MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 22.04J · Fall 2025

Social Problems of Nuclear Energy

Subject: Engineering

Art: Not determined, Figure 6 of Radio-active substances, 1904 · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. R. Scott Kemp
Term: Fall 2025
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 20 videos · 1 reading · 20 other files · 3 web pages
Materials open: Videos here · files on MIT OCW

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Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 22.04J Social Problems of Nuclear Energy, Fall 2025, Prof. R. Scott Kemp — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

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1 video

Lecture 14: Is Nuclear Power Safe? Calculating the Number of Deaths Caused by Nuclear Accidents (old)Video Open ↗

20 video transcripts

1 image

A red-glowing mushroom cloud from the Castle Romeo testJPEG image Open ↗

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. R. Scott Kemp, 22.04J Social Problems of Nuclear Energy, Fall 2025.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2025 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Social Problems of Nuclear Energy

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

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Materials by section

Other materials from this course

Lecture 1: Introduction to 22.04 and the History of Nuclear Power

Lecture 2: Nuclear Technology 101

Lecture 3: How Should We Join Climate Change to Energy Policy?

Lecture 4: The Capital Cost of Nuclear Power

Lecture 5: Can Nuclear Compete Given Decarbonization?

Lecture 6: Nuclear Reactor Cost Around the World and the Potential for Cost Reduction

Lecture 7: Can Renewables Decarbonize the Electricity Sector in the United States?

Lecture 8: What Investors Need to Know About Small-Modular and Microreactors

Lecture 9: How the Electric Grid Controls Progress on Decarbonization

Lecture 10: Potential for Nuclear Process Heat

Lecture 11: Theory of Externalities and How Nuclear Power Is Regulated by the NRC

Lecture 12: Introduction to Radiation Risk

Lecture 13: The Linear No-Threshold Theory

Lecture 14: Is Nuclear Power Safe? Calculating the Number of Deaths Caused by Nuclear Accidents

Lecture 15: Dealing with Nuclear Waste

Lecture 16: Nuclear Proliferation and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle—Part 1

Lecture 17: Nuclear Proliferation and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle — Part 2

Lecture 18: Do We Need Nuclear Power to Fix Climate Change—a Review of the Course’s Findings

Lecture 19: Why the Public Is Skeptical About Nuclear Power—a Way Forward