclear fission portfolio. He serves as the primary interface linking ORNL’s world-class technical capabilities—spanning advanced reactor design, modeling and simulation, licensing methodologies, fuel fabrication and characterization, test irradiation, post-irradiation examination, and used fuel disposition—with the evolving priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), regulatory agencies, and commercial industry partners to accelerate U.S. fission energy deployment.

With more than two decades of experience in the nuclear enterprise and over 15 years at ORNL, Dr. Jain operates at the intersection of technical innovation, program and line leadership, and multi-laboratory program coordination. Prior to assuming the Fission Program Manager role, he served as Section Head for the Advanced Reactor Engineering and Development (ARED) Section in the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division (NEFCD). There, he provided line and technical leadership for more than 50 research staff and oversaw an approximately $20 million R&D portfolio spanning more than 150 projects in advanced reactor de-risking, digital twins, AI/ML-enabled engineering, instrumentation and controls, and safety-security-safeguards (3S) integration. Earlier in his ORNL career, he led the Thermal-Hydraulics Group and Team, advancing high-performance computing applications, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and multiphysics safety analyses for mission-critical initiatives, including the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) low-enriched uranium (LEU) conversion, Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) program and NASA’s Plutonium-238 production program.

In parallel with his ORNL leadership, Dr. Jain serves as the National Pillar Lead for Engineering and Technology Solutions within the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of International Nuclear Security (INS), where he coordinates a $10 million multi-laboratory research portfolio across six national laboratories to advance global nuclear security and industry outreach for advanced reactors.

Dr. Jain is an Executive Member of the American Nuclear Society’s (ANS) Operations and Power Division, serves on the Program Committee of the ANS Thermal Hydraulics Division, and is a national technical reviewer for the DOE-NE Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program. He also sits on the academic advisory boards for the University of Michigan’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and North Carolina State University’s Center for Nuclear Energy Facilities and Structures. His technical and leadership contributions have been recognized with the ANS Mark Mills Award, the UT-Battelle Mission Support Award, multiple ORNL Significant Event Awards, and multiple U.S. patents. Dr. Jain holds a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.