Environmental concerns have been a major hurdle to expanding the use of nuclear energy. More than ten states have laws to restrict new construction of nuclear reactors until a spent fuel disposal plan is developed. In parallel, the public perception has been significantly impacted by several high-profile accidents, as well as contaminations at former nuclear weapon production sites in the US. On the other hand, nuclear communities have been pioneering environmental science and technologies, establishing environmental impact assessment methodologies, waste isolation technologies, and waste/effluent regulations. Nuclear waste management is in stark contrast to the other industries that tend to rely on a ‘dilution-is-the-solution’ approach, which has resulted in wide-spread contaminations globally.

This presentation provides the environmental science perspective of nuclear energy with a particular focus on waste management and accidents. I will first talk about the historical overview of waste management, including past contaminations and the comparison with general hazardous waste. I will then present the multi-disciplinary synthesis of the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant accident with a particular focus on the key factors that exacerbated the consequence. Finally, I will discuss the potential applications of environmental science and technologies – though informing the public and empowering communities – toward more sustainable and resilient nuclear energy.

Biography: Haruko Wainwright is the Mitsui Career Development Professor in Contemporary Technology; Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received nuclear engineering in 2006, MA in statistics in 2010 and PhD in nuclear engineering in 2010 from University of California, Berkeley. Before joining MIT, she was a Staff Scientist in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research focuses on environmental modeling and monitoring technologies with a particular focus on nuclear waste, and nuclear contamination.