‘Just fancy hot rocks’: Beauty queen aims to turn tide on nuclear

She’s a nuclear engineer, she’s been dubbed ‘the new face of nuclear energy’ by the Wall Street Journal and she’s landed on the coveted Forbes list as one of America’s most influential energy experts, aged under 30.

She also happens to be Miss America 2023. 

A physics-loving beauty queen, Grace Stanke is on a mission that’s taking her all the way to Australia: to build public acceptance of nuclear.

America has 94 nuclear reactors that generate about 20 per cent of the country’s electricity. Ms Stanke works for Constellation Energy, which operates the largest fleet of reactors in the country. 

“It honestly surprises me that there is such a big debate about this in Australia just because here in America, it’s one of the few things our politicians agree on,” Stanke told the ABC.

“Whether it is for the sake of clean energy, or for the sake of reliable energy, or for the sake of high paying jobs for generations to come in the areas around nuclear power plants.”

Through public speaking tours and social media, the 22-year-old tries to make nuclear more accessible and addresses common concerns about safety, waste and the huge up-front costs that come with building a reactor.

“Nuclear power is literally just fancy hot rocks that boil water. That’s it,” Stanke tells her 50,000 Instagram followers in a video.

“It’s a fun thing to talk about nuclear power in that way,” said Stanke, who jokingly referred to herself as ‘Barbenheimer’, when the blockbuster hits Barbie and Oppenheimer hit cinemas. 

Polling suggests women less likely to support nuclear than men

Her advocacy work – and the fact that she doesn’t look like your typical nuclear engineer – caught the attention of the Dick Smith-backed group Nuclear for Australia, which is funding her tour that will include a visit to federal parliament.

Nuclear for Australia founder, 18-year-old Will Shackel, said the aim of the visit is to turn the tide of public opinion in Australia, at a time when other countries are revisiting nuclear, as means of decarbonising their economies.

In America, two decommissioned nuclear power plants – including one on the infamous Three Mile Island – are even being revived by big tech companies who need to fuel their energy-hungry data and AI centres.

Ms Stanke’s part of the design team working on the Three Mile Island reactor for Microsoft. 

“She’s one of the most effective global nuclear advocates,” Shackel said, who added being a woman certainly helps.

“There’s a huge gender gap when it comes to support for nuclear power and generally women are less likely to support nuclear power.

“So, having someone like Grace, who’s Miss America, a really strong female advocate, with a strong women-in-STEM message, will help resonate with women who might be on the edge in terms of nuclear power.”

Nuclear at the centre of a highly charged political debate 

Nuclear for Australia is not politically aligned and Stanke herself says she’s not backed, nor funded, by any political party.

But when she arrives in Australia, she’ll land right at the middle of a fierce debate over Australia’s energy future. 

Within months, voters will go to the polls and cast their judgement on Labor’s plan for a grid dominated by renewables versus the Coalition’s pledge to go nuclear.

“I think there’s a real sense of why? Why would you be going down the [nuclear] path, when we’re already 40 per cent renewable?” asks Dave Sweeney, a Nobel prize-winning anti-nuclear campaigner and the Australian Conservation Council’s nuclear analyst.

Visits like Stanke’s might provide “colour and movement”, he says, but he’s sceptical that it’ll achieve much more. 

“Why would you be doing this now, when the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator have both said clearly that nuclear is the slowest and the most expensive form of electricity generation in Australia,” said Sweeney 

“If we are serious about urgent and effective climate action, then we don’t need the delay, distraction of nuclear.”

And the idea of Australia becoming a nuclear power has “a lot of hills and hurdles to clear” before it’s widely embraced.

“People might entertain the idea, but they don’t want to host a nuclear facility,” he said.

Call to reverse nuclear ban

If the Coalition wins the election, the first hurdle it will have to clear is reversing a decades-long ban on nuclear energy in Australia, a ban Labor and the Greens want to keep in place. 

For her part, Stanke reckons it should be overturned, regardless of who wins the poll.

“That ban should be lifted because Australians should at least give themselves the option,” she said.  

“Why eliminate options here? The key to a healthy energy grid is a diverse energy grid and I think it should be up to the Australian people to decide what that looks like.”