There are technologies that decouple human well-being from its ecological impacts. There are politics that enable these technologies. Join me as I interview world experts to uncover hope in this time of planetary crisis.
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Ashley Nunes, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School, joins me to disentangle the hope from the hype in the EV debate.
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Robbie Stewart and Enrique Velez-Lopez, the founders of nuclear start up Boston Atomics, join me to discuss the true costs of advanced nuclear design engineering.
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Jimmy Fortuna of Enverus takes me on a world tour of oil production by region illuminating the unique geopolitical, technological and political challenges to accessing our most important form of energy.
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Aidan Morrison, Director of Energy Research at the Centre for Independent Studies joins me for an update on the Australian nuclear debate which is shaping up to be a core issue in the approaching federal election.
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Mark Mills is the executive director of the National Centre for Energy Analytics and author of “The Cloud Revolution” How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and A Roaring 2020s. Join us as we explore how to power an AI enhanced Cloud network and its implications on the grid and climate politics.…
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We’ve Got to Talk About the Bomb Some More
1:48:21
1:48:21
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Professor Alex Wellerstein returns for a part two answering questions about the bomb, near misses, command and control and more.
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Is Regulation Strangling Nuclear Energy?
1:19:06
1:19:06
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Is overzealous regulation the root cause of the contemporary crisis in deployment of nuclear reactors in the USA? James Krellenstein argues that Nuclear Regulatory Commission critics are trapped in the 1980’s and that the spectre haunting today’s deployments are not primarily regulatory. Due to simplified systems and lower material costs modern NRC…
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Climate Change and Mass Extinctions: A deep time perspective
1:05:50
1:05:50
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Science journalist Peter Brannen joins me to discuss the kill mechanisms of Earth’s five mass extinctions. Humanity has developed the god like power’s to mimic all of them. From altering the carbon cycle to eutrophication of oceans and to a far lesser degree our asteroid like thermonuclear weapon arsenal.…
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Modularity: Lessons from chemical process engineering
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49:53
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How should we think about modularity in the nuclear space? Jesse Hubesch joins me to disentangle the much hyped concept of modularity from his perspective as a chemical process engineer.
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Historian of science Professor Alex Wellerstein joins me to talk about the sword haunting the ploughshare of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
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Marcel Boiteux: Builder of the World's Greatest Nuclear Fleet
1:20:34
1:20:34
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Marcel Boiteux, a shy economist who escaped occupied France to fight the Nazis before working out the theory of electricity pricing for newly-nationalized Electricite de France, rose to become the greatest builder of nuclear power the world has ever seen. Mark Nelson, founder of Radiant Energy Group, explains what forces shaped his mind, his role i…
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While the west struggles to deliver nuclear plants and dreams about novel reactor technologies China is deploying it all: large LWR, SMR and MSR/HTGR. World Nuclear Association China lead Francois Morin joins me to catch us up on recent developments and trends.
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Renewable Nuclear: All about Breeder Reactors
57:38
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In the early days of nuclear power uranium was thought to be a critically rare mineral. Nuclear engineers sought to solve this problem with a special type of reactor that produced more fissile material than they consume. Nick Touran joins me to discuss and explore the long term sustainability of nuclear power.…
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Vogtle part 4: Can Positive Learning Happen Next?
1:09:50
1:09:50
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The Grand Finale is here. We wrestle with the question of whether nuclear can find its groove and the positive learning rates that have eluded it so frequently. Vogtle unit 4 came in 40% cheaper than unit 3. Can those gains continue downwards? Is Vogtle 5 more likely to follow this cost reduction curve compared to a new AP1000 elsewhere?…
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Emmet Penney joins me to shoot the breeze and catch up on the whirlwind developments of the last few months.
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Fan favourite, Mark Nelson, joins me for an update on California’s soaring electricity prices and worsening grid dysfunction.
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Seaver Wang, oceanographer and co-director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute joins me to unravel controversies surrounding deep sea mining for the polymetallic nodules of the abyssal plains.
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James Krellenstein joins me to explore the extraordinary power requirements of the AI revolution and how this demand for vast amounts of baseload generation will impact the nuclear sector.
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David March CEO of Exergy/Energy joins me to discuss the sharp decline in power quality from increasing penetration of intermittent generation and the impact its having on mission critical industries and manufacturing.
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Art Berman joins me to discuss the likelihood and implications of cheap peak oil.
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Stephen Stapczynski, Bloomberg Business senior reporter, joins me to discuss everything you always wanted to know about LNG but were afraid to ask.
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Ontario’s Nuclear Revival: Minister Todd Smith
43:49
43:49
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Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith joins me to discuss the phenomenon of Ontario’s centrality to the West’s nuclear energy aspirations.
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Vogtle Part 3: Was the NRC to blame?
1:17:25
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James Krellenstein returns to deeper dive the lessons of Vogtle and VC Summer
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The Energy Returns of Unconventional Oil
1:09:49
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Chris Popoff returns to talk unconventional oil with a focus on oil sands. What is it? What are its energy economics? How is it like a battery? What does it have to do with peak cheap oil and how does nuclear fit into the picture?
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James Krellenstein and I continue our deep dive analysis of what went wrong at Vogtle.
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The Politics of a Canadian Nuclear Revival
1:18:43
1:18:43
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As Canada embarks on a new nuclear build out of SMRs and large Reactors, Professor Duane Bratt joins me to provide a political scientists perspective on the history and future of the Canadian nuclear sector.
