Guido Núñez-Mujica, Venezuelan Data Scientist, Nuclear Advocate, December ‘24

Meet the pro-nuclear data scientist who doesn’t want you to be ashamed of living the good life.

Núñez-Mujica, photographed with an atom bolo tie.

Coming from an impoverished family in Venezuela, Guido Núñez-Mujica said he does not take abundance for granted. Núñez-Mujica, the director of Data Science at the Anthropocene Institute fights for nuclear energy in his home state of California, Latin America, and beyond.

For Núñez-Mujica, nuclear energy offers hope. Yet, he said the industry and advocates have been crippled by a lack of pride in the technology and what it offers. As an advocate, Núñez-Mujica takes a playful, accessible, and proud approach, making it his personal mission to spread pride in the nuclear community. 

“There is no pride in a lot of the industry. We need nuclear pride. Coal kills so many people, and just the fact that you have a nuclear power plant running could save lives,” Núñez-Mujica said. “I am in love. And I want to shout it out from the rooftops.

While his mother had to drop out of high school to work, she instilled in Núñez-Mujica the idea that education is the path out of poverty. He knew since age seven that he wanted to be a scientist. 

Out of a passion for science, and a desire to understand the world around him and help others, Núñez-Mujica began studying biotechnology, with foundations in math and physics at Universidad de Los Andes. Specifically, he wanted to help develop new crops with more nutrition and that required fewer insecticides and fungicides to increase the quality of life in the region. When this type of research was banned at his university, he found large sources of misinformation from anti-GMO groups. He would later encounter and combat similar misinformation in nuclear energy, as a science communicator. 

Part of his job as a science communicator and head of data science at the Anthropocene Institute is to put numbers into context. Núñez-Mujica tries to find ways to make people realize the gravity of shutting down a nuclear plant in terms of impact on climate change, which he called a global problem.

A recent, rough calculation Núñez-Mujica made is revealing in terms of scale and how people view the environment. Germany’s decision to close its nuclear plants caused 4,000 times as many emissions as Taylor Swift’s use of jet planes for a year. Despite this, Swift faced massive public animosity, while Germany largely stayed out of mainstream conversation and condemnation. 

“So as a civilization, because it's not just the US, globally, we have decided to hold accountable a 32 year old pop star, 4,000 times more accountable than to the government of the wealthiest country in Europe,” Núñez-Mujica said. 

Núñez-Mujica at a “banana booth” in Minneapolis, in partnership with Generation Atomic, intended to educate the public about radiation.

Aiming to earn extra income to help people leave Venezuela, Núñez-Mujica first came to California to work at a tech firm as a data scientist. Over the years, he would see the San Francisco sky painted crimson from frequent wildfires, increasing with climate change. Seeing the apocalyptic orange glow from wildfires, in September 2020 inspired Núñez-Mujica to take action against climate change. 

“I'm just frozen looking at the sky. My brain is like, does not compute. And that was a wake up call. And I sat down that day and I tried to figure out, what is the thing that can help? Recycling, going vegan -that doesn’t really move the needle,” Núñez-Mujica said. “I wanted something meaningful. I realized, oh shit, the Diablo Canyon is gonna be shut down. No, no, no, no, this cannot happen. I must not let this happen.” 

The sheer amount of electricity produced by a single nuclear plant dawned on Núñez-Mujica when he did a simple calculation that, conservatively, estimated that 35 plants the size of Diablo Canyon could power all of Germany. Looking to be part of the solution, he reached out to Mothers for Nuclear and was connected with Stand Up for Nuclear, joining the fight. Californian legislators passed SB846 in 2022, extending the shutdown date from 2025 to 2030. 

After the Diablo success, Núñez-Mujica’s advocacy goal became to save all nuclear plants. With Anthropocene, Núñez-Mujica created a website, https://savemaanshan.org/ aimed at saving Taiwan’s last remaining nuclear reactor. The website tracks electricity generation from Taiwan in real time and estimates the extra boatloads of coal that will be needed to replace the plant as well as additional deaths and illnesses from resulting air pollution. 

