January 20-22, 2026 | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center 
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Norm Kunkel

Norm Kunkel

Director, New Nuclear Generation and Strategy,, Duke Energy

Norm Kunkel is the new nuclear development and strategy engineering director for Duke Energy. He works closely with senior management in developing nuclear options for net zero carbon emission generation strategy.

Kunkel was Engineering General Manager at McGuire Nuclear Station from 2015 to 2020 and Engineering Central Functional Area Manager and EGM for Centralized Components Engineering from 2020 to 2022 where he was responsible for nuclear fleet engineering performance. He was named to his current position in 2022. He has worked in various leadership positions in plant engineering, design engineering, operations, performance improvement, and work management. He joined Duke Energy in 1990 as a design engineer.

Kunkel is a graduate from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He served as a nuclear submarine officer from 1985 to 1990 and qualified as a navy engineering department leader in 1990. Kunkel earned a senior reactor operator certification at McGuire Nuclear Station.  

Sessions
"This is my first year at POWERGEN and so far I can just say, wow, this event is huge. I never thought I would have access to so many different vendors and so many different experts in the energy industry by coming to an event like this."
Caitlyn Watkins
Cleco
"It's my first time at POWERGEN. I'm having a great time walking around and seeing all of the booths in the exhibit hall and everything that everybody's trying to sell me, as well as a lot of very useful technical presentations. My particular favorite has been the carbon capture track, but they've all been good that I've attended so far."
Janelle Dana
Entergy
"Hi, I’m Chad Lemoine with Entergy... here as a corrective actions program specialist. It’s my first time at POWERGEN, so it’s been great for networking. I’ve met personnel at our plants I’d only talked to on the phone, so that face-to-face interaction has been really good. I’ve enjoyed meeting new people, learning about what they do, and how it interacts with my work... Overall, it's been a really good time." 
Chad Lemoine
Entergy
"I think my favorite part of the conference has been essentially the Smarter Power Plant Track. There's been a lot of good [takeaways] for us because our plans are quite old, so there's a lot of manual readings and things, but me being the IT generation, I think it could be done better. So having a lot of these [takeaways] from companies who have [accomplished what] we are wanting to do is great. It's been really eye opening networking with all of the exhibitors [as well]. It's my first time here, but I don’t think it's going to be my last."
Jonathan Hellborg
Svensk Kraftreserv
“Nel’s chosen to sponsor and be part of POWERGEN because it's one of the more important shows in the hydrogen market, also the power generation market in general. Over the years, we've seen a shift in POWERGEN from more traditional power generation to a greater presence with renewables, and now with hydrogen, as an energy source, moving into the future.” 
Chris Van Name
Nel Hydrogen
“We're here today at the conference because I believe this is the largest power generation conference there is in the country. One, it's a way to get our name out and that's why we're sponsoring it. But two, it's also a great way to connect with other groups, other organizations and, you know, meet the people who are actually important for our own progression as a company.” 
James Walker
Nano Nuclear Energy, Inc
“We come to POWERGEN every year because it's a great show you can make great contacts in the renewable space, great contacts in the data center space, great contacts in the commercial industrial space. So that's why we're here every year. You should be here too.”
David D’Escoto
Maddox Industrial Transformer