KAYLEE CUNNINGHAM’S PATH TO NUCLEAR ENGINEERING started with musical theater, calculus class, and a friend who gave her a nudge.
In high school, Cunningham was very into musical theater, but also loved science and was good at math. A friend in her calculus class, now her best friend and soon-to-be maid of honor, gave her a little push in a different direction.
“She turned to me and was like, ’You should really check out the Engineering Academy. Have you ever met the teacher? Have you?’” Cunningham recalled. “She kind of pulled me into it. And I ended up loving it and never looked back.”
Her first introduction to nuclear was in radiation shielding for astronauts during a Florida State Astronaut Challenge in which she took part. “I really liked the juxtaposition between how nuclear can be so dangerous and something astronauts need to protect themselves from, but at the same time can also be so beneficial as a clean energy source,” she said.
She majored in nuclear engineering at the University of Florida, where her eagerness to explore and be creative thrived as she cycled through different research groups. And during her master’s degree at MIT, a more memorable experience involved trying to fix a broken focused ion beam instrument, a tool used to cut out samples so small they can be viewed with a transmission electron microscope.
“These things cost like a quarter of a million dollars. It’s very rare that you actually have the opportunity to take one apart and see all the different components and how this thing actually worked,” she said.
Now a doctoral student at the University of Florida working through Los Alamos National Laboratory, Cunningham focuses on the computational side of nuclear materials. Her dissertation examines fission gas release in nuclear fuels, a topic she first studied during her master’s research.
“I like to call them nuclear fuel burps,” she said.
The nickname is fun, but the phenomenon itself is pretty critical. During fission, gases form inside nuclear fuel, cluster into bubbles, connect into tunnels, and eventually escape through the fuel surface, she explained. Because those gases are radioactive, tracking that behavior is essential.
“Making sure we’re accounting for them appropriately and making sure our fuel rods don’t become over-pressurized or we have any sort of radioactivity release is super, super important for fuel safety and qualification,” she said.
On the Shoulders of Giants
At Los Alamos, that research overlaps directly with her dissertation work. The Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) program allows students to conduct research at the lab while applying it toward their degree.
“It’s this really awesome program,” she said. “You can come do your research at the lab, have it count toward your dissertation, and get this really unique hands-on experience to work with some of the greatest and most brilliant minds in the world.”
Arriving at Los Alamos felt surreal. With the lab’s history, and being a big fan of the Oppenheimer movie, Cunningham said she was “super nerding out.”
“Doing our part to make sure that that energy source [nuclear energy] is clean, is carbon free, and is good for the planet, is like the most important thing. And that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, is knowing that I’m contributing to saving our planet.”
—Kaylee Cunningham, Doctoral Student and STEM Influencer, Los Alamos National Lab/University of Florida
Cunningham rotates through hobbies, but triathlon has stuck for about seven years. Her current race prep may be questionable, by her own admission, but she likes that it lets her cycle through running, biking, and swimming. Her office ick: people on their phones during meetings.
“To feel like a part of that, and being able to contribute maybe even the tiniest bit to this mission of standing up nuclear reactors and fighting against climate change is just so astounding,” she said.
Cunningham’s sense of purpose also shapes how she sees the field more broadly. “I think what excites me the most is definitely how many players are involved in this sort of fight to bring nuclear back on the market,” she said. “There’s so many startup companies that I feel like are popping up out of nowhere. I feel like I turn around or blink and three more appear.”
She continued: “Doing our part to make sure that nuclear energy source is clean, is carbon free, and is good for the planet, is like the most important thing. And that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning, is knowing that I’m contributing to saving our planet.”
Nuclear, No Filter
Cunningham’s nuclear advocacy also has a more public-facing alter ego: Ms. Nuclear Energy, her online persona where she uses humor, plainspoken explanations, and a healthy amount of internet chaos to make nuclear science feel less intimidating.
On TikTok, that means meeting people where they are, whether they’re curious about clean energy, scared of radiation, or still picturing nuclear waste as a barrel of glowing green goo.
"A lot of people, crazy enough, think that nuclear waste is like in The Simpsons, or can cause things like the video game and TV show Fallout. That’s been a big one where they’re like, ‘oh, are you going to be this like giant cockroach that’s going to eat me if I see radiation?’ Like, no, that stuff does not happen. That is not how any of this works,” she said.
Her comedic approach is partly strategic and partly generational. Cunningham said younger audiences have grown up with the internet, a 24-hour news cycle, social media, and a steady feed of heavy events. Humor, she said, often becomes a way to process it all.
“There tends to be a lot of tradition that is upheld where everything has to be super serious and super stoic,” she said. For traditional STEM spaces trying to reach younger audiences, loosening up and having fun can help bridge that communication gap. The science is still serious, but the delivery doesn’t have to be.
Ms. Nuclear Energy is still one more thing on top of Ph.D. work, research at Los Alamos, and actual life. Her priority is protecting her mental and physical health, she said. Working with people who support that has been instrumental to balancing everything.
“I have been so incredibly fortunate in the mentors I’ve had,” she said. Her gratitude shows in her own outreach, whether it’s STEM volunteering or serving as a run buddy during a Girls on the Run 5K. “Any chance I get to be even a fraction as good of a mentor as they have been to me throughout the years, I leap at that opportunity,” she said.
Follow Ms. Nuclear Energy on TikTok.
Sarah Alburakeh is strategic content editor.
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