Nuclear Engineer

To benefit mankind without imposing unacceptable burdens, new sources of energy need to provide a number of attributes. The best would provide all of the following. They should be clean, which means non-emitting with compact wastes that can be easily and inexpensively controlled. They should be affordable, especially for the impoverished, but they should not be cheap. As Californians demonstrated during the recent electricity crisis and blackouts, economics is the best incentive for conservation. New sources of electricity must also be reliable. No one wants the power to fail while their children or grandchildren are on the operating table, and electricity disruptions have crippled California’s, and probably the nation’s, economy in the past two years. Energy has in the past become more and more environmental (not the same as clean), and it must continue to do so.
In addition to these attributes, massive new sources of energy must also be safe, secure, and sustainable. The initials of these attributes—clean, affordable, reliable, environmental, safe and secure, and sustainable—make up the acronym CARESS. It is obvious from a review of recent global activities and proclamations that the world is now CARESSing nuclear energy as a top choice to meet global demand for new sources of electricity.