Podcasts about smrs

Nuclear Proliferation Concerns Regarding Small Modular Reactors and Weapons Testing. Henry Sokolski raises proliferation concerns about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) using High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel (20% enriched). Declassified cables from 1954 and 1977 suggested that uranium above 10% requires special concern, demanding a review before SMRs are exported. Sokolski also clarifies that US maintenance of its nuclear arsenal relies on non-critical tests and simulations, not full-yield explosions, though adversaries may be conducting critical tests.

Nuclear Proliferation Concerns Regarding Small Modular Reactors and Weapons Testing. Henry Sokolski raises proliferation concerns about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) using High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel (20% enriched). Declassified cables from 1954 and 1977 suggested that uranium above 10% requires special concern, demanding a review before SMRs are exported. Sokolski also clarifies that US maintenance of its nuclear arsenal relies on non-critical tests and simulations, not full-yield explosions, though adversaries may be conducting critical tests.

SHOW 11-7-25 CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR THE SHOW BEGINS IN THE DOUBTS ABOUT THE MUCH DEBATED AI VALUATIONS. FIRST HOUR 9-915 California Politics and West Coast Issues. Jeff Bliss reports on California Governor Gavin Newsom's successful Proposition 50 to reshape congressional districts, a move linked to increasing Newsom's presidential visibility. Newsom's public persona is increasingly marked by anger and profanity aimed at political opponents. Other issues include Las Vegas resorts reconsidering "nickel-and-diming" practices, ongoing regulatory hurdles delaying rebuilding in Maui, and routine fires in LA's growing homeless encampments. 915-930 Canadian Politics, US Trade Relations, and Energy Pipeline Development. Conrad Black discusses a domestic Canadian political misunderstanding involving Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Doug Ford over an anti-tariff ad that annoyed President Trump. The focus shifts to Canadian energy policy, noting the need for new pipelines to move oil from Alberta east, west, and south. Carney's government has tentatively agreed to approve a second pipeline to northern British Columbia, which would more than double the daily oil shipment capacity to the west. 930-945 Supreme Court Arguments on Presidential Tariff Authority and NYC Mayor-Elect. Professor Richard Epstein analyzes Supreme Court arguments regarding the President's expansive use of a 1977 law to impose tariffs, predicting a likely 7-2 ruling against the administration. Epstein argues that viewing successful worldwide trade as an "emergency" is intellectually flawed and an abuse of executive discretion. Separately, he expresses concern that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist lacking administrative experience, risks impoverishing the city by ignoring competitive federalism. 945-1000 Supreme Court Arguments on Presidential Tariff Authority and NYC Mayor-Elect. Professor Richard Epstein analyzes Supreme Court arguments regarding the President's expansive use of a 1977 law to impose tariffs, predicting a likely 7-2 ruling against the administration. Epstein argues that viewing successful worldwide trade as an "emergency" is intellectually flawed and an abuse of executive discretion. Separately, he expresses concern that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist lacking administrative experience, risks impoverishing the city by ignoring competitive federalism. SECOND HOUR 10-1015 Economic Slowdown and Election Observations in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Jim McTague identifies signs of an economic slowdown affecting people beyond the lowest economic rung. Restaurant business in Indiana is down 3 to 5%, and expensive home renovations have "dried up." Costco shoppers are exhibiting extreme caution, buying essentials with little impulse spending. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a large turnout resulted in Democratic victories, suggesting voter reaction against local Republicans perceived as "Trumpists." Anticipated layoffs at Amazon and Walmart are expected to impact local employment. 1015-1030 Italian Defense Strategy and the Geopolitical Situation. Lorenzo Fiori discusses Italy's defense buildup using EU loan deals to acquire new armored vehicles from Germany's Rheinmetall through a joint venture with Leonardo. This modernization is crucial as Italy is strategically situated near the Ukrainian conflict and faces risks from troubled North African countries, particularly potential Russian influence in Libya. Although the military is needed for disaster relief, public opinion often remains against increasing defense expenditures. 