213 episodes
Decouple Dr. Chris Keefer
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- Science
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4.9 • 110 Ratings
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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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NuScale, New Problems
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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Ontario’s Green Energy Act
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 dollars.
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Enriching Uranium Understanding
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 solutions despite NRC licenses being in place. James Krellenstein returns to take our proverbial hands and walk us through the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Enjoy!
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US Offshore Wind Dead in the Water?
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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Small Misunderstood Reactors
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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Why is Western nuclear so expensive?
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/
Customer Reviews
Love it !!!
Awesome love the in-depth conversation
Thank you
Just so, so well done.
I don’t know how I bumped into this podcast, but I am glad I did. So well done, so well researched. This is a very good example of passionately, researching, and patiently, trying to understand a very complex topic and then making good on that knowledge to the benefit of others.
Meh,
Some experts like Mark Nelson are first rate. Too often it swerves into political seething - we already know that liberals don’t allow much and conservatives don’t conserve much so don’t go there. I can get a vicarious sense of self-satisfaction anywhere. Also, this podcast does itself no favors by criticizing other alternative energy schemes. There is enough positive to say about nuclear and enough detail to cover in why these projects devastate their budgets and schedules and how that might be solved.