Missouri Energy Summit: Joan Woodard's four 'grand challenges'

Playing off a theme of the National Academies (discussed previously in Missouri S&T magazine), Missouri Energy Summit speaker (and S&T grad) Joan Woodard of Sandia National Labs shared her "four grand challenges" the United States faces in moving toward energy security. The challenges are:

1. Low-carbon transportation to reduce our dependence on oil.
2. Developing a secure energy infrastructure to protect against terrorist/natural disaster.
3. Nuclear energy. To move toward broader use of nuclear energy, we must determine how to manage waste as well as reduce proliferation.
4. Climate. How do we not only mitigate climate change, but also adapt to climate change?