The Next Generation of Nuclear Energy: Promise, Problems and Possibilities
Description
Nuclear power is back on the table — pitched as the answer to soaring electricity demand from AI, data centers, and electrification. But is it actually a new era of nuclear energy, or the same old technology wearing a new marketing label?
We've assembled four panelists who will not agree with each other. (Full speaker bios below.) Here's what we're putting to them:
Is nuclear technology different enough to change the debate? Smaller reactors, passive safety, factory manufacturing, new fuel cycles — does that add up to a genuinely new risk profile, or the same industry with better graphics?
Does a safer reactor produce a safer nuclear system? Engineering aside, who operates it, who regulates it, who's trusted to respond when something goes wrong — and does better hardware actually change any of that?
Can "new nuclear" compete on price? SMRs remain commercially immature, with real uncertainty around both cost and waste output. Can they deliver electricity at a price customers — including AI and data-center operators — will actually pay?
Can existing regulatory systems govern a fundamentally different fleet? Rules built for a handful of giant, centralized reactors weren't designed for dozens or hundreds of smaller, factory-built units. Who decides where they go, who's liable if a manufacturer fails, and how are risks compared against the alternatives?
Is this a new nuclear model, or a better-marketed version of the old one? South Korea's standardized build program and thorium/molten-salt designs are held up as proof the industry's cost problem was about how plants were built, not the technology itself. Does that case hold up?
What actually determines whether nuclear's risks are worth it — engineering, economics, institutions, or public trust? And what happens when the four don't line up?
This is not a panel designed to reach consensus. Come ready to push back.
Lineup
Tim Oakes
Tim Oakes is Professor in the Department of Geography at CU Boulder and former Director of the Center for Asian Studies at CU. He received his PhD in geography from the University of Washington in 1995 and has held visiting faculty positions around the world, including at the University of Iowa, University of Technology Sydney, Guizhou Minzu University, Wageningen University, National University of Singapore, University of Hong Kong, and University of Oslo. He is co-editor of Living in Nuclear Asia: Sociotechnical Perspectives on Nuclear Power Development, Risk, and Vulnerability (forthcoming from University of Toronto Press), which compares Japanese and Chinese experiences of nuclear power development.
Alan Taddiken
Alan Taddiken built a career spanning two major roles: principal analyst at the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, NY, with a focus on urban planning and human resources, and later director of policy for the New York State Department of Economic Development, serving under both Democratic and Republican governors. In these roles, Alan was directly involved in analyses of nuclear energy facilities in New York.
Robert McNown
Robert McNown is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Economics at CU Boulder, where he also served as Director of the Program on International Affairs, an interdisciplinary undergraduate major. His current interest in nuclear energy centers on the costs and benefits of this energy source amid soaring demand from data centers and crypto mining operations.
Daryl Wallace
Daryl Wallace is President of the UNA and a long-time sceptic of Nuclear Energy economics and safety. However, with the rapid development of Thorium Molten-Salt Reactors (TMSRs), SMR and Korea's example of approaches to rapid and safe deployment of standardized build models, he poses the question whether it is time to rethink the old equations and stake a claim for a Nuclear Age 2.0.
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