1030-1045 Spacefaring News: NASA, SpaceX Records, and Global Space Issues. Bob Zimmerman reports on the renomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator following a previous withdrawal. SpaceX is setting new launch records, aiming for close to 180 launches this year, though an FAA launch curfew might jeopardize this prediction. Other topics include Boeing avoiding criminal charges regarding the 737 Max crashes, opposition to the EU Space Act, Starlab's commercial space station development, and China's stranded crew due to space debris damage to their Shenzhou capsule. 1045-1100 Spacefaring News: NASA, SpaceX Records, and Global Space Issues. Bob Zimmerman reports on the renomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator following a previous withdrawal. SpaceX is setting new launch records, aiming for close to 180 launches this year, though an FAA launch curfew might jeopardize this prediction. Other topics include Boeing avoiding criminal charges regarding the 737 Max crashes, opposition to the EU Space Act, Starlab's commercial space station development, and China's stranded crew due to space debris damage to their Shenzhou capsule. THIRD HOUR 1100-1115 Augustine's Response to the Sack of Rome and Theological Battles. Professor Katherine Conybeare discusses Augustine, the African, and his response to the 410 AD sacking of Rome, which motivated him to write The City of God. The work defends Christianity by arguing Rome was always vulnerable. The source also covers the "rigged" Council of Carthage against the Donatists, Augustine's role in developing the just war theory, and his debate against Pelagianism, which led to the formulation of original sin, transmitted through sexual intercourse. 1115-1130 1130-1145 1145-1200 FOURTH HOUR 12-1215 Nuclear Proliferation Concerns Regarding Small Modular Reactors and Weapons Testing. Henry Sokolski raises proliferation concerns about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) using High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel (20% enriched). Declassified cables from 1954 and 1977 suggested that uranium above 10% requires special concern, demanding a review before SMRs are exported. Sokolski also clarifies that US maintenance of its nuclear arsenal relies on non-critical tests and simulations, not full-yield explosions, though adversaries may be conducting critical tests. 1215-1230 Nuclear Proliferation Concerns Regarding Small Modular Reactors and Weapons Testing. Henry Sokolski raises proliferation concerns about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) using High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel (20% enriched). Declassified cables from 1954 and 1977 suggested that uranium above 10% requires special concern, demanding a review before SMRs are exported. Sokolski also clarifies that US maintenance of its nuclear arsenal relies on non-critical tests and simulations, not full-yield explosions, though adversaries may be conducting critical tests. 1230-1245 The Trillion-Dollar Space Race: Musk (Hare) vs. Bezos (Tortoise). Richard Smith compares the space race between Elon Musk's SpaceX ("the hare") and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin ("the tortoise"). Blue Origin operates under the cautious motto Gradatim Ferociter, funded by Bezos's personal wealth, aiming to move heavy industry off Earth. SpaceX is driven by Musk's "existential" goal to make humanity interplanetary, operating with urgency. SpaceX ensures independence by funding its ambitious projects, including Starship, through the revenue generated by Starlink. 1245-100 AM The Trillion-Dollar Space Race: Musk (Hare) vs. Bezos (Tortoise). Richard Smith compares the space race between Elon Musk's SpaceX ("the hare") and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin ("the tortoise"). Blue Origin operates under the cautious motto Gradatim Ferociter, funded by Bezos's personal wealth, aiming to move heavy industry off Earth. SpaceX is driven by Musk's "existential" goal to make humanity interplanetary, operating with urgency. SpaceX ensures independence by funding its ambitious projects, including Starship, through the revenue generated by Starlink.

PREVIEW. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Nuclear Proliferation Risk. Henry Sokolski discusses declassified communications indicating that 20% enriched uranium is sufficient to build a bomb, which is the enrichment level proposed for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). SMRs are embraced by the political class because they provide the massive electricity required by AI and tech centers. Both political parties are criticized for indiscriminately supporting nuclear generation.

