Part Two: MIT's Crash Course on Nuclear Energy

Screenshots of the big ideas

We’re back at MIT, picking up after lunch Wednesday July 24th. Read Part One for a recap of the first day and a half. Here’s the agenda again with arrow to our starting point.

We begin with “Nuclear Waste” presented by Paul Dickman from Argonne National Laboratory. I only ended up getting one screenshot from Dickman’s presentation.

Next up is Jeff Merrifield. A senior lawyer with Pillsbury and colleague of Elina Tepinsky, he was a Commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 1998 to 2007. He’s also held senior positions at major companies like Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I) and Westinghouse Electric Company. In short, a legend. Here’s Jeff’s slide on the importance of Early Site Permits and why we need to get process started for many more ASAP.

Onto Staffan Qvist, a Swedish engineer, founder of Quantified Carbon and creator of Repower.World, an free online tool dedicated to upgrading every coal plant on the planet to clean baseload. Staffan also co-authored the book “A Bright Future” with Joshua S. Goldstein (a Day 3 speaker), which was adapted into the film Nuclear Now.

His presentation surveys the landscape of the nuclear industry, cutting through the hype to reveal what tech is actually deployable and what remains on the horizon.

After Qvist’s presentation, the class packed up and headed to MIT’s Research Reactor. Commissioned in 1958, it is one of the oldest operating reactors in the US.

Control Room

This concludes Day Two. I go for a walk in Berkeley and treat myself to a whole pizza from the Cheeseboard Collective.

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Day Three begins with Shaheen Dewji, professor from Georgia Tech, speaking about radiation regulations. I recently heard Dr. Dewji on her recent appearance on the Titans of Nuclear podcast. This was an awesome presentation, and I only managed to grab this single screenshot.

Next is Kevin Veal from National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science.

Kevin outlines exactly how we can scale nuclear energy around the world while phasing down nuclear weapons. Incredible vision.

The next speaker is Joshua Goldstein . Along with co-authoring A Bright Future with Staffan Qvist and writing the film Nuclear Now, Goldstein is a cultural historian of media portrayals of nuclear science. His slides delve into the dizzying history of radiation as a deus ex machina literary device in Hollywood and the conservationist movement.

Goldstein presents a compelling explanation for the modern myths around nuclear and their ties to degrowth movements. He presents an antidote in the form of new school environmentalists using science to improve human lives while preserving our ecosystems, and links these new ideas to the original spirit of the Sierra Club.

The day continues with a discussion about the commercialization of fusion technology with Zach Hartwig, MIT faculty and cofounder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems. I generally avoid researching about fusion given my bias towards the lower costs and timelines provided by today’s fission technology. Still, it was good to hear the thinking of the top young minds in the space. Here’s a slide of the players.

The last speaker of the crash course is Ann Bisconti, a reknowned pollster whose work has helped reveal the massive shift in American sentiment towards nuclear energy. Ann shared new polling details from 2024 and I grabbed a lot of it. Enjoy.

Shoutout to Radiant Energy Group for this slide

Epic conclusions, and an emotional high to end the class.

Thanks to Jacopo and Armond for the vision to bring all of us together. Your moderation and encouragement throughout course maintained the inertia of both the students and the speakers.

Maybe someday I will be invited to speak at MIT’s Crash Course once I help drive down the costs and timelines of new nuclear. Give me 15 years. For now, let’s keep sharpening our language to activate the public around this enormous idea.