Saturday, June 21, 2025
Special Edition: Nuclear Energy - Clean Solution or Too Risky?
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Nuclear power: is it the future of clean energy—or a disaster waiting to happen?
With new efforts to roll back regulations and build more plants, nuclear power is back in the spotlight. Some say it’s the best shot we’ve got at cutting carbon emissions. Others warn the risks are just too big—from meltdowns and waste to security threats.
Today, we’re breaking down both sides of the debate—what nuclear power can offer, what makes people nervous, and where things may be headed next.
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Guest: Kerry Emanuel
Dr. Kerry Emanuel is the Cecil and Ida Green emeritus professor of atmospheric science at MIT, where he served from 1981 to 2022, after teaching at UCLA from 1978 to 1981.
His early work focused on rain and snow banding in winter storms, but he later shifted to tropical meteorology and climate change. A specialist in hurricane physics, he was the first to study how long-term climate change could affect hurricane activity. His interests also include cumulus convection and atmospheric sampling for weather prediction.
Emanuel has authored or co-authored over 300 scientific papers and three books, including Divine Wind and What We Know about Climate Change. He co-founded MIT’s Lorenz Center and is Chief Scientific Officer of WindRiskTech, which models tropical cyclone risks.
You can also check out more of Kerry’s work at emanuel.mit.edu.
Guest: Edwin Lyman
Edwin Lyman is the Director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC. He earned a doctorate in physics from Cornell University in 1992. He is a co-author (with David Lochbaum and Susan Q. Stranahan) of the book Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster (The New Press, 2014). He is the recipient of the 2018 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award from the American Physical Society.
Edwin’s work:
Recent piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on the nuclear executive orders: https://thebulletin.org/2025/05/the-nrcs-new-mission-impossible-making-atoms-great-again/
Analysis of the 13 nuclear plants with the most safety violations: https://blog.ucs.org/edwin-lyman/terrible-thirteen/
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