Reexamining Nuclear Power in the Carolinas and Beyond (2025-2026)

Background

Each year, nuclear power plants not only provide a quarter of the world’s low-carbon electricity but also prevent 470 million metric tons of CO2 emissions – the same as the exhaust from 100 million passenger cars. Yet, despite such contributions, the use of nuclear power in advanced economies faces an uncertain future.

Natural disasters, public opposition, regulatory uncertainty, shrinking investment and cheaper (if dirtier) alternatives have all threatened or diminished the largest nuclear fleets just as the global demand for clean energy has surged. The International Energy Agency has predicted that without action, nuclear power in advanced economies could fall by two-thirds before mid-century.

Such a “nuclear fade case,” as experts call it, will have far-reaching consequences, especially in North Carolina, where nuclear power accounts for almost a third of state-generated electricity supply. There is a need to critically reexamine nuclear power as a cornerstone of low-carbon electricity generation on local, national and global scales.

Project Description

Building on the work of a previous team, this project team will design, curate and launch an open-access portal on the history of commercial nuclear power in the southeastern U.S. Team members will catalog, digitize, transcribe and mark up a small batch of unpublished material preserved in three Research Triangle Universities – Duke, North Carolina State and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill – to test a prototype user interface and searchable database.

The team will adopt a historical approach to research, following a three-phase research plan. First, team members will be trained in nuclear history and archival research to select material that represents the widest possible variety of stakeholders and perspectives in historic nuclear debates. Project team members will also digitize selected items in accordance with the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative. Affiliated partners will hold training discussions of appropriate mark-up standards for the prototype and the long-term project.

Second, the team will produce a comprehensive survey of existing open-source software systems that might house the portal. The project team will critically examine the functionality and metadata possibilities in a variety of document viewers such as Okular, LibreOffice Viewer, ViewerJS and Spectator, among others. Each project team member will critically engage with the candidate systems during this planning phase.

In the project’s third and final phase, team members will begin drafting an application for an NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Implementation Grant. In subteams, team members will compose parts of the grant application’s narrative section and solicit feedback from the rest of the team. Time permitting, team members will also compile the results of their earlier phase one and phase two work into a report to be published on the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability’s website. The project will conclude with the foundation for a new digital archive and the draft of a federal grant to fund future work, among other possible products.

Anticipated Outputs

Prototype open-access portal on American nuclear history; draft narrative component of grant application; draft historical briefs on nuclear power plants; research presentations

Student Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will include 8 graduate students and 8 undergraduate students interested in the interpretive social sciences, physical sciences, engineering or computer science. All applicants should be interested in questions of nuclear power, climate change and sustainable development.

From late August to early October 2025, the entire team will meet weekly to complete a “boot camp” on nuclear fundamentals covering three broad topics in dedicated modules: 1) industry development; 2) major accidents; and 3) national scale-ups. Thereafter, the team will switch to operating in subteams of four students each, working independently under the mentorship of a graduate student.

Over the course of the year, students will acquire historical research skills and in-depth knowledge of nuclear power. They will study the anatomy of nuclear reactors, manipulate small samples of naturally radioactive material and analyze primary sources from the nuclear industry’s historical development.

All team members will also participate in local travel to nearby nuclear stations. The team will take a private tour of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant and hike the five-mile Peninsula Trail of the adjacent Harris Lake County Park. In addition, the team may also tour North Carolina State’s Burlington Laboratory, an experimental nuclear facility.

Students will not only receive training in archival research from Duke librarians and historians but also work in archives themselves independently. Throughout the year, graduate and professional students will learn the ins and outs of preparing a grant application for the National Endowment for the Humanities and may earn a byline on a scholarly paper or article.

Timing

Fall 2025 – Spring 2026

• Fall 2025: Complete boot camp on nuclear fundamentals, including radiation safety training; complete training in archival research; complete research on North Carolina’s nuclear facilities; draft a historical brief on a nuclear power plant; convene an informal research symposium
• Spring 2026: Take a private tour of Harris Nuclear Plant; hike the Peninsula Trail in Harris Lake County Park; take independent research trips to Triangle University archives; compose of detailed descriptions of unpublished archival material; review draft of the narrative portion of a Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters

See earlier related team Reexamining Nuclear Power in the Carolinas and Beyond (2024-2025).