Young-Carla - A prequel to “a step-by-step guide to nuclear innovation policy.”

In 2016, Erin Burns and Todd Allen introduced Carla, a fictitious graduate nuclear engineer with an idea for a new type of nuclear energy technology, and explained how well-crafted policies could improve government partnerships to assist Carla in taking her idea to commercial demonstration. Six years later, how far have we come in establishing an environment that would create and support a young innovator like Carla? Do we have a set of operating principles that drives innovation and deployment of new ideas, or that supports the emergence and professional advancement of many Carlas?  This document suggests ways in which we can create an environment in which more people want to be—and are able to be—like Carla?