In this episode of Energy Newsbeat – Conversations in Energy, Stu Turley hosts Steve Reese (Reese Energy Consulting) and Matthew Hill (fire suppression expert) for a powerful conversation on the future of energy, natural gas demand, AI data center growth, and energy infrastructure. They unpack the collision course between LNG exports and power-hungry data centers, highlight the coming turbine shortage, and explore mobile microgrid and modular refinery innovations. Topics span from CNG applications, geothermal crossover, and battery fire risks, to U.S. refining bottlenecks, regulatory barriers, and California's energy policies as a national security threat. The episode is a dynamic mix of industry insight, policy critique, and forward-looking solutions—driven by a call for energy dominance, regulatory reform, and American innovation. You will want to connect with Steve Reese on LinkedIn: / steve-reese-185a86 ​ And Matthew Hill is a must-connect for safety: / matthewhillknightfires... ​ Check out Reese Energy Consulting at https://reeseenergycon...​ Highlights of the Podcast 00:00​ – Intro 00:00​ – Intro & Guests 01:03​ – Gas Demand: LNG vs. Data Centers 01:53​ – Turbine Shortage & Microgrids 02:43​ – Big Tech's Unreal Gas Expectations 04:05​ – Mobile Data Centers on Well Pads 05:16​ – Frac Firms Becoming Tech Giants 06:41​ – ROI of AI Infrastructure 08:20​ – CNG & Mobile Midstream 09:42​ – Gen Z & ESG Pressure 10:17​ – Failed Solar & Gas Reality 10:52​ – SMRs & Powering AI Boom 12:20​ – Flynn, California, & Business Exodus 15:09​ – Regulation Creep & Safety 18:16​ – Pipeline Delays & Bottlenecks 20:32​ – Illegals & Hydrocarbon Transport Risks 21:30​ – CA Imports Dirty Oil While Shutting Local Supply 23:21​ – U.S. Refinery Gap 24:57​ – NIMBYs & NatSec Risk 26:03​ – Gas Price Outlook 27:40​ – Geothermal's Momentum 29:55​ – New Modular Refineries 31:38​ – Operator vs. Political Disconnect 33:02​ – Reese's AI & LNG Training 33:45​ – CNG/LNG Use on Pads 34:52​ – Battery Fire Safety & BESS 36:47​ – Mobile Power Best Practices 38:34​ – Lithium Battery Threats 39:02​ – Wrap-Up & Outro Full Transcript at https://theenergynewsb...​ #EnergyDominance​ #NaturalGasBoom​ #DataCenterDemand​#MicrogridSolutions​ #EnergyInfrastructure​ #FireSuppressionTech​ #RefiningCrisisn​#GeothermalEnergy​ #RegulatoryReform​ #AmericanLNG​

In this episode of Energy Newsbeat – Conversations in Energy, Stu Turley hosts Steve Reese (Reese Energy Consulting) and Matthew Hill (fire suppression expert) for a powerful conversation on the future of energy, natural gas demand, AI data center growth, and energy infrastructure. They unpack the collision course between LNG exports and power-hungry data centers, highlight the coming turbine shortage, and explore mobile microgrid and modular refinery innovations. Topics span from CNG applications, geothermal crossover, and battery fire risks, to U.S. refining bottlenecks, regulatory barriers, and California's energy policies as a national security threat. The episode is a dynamic mix of industry insight, policy critique, and forward-looking solutions—driven by a call for energy dominance, regulatory reform, and American innovation.You will want to connect with Steve Reese on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-reese-185a86/And Matthew Hill is a must-connect for safety: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhillknightfirespecialists4055682742/Check out Reese Energy Consulting at https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/Highlights of the Podcast 00:00 – Intro00:00 – Intro & Guests01:03 – Gas Demand: LNG vs. Data Centers01:53 – Turbine Shortage & Microgrids02:43 – Big Tech's Unreal Gas Expectations04:05 – Mobile Data Centers on Well Pads05:16 – Frac Firms Becoming Tech Giants06:41 – ROI of AI Infrastructure08:20 – CNG & Mobile Midstream09:42 – Gen Z & ESG Pressure10:17 – Failed Solar & Gas Reality10:52 – SMRs & Powering AI Boom12:20 – Flynn, California, & Business Exodus15:09 – Regulation Creep & Safety18:16 – Pipeline Delays & Bottlenecks20:32 – Illegals & Hydrocarbon Transport Risks21:30 – CA Imports Dirty Oil While Shutting Local Supply23:21 – U.S. Refinery Gap24:57 – NIMBYs & NatSec Risk26:03 – Gas Price Outlook27:40 – Geothermal's Momentum29:55 – New Modular Refineries31:38 – Operator vs. Political Disconnect33:02 – Reese's AI & LNG Training33:45 – CNG/LNG Use on Pads34:52 – Battery Fire Safety & BESS36:47 – Mobile Power Best Practices38:34 – Lithium Battery Threats39:02 – Wrap-Up & OutroFull Transcript at https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/

