NiCE Club @ UC Berkeley

Meeting - 13 March 2025

Chat with CEO of Native Nuclear: Scott Lathrop

Notes from the meeting:

• The meeting was held in Etcheverry 3106
• 17 people were in attendance!

Mr. Lathrop giving his presentation

Additional Notes from the Meetings

Mr. Lathrop traveled all the way to Berkeley from the Central Coast of California to give the NiCE club his presentation. He talked about the goals of the native community to be good stewards of natural resources and why nuclear energy is the best solution to provide for our growing electricity demands. Mr. Lathrop's presentation gave the club members a general understanding of the history and status of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant and the bureacracies that control it. His wealth of knowledge on nuclear policy and years of experience in the field were apparent during his presentation as he recounted stories from his career; which was especially evident in his hot tub story with Canadian electricity executives. In a previous presentation he gave, he utilized satellite imagery to demonstrate the drastic different in density that a nuclear plant provides in comparison to a solar farm. This visual example bolstered Mr. Lathrop's argument that nuclear energy is the most viable energy source because of its high power density and low land use.

Reference Links

• This page shows the satellite image that Mr. Lathrop referenced in his explanation about the density, and therefore greater land use efficiency that nuclear power inherently has.
• Mr. Lathrop stated that 15 copies of the solar farm visible in the satellite imagery would be necessary to replace one Diablo Canyon (which is barely visible). Additionally, the 15 extra solar farms would only match the output of Diablo Canyon at noon when all of the panels are working at maximum efficiency. Taking that into consideration, you would need to have 30 additional solar farms the same size as that in the picture to match the 24/7 production capacity of the Diablo Canyon NPP.

• This website is the connection point for reaching out to the Native Nuclear Team