This six-episode podcast series explores shared insights from nuclear and other industries focused on tackling common challenges including workforce development, balancing safety culture with agile transformation, and operational efficiency. The series finale will be recorded live at the Global Forum for Nuclear Innovation in June.
Five early- to mid-career nuclear professionals share their perspective on innovation’s important role in the industry’s future.
How do you create a future that you can’t wait to arrive and to live in? Put a little differently, how do we minimize or avoid the negative effects of climate change while working towards a society improved and enhanced by technology? This is among the most significant questions that many wrestle with and one humanity is constantly trying to address. Common wisdom dictates to “begin with the end in mind,” which works well for small-scale innovations over short time horizons (1-5 years), but how do we plan for technologies that haven’t been developed or deployed yet, much less those that haven’t even been imagined? As such, when we peer further and further into the future, the outlook becomes cloudier with countless branching possibilities. One thing we do know about the future is that we need large quantities of clean energy as soon as possible to both support the growing global demand for energy and fight the negative effects of climate change.
At the 2022 GFNI event in London, participants identified four Grand Challenges in areas requiring the industry’s commitment to investing in and implementing innovative approaches:
- Operating a Lean Machine
- Beyond Electricity
- No Talent, No Sector
- Safe Doesn’t Have To Be Slow
One significant focus of GFNI 2024 will be reviewing progress made in addressing these challenges.
In December 2023, early career nuclear professionals participated in a GFNI-inspired workshop as part of the COP28 Net Zero Nuclear Summit hosted by Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC). The interactive workshop incorporated activities developed for GFNI 2022, encouraging bold thinking to impact innovative change in the industry.
An overview of GFNI 2022, with a focus on the outcomes, details of the behaviors explored, and tools participants used to understand and address challenges.
Key takeaways and big ideas explored during the first Global Forum for Nuclear Innovation in Gyeongju, South Korea.