While Núñez-Mujica is proud of work like the website on Taiwan, which is in English, he said he sees a lack of nuclear energy content online in Spanish as a “huge problem.” He said content cannot simply be translations, must be culturally appropriate, and must resonate with the audience – it should come from someone who gets them and understands their priorities.

“As someone who grew up in a developing country, to a lot of people in South America, climate activism smells of elitist people who have no fucking clue,” Núñez-Mujica said. “When you see a Gringo (a non-Latino American) talking about organic food and blackouts and back to nature not knowing what it is to be hungry, to not have money to buy your medical treatment… You see all these people ranting about going vegan and traveling less,  and you just roll your eyes.”

Núñez-Mujica is helping to lead a Spanish-speaking team at the Anthropocene Institute that aims to have Spanish events and produce Spanish content in 2025. 

Núñez-Mujica attending COP 29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, as a nuclear advocate.

Núñez-Mujica is set to speak at Congreso Futuro 2025, a science, technology, and cultural conference organized by the Chilean government. He will speak about climate change from a data science point of view, and address the misconceptions that rejecting GMO crops and shutting down nuclear plants is beneficial for the climate. 

“It's (nuclear) fucking great, and we need it, and we can have a better future. It's more than about surviving. It's about thriving,” Núñez-Mujica said. “I hope I can convey this message to an audience of millions of people in the region where I grew up.”

Along with increasing Spanish language communication in the field, Núñez-Mujica wants activists to practice a form of activism filled with more joy. Recently, he partnered with Generation Atomic in Minneapolis for a banana booth, to change perceptions on radiation. 

“We had a blast. We had the big banana booth, and we talked to maybe 4000 people. I went like, way more colorful than I normally do, but people were amused. It was a completely different vibe than regular activism,” Núñez-Mujica said. “We're onto something in this age of doom and gloom. I think that people are just tired of being told that they're gonna die. We need to offer hope.”

A projection reading “Nuclear Energy is Clean Energy”, alongside a San Francisco bridge. Núñez-Mujica is involved in putting pro-nuclear projections on many iconic sites in the Bay Area.

In this vein of activism, Núñez-Mujica has used a projector to put positive messages about nuclear energy on iconic buildings throughout San Francisco. 

Núñez-Mujica carries his passion for nuclear energy into all aspects of his life, including the leather community in which he proudly is a part of. In the community, he embraces a math, sex scientist persona, and advocates for nuclear energy. 

“So I have this confluence of sex and kink awareness and science communication, and I think that makes my communication style unique,” Núñez-Mujica said. “I think that just by showing this, and again, showing this playful side, when I talk about nuclear, people are listening in a way that they will not listen to others.”

Years of activism in California has begun to pay off, “changing hearts and minds”. Multiple CCAs (Community Choice Aggregations)  in the Bay Area, historically opposed to nuclear energy, have now opted to receive Diablo Canyon’s electricity.

CCAs allow local governments to control electricity procurement. For decades, many CCAs avoided including nuclear, but now many include Diablo Canyon nuclear in their power label content, meaning customers can choose an electricity plan that includes nuclear energy. 

“This is a huge win, because the Bay Area was pretty much the birthplace of anti-nuclear activism, Núñez-Mujica said. “If we can win in California, we can win pretty much everywhere.”

Building off the initial victory, delaying the shutdown of Diablo Canyon, Núñez-Mujica and fellow advocates are now pushing for the state of California to allow an additional 15-year extension. The plant is young, less than 40 years old, and plants in Illinois have been licensed for 80-year lifetimes. When the NRC grants Diablo its next 20-year license, Núñez-Mujica said he will focus on overturning the state’s moratorium on new nuclear. 

It should not be the role of the activist to tell others how to live, Núñez-Mujica said. Partially, Núñez-Mujica has personal reasons, for this general belief. Had he listened to environmental activists who said he could not fly in planes, Núñez-Mujica would have lost out on the “love of his life”- his husband whom he dated for many years long distance. 

Ultimately, Núñez-Mujica sees nuclear energy as a tool to a freer, sustainable future. 

“My ideal society is where you're free to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do, and have a much lower carbon footprint and impact on the environment,” Núñez-Mujica said. “You can have a much better life with more electricity without increasing carbon emissions. We know the way. We just need to make it cheaper and easier to deploy.”