Katelin Jennings, UC Berkeley Student and Stand Up For Nuclear Policy Fellow, May '26

Meet the UC Berkeley nuclear engineering student who rocks out to 90s music while repealing nuclear energy moratoriums.

Katelin Jennings, a rising junior, is making a name for herself in the nuclear energy advocacy space. Born in Chicago to Midwest parents, she moved to San Diego, California, at a young age and has called the West Coast home ever since. A longtime lover of music and science, she spent high school playing guitar in a band, crushing it on the robotics team, and taking every AP science class that she could.

Jennings entered UC Berkeley as an environmental engineering major, but always planned on switching as it is not a nationally accredited major at the University. In her first semester, she took a class called Engineered Systems and Sustainability, where, within the first few weeks, the professor gave a lecture on nuclear energy - she was instantly hooked. After talking with the professor about how compelling nuclear technology was, he encouraged her to speak with nuclear engineering professors to better understand the major. Soon after, she decided to make the switch. When asked if she has ever regretted the decision, Jennings said that despite some tough professors, she has not had a moment where she has questioned it.

After officially switching into the nuclear engineering program at Berkeley, Jennings got involved with the University’s American Nuclear Society (ANS) chapter as a way to meet similarly minded people and get a jump start on her professional development. It was here that she met Grant Mills, who founded Berkeley’s Nuclear is Clean Energy (NiCE) Club in 2023, which she immediately joined. 

At the end of her freshman year, she attended a trip to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, California’s only operating nuclear plant, with ANS. Although she grew up in San Diego and was used to seeing the San Onofre Nuclear Plant’s domes as she drove along the freeway, the experience of watching the Diablo Canyon domes slowly rise from the horizon as she drove down the road was nothing like she had ever seen before. She cites this moment as the one that made her realize, deep in her soul, that nuclear engineering was the right choice for her. For Jennings, Diablo Canyon was nothing as she had envisioned. She was in awe of the engineering achievements at the power plant and was surprised to find it surrounded by vibrant wildlife. She found the whole thing to be more beautiful than she could’ve ever imagined.

Jennings rallying for nuclear energy at UC Berkeley, fall semester 2025

In her sophomore year, Jennings was elected advocacy chair of NiCE Club. In this role, she organized canvassing efforts to amend Berkeley’s nuclear-free zones, a city-wide policy leftover from Cold War times. A nuclear-free zone prohibits the research and development of nuclear power plants on a campus. The NiCE Club needed 3,000 signatures to put this on the ballot for Berkeley voters; however, despite their best efforts, they fell just short of this goal.

Each weekend spent canvassing was a learning experience for Jennings. Talking with people on the street and knocking on their doors led to conversations that versed her on the different ways to speak with people about nuclear energy. It also taught her the valuable lesson that even with facts and data, some people just can’t be convinced.

In addition to her canvassing work, as advocacy chair of NiCE Club, Jennings got to plan social outings for fellow members at several UC schools. Most notably, she organized a trip to Diablo Canyon, which took place this past month. This visit brought 50 students from Berkeley and Davis on a tour of the nuclear power plant, over double the number of students that attended the first tour she went on.

Jennings and fellow NiCE Club members in Sacramento, California for AB 2647

Jennings is more than just a student, she was also hired by Generation Atomic and Mothers For Nuclear to be a policy fellow for Stand Up For Nuclear. In this role, she works on campaigns related to California legislation, most notably California Assembly Bill 2647 (AB 2647) - a legislative effort aimed at modernizing the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power. The bill recently passed the Natural Resources Committee and moved to the Senate. Jennings said that the experience of joining the California coalition of groups and advocates campaigning for the bill opened her eyes to the heavy lifting that grassroots organizations do when it comes to environmental movements, and deepened her appreciation for advocacy work.

Jennings will start her new role as co-president of NiCE Club in the fall, and is eager to take the group in a more advocacy-focused direction. She hopes to do more outreach, inspiring the youth and educating her engineering peers on the wonders of nuclear energy. More specifically, Jennings mentioned a desire to connect with high school-aged girls in an effort to inspire them to pursue engineering majors and get excited about nuclear energy and advocacy work.

As far as her goals for the future, Jennings is leaving her options open. She finds government work and the policy surrounding nuclear waste management interesting, but has no specific job title in mind. She’ll spend the summer in Washington at the Hanford Site, supporting the Field Office’s Tank Waste Operations as a DOE Office of Environmental Management - Success Through Academic Research Scholarship recipient. She cites nuclear waste as one of the biggest reasons why the US has not deployed nuclear energy, so she is incredibly excited for this opportunity to help address this barrier.

When it comes to the policy surrounding nuclear energy, Jennings likes to stay positive. She acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done, especially on the waste management side, but says she’s "definitely hopeful” for the future of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is “really cool, and there’s no carbon emissions, and there’s a lot of energy to gain from it” - what’s not to love! 

We are thrilled to announce her as our May Ally of the Month, and look forward to all the amazing work Katelin Jennings will do as she continues her work as an advocate for nuclear energy.

Written by Hope Werstler