Gabriel Ivory & Veronica Annala, Advocates Bringing Nuclear to College Game Day, September '24
Gabriel Ivory & Veronica Annala, Nuclear Engineering Students, Activists
Meet Gabriel Ivory & Veronica Annala, the students bringing nuclear to College Game Day
One moment he was an ordinary engineering student at Texas A&M. The next, he was catapulted into the national spotlight, embraced by the global nuclear energy community, and transformed into a symbol for the growing grassroots support for nuclear. All it took was a homemade “I Love Nuclear Sign” held up at the nationally broadcast college gameday on August 31 as A&M took on Notre Dame.
Gabriel Ivory and Veronica Annala, the founders of NARO. They aim to make Texas A&M the most pro-nuclear campus in the country.
To achieve the stunt for pro-nuclear advocacy, the student, Gabriel Ivory, woke up at four in the morning to stake out a position only rows away from where commentators would be broadcasting later that day, sign in tow.
Ivory had been planning for his moment in the limelight ever since he heard College Gameday was coming to Texas - a perfect way, he said, to spread awareness about the benefits of nuclear technology.
Preparations were made with fellow nuclear engineering student Veronica Annala, both co-founders of Nuclear Advocacy Resource Organization (NARO), a pro-nuclear club on campus.
“He told me about the sign and showed me a picture of it, and we were really interested in nuclear energy, but we were also more interested in letting more people know about it,” Annala said. “So that's how we felt, like we could change the world.”
According to Ivory, NARO aims to make Texas A&M the most pro-nuclear campus in the world. Ivory said he views college students as open minded and driven to make a difference in the world and he believes they can share positive messages about nuclear.
For Ivory, a crucial art of sharing the positive message about nuclear is forming a bridge between nuclear advocates and other environmental advocacy groups. He also said that NARO aims to shift communication away from an engineering mindset to one more accessible to people with non-technical backgrounds. Annala emphasized the importance of avoiding talking down and with condescension to non-engineers in discussing nuclear.
“There's a divide between the humanities and engineering. Maybe we can bridge that gap,” Ivory said. “Because nuclear needs to be part of those (climate and environmental) conversations.”
While Ivory started to support nuclear for reasons like energy density and the capacity factor, he said the ability to create clean water through desalination was a key motivator and an underlooked and underutilized aspect of the technology. His beliefs on the need for clean water, even in the United States, were crystalized by the Flint Michigan water crisis.
“I think that the fact that you can produce clean electricity and clean water at the same facility… like, why don't we do that literally everywhere?,” Ivory said.
Annala, who grew up in Northern Minnesota, with an environmentalist background, said her love of nuclear stems from her love of the planet. In physics classes she learned more about nuclear energy, coming to believe that it is an “actual solution” to energy needs and climate change, supported by science and physics.
"I Love Nuclear Signs" have appeared at college football games across the country, including this Georgia-Kentucky game.
With members of NARO, Ivory and Annala, launched project Game Day, where they will wave towels with pro-nuclear messages like “Nuclear energy is clean energy.” at A&M football games.
Ivory is determined to keep the momentum and to maintain nuclear’s space in national attention. Through a coordinated effort, the 4 following College Game Days featured a student activist holding a pro-nuclear sign, including at Michigan, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
“This just needs to keep going, essentially,” Ivory said.
Alex Kino holds up an "I Love Nuclear Energy" sign at the Wisconsin College Game Day.
Joseph Croteau holds an "I Love Nuclear" sign at the Michigan College Game Day.
Harrison Weaver holds up an "I love Nuclear Energy" sign at the South Carolina College Game Day.
Owen Lubic holds a "I Love Nuclear Energy" sign at Alabama College Game Day.