"Magnifying glass examining colorful crypto coins labelled 'Ponzi,' one golden Bitcoin standing out as genuine, cautionary warning icons..." ROI Podcast® episode 496! In this episode, entrepreneur and writer Alexander Svetsky shares stories from his wild ride through the crypto world. He talks about co‑founding one of the first Bitcoin‑only savings/exchange platforms and why dealing with regulators made him say "never again." Alexander also explains why he's building Satlantis, a Bitcoin‑powered ticketing app, and how his writing on economics and philosophy has influenced his entrepreneurial journey. We dive deep into Bitcoin's fundamentals—what makes it different from "shitcoins," why sound money matters, and how bad incentives distort economic behavior. Alexander breaks down how Bitcoin is backed by energy and how mining can even stabilize the power grid by flexibly using surplus renewable energy - cryptoforinnovation.org - and providing load‑balancing services - cryptoforinnovation.org - You'll hear why he believes decentralization beats trust in institutions and what industries could look like in a Bitcoin‑standard world. If you're curious about energy debates, Ponzi‑scheme cryptos, or the myth of Satoshi Nakamoto, this episode delivers fresh insights. We also get personal—Alexander reflects on mistakes, shares advice for his 13‑year‑old self, and discusses being a new dad. Hit like, subscribe and ring the bell if you enjoy these deep dives into business, tech and philosophy. Share your thoughts and questions in the comments. Listen to ROI Podcast® on your favorite podcast platform for the full experience! Episode sponsored by @Flodesk -50% off https://flodesk.com/c/AL83FF @OpusClip: https://www.opus.pro/?via=7bd356 @Incogni remove you personal data from public websites 50% off https://get.incogni.io/SH3ve @SQUARESPACE website builder → https://squarespacecircleus.pxf.io/sweatequity @CALL RAIL call tracking → https://bit.ly/sweatequitycallrail @LINKEDIN PREMIUM - 2 months free! → https://bit.ly/sweatequity-linkedin-premium @OTTER.ai → https://otter.ai/referrals/AVPIT85N Hosts' Eric Readinger & Law Smith

Trevor reconnects with his former professor, Dr. Rupp Carriveau from the University of Windsor, to explore how Southern Ontario's agriculture and energy sectors intersect. From powering greenhouses and managing massive industrial demand to reimagining aging wind farms and testing “atomic agriculture,” together they unpack how innovation, AI, and new tech are reshaping Canada's clean energy future. Listen to episode 164 of thinkenery.    Related links Dr. Rupp Carriveau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupp-carriveau-b4273823/ Environmental Energy Institute: https://www.environmentalenergyinstitute.com/ Turbulence and Energy Lab: http://www.turbulenceandenergylab.org/ Offshore Energy and Storage Society: https://www.osessociety.com/    Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114    Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en      To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod --- Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to thinkenergy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com, hi everyone, and welcome back. Today's episode brings us back to a few elements of my own personal history. Now you'll have to bear with me for a minute or two while I dive into my past in order to properly set up today's conversation, I grew up in southwestern Ontario, in and just outside the border town of Windsor, Ontario. Now for those of you not familiar with this area, Windsor and its surroundings are the most southern part of Canada. It might surprise you to know that Windsor is at the same latitude as Northern California and Rome, Italy. You can imagine that after growing up in Windsor and then living in various places around the globe, when I finally settled down here in Ottawa, adjusting to the more stereotypical Canadian winters of this northern capital, took a little bit of getting used to Windsor is so far south when you cross the border to its neighboring American city, Detroit, Michigan, you actually travel north. Have a look at a map if this seems to defy logic, but I promise you, it's true. This is the area that I grew up in. It's also where I went to school and got my engineering degree. More on that in a minute. Now, if you've ever driven down to the southwestern end of the 401 going past London and Chatham, you will notice two things. First, it is flat, very flat. You will not see a meaningful Hill anywhere in sight. I often joke with people that I used to toboggan when we did get any meaningful snow off of highway overpasses, because that was the only hill we could find. I was only partly joking, and I have indeed tobogganed off of said overpasses in my young and foolish days. But that is a story for another time. That brings us to the second thing you'll see, which is wind turbines. A lot of wind turbines. They are