Decouple - Dr. Chris Keefer

Latest Episodes:

It's a Material World Jan 31, 2024

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Ed Conway author of “Material World” joins me to explore the material world underpinning the ethereal world of our perceived reality. He explains how sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium are transformed with technology and energy into the building blocks of our built world and how fragile, vulnerable and complex these processes have become.

Vogtle Part 1: the Nuclear Renaissance That Wasn't Jan 25, 2024

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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.

Extreme Weather and Alberta’s AWOL Renewable Energy Jan 17, 2024

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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 country wide federal mandate for Net Zero electricity by 2035 having already generated significant political controversy in Alberta which has imposed a moratorium on new wind and solar over affordability and reliability concerns. Its is therefore a timely occurrence that this same week Alberta's Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation announced a feasibility study looking at near-term deployment of a fleet of nuclear reactors in the province . Chris Popoff joins me to explain.

From Microchips to Atom Splits Jan 08, 2024

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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.

A Fireside chat with Sec. Ernie Moniz Dec 28, 2023

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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.

Cracking the Nuclear Innovation Nut Dec 22, 2023

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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 limits going into the future.

COP28 & The Inconvenient Truth about Coal Dec 17, 2023

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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.

How to Fuel a Tripling of Nuclear Energy Dec 12, 2023

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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 West’s dependence on Russia for almost 1/4 of its enrichment needs. Enjoy! Feat. Tim Gitzel CEO Cameco, Dan Poneman CEO Centrus, Boris Schucht CEO Urenco and Clay Sell CEO X-Energy

NuScale, New Problems Dec 02, 2023

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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.

Ontario’s Green Energy Act Nov 28, 2023

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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 dollars.

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Decouple – Dr. Chris Keefer

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