On February 1, 2008, the Center for Energy & Environmental Security (CEES) hosted a major event entitled “Energy Security and Climate Change: The Nuclear Option.”
View the video file of this event below. A brief description of the event and pictures are also below.
To download the video as individual .wmv files, right click the links below and select “Save Target As.”
Video File 1: The Nuclear Option?
Video File 2: The Nuclear Option?
Video File 3: The Nuclear Option?
Video File 4: The Nuclear Option?
Event Description
For the past 30 years no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States. As of early 2008, however, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates that it will receive applications for a total of 32 new nuclear power units by 2009.
While expanded use of nuclear power could potentially provide the U.S. with a secure domestic source of energy without further contributing to climate change, significant barriers stand in the way of widespread implementation of nuclear power, including perceptions of public health and safety, supply of uranium, disposal of nuclear waste, and proliferation. Can these barriers be sufficiently addressed to allow for the expansion of nuclear power in the U.S. and the world? What role should nuclear power play in helping to develop a sustainable energy future? Three internationally renowned experts on nuclear power—Peter Bradford, David Caron, and Jerry Peterson—addressed and debated these issues.
Peter Bradford is the Board Vice-Chair for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and former chair of the New York and Maine utility commissions. Mr. Bradford has advised many states on utility restructuring issues. He has taught energy law and policy at Yale University. He served on a panel advising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on how best to replace the remaining Chernobyl nuclear plants.
David Caron is the C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley. A Fulbright scholar and former navigator and salvage diver in the U.S. Coast Guard, Caron is a vice president of the American Society of International Law, Chair of the Advisory Board for the Institute of Transnational Arbitration of the Center for American and International Law and a member of the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Caron is also Director of the Nuclear Oceans Program at UC-Berkeley.
Jerry Peterson is a distinguished Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. State Department. Jerry is also a professor in the physics department at UCB and specializes in the area of nuclear physics. He is a member of the American Physical Society’s Committee on Homeland Security, Division of Nuclear Physics, and of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Division Review Committee. He was an administrator in the UCB Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research for six years, including posts as assistant vice chancellor, associate vice chancellor and interim vice chancellor.
Pictures of the event are below.
Event Speakers
Peter Bradford
Board Vice-Chair
Union of Concerned Scientists
View Peter Bradford’s Presentation
David Caron,
C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at Boalt Hall,
University of California at Berkeley
View David Caron’s Presentation
Jerry Peterson,
Jefferson Science Fellow,
U.S. State Department;
Professor of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder
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| Dr. Jerry Peterson | David Caron, Peter Bradford, and Jerry Peterson |
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| Peter Bradford addresses the audience | David Caron, UC-Berkeley Law School |