Originally written by Peter Dunn for MIT.edu
Lady Barbara Judge has a unique global perspective on nuclear power, combining top-level financial and legal experience with oversight and advisory roles in nuclear energy efforts in the UK, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and elsewhere. As MIT NSE’s twelfth David J. Rose Lecturer, she shared insights into the many challenges facing nations trying to start or maintain nuclear power programs, while noting that, even in a post-Fukushima world, fission has an essential role in “keeping the lights on for our families, our children, and the two billion people in the world who have no electricity at all. ”
Judge, who spent eight years as a director and then chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and now serves on Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, joins a distinguished list of Rose Lecturers, including the IAEA’s Mohamed El Baradei and Hans Blix, and presidential science advisor John Holdren. The lectures honor nuclear engineering Prof. David J. Rose (1922–1985), a pioneer in controlled fusion as well as technology policy and assessment, and an early leader of interdisciplinary energy studies at MIT. Continue Reading.