News Updates

A new nuclear power reactor in Georgia will soon start commercial operation, with another slated for early next year. The first reactors built in the United States in decades, they are leading some electric utilities to think again about tapping nuclear energy to reduce their carbon emissions and help alleviate climate change. But in Issues, Jessica Lovering and Suzanne Hobbs Baker argue that the nuclear industry must first undertake fundamental reform to gain wider acceptance. One key, the authors write, will be embracing a more inclusive approach to power plant siting that gives communities greater control of their energy future.

If Phoenix is hit with a multiday power loss during a heat wave—a rising risk with climate change—nearly half the city’s population would experience health problems requiring emergency medical care, according to a new study. In Issues, Nicholas Weller, Mahmud Farooque, and Michelle Sullivan Govani describe how they are applying a new approach to help identify practical policy solutions to extreme heat threats and other dilemmas involving science, technology, and uncertainty. Using “participatory technology assessment,” the authors write, brings together private citizens and public policymakers in a structured way that fosters creative ideas, good-faith discussions, and shared trust.

Despite claims by some public officials that social media platforms are hurting teenagers, a new report says evidence of harm is largely lacking. As cited in the Washington Post, the report from the American Psychological Association finds that with proper guidelines, teens’ psychological development may indeed benefit from social interaction online. Just ask Camille Crittenden. Writing in Issues, she maintains that recent social science research shows that teens’ use of social media can help them feel more connected, gather factual information on potentially embarrassing topics, and find socially welcoming communities, among other benefits.

US regulators have approved a private company’s plan to build a facility in New Mexico to store radioactive waste from nuclear power plants around the nation—over the objections of the state’s governor and congressional delegation. In Issues, Başak Saraç-Lesavre worries that such federal decisionmaking would leave local citizens without any voice “in defining what constitutes a desirable and morally defensible way to govern nuclear waste in the present and future.” Congress and the Biden administration, the author writes, “should formulate a political process that can put the decision back where it belongs: with the consent of the governed.”

Chinese electric vehicle makers are using their fast-developing technology and financial tools to greatly expand sales in other countries, a challenge to EV companies in the United States and elsewhere that a Tesla executive calls “scary.” In Issues, John D. Graham, Keith B. Belton, and Suri Xia take a deep look at how China managed to out-compete the United States in the global EV marketplace. Importantly, the authors offer a set of government policies that would not only help make American EV makers more competitive, but also prove beneficial in other areas of economically important innovation.