S2-EP 016 . Understanding the Impacts of Phasing out American Nuclear Power Generation - A Conversation with Lyssa Freese

Energy Current: In Search of Net Zero System

Nuclear power plays an important role in the energy system in many big economies around the world. There are many debates related to this energy source, from energy security to addressing climate change to environmental and social justice. While some countries, like Germany, shut down the last nuclear power plants, others, like China, are still building new ones. Based on a new study published in the academic journal, Nature Energy, Ms. Lyssa Freese, a scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the leading author of the research, discusses how phasing out nuclear power in the United States may change air pollution distribution and bring higher health risk to the low-income communities. Based on the past policy experience and the paper’s main findings, what can policy makers learn to avoid the unintended consequences in the energy justice area from the very beginning of policy design and planning? She also shares some ideas on how the current climate policy may accelerate American energy transition, from Inflation Reduction Act to the new regulations on pollutants emission standards and road transport decarbonization.

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