Dr. Paolo Balestra is a the Methods Lead for the Advanced Reactor Technology-Gas Cooled Reactor(ART-GCR) DOE Program at Idaho National Laboratory. He obtained his Master’s Degree in energy engineering in 2012 and his Ph.D. in energy and environment with focus on nuclear engineering in2017at the La Sapienza University of Rome. His research efforts are focused on the development and validation of dedicated advanced reactor designs simulation tools and the analysis and optimization of the new generation of advanced reactor design. Dr. Balestra is an experienced reactor analyst who has participated in several different international projects devoted to the validation of three-dimensional Neutron Kinetic and thermal hydraulic system codes for light water reactors and sodium cooled fast reactors such as the EU FP7 project “JASMIN” (2013-2015).