M. V. Ramana is Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), University of British Columbia. He is also Graduate Program Director of the Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) program.

His research interests are in the broad areas of international security and energy supply, with a particular focus on topics related to nuclear energy and fissile materials that can be used to make nuclear weapons. He combines technical skills and interdisciplinary methods to address policy relevant questions related to security and energy issues. He is the author of Nuclear is not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change and  The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India.

Access News Media Articles

Johanna Höffken and M. V. Ramana, “Nuclear power and environmental injustice,” Wires Energy and Environment  (2023).

Sara Nelson and M. V. Ramana, “Managing Decline: Devaluation and Just Transition at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant,” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space (2023).

Mycle Schneider and M. V. Ramana, “Nuclear Energy and the Non-Proliferation Treaty: A Retrospective Examination,” Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (2023).

Ali Ahmad, Andrei Covatariu, and M. V. Ramana, “A Stormy Future? Financial Impact of Climate Change-Related Disruptions on Nuclear Power Plant Owners,” Utilities Policy (2023).

Avino Niphi and M. V. Ramana, “Talking Points: Narrative Strategies to Promote Nuclear Power in Turkey,” In Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures, edited by Majia Nadesan, Martin Pasqualetti, and Jennifer Keahey (Elsevier, 2022).

M. V. Ramana, Submissions to Standing Committee on Science and Research (SRSR), House of Commons, Study on Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (June 2022).

M. V. Ramana, Submissions to Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI), House of Commons, Review of Nuclear Waste Governance in Canada, (March 2022).

Stephen Thomas and M. V. Ramana, “A hopeless pursuit? National efforts to promote small modular nuclear reactors and revive nuclear power,” WIREs Energy and Environment (2022).

Arjun Makhijani and M. V. Ramana,“Can small modular reactors help mitigate climate change?,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 77 (4) (2021).

M. V. Ramana, “Small Modular and Advanced Nuclear Reactors: A Reality Check,” IEEE Access (2021).

Sarah Froese, Nadja C. Kunz, and M. V. Ramana, “Too small to be viable? The potential market for small modular reactors in mining and remote communities in Canada,” Energy Policy (2020).

T. S. Krishnan, Annapureddy Rama Papi Reddy, and M. V. Ramana, “Impact of Natural Background Radiation on Health: Understanding the Debate” Economic and Political Weekly, 55(37), (2020).

M. V. Ramana, Eyes Wide Shut: Problems with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems Proposal to Construct NuScale Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, September 2020.

Lauren Borja and M. V. Ramana, “Command and Control of India’s Nuclear Arsenal,” Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (2020).

Downer, J. and Ramana, M.V., Empires built on sand: On the fundamental implausibility of reactor safety assessments and the implications for nuclear regulation. Regulation & Governance (2020).

Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, and A. H. Nayyar, “Nuclear Submarines in South Asia: New Risks and Dangers,” Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament 2, no. 1 (2019), 184–202.

Wei Peng, Fabian Wagner, M. V. Ramana, Haibo Zhai, Mitchell J. Small, Carole Dalin, Xin Zhang, and Denise L. Mauzerall, “Managing China’s Coal Power Plants to Address Multiple Environmental Objectives,” Nature Sustainability 1, no. 11 (November 2018): 693.

Thomas, Steve, Paul Dorfman, Sean Morris, and M. V. Ramana, Prospects for Small Modular Reactors in the UK & Worldwide, Nuclear Consulting Group & Nuclear Free Local Authorities, United Kingdom (July 2019).

Ali Ahmad, Reem Salameh, and M. V. Ramana, Localizing Nuclear Capacity? Small Modular Reactors and Saudi Arabia, Working Paper, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut (July 2019).

M. V. Ramana, “Riding to the Rescue?: The Changing Picture in China and the Global Future of Nuclear Power” in Reinhard Haas, Lutz Mez, and Amela Ajanovic, eds., The Technological and Economic Future of Nuclear Power (Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2019), 299–319.

M. V. Ramana and Mariia Kurando, “Cyberattacks on Russia—the nation with the most nuclear weapons—pose a global threat,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 75 (1), (2019).

M. V. Ramana, “Technical and social problems of nuclear waste,” WIREs Energy and Environment (2018).

Kumar Sundaram and M. V. Ramana, “India and the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons,”  Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 1 (1), (2018).

M. V. Ramana and Zia Mian, “The Courage to Challenge the Nuclear World Order,” Economic and Political Weekly, 52(48), (2 December 2017).

M. V. Ramana and Suvrat Raju, “Old Plans, Ongoing Handouts, New Spin: Deciphering the Nuclear Construction Announcement,” Economic and Political Weekly, 52(24) (17 June 2017).

M. V. Ramana and Amy King, “A new normal? The changing future of nuclear energy in China,”  in Peter van Ness and Mel Gurtov, eds., Learning from Fukushima (2017).

Bernadette K. Cogswell, Nataliawati Siahaan, Friga Siera R, M. V. Ramana, and Richard Tanter, “Nuclear Power and Small Modular Reactors in Indonesia: Potential and Challenges,” Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics and Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability (April 2017).

Matthias Englert, Friederike Frieß, and M. V. Ramana, “Accident Scenarios Involving Pebble Bed High Temperature Reactors,” Science & Global Security, 25(1) (2017).

M. V. Ramana, “An Enduring Problem: Radioactive Waste From Nuclear Energy,” Proceedings of the IEEE, 105(3) (2017).

M. V. Ramana, A. H. Nayyar, and Michael Schoeppner, “Nuclear High-level Waste Tank Explosions: Potential Causes and Impacts of a Hypothetical Accident at India’s Kalpakkam Reprocessing Plant,”Science & Global Security, 24 (3) (2016).

