Nuclear Innovation, Decarbonization, and Environmental Justice

The nuclear energy sector finds itself at a crossroads— in the US as well as globally. Environmentalists and policymakers are increasingly calling for nuclear energy to make substantial contributions to our future low carbon energy systems, even as nuclear energy remains at the center of polarizing debates about nuclear waste, safety, proliferation, and inequitable treatment of communities of color displaced or harmed by nuclear facilities. Reimagining a new future for the nuclear sector requires repairing and building trust with society and a responsible stewardship of nuclear technologies and nuclear wastes that centers principles of environmental justice. 

Through this conversation, we hope to begin to reimagine the technological, institutional, intellectual, and ethical foundations of the nuclear energy sector. The discussion will be based on three recently published pieces in Issues in Science and Technology, the flagship journal of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: 

• Reimagining Nuclear Engineering by Aditi Verma and Denia Djokić
• Deep Time: The End Of An Engagement by Başak Saraç-Lesavre
• Can Nuclear Power Go Local? by Jessica Lovering and Suzanne Hobbs Baker
• September issue of Nuclear Technology, guest edited by Aditi Verma

Speakers

Başak Saraç-Lesavre Beam Fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester Suzy Hobbs Baker Creative Director, Fastest Path to Zero; Founder, Good Energy Collective

Denia Djokić Research Scientist, Fastest Path to Zero & NERS; Levenick Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Aditi Verma Research Scientist, NERS and Visiting Scholar, Harvard Kennedy School; NERS Assistant Professor Fall 2022

Todd Allen (moderator) Glenn F. and Gladys H. Knoll Department Chair of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences