While most studies of nuclear costs focus narrowly on the US and France, Jessica Lovering’s newly curated dataset includes complete cost histories of nuclear reactors for seven countries. By comparing the historical trends in countries like the US, France, Germany, and Canada with newcomers like Japan, India, and South Korea, many lessons can be learned about what types of policies can bring the cost of nuclear power down.
Jessica earned an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, where her studies focused on energy policy. During her last year of school, Jessica created a graduate course in nuclear energy, which she co-taught in the Spring of 2012 with a nuclear physics professor. The course was an interdisciplinary look at all aspects of nuclear power including social, environmental, financial, security, and legal issues. In 2011, Jessica was a Breakthrough Generation Fellow, researching energy access. In an earlier life, Jessica received a BA in Astrophysics from the University of California Berkeley and an MS in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado. She also worked for two years on NASA’s New Horizons mission, which will fly by Pluto in July 2015. In her free time, she enjoys dystopian fiction, ballet, and enjoying the great outdoors.
