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Study examines rhetoric of nuclear energy advocacy in Puerto Rico with implications for understanding how novel energy technologies are supported

Nicolas Hernandez (ESS), along with colleagues Bian Cozen (California State University, Fresno), Danielle Endres (University of Utah), and Andrea Feldpaush-Parker (SUNY-ESF) published a paper on "Speculative Feasibility: Future Narratives and Discursive Infrastructure in Puerto Rico's Nuclear Alternative Project" in the Journal of Environmental Communication. The study analyzed the rhetoric of the Nuclear Alternative Project (NAP), a Puerto Rican non-profit dedicated to building a case for nuclear energy in Puerto Rico, to better understand how the language and framing used by nuclear energy advocates to support specific social and political changes advance nuclear energy development.

The study found that NAP used a type of logic that Hernandez and colleagues termed "speculative feasibility" to promote nuclear energy. This logic argues that novel technologies, specifically when applied to energy infrastructures, are feasible and beneficial once specific commitments are made. Chiefly, the NAP argues for designating nuclear energy as green energy to fit with Puerto Rico’s renewable portfolio standard.