Energy expert shares system resilience framework from her recently published book in a podcast
ESP assistant professor Jennifer Sklarew shared the energy system resilience framework from her recently published book, Building Resilient Energy Systems: Lessons from Japan, while presenting as an invited featured speaker at two APEC Energy Ministerial side meetings in Seattle in August. The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), an independent research institution based in Seattle and Washington, D.C., hosted both meetings.
Dr. Sklarew served as the lead U.S. researcher at an expert roundtable on energy security on August 15, where she spoke on strengthening the Indo-Pacific region's energy system resilience, energy security in the context of the food-energy-water nexus, and U.S.-Japan energy security cooperation. She also served as a panelist for the Nuclear Power and the Energy Transition session at the Pacific Energy Summit on August 17. She shared her research on the political economy and public opinion regarding nuclear power, as well as avenues for U.S.-Japan collaboration.
On September 20, Dr. Sklarew served as the lead U.S. researcher for an NBR Asia Insight podcast on energy security leadership, along with the lead Japanese researcher, Dr. Ken Koyama of the Institute for Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ). Japan's energy situation has become a focus of international attention due to the recently begun release of the treated wastewater from the Fukushima reactors. In a discussion moderated by Dr. Clare Richardson-Barlow (University of Leeds), Dr. Sklarew explained the roles of the war in Ukraine and the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in shaping the energy system resilience priorities of the Japanese public, policymakers, the electric utilities, and local communities. She highlighted energy justice and environmental justice considerations emerging from the disaster and the war. Dr. Sklarew also discussed policy hurdles related to public perceptions and technical challenges, explaining linkages to the food-energy-water-climate nexus. She emphasized several areas for bilateral collaboration, including hydrogen, critical minerals, and nuclear technologies such as fusion and small modular reactors, as well as joint research on solutions to nuclear waste challenges.
The Seattle meetings and podcast are available at the following links:
https://www.nbr.org/event/weathering-the-storm-u-s-japan-leadership-in-indo-pacific-energy-security/