seemingly everywhere, stretching as far as you can see, southwestern Ontario is a hotbed of wind energy generation. Finally, a hint at why I'm going on about this part of the province on an energy podcast. But before we get into it, there's one other thing to touch on, and that is the fact that this area is also home to a large number of greenhouses growing produce year-round, as well as manufacturing. Windsor and its surrounding area is the automotive capital of Canada, with a number of plants from major car companies, as well as a supporting ecosystem of parts manufacturers. Incidentally, that's where I started my career, working as an environmental engineer for one of the automakers, and many members of my family have also worked or still work in that industry. The reason I bring up greenhouses in the auto industry is because they have some very high energy demand profiles, and that is how we get for me going on nostalgically about the area I grew up in, to our conversation today, I recently caught up with one of my engineering professors, Dr Rupp Carriveau, about the work that he and his colleagues have been doing that ties all of this together. And I thought it would be great to have him on the show to talk about that. Dr. Carriveau is the director of the Environmental Energy Institute and co-director of the Turbulence and Energy Lab and the CO lead of AGUwin at the University of Windsor. Back in the day, he was my fluid dynamics professor. But today, he balances his teaching duties with research into energy systems futures and advanced agricultural systems. He is a founder of the offshore energy and storage society, a recipient of the University Scholar Award, and has been named to Canada's clean 50 for his contributions to clean capitalism. Dr Rupp Carriveau, welcome to the show.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  03:59 Trevor, great to be here. Thanks.   Trevor Freeman  04:01 Yeah. So, Rupp, the last time we chatted, well, so you and I chatted a couple weeks ago, but before that, the last time that you and I interacted, I was in third year university. You were my fluid dynamics Prof. So, in addition to your professorial duties, you're now the director of the environmental Energy Institute at the University of Windsor. So, there's two questions around that. First off, how did you end up going from my fluid dynamics prof a number of years ago, probably close to 20 years ago now, to running this institute? And tell us a little bit about what the Institute does.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:40 Sure. Though. So, thanks. Yeah, and very memorable Trevor, because I, you know, I remember you well. And, yeah, that was, that was a very nice class that we had. I remember, well, I remember your colleagues too.   Trevor Freeman  04:54 If there's one thing I do, well, it's, it's be memorable, and you can take that however you want.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:58 That is, that is. Something to be said for that. Yeah, thanks for that question. So I should point out that in addition to EEI, I am a co-director in the Turbulence and Energy Lab, which is really where all of the EEI initiatives have started from, that's a lab that I co supervise with Dr David Ting in mechanical engineering and the nuts and bolts, the very serious engineering side of things, comes out of the Turbulence and Energy Lab. EEI kind of came about to handle topics that were, frankly speaking, less interesting to Dr Ting. So, things that push more, a little bit more into policy wider systems looks at things as opposed to, you know, pure thermodynamics and energy efficiency type pursuits, which underpin a lot of the EEI policy pieces, but are sort of beyond the scope of what turbulence and energy lab does. So those two things, and then more recently, actually, I'm co lead on, AGUwin, which is like a center of excellence, emerging Center of Excellence at the University of Windsor. So, Agriculture U Windsor is a group of about 40 professors that do work in agriculture in some shape or form. And we've, we've, we've taken to organizing that movement in seeking sort of group funding proposals, developing curriculum and organized sort of platforms to help industry in agriculture. And it's, it's really taking off, which I'm really excited about my extremely hard-working colleagues and CO lead, Isabel Barrett-Ng, she in particular, has been really driving a lot of really cool initiatives ahead and all the people that work with us. So, yeah, lots, lots happening at the University since I saw you last. But you know, time has a way of helping with that, people find ways to find efficiencies and get to do and build on, build on, hopefully incremental progress.   