NiCE Club @ UC Berkeley
Speaker Event - Ryan Pickering
Ryan Pickering, DOE
Background and Biography
Ryan is a nuclear energy activitst who lives in Berkeley, CA. He spent several years of his career deploying solar installations across California before he developed his passion for nuclear energy. He used to be opposed to nuclear power, but once he realized its untapped potential he became an advocate for the industry. He now works for the DOE as well as a few other companies all in service of accelerating the deployment of clean nuclear energy across the United States and world. He regularly attends NiCE club at UC Berkeley to connect with the student population and foster a spirit of passion for the nuclear industry on the Berkeley campus.
Summary of Talk
Ryan attended our meeting to share with us the Berkeley ban on nuclear technologies. This ban covers all nuclear and radiation related technolgies with the intention to divest the city from entities that are affiliated with the nuclear weapon industry. This ban rightly prevents the City of Berkeley from doing business with defense contractors, but bars them from utilizing food sterilization technologies, like irradiation. This ban doesn't consider many of the positive uses of nuclear technology, or draw distinction lines between the uses of vastly different types of nuclear technologies. This chat started the project of creating a petition for a ballot initiative to overturn the ban and allow for the peaceful uses of nuclear technology including: energy, medical treatment, and non-proliferation research. Throughout the process, Ryan provided semantic and content advice to the NiCE club petition and has been supportive of all efforts to engage with the petitioning process.