Michael McLean, the YIMBY Urbanist for Nuclear, August '24
Michael McLean, Nuclear YIMBY, Urbanist
Meet Michael McLean, the YIMBY urbanist fighting for cleaner and more affordable cities.
McLean, who works at a tech start up doing data and analytic work, is a key affordable housing and bicycle advocate in Chicago. He sees nuclear as a way to provide cities with clean electricity and transportation.
McLean grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and studied economics at the University of Louisville. When McLean moved to Chicago in 2015, he, like many, was unaware the city is powered by nuclear energy. Chicago’s electricity grid demand is almost entirely (100%) powered by 10 reactors at nearby Braidwood, Byron, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities nuclear plants.
The beginning of McLean’s nuclear journey started in 2013, while, still in college, he watched Pandora’s Promise, a documentary that convinced him of the safety nuclear energy and inspired him to explore thorium reactor designs.
McLean followed nuclear energy topics in the background for over a decade, before he felt moved to get more involved in nuclear advocacy within Illinois, spurned on by efforts to save nuclear plants slated for closure like Byron and Dresden. Connecting with Chicago nuclear advocate Mark Nelson served as a bridge for McLean into the nuclear space as he joined the fight to repeal the Illinois ban on nuclear energy.
In 2022. Mclean enlisted the help of local urbanist activists to voice their support for the effort to their elected officials at the state level. They also gave written testimony, sent emails, and called representatives. The activists also waged a social media campaign.
Due in part to their efforts, both the Illinois House and Senate voted with over three-fifths majorities, in May 2023, to pass SB76, a bill that lifted the ban on nuclear. But on August 11, 2023, Governor Pritzker vetoed the bill, in large part due to pressure from the Sierra Club. But in response, on November 8, 2023, the legislature delivered a new bill, HB2473, with a partial lift on the nuclear ban allowing for advanced reactors under 300 MW. The senate approved the bill 44-7 and the house voted 98-8 in favor.
McLean said he was proud of the accomplishment, but that it was an almost Pyhhric victory because it disqualified many newly designed reactors as well as traditional large reactors. He said he sees a full repeal of the moratorium as a pathway to cleaner and cheaper energy.
“What's next for Illinois nuclear is we've got to fully undo the ban so you can build AP 1000s here,” Mclean said.
Even though there is more work to be done in Illinois, McLean said nuclear offers hope for the future.
“To me, it means hope for a better future. 100 years in the future, things are going to be pretty dire for a lot of people,” McLean said. “It's gonna get unlivably hot. from sea level rise, people are gonna have to move, and that's already happening now. People have to evacuate their homes. Nuclear provides the lowest carbon life cycle.”
Nuclear energy can provide the backbone of a clean, affordable city, according to McLean. He envisions a world where most people spend $2 to ride a nuclear powered train, instead of $250 for a car insurance payment.
“Energy, obviously, is the base of everything. So you got to have abundant, clean, cheap energy. And one of the important things in that is cheap, because the most like equitable thing that you can do with energy is to have cheap energy that everyone can afford,” McLean said. “It's like low cost of everything, right?”
McLean’s activism outside of nuclear also focuses on instrumental issues that contribute to high quality of life and what he sees as providing a better future for the following generations. He became an organizer with a group called Chicago, Bike Grid Now! after a bicylcist was killed by a driver on a route that McLean regularly bikes on. With Chicago, Bike Grid Now! McLean pushes for protected bike lanes and safe routes across the city.
In his local housing advocacy, McLean faces similar NIMBY resistance that often arises in opposition to nuclear plants. According to McLean, people come up with reasons, such as nuclear waste, to oppose plants, but at the end of the day, they simply don’t want a nuclear plant in their backyard.
“There's very similar things between housing advocacy and nuclear advocacy. And so I think it's kind of like an umbrella of abundance, abundant housing, abundant nuclear abundant clean energy, and abundant, livable communities,” McLean said. “That's the world that I want to live in. So I'm trying to make it happen.”
An ideal city combines Mclean’s areas of interest and would look much like his native Chicago, with dense, walkable neighborhoods connected via transit, and specifically nuclear powered trains. That said, McLean said Chicago is far behind global cities like Paris who is building a 200 kilometer metro system that is fully automated with 3 minute wait times for trains, built at ⅓ of the cost of what it would cost in America.
For McLean, the biggest issues cities face today is affordability - both from housing and energy. He listed San Francisco as an example where people may pay as much as $4,000 for a one bedroom apartment and they pay two and a half times more for electricity than Chicago, partially because San Onofre was shut down.
Mclean had the chance to discuss the intersectionality of housing, energy and transit at COP28 in Dubai as part of the Net Zero Nuclear delegation. During his time there he enjoyed the opportunities to talk to a head of state or CEO of a company like Westinghouse at any moment. This international opportunity inspired Mclean to continue the fight for clean energy in Illinois.
Through his various advocacy spaces, McLean (a member of YIMBY Action) said he offers a unique perspective in being able to build coalitions. McLean sees a “holy alliance” to be made between YIMBY advocates and nuclear advocates.
McLean said to forge coalitions, one must seek out connections. Specifically for nuclear energy advocates, McLean sees a potential bridge with the environmental justice community.
“The nuclear advocacy space, and myself included, has a tendency to be very echo Chambery and very insular,” McLean said. “But, if you want to get anything done in politics, it takes a village. It takes coalition building. You've got to be willing to go have conversations with people that are unlikely that you would have ever had conversations with to get them on the same page.”