Thomas Riekert

Dr. Thomas Riekert holds a degree in Naval Architecture (Dipl.-Ing.) from the Berlin University of Technology, where he studied from 1982 to 1987. He continued at the same university as a research assistant until 1992, earning his PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Offshore Technology. 

With around 35 years of experience in the nuclear sector, Dr. Riekert began his career at the Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) as an nuclear safety expert. He also served for one year as assistant to the GRS chairman, Prof. Birkhofer. From 1997 to 1998, he worked at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, where he was responsible for evaluating the safety and operation of nuclear power plants. In 1999, he joined TÜV NORD in Hamburg. 

At TÜV NORD, Dr. Riekert started as a nuclear safety expert. In 2001, he was appointed department head within the nuclear technology division, first leading the reactor core department, then the systems technology department. During this period, he was also responsible for safety and environmental impact assessments of wind turbines. 

For nine years, Dr. Riekert headed the nuclear technology division at TÜV NORD in Hamburg, and for two and a half years, he also managed the division in Hannover. In this role, he was responsible for up to 400 nuclear safety experts and oversaw numerous safety assessment and inspection projects on behalf of German nuclear licensing and supervisory authorities. In between, he served for about one year as head of the Technology Center of TÜV NORD Systems, which included responsibility for inspections in the oil and gas industry. 

Since 2017, Dr. Riekert has been Head of Nuclear Safety at TÜV NORD EnSys. As such, he is responsible for the technical lead of all nuclear safety projects of TÜV NORD EnSys, national as well as international. 

Dr. Riekert is recognized as one of Germany’s leading nuclear safety experts and serves as a senior advisor to the Federal Ministry for Nuclear Safety (BMUB). In 2010, he was appointed a member of the German Reactor Safety Commission (RSK). Owing to his extensive experience and expertise, he chaired the RSK subcommittee “Pressure Bearing Components and Material Technology” from 2017 to 2025 and has served as chairman of the RSK since 2025. He has also been a member of the German Nuclear Safety Standards Commission (KTA) since 2008 and, since 2019, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Research Field Energy at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Additionally, he has been an active member of the Kommission Kerntechnik of the TÜV Verband for many years and currently serves as its chairman. 

Dr. Riekert is also an experienced chair of sessions at international conferences, including recent SMiRT conferences in Potsdam, Yokohama, and Toronto (SMiRT = Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology).