Chris Oberholzer Senior Analyst B. Eng., Hons. B. Com., M.Sc., Ph.D.

Chris Oberholzer joined Candesco in 2006 bringing with him extensive and diverse experience in the nuclear, defence and space industries.

His nuclear industry experience started in 1976 when he was first exposed to probabilistic safety analysis while working as a student with the nuclear regulatory authority in South Africa on the licensing of the Koeberg nuclear power station. After graduation he worked for 10 years at the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa as systems and process design engineer on a variety of reactor development projects: a material producing reactor, a number of Pressurized Water Reactor design studies and conceptual studies for nuclear submarine propulsion systems. In addition to his eventual responsibilities as head of the Process System Design Division, he was also responsible for investigating the feasibility of adopting international nuclear safety standards of the IAEA, the USA and Germany for an indigenous South African nuclear reactor development program.

His work on nuclear submarine propulsion lead to him being offered a position with the Armaments Corporation of South Africa as program manager for the refurbishing and upgrading of the submarines of South African Navy. In this capacity he was also responsible for naval technology development projects and this enabled him to initiate and secure funding for a technology development project that became the forerunner to the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor currently under development in South Africa.

Chris’ systems engineering expertise resulted in an assignment to define and develop a systems approach to military asset management for the armaments industry in South Africa. Success in this endeavour lead to him being asked to act as consultant to the Chief of Logistic Staff of the SA Army where he assisted with the reengineering of logistic management processes to incorporate his asset management model.

Chris moved to Canada in 1997 and settled in Vancouver where he worked for McDonald Dettwiler and Associates, initially as systems engineer on a number of satellite ground stations and later as a project engineer / manager in the Space Missions Group. In this capacity, he led a number of successful technology development projects funded by the Canadian Space Agency. These projects investigated: the feasibility of real-time ship detection using a synthetic aperture radar satellite, real-time digital signal processing of radar images on-board satellites, and the surveillance of the oceans surrounding Canada using a constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites.

A desire to be part of a revitalised nuclear industry prompted Chris to move to Toronto and join Candesco where his focus is on reliability engineering, asset management and probabilistic safety analysis.

Chris holds a B. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, a M.Sc. in Nuclear Reactor Science and Engineering from the University of London, and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Pretoria. His interest in systems theory also lead to a Hons. B. Com. in Quantitative Management / Operations Research from the University of South Africa and Chris is currently finalising his dissertation for a M. Com. in the same field.