Melrose TikTok user "Ms. Nuclear Energy" teaching about nuclear power through social media - CBS Boston
Melrose TikTok user "Ms. Nuclear Energy" teaching about nuclear power through social media - CBS Boston
Melrose TikTok user "Ms. Nuclear Energy" teaching about nuclear power through social media
CAMBRIDGE - An MIT PhD student is using social media to inform her audience about the benefits of nuclear power as a source of clean energy.
Kaylee Cunningham is known on TikTok as Ms. Nuclear Energy. She posts daily, turning heavy subjects in relatable laughs.
The Melrose native moved around a lot, living in Massachusetts, then North Carolina and Florida.
As you may imagine from her videos, she had a knack for the theatrical.
"Growing up, I was super involved in musical theater," says Cunningham. "And performance arts starting from as early as third grade."
However, as a teenager, engineering also came into focus.
"Eventually in high school I came to this kind of pivot point of my story. Where I had to choose, 'Do I choose theater and pursue that seriously or do I want to go this engineering route?' And the engineering work was just so much more fulfilling."
Now, Cunningham is back in Massachusetts living out her aspirations in Cambridge.
She launched her TikTok page as a way to educate others and it seems to be having a big impact.
"At first, they're like, 'TikTok uh...why are we doing that?'" Cunningham explains. "But then the idea grows on them and they're like, 'oh wait…can I be in a video?'"
Cunningham believes nuclear is safe despite widespread concerns that it is not.
"That fear is a very real emotion. And at the end of the day, people fear most things that they don't really understand."
And the platform is not only giving Cunningham a fun way to inform the public, but also inspire young women just like her.
"First off, you can do this," Cunningham says. "Even though, we look like each other. You don't have to look like the stereotypical engineer. You can look like a Barbie doll and still go see the Oppenheimer movie."
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Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.