In this episode of Gener8, we dive into the world of academia and its perspectives around Nuclear Energy with Dr. Matt Bowen, Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Matt and Brett previously overlapped during their time at the Clean Air Task Force and Matt joins us to share his perspectives around his research as well as how his work has evolved and changed from his first days in DC, to his time at the Department of Energy, to the NGO world, and now to Academia.
Our conversation with Matt begins with a look at the debates about nuclear energy’s inclusion in international financing structures as well as how nuclear focused nations (like South Korea, Russia, China, France, or the USA) differ in their support for technology export. After sharing more about CGEP and how Matt came to spend the last ~4 years there, our conversation turned to some specifics around US exports as we discussed the prospects for exporting US large nuclear power plant technology. From finance, we turned to another often-cited impediment for future nuclear deployments as well as broader support, nuclear waste management. Matt discussed some previous work he has written on the topic as well as any progress, or lack thereof, since writing before talking about future work Matt is anticipating around the role of regulatory bodies in the future of nuclear technology. After hitting three of the most commonly acknowledged challenges around nuclear deployments, Matt shared some additional perspectives as to what else might be holding things back and where we could apply pressure.
We enjoyed this dive into the academic world of nuclear energy with Matt and we hope you find the conversation illuminating as well.