Stanford University

Three major nuclear accidents, as seen by young American and Russian professionals

Young American and Russian professionals examined three major nuclear accidents to assess the causes, responses and consequences. They worked across cultural and disciplinary divides and arrived at a common assessment: international cooperation is essential to ensure nuclear safety because one country’s nuclear accident is everyone’s.
Group of people smiling Young professionals on a night out in Red Square (left to right): Elliot Serbin, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University; Maxime Polleri, CISAC, Stanford, Elizaveta Likhacheva, Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI); William Heerdt, Monterey Institute for International Studies; Anna Kudriavtseva, MEPhI; Daine Danielson, University of Chicago; James McKeon, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Ksenia Pirnavskaya, MEPhI; Gabriela Levikow, CISAC, Stanford; and Katie McKinney, CISAC, Stanford.

In a series of Bulletin articles in June 2019, young American and Russian professionals examined the future of global nuclear power. They made their case for nuclear power, driven by their concern about global climate change, and also identified the principal challenges that must be overcome. Safety of nuclear power was judged to be the major risk, followed by the risks of nuclear proliferation, security, and nuclear waste disposal, and the economic challenges to increased use of nuclear power, especially in the United States.

Read the rest at Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

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