For years, I slept just a few hundred feet from an operating nuclear reactor. Beneath the surface, it powered the stove that cooked my food, the treadmill I ran on, and the reverse osmosis system that produced the water I drank.
I'm a nuclear submarine officer in the world's most powerful Navy and I want to convince you to be pro-nuclear.
Why should you listen to me?
I've spent years operating nuclear power plants and living alongside them. At sea, my life and the lives of 155 other souls depends on a nuclear reactor operating safely in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth.
That thing above my head (I'm far right) is the bottom of a massive Ohio Class submarine. It is the biggest submarine in the US Navy.
I have served for almost 12 years in the Navy, first serving onboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford for two years. I was living in a 50-man compartment near two nuclear reactors. After gaining admission to the US Naval Academy, I commissioned as a submarine officer.
Finishing up my tour on the USS Gerald R. Ford.
After college I worked under the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Naval Reactors, the DC office in charge of the Navy's nearly 100 reactors, where I learned the inner workings of the most significant nuclear entity on the planet.
Following DC, I transferred to the Naval Nuclear Power School in Charleston, SC. Then another 6 months of operating a real reactor, learning to start it up, shut it down and operate it safely.
Me graduating from the US Naval Academy.
Today, I serve aboard an Ohio-class nuclear submarine. My time has been spent within both the nuclear and non-nuclear departments. I initially served as the division officer in charge of our nuclear-trained mechanics and now work with weapons systems.
All of that has given me a very unique look into the world of nuclear power that most Americans do not have.
Many people when they think of nuclear, they think of atomic bombs, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima.
I think about going to work.
Most Americans have never been anywhere remotely close to a nuclear reactor, let alone slept right next to it. If anything, next time someone says something negative about nuclear, consider what actual experience they have. Onto my main points ->
Now I'm going to share 4 lessons I have learned, hopefully make you pro-nuclear and get you excited about America and the future of civilization.
Lesson 1: Nuclear is actually really boring.
During deployment out to sea, I would wake up and start my day with a workout on a treadmill we had by the missile tubes. After my workout, I would shower, brush my teeth and grab some breakfast before my work day started. Before going to work I would head back to the engine room to do some studying and work on my nuclear qualifications. Then came the main part of my work day: standing watch and supporting my crew.
Nothing crazy in this story right? But, this was all happening while we were deep in the ocean, cruising fast and quiet, powered by a nuclear reactor. All the shower water, system pumps, lights, treadmills, stoves, communications, safety… relied on that nuclear reactor splitting uranium atoms and releasing neutrons for power.
The reactor was not this scary, evil thing but our day-to-day life source. It produced the power we needed to carry out our missions.
I've already lived in the nuclear future. I ate its food, drank its water, slept beside it and trusted it with my life.
I want the rest of America to experience what I did: nuclear power becoming so safe, abundant, ordinary and... boring that eventually we stop being afraid of it.
Lesson 2: Radiation is not what you think.
"But what about the radiation risk?"
One of the biggest things hurting nuclear is how so many people are afraid of something they just don't understand. Radiation sounds terrifying. You can't see it, smell it or feel it. And for most people, the word itself immediately brings to mind cancer, nuclear weapons and Chernobyl.
But radiation isn't magic. It's something we can measure. You are being exposed to ionizing radiation right now. Radiation comes naturally from the ground beneath you, cosmic rays from space, certain foods you eat and even radioactive elements naturally present inside your own body. Bananas are radioactive for example, as they contain potassium-40.
Your favorite fruit is radioactive.
If you ate 800 bananas you would get the same radiation exposure that was released from the famous Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Turns out, that's nothing. You would have to eat about 40,000,000 bananas to potentially get an acute lethal dose of radiation. This has led to the informal radiation unit in the nuclear industry called "banana equivalent dose" or BED.
"Okay, okay... cool. But what is radiation?"
Radiation is energy traveling from one place to another.
That's essentially it. It's energy being transmitted. Radioactivity is the process by which unstable atomic nuclei spontaneously decay... and emit radiation (or energy).
And as I said, you are being exposed to lots of radiation everywhere and at ALL times. From the sun, from the ground and from your insides!
The important question isn't: "Was I exposed to radiation?" but "How much?" Sunlight can burn you and cause cancer but nobody says you should never go outside. Drinking too much water can kill you but water is obviously fine (and needed!) in normal quantities. Oxygen is needed to keep you alive but, yes... even high concentrations will kill you. Dose matters! Radiation is no different.
Chart of radiation sources from the EPA: https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-sources-and-doses
That's one of the biggest things I have learned from my nuclear training. Radiation and nuclear stopped being this mysterious danger from a 1960s sci-fi movie. And once you start looking at the numbers, the fear starts to disappear.
And it turns out, you received way more radiation than I did when I was deployed underwater on my nuclear submarine. "But how???" The ocean water shields me from a lot of cosmic radiation, and the shielding on our submarine keeps us safe from anything produced by the reactor.
None of this means radiation is harmless. High doses of radiation are dangerous but we can minimize our own exposure. We can track our own exposure and ensure we are safe.
Sources:
Check out these banana facts ->
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/around-us/doses-daily-lives
https://www.epa.gov/radtown/natural-radioactivity-food
https://www.cdc.gov/radiation-emergencies/causes/radiation-thermometer.html
https://www.energy.gov/documents/relative-doses-radiation-thermometer
One banana has about 0.01 millirem. Therefore, 40,000,000 bananas is about 400 rem. According to the CDC, an exposure of 1000 REM (100,000,000 bananas) was lethal 100% of the time, 400 REM (40,000,000 bananas) was lethal 50% of the time and 100 REM was likely to increase the chance of radiation sickness. 100 REM increased cancer risk from 22% to 27%. Keep in mind, 100 REM is 10,000,000 bananas eaten all at once!