Trevor Freeman  07:08 Yeah, very cool. And you're teasing a few of the areas our conversation is going to go today, that sort of intersection between agriculture and obviously, this is an energy podcast, and so how does agriculture and the way we're moving in with agriculture impacts energy and vice versa. So, we're definitely going to get to that in a minute, I think, for our listeners that are not familiar with Southern Ontario, and I haven't talked about Southern Ontario on the podcast a lot, but people that know me know I will gladly talk about what goes on in the very southern part of our country. It's where I grew up. Help us paint a picture of what Southern Ontario is like. So, in the context of energy, what makes this area of Ontario unique?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  07:50 Well, it's that's a really good question, and I'm glad you phrased it that way, because I think it gets taken for granted. And also, folks, folks don't know energy isn't in the headlines every day, and if it is, it's not a headline that everybody pays attention to. But the southwestern Ontario region, if you take the 401 west of London, you'll start to see a high concentration of wind. So, there's a significant wind corridor in the region, and that's because it's very flat, so the whole area used to be a lake bed, and so we have very fertile agricultural lands as a result of that. And we also have very few obstacles to fetch, which is a huge aspect of how wind carries over the lakes, and is, you know, not, not obstructed. And so it's like you have offshore resources onshore, which is completely ideal. Also, we have, as it may be, we have massive natural gas resources in the area, in sort of the subterranean space of Devonian reefs for natural gas storage. We have natural gas generation facilities down around the Windsor area that help with provincial peaking and there is some solar in the region, because it is the Leamington Kingsville area is referred to as the sun parlor of Ontario. And as a result, we have a lot of under glass agriculture there, which benefits, obviously, directly from solar resources. And then we have solar photovoltaic that takes advantage of that sun as well. So there's, there's a lot happening here energy wise.   Trevor Freeman  09:38 Yeah, and there's a lot on the demand side of things as well. So, you mentioned the greenhouses, which are an up and coming, you know, source of demand draws on our grid. There's also a big manufacturing base. Talk a little bit about the manufacturing base in the area. Yeah, yeah. And that's that gets into my next question is talking about some of the specific, unique energy needs of greenhouses. I think on the manufacturing side, you know, you mentioned the auto industry and the parts industry that supports it, you're seeing more. There's a battery plant being built now I think that, I think people have a sense of that, but greenhouses are this thing that I think a lot of folks don't think about. So, you talked about the magnitude of the load, the lighting side of things. What else is this like, a 24/7 load? Is this sector growing like? Tell us a little bit about, you know where things are going with greenhouses?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  09:53 Yeah, thanks. So, yeah, I was, I was thinking about generation and, yeah, demand is. Significant we have. You know, Windsor has laid claim to Canada's automotive capital, and while I'm biased, I'd like to think it still is. And so we have significant manufacturing around the automotive industry, either automotive OEMs or tier one parts makers that have significant draws. We have Stellantis. Every minivan comes out of this area has come out of this area. The electric Dodge Charger comes out of this area. But there are engine plants for Ford, but they're also now, you know, sort of next generation transport technologies. You've talking about battery manufacturing. So, there's an enormous LG consortium with Stellantis here that's doing battery manufacturing. And so, these are huge loads that that add to existing and growing loads in the greenhouse space, which, again, I'll just mention it now, is something that isn't well understood. And we did a, we did a study for the province a couple years, three, four years ago. Now, I think grid Innovation Fund project that looked at sort of really getting into granular detailing of the loads that come with a lit greenhouse. A lot of people don't appreciate that a lit greenhouse, when switched on, depending on the lighting technology, depending on how it's used, can be like a 50-megawatt load, which is a significant load. And just imagine that's one so they can come on quickly, and they are non-trivial, significant loads. And so, this is something that we looked at trying to