This presentation invites participants to explore how nuclear energy fits into today’s evolving climate‑solution landscape as one of several technologies that may help meet rising global energy needs while reducing carbon emissions.
The session begins with a clear, approachable overview of how nuclear energy works and how the technology has matured over the past several decades. It then moves through key topics people often wonder about: modern reactor development worldwide, what we’ve learned from past accidents, how waste is managed, and the economics of large‑scale energy production.
The talk concludes with a look toward the future, including the rapidly increasing power demands of AI, the strengths and limits of renewable resources like wind and solar, and how different energy sources might complement one another in a resilient, low‑carbon system.
About the speaker: William Needham is a retired naval officer with 30 years of experience operating and repairing nuclear submarines, followed by two decades as an environmental advocate in the Washington, DC region. He brings both technical expertise and a public‑interest perspective to this engineering‑focused discussion on climate and energy.
