Fiona Rayment on the applications of nuclear for net zero and beyond
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The reputation of the nuclear industry has had highs and lows during the career of Dr Fiona Rayment, the President of the Nuclear Institute. But nowadays the role of nuclear science and engineering has become more widely accepted in the quest for carbon net zero.
Growing up in Hamilton, Scotland during a time of energy insecurity, Fiona was determined to understand more about why her school lacked the energy to heat up all of the classrooms or why there were power cuts causing her to have to do her homework by candlelight - and in nuclear she knew there was a possible solution.
But it’s not just in clean energy that Fiona has spent her career, she’s also been involved in investigating how nuclear science can be used in treating cancer and space travel, as well as promoting gender diversity in the nuclear industry.
Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Fiona discusses how she’s always tried to keep close to the science during her career in order to keep her ‘spark’!
Produced by Jonathan Blackwell
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of The Life Scientific. |
| 0:44.6 | I'm Jim Alkulele and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading |
| 0:48.5 | scientists and you get to find out what drives them. |
| 0:52.0 | So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy the episode. |
| 0:55.0 | Hello, what's your reaction to the word nuclear? Well, when today's guests first started |
| 1:01.0 | work back in the early 90s, if she were to tell someone down a pub that |
| 1:04.5 | she worked in the nuclear industry, they'd likely quickly hurry off in the opposite direction. |
| 1:09.9 | These days the response has changed. |
| 1:11.7 | People are interested in having that conversation. |
| 1:14.9 | Although it's still prompts debate, in recent years the role of nuclear science and engineering |
| 1:19.2 | has become more widely recognised and accepted in many parts of the world, not just in the quest |
| 1:24.5 | for carbon net zero with nuclear energy, but across so many other applications |
| 1:29.1 | as well. My guest today can tell us more about that. She champions a range of specialisms spanning |
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