The Anthropocene Institute is a non-profit organization that facilitates the advancement of technologies and policies supporting a sustainable, low-carbon future with a common goal: “make Earth abundant and sustainable for all generations to come.” The institute encourages exploring nuclear energy as a solution to provide reliable energy while reducing environmental and public health impacts.

Energy generation-mix distribution data and their relevant economic and health costs are scattered across various datasets, web platforms and publications. This makes it difficult to effectively promote the adoption of nuclear energy. There is a need to present the benefits of nuclear energy and other generation mixes in one complete platform.

Our Nuclear Energy: Costs, Reliability, and Health platform is an interactive web application that illustrates how an increase in the use of nuclear power can affect Michigan. Users compare electricity costs across different energy production sources to predict how changes in the energy mix can affect their electricity bills, enabling residents to make informed decisions in the future.

Our platform’s health and economic sections outline the predicted economic and public health effects associated with such changes. An interactive map enables Michigan residents to view energy producers across the state, enabling residents to understand where and how their power is generated. The educational page includes interactive questions, quizzes and FAQ to raise public awareness on nuclear energy and dispel misconceptions.

The front end is built using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript with Chart.js and Leaflet.js providing many interactive data visualizations and maps. The back end is built using Python and Flask. It processes data and provides REST API endpoints. The application is hosted on Vercel. PostgreSQL stores the data on Supabase.