Lesson 3: We have the stats on nuclear and it's very safe.
The nuclear Navy has been running reactors for more than 75 years... and we have a lot of stats. The nuclear Navy is run by Naval Reactors (NR) in DC and they track a lot of data. Let me pull some data from their 2025 "Gray Book" of stats:
- Naval Reactors has steamed over 177 million miles on nuclear power
- Currently operates over 97 reactors and has 7,600 reactor-years of operation
- Has produced annual environmental reports since the 1960s proving it has not had an adverse effect on the environment or people
- Our submarines and aircraft carriers are welcomed in over 150 ports in over 50 foreign countries
- Over 230 nuclear powered ships built
- > 150,000 personnel trained in the program and worked with these reactors
- Over 457 cores taken critical
Nuclear-powered warships, USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Long Beach (CGN 9), and USS Bainbridge (CGN 25) on their around the-world cruise (taken directly from the NR 2025 Gray Book).
The nuclear Navy has done all of this without a release of radioactivity to the environment that has affected people or nature. No civilian or military member has ever exceeded the federal lifetime radiation exposure limit and nobody has exceeded 5 rem in a year (or 500,000 bananas) since 1968.
And according to their Gray Book:
The reactors are so effectively shielded while at sea, typical propulsion plant operators receive less radiation exposure than they would have received from natural background radiation on shore in the same period.
Not only that, Naval Reactors has done epidemiological work with very large populations, producing studies of 85,000 submariners and 370,000 shipyard workers. Those studies found no cancer risks linked to radiation exposure from naval nuclear propulsion work.
I can say from my personal experience too that I am in the best shape of my life. Since joining the Navy I have lost a lot of weight, and got into running and weightlifting. Every military base I have been attached to has had a great gym. Even when deployed I have a treadmill and some workout gear.
Source: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-06/Gray%20Book_2025.pdf
Lesson 4: Nuclear Power allowed us to conquer the oceans and it will also allow us to conquer the stars.
A nuclear submarine is very similar to a spaceship. It's a giant metal tube completely powered by nuclear fission. Its propulsion systems, oxygen, water, cooking, temperature control... is all made possible by the power provided by the reactor onboard. And we have operated nuclear submarines for over 75 years now, showing it's possible to support humans in the most hostile environment. Future spacecraft and lunar bases will need reliable and consistent power for safe and sustained habitation.
Nuclear in space just makes sense.
So much so, that NASA thought it was a great idea to choose LT Kayla Barron, a nuclear submarine officer, to join the astronauts corps. I got to speak to her live from the International Space Station while I was at the Naval Academy. Even recently this year, NASA has announced an initiative to build a lunar surface nuclear reactor.
Me speaking with LCDR Kayla Barron, a submarine officer who became an astronaut, live from the International Space Station.
Space is an even harsher environment than the ocean. There is little room for failure much the same way in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion program. We need systems that can run for decades. The Virginia class submarines are designed to operate for over 30+ years without needing to be refueled. The United States needs a sustained presence on the Moon and Mars. Depending on the design of the reactor, the US would only need to ship new fuel off world every few years or decades.
We cannot do that with coal or natural gas. Frankly, we are not going to ship tons of coal, gas and oxygen into space. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 1 kg of Uranium is equal to about 2.7 million kg of coal. Currently, it costs about $7,000/kg to orbit using a Falcon 9 rideshare. It would cost significantly more to ship coal to the moon vs. nuclear fuel to get a similar amount of energy.
"But what about solar?"
Yes, I believe solar has a part to play and I have nothing against it. But I do not think it's going to be the major source of power for people living off world. The number of solar panels needed to replace the same nuclear plant would be a prohibitive cost. There are also concerns about huge swings in lunar temperature damaging materials. Not only that, but what about moon regolith building up on the solar panels? This will degrade capacity. Then there is the concern of having to perform maintenance on thousands of solar panels instead of one or two central nuclear reactor plants.
"Yeah, but modern commercial reactor plants are massive!"
Now that's if we only use Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) cores which are fueled with uranium containing <5% U-235. If we approve high-assay LEU (HALEU) cores with up to 20% U-235, or even Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) cores with >20% U-235, for the moon, then we can shrink the size of the reactor significantly.
Cutaway of an Ohio class submarine showing how a reactor can fit in a small space and provide an enormous amount of energy. Credit: https://whatisnuclear.com/
If we want to build a space faring civilization on the moon, Mars and beyond, it has to be with nuclear. Nuclear has allowed me, and the 100,000+ people before me, to survive in the harshest environments on the planet. This should excite everyone: this is the time where space travel and off world living becomes a reality. It's no longer science fiction.
The United States is going back to the moon with nuclear power and we are never leaving.
https://pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1754web-26894285
https://new.spacex.com/rideshare
Conclusion
I have lived nuclear for years now, literally sleeping not too far from an operating reactor. I received less radiation exposure working on my submarine than on land. I got to do incredible missions for my country and travel to some amazing places.
Nuclear is way safer than we think and there is a lot that should be de-mystified. Radiation is not your enemy. Too much of anything is bad. The sun is producing billions of bananas of radiation, but we aren't trying to stop the sun.
Nuclear should become a boring staple of our life, providing our drinking water, our electricity and our gateway to space. We need to cut out any fear mongering, look at the stats and be pro-nuclear. The stats show that nuclear is safe, reliable and long lasting.