M. V. Ramana,“Second Life or Half-Life? The Contested Future of Nuclear Power and Its Potential Role in a Sustainable Energy Transition,” in Thijs Van de Graaf, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Arunabha Ghosh, Florian Kern, and Michael T. Klare, eds., The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (2016).

M. V. Ramana and Priscilla Agyapong,”Thinking big? Ghana, small reactors, and nuclear power,”Energy Research & Social Science, 21 (2016).

M. V. Ramana,“The Checkered Operational History of High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactors,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 72 (3) (2016).

M. V. Ramana and Ali Ahmad, “Wishful Thinking and Real Problems: Small Modular Reactors, Planning Constraints, and Nuclear Power in Jordan,”Energy Policy, 93 (2016).

M. V. Ramana, and Zia Mian, “Scrambling to build a Nuclear Middle East,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 72 (1) (2016).

Amy King and M. V. Ramana, “The China Syndrome? Nuclear Power Growth and Safety After Fukushima,” Asian Perspective, 39 (4) (2015).

M. V. Ramana and Frank von Hippel,eds.,”Plutonium Separation in Nuclear Power Programs: Status, Problems, and Prospects of Civilian Reprocessing Around the World,”International Panel on Fissile Materials (July 2015).

Alexander Glaser, M. V. Ramana, Ali Ahmad, and Robert Socolow “Small Modular Reactors: A Window on Nuclear Energy,” An Energy Technology Distillate from the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University (June 2015).

M. V. Ramana,“The Forgotten History of Small Nuclear Reactors,”IEEE Spectrum (April 2015).

M. V. Ramana and Ashwin K. Seshadri,”Negligence, Capture, and Dependence: Safety Regulation of the Design of India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor,”Journal of Risk Research, 18 (8) (2015).

Benjamin Sovacool and M. V. Ramana, “Back to the Future: Small Modular Reactors, Nuclear Fantasies, and Symbolic Convergence,” Science, Technology, and Human Values, 40 (1) (2015).

M. V. Ramana and Zia Mian,”One size doesn’t fit all: Social priorities and technical conflicts for small modular reactors,”Energy Research & Social Science, 1 (2) (2014).

S. Rajendran Pillai and M. V. Ramana,“Breeder Reactors: A Possible Connection Between Metal Corrosion and Sodium Leaks,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 70 (3) (2014).

Ali Ahmad and M. V. Ramana, “Too Costly to Matter: Economics of Nuclear Power for Saudi Arabia,” Energy, (93) (2014).

Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, “Asian War Machines,” Critical Asian Studies, 46 (2) (2014).

M. V. Ramana and Ashwin Kumar, “Nuclear Safety in India: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence,”OUCIP Journal of International Studies, 1 (1) (2013).

M. V. Ramana, Laura Berzak Hopkins, and Alexander Glaser, “Licensing Small Modular Reactors,”Energy, 61 (2013).

M. V. Ramana, “Why India’s Electricity is Likely to Remain in Short Supply: The Economics of Nuclear Power,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 69 (6) (2013).

M. V. Ramana and Ashwin Kumar, “‘One in Infinity’: Learning from Accidents and Lessons for Nuclear Safety in India,”Journal of Risk Research (2013).

Alexander Glaser, Laura Berzak Hopkins, and M. V. Ramana, “Resource Requirements and Proliferation Risks Associated with Small Modular Reactors,” Nuclear Technology, 184 (October 2013).

M. V. Ramana, “Shifting Strategies and Precarious Progress: Nuclear Waste Management in Canada,”Energy Policy,61 (October 2013).

Suvrat Raju and M. V. Ramana, “Cost of Electricity from the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant,” Economic and Political Weekly, XLVIII (26 & 27) (2013).

M. V. Ramana, “Nuclear Policy Responses to Fukushima: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 69 (2) (2013).

M. V. Ramana,“Flunking Atomic Audits: CAG Reports and Nuclear Power,”Economic and Political Weekly, XLVII (39) (2012).

M. V. Ramana, “Flight from Disarmament,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (10 May 2012).

M. V. Ramana and Eri Saikawa, “Choosing a Standard Reactor: International Competition and Domestic Politics in Chinese Nuclear Policy,” Energy, 36 (12) (2011).

Ashwin Kumar and M. V. Ramana, “The Limits of Safety Analysis: Severe Nuclear Accident Possibilities at the PFBR,” Economic and Political Weekly, XLVI (43) (2011).

M. V. Ramana, “Nuclear Power and the Public,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 67 (4) (2011).

M. V. Ramana,”Beyond our Imagination: Fukushima and the Problem of Assessing Risk,”Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (19 April 2011).

J. Y. Suchitra and M. V. Ramana,”The Costs of Power: Plutonium and the Economics of India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor,”International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 35(1) (2011).

Distinguished Lecturer, Sigma Xi Society, 2017-18

Leo Szilard Award, American Physical Society, 2014

Guggenheim Fellowship, 2003

Ph.D. Students

Prerna Gupta, IRES (2018-Present)

Sadia Tasleem, ISGP (2019-Present)

Reem Salameh, IRES (2020-Present)

M. Sc. Students

Celeste Pomerantz, IRES (2020-Present)

Lindah Ddamba, IRES (2020-Present)

Member, Scientific Advisory Board, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Canada

Member, International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group

Member, Canadian Pugwash Group

Member, International Panel on Fissile Materials

Editorial board member, Energy Research and Social Science

Editorial board member, Science and Global Security

Team of Editors, Journal of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament