Tim Gregory

Nuclear chemist Dr Tim Gregory reveals how the byproducts of nuclear power contain hidden treasures. Nuclear waste is usually thought of as a problem, a dangerous legacy of nuclear power. But what if it could be recycled into something life-saving, even world-expanding?

Gregory will explore how the unusual isotopes found in nuclear waste can be transformed into nuclear medicines that diagnose disease and target tumours on the smallest scale possible: one atom at a time. Others can be harnessed as long-lived power sources for spacecraft, allowing us to venture deeper into space and one day help sustain human habitats on the Moon and beyond. With stories that range from the inside of the human body to the far reaches of space, Gregory invites us to rethink what “waste” really means and to see how the afterlife of atoms might help shape the future of medicine and space exploration.

Gregory is a nuclear chemist at the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield, and author of Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made our World and Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World. He was a finalist in BBC2’s Astronauts: Do You Have What it Takes, is a regular on BBC radio, and has also presented on BBC’s The Sky at Night.