Aditi Verma serves on planning committee for National Academies workshop
Proceedings from the “Pathways for New Nuclear Development” workshop were recently released.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has published the proceedings from its “Pathways for New Nuclear Development” workshop, held January 29–30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The workshop brought together leaders from government, industry, academia, and energy communities to identify challenges and opportunities in deploying next-generation nuclear energy.
The Fastest Path to Zero Initiative’s Aditi Verma, an assistant professor in Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS), served on the planning committee for the workshop and helped shape its agenda. Her expertise in nuclear innovation, policy, and stakeholder engagement guided the design of sessions that explored regulatory, technical, and financial pathways for scaling nuclear energy.
Verma also moderated the session “Construction Timelines,” which examined the persistent challenges that have delayed nuclear projects in the past and identified strategies to improve project management, supply chain resilience, and workforce readiness.
Reflecting on the workshop, Verma emphasized the importance of dialogue across sectors:
The nuclear energy sector once more finds itself at an inflection point. There is a growing demand for nuclear energy technologies as well as people with nuclear expertise of all forms. Meeting this moment will require an unprecedented level of collaboration across industry, policymakers, researchers, and society. The NASEM Pathways workshop brought together some of the most critical voices across these constituencies, and I think, showed that while a lot of work lies ahead – in commercializing technologies, building the next generation of the nuclear workforce, achieving economic competitiveness, and earning social license—we are perhaps on a better path to meeting these objectives than we have ever been.
—Aditi Verma
The proceedings are now available to the public and highlight actionable steps identified by participants to advance nuclear development in the United States. NASEM has encouraged experts and institutions to share the report broadly to expand its impact.