UC Forum on Global Nuclear Futures –
Planning Meeting

There are serious concerns about energy independence, sustainability, competitiveness and security, which led to revival of the nuclear energy option in the U.S. and around the world. It has become apparent that nuclear power must increasingly become a central source of energy for sustainable development as global energy demand continues to grow. As a result, a new national initiative is being considered, referred to as the Global Nuclear Future Initiative, designed to position the United States to have international influence over the expanding global use of nuclear energy. In addition to supplying essential energy, nuclear power will be a major tool for greenhouse gas abatement and environmental effects of energy production, management of spent fuel and eventual waste repository optimization and for addressing national security challenges such as proliferation resistance.

There are several daunting challenges to be addressed in order to see a resurgence of nuclear power.

1. Industry: decades long drought in nuclear design and nuclear industry deployment
2. Academics: decades long drought in support to Universities and the application of new technology to the nuclear industry
3. Regulatory Issues: regulatory environment based on historical approaches
4. Public Communication: public concern over safety
5. Technology Advancement: advancing state of technology in other quarters not being applied to nuclear systems
6. Energy/National Security: decades long drought in safeguards and security technology development and application to nuclear systems

Addressing these challenges will require investment in multidisciplinary research in fields such as:

1. Computational Science and high performance computing
2. Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis of future nuclear fuel cycles
3. Materials science and manufacturing science for operating under extreme conditions
4. Nuclear Chemistry, separations and synthesis
5. Nuclear Physics, cross section measurement and evaluation for broader range of isotopes and temperatures
6. Development of sustainable, proliferation-resistant nuclear energy systems
7. Probabilistic risk assessment and licensing issues for future inherently safe systems
8. Safeguards and Security technology development
9. Economic Analysis of future nuclear energy systems
10. National Energy/National Security Policy
This planning meeting will explore the extent to which University of California Campus and Laboratory skills and capabilities can contribute to addressing these core programmatic challenges. The objective is to survey the various areas of need, evaluate the existing Campus and Laboratory skill base suitable to address needs, and then set an agenda to convene subject matter experts in each opportunity area with the express purpose of preparing a UC strategy for acquiring mission assignments in the emerging Global Nuclear Futures Initiative.