Young nuclear engnineers weigh on the "Green New Deal"

I am forwarding a letter I received from Dan Yurman who received this from a group of young nuclear engineers regarding their response to the "Green New Deal" now being circulated in Washington, DC.  There is a link below if you want to sign on to endorse the letter.  The letter was forwarded to me by River Bennett from Generation Atomic aka river@generationatomic.org

On February 7th, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey introduced H.Res.109 - Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal. The text of the resolution is notable in that it calls for meeting “100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources”. This technology-neutral language is exciting in that it acknowledges the importance of including all forms of clean power generation.

However, nuclear is significantly underrepresented within the group of politicians and activists who are working to pass this resolution. Despite being marketed as a platform put forward by young people, many of the individual voices informing the plans for the Green New Deal are older and associated with groups that actively oppose nuclear energy. We believe the Green New Deal can be an important vehicle for 21st century American progress as long as it departs from outdated 20th century thinking.

It is for this reason that we are writing a letter to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement as young engineers and scientists in the nuclear field in order to thank them for their inclusion of all clean energy sources in their plans for the Green New Deal. Our letter also asks for the opportunity to establish a dialogue between their community and ours as we continue to develop a cleaner American energy system that prominently features nuclear energy.

In order to send the message that these sentiments are widely shared among the new generation of nuclear engineers and scientists, we are hoping that you will take the time to sign on to the letter. We would also appreciate if you could distribute the letter within your university and/or company network. When circulating, please keep two things in mind:

1. This is not a public initiative. The letter does not contain sensitive language but our goal is to establish a private dialogue with AOC and Sunrise. We believe this will offer the best chance at earning nuclear a seat at their table. Taking a more public stance risks this initiative becoming politicized, which we are actively trying to avoid. 
2. We expect 100% of the signatories to come from individuals working in fields related to nuclear engineering and science, so to the best of our ability we are collecting signatures within those communities.

We will NOT be circulating the letter publicly or on social media, so please restrict distribution to specific mailing lists or private online groups for nuclear engineers and scientists. 

You can find the letter and the option to sign it here:

A letter from nuclear engineers to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Sunrise Movement

Thank you for your time and please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions. 

Best, 

Students for Nuclear 

River Bennett 

Nuclear engineering post baccalaureate 

Arizona State University, 2019 

Eddie Guerra 

M.Eng., Structural Engineering 

Lehigh University, 2010 

Aries Loumis 

BS, Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering 

University of Illinois, 2017 

Katie Mummah 

Graduate Student, Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics 

University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022 

Emma Redfoot 

MS, Nuclear Engineering 

University of Idaho, 2018 

Charlyne Smith 

PhD, Nuclear and Material Science Engineering 

University of Florida, 2021 

Gemma (Ira) Strong 

BS, Nuclear Engineering 

University of New Mexico, 2020 

Daniel Timmons 

PhD, Nuclear Engineering 

University of New Mexico, 2020

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