Description:

In the United Stated nuclear energy currently provides 75% of all non-fossil electricity generation. Greatly improved performance of nuclear power plants, over the last 20 years, has resulted in very high operating reliability, leading to plans for construction of new reactors in the United States. This talk will discuss the current status of nuclear energy, and review the potential directions the technology may go in the future.

About Per F. Peterson

Per F. Peterson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. After joining UCB in 1990 as an Assistant Professor he received a NSF Presidential Young Investigator award, and most recently received the Fusion Power Associates Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award. He has worked on problems in energy and environmental systems, including advanced light water reactors, inertial fusion energy, high level nuclear waste processing, and repository safeguards. His research interests include topics in heat and mass transfer, fluid dynamics, and phase change. His broader interests in energy and environment focus on nuclear technologies and nuclear materials management, and methods to enhance long-term proliferation resistance and physical security in the nuclear fuel cycle.