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Prospects for Process Heat & “Advanced” Nuclear
57:13
57:13
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Noah Rettberg walks us through an in depth exploration on the challenges of decarbonizing process heat.
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Vogtle Part 1: the Nuclear Renaissance That Wasn't
1:16:21
1:16:21
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James Krellenstein returns to dig into what went wrong at Vogtle and why the nuclear “Renaissance” of the early 2000’s ended up a flop.
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Extreme Weather and Alberta’s AWOL Renewable Energy
1:03:01
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Alberta, sitting on massive reserves of oil and gas, found itself teetering on the edge of blackout this week as temperatures in the negative 40 degree ranges led to multiple grid alerts. As a new record for peak demand was set at 12,384 MW, Alberta's 4481MW wind fleet went AWOL. This raises major concerns regarding electricity planning with a coun…
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Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO at Microsoft and vice chairman of TerraPower joins me to discuss his experience bridging the world of software and nuclear power.
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Sec Ernie Moniz and I chat about best practices for “embarking” and “re-embarking” nations as 24 countries pledge to triple nuclear energy by 2050.
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Cracking the Nuclear Innovation Nut
1:06:33
1:06:33
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Humanity went from inducing the first fissions of heavy elements in 1938 to a nuclear powered submarine in just 16 years. Why has that tremendous pace of nuclear innovation seemingly slowed down to a crawl? Nuclear historian Nick Touran joins me for an in depth analysis of the historic preconditions of nuclear innovation and its opportunities and l…
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COP28 & The Inconvenient Truth about Coal
59:36
59:36
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Robert Bryce joins me for a COP28 “reactions” episode and drops some hard truths on the world’s ever increasing appetite for coal.
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Dr. Keefer sat down with some of the Titans of the nuclear fuel cycle at the “Net Zero Nuclear Summit” on the sidelines of COP28 in the UAE where 24 countries have pledged to triple nuclear energy by 2050. The topic: How to scale up Uranium mining, enrichment and advanced fuel manufacturing in the context of our emerging multipolar world and the We…
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The cancellation of the Carbon Free Power Project was a massive blow to US SMR front runner NuScale. James Krellenstein joins me for a deep dive.
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Chris Adlam joins me to discuss Ontario’s attempt to imitate Germany’s Energiewende. It began as an attempt to kickstart a green energy industry by retooling struggling automotive plants in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The lucrative 20 year feed in tariff contracts for wind and solar will end up costing Ontario more than 62 billion…
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One in 20 American homes are powered by Russian enriched uranium because the USA lacks sufficient enrichment capacity to meet its own needs. Energy and fuel security are supposed to be a strong point of the technology but the US nuclear industry faces further reputational risk because no-one is taking responsibility and adequately planning adequate…
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The recent cancellation of two large wind projects in New Jersey are the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent US offshore wind industry. Mark Nelson joins me to analyze whether the nuclear industry is vulnerable to the same cost drivers plaguing this sector.
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James Krellenstein joins me to discuss the rationale underlying small modular reactors and in particular the challenges of getting novel reactor concepts from the experimental stage to reliable commercial operation.
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Jacopo Buongiorno joins me to discuss the cost drivers of nuclear and how we can drive them down. For a deeper dive check out this MIT study that Jacopo led. studyhttps://energy.mit.edu/research/future-nuclear-energy-carbon-constrained-world/
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Are renewables jobs the “fast food” employment of the energy transition?
5:51
5:51
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Dr Keefer’s Testimony at the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee on what Canada can learn from the Inflation Reduction Act’s “good union jobs” provisions. In the words of NYT labour reporter Noam Scheiber“The green economy is shaping up to look less like the industrial workplace that lifted workers into the middle class in the 20th century…
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Muckraking physicist and data scientist Aidan Morrison has thrown doubt on the oft repeated mantra in Australia that wind and solar are the lowest cost option for a clean energy transition. He discovered that the modelling used to justify these claims leaves out the massive investments in storage and transmission required to balance the system trea…
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Dr. Keefer’s speech at Minerals Week in Australia sharing the story of Ontario’s coal phaseout & the decarbonization of its electricity grid.
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Enhanced geothermal has been a scientific white whale since the 1970’s but a recent breakthrough announcement is causing waves. Is Baseload cool again? Will enhanced geothermal eat nuclear’s lunch or for that matter renewable’s lunch? The potential to unlock the energy potential of hot dry rocks by leveraging hydraulic fracturing opens up a vast ge…
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Quebec reconsiders Nuclear. Waters up with that?
9:47
9:47
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As electricity demands increase Quebec is looking into refurbishing its lone mothballed CANDU reactor Gentilly-2. Mark Nelson joins us to discuss.
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Jigar Shah: Breaking the Nuclear Stalemate
56:01
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Today I am joined by Jigar Shah, the director of the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office to discuss the future of nuclear, and nuclear finance in the USA.
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Charles Oppenheimer, a serial entrepreneur in the software business and the grandson of J Robert Oppenheimer joins me to discuss the Christopher Nolan film, his Grandfather’s legacy and the organization he recently co-founded, the Oppenheimer project.
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Physicist James Krellenstein returns for a part two to talk about America’s nuclear future.
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American Nuclear: Failure to Learn, Destined to Repeat?
1:07:06
1:07:06
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“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Physicist James Krellenstein joins me to deep dive the history of America’s great nuclear build out, its stalling and the age of the operator which saw capacity factors at US plants leap from 60% to 90%. How should this history inform future policy? What's the bull’s case for US nuc…
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