As a student at a historically Black college or university, it can be tempting to assume that conversations happening in the wider science and technology industries don’t concern us, but that would be a mistake.
The energy transition will shape the industries we enter, the technologies we develop and the world we inherit. For STEM students at Howard University, ignoring it means ignoring one of the biggest opportunities, and challenges, of our careers.
The electricity demand is rising a lot faster than our grids can follow, driven largely by energy-intensive technologies including artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. This rising demand from data centers and industrial users is part of why more than 25 of the most powerful countries have agreed to triple global nuclear capacity over the next 25 years.
This transition is particularly important for Howard students, because as nuclear energy expands, the field will need engineers, physicists, technicians and researchers, creating an opportunity for the university’s long tradition of producing Black scientists and engineers to prepare its graduates for the next energy revolution.?
In 2023, 9% of the world’s electricity was generated by nuclear reactors, almost equal to the amount generated by wind and solar combined. That number is expected to grow. Nuclear trails only hydroelectric power among the clean energy sources, but unlike hydro, nuclear plants can be built almost anywhere.
With nuclear energy gaining momentum, it is worth asking: Why nuclear?
Nuclear energy comes in two forms: fission, which splits atoms such as uranium to release energy, and fusion, which combines atoms under extreme conditions. Fission already powers nuclear plants around the world, while fusion remains experimental.
Royce James, Ph.D., executive director of the Howard University Plasma Physics Laboratory, studies plasma physics and fusion energy while helping develop the next generation of students entering the field. He says fusion remains far from becoming a practical power source.
“Fusion doesn’t exist as a working power system anywhere on Earth yet. The only places we know of with fusion power plants are stars.” However, James says advances in technology and machine learning have “shortened the timeline,” with some projections putting the development of fusion plants as early as the mid-2030s.
That timeline raises a bigger question for Howard: Who will build, operate and improve these technologies when they become viable? Engineers will be needed to solve the technical problems that come with operating them safely; technicians will be needed to carry out the hands-on work needed to keep the facilities running; and computer scientists will be needed to help develop the machine-learning tools James says are accelerating the field.
For Howard students, those opportunities are not limited to working on the technology itself. James points to challenges that still need to be solved, from making fusion commercially viable to developing systems that are safe, efficient and affordable. Those problems create space for Howard’s scientists, engineers and researchers to contribute to a field that is still being built.
The history of nuclear energy also makes that work more complicated. Fission produced both nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. This reality, coupled with the long complicated historical disasters such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, has contributed to public skepticism surrounding nuclear energy.
But the risks and controversies surrounding nuclear power are also part of the reason the next generation of scientists and engineers matter. Economists estimate that the slowdown in nuclear energy following disasters like these may have cost the country far more lives through avoidable fossil fuel pollution.
If nuclear energy is going to play a larger role in the future, Howard students will have to be part of the conversation about how to make that future safer, more efficient and more sustainable.
Nuclear waste remains a legitimate concern, James warned, but he believes it is solvable. He pointed to European countries and Japan, which recycle nuclear waste rather than simply storing it until it is no longer hazardous. These approaches, he said, have demonstrated that nuclear waste can be “cycled and used again.” If nuclear energy’s technical challenges are solvable, the next question is who will solve them?
Howard has consistently been one of the country’s top producers of Black students who go on to earn doctorates in science and engineering, positioning the university to play a meaningful role in shaping the nuclear industry’s future.
“We need to be there at the ground floor,” James said. “Throughout the spectrum, from early career technicians all the way up to professors.”
For Howard students, entering the nuclear energy field can start before graduation through research, internships and mentorship, with opportunities spanning physics, engineering, computer science, policy, business and communications.
Howard already has the academic foundation to make that happen. Its physics and astronomy department offers research in nuclear and particle physics as well as computational physics, while the university’s broader STEM programs give students opportunities to build the technical expertise needed for emerging industries. The next step is making nuclear energy one of the fields Howard students see themselves entering while they are still on campus.
Students should be researching the technology, working in the laboratories developing it, pursuing internships with the companies and agencies building it and eventually becoming the engineers, scientists, technicians, policymakers and professors who shape where the industry goes next. Nuclear energy may still be developing, but Howard students do not have to wait for the industry to be finished before finding their place in it.
Copy edited by Daryl R. Thomas Jr.