develop distributed energy resource sort of solutions for, because, simply speaking, you can't put up a new transmission line overnight, and we don't want to economically constrain the growth of the sector. Sure, yeah. I mean, it's, it's not a simple thing to characterize, because what you can take away from this is that these greenhouse developers are business dynamos, and frankly speaking, many of them do very well, because they're very good at what they do, and with the resources they have, they can largely do what they want. And if, if the infrastructure isn't there, they will build it so. So, you'll have folks that are operating off the grid, essentially not off the gas grid, of course, but they're using gas for cogeneration purposes, to produce heat for their crops, but also the electricity for their lights. So that is one aspect of it that further complicates how to figure out what these loads on the grid will be. But for the most part, of course, the grid provides quite clean and quite affordable electricity in the province, and you know where they can they want to be able to connect to the grid. Now, lights are designed to extend the growing day and extend the growing season as well. So, in terms of when they're switched on and how they're switched on, that is highly variable, and that is also something that is, I would say, in development, folks are looking at different ways to use intermittent lighting to be conscious of when peaking happens. It is dispatchable in a way, in that some growers are able to turn their lights off to avoid, you know, peaking charges. But again, there's a lot to manage. And, and it's, it's very complicated, both on the grid side and, and for the greenhouse grower.   Trevor Freeman  14:38 Yeah, so you mentioned natural gas for cogen for heating as well. So, as we look to decarbonize all different aspects of the sector, we talk often on the show of what are the specific areas where decarbonization might be challenging. Is, is greenhouses one of those areas? And, and what are the options available for heating these spaces? Like, is it realistic to think that there's an electric solution here, or what? What's happening in that sector related to decarbonization?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  15:10 Again, you've hit on a real sort of hot button issue for the for the sector, the trouble with natural gas is that it's spectacular. Oh, it's storable. It's dispatchable. It's a triple threat for greenhouses in the best way possible, because you can make your heat, you can make your electricity, and the plants crave CO2, and that comes out of the flue gas on the other side of the combustion reaction. So, you know, when you swing in there and you say, Oh, I've got this great new solution. It's called hydrogen. We'll burn hydrogen and we won't have these nasty CO2 release. And they're like, Okay, who's going to replace my CO2? So, it's a difficult fuel to displace. Now, admittedly, people understand that, you know, that's where we really need to go. And is, is electric? You know, electrification the path. So, people talk about, people talk about heat pumps, people talk about electric boilers. And then, as I mentioned, people talked about, you know, we've, we've also looked at the idea of blending hydrogen into a natural gas feed for existing infrastructure to, you know, because, because not all of the CO2, that is, you know, released is, is taken down by the plants. And so could you get to a magic blend where it's just the amount of CO2 that you need is what goes into the other side, and then there's nothing left after the plants take what they need. So, there's a lot of things that are being looked at. It is again, a challenging space to operate in, because it's highly competitive. Getting really granular. Data is very sensitive, because this, this, this is a, you know, it's a game of margins, and it's in its high stakes production. So to get in there and sort of be in the way is, is difficult. So, this work is being done. We're participating in a lot of this work. We just finished a study for the province, a Hydrogen Innovation Fund study on looking at the integration of hydrogen into the greenhouse space. And it was, it was pretty revelatory for us.   Trevor Freeman  17:36 So is the exhaust from burning natural gas on site. Does that get recycled through the greenhouse and therefore captured to some degree? Do we know how much you kind of hinted at finding out that sweet spot? Do we know how much of that gets captured?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  17:53 Yeah, so the short answer is yes. So, they have the cogen engines have scrubbers on them, and these, these machines are spectacularly capable of being tuned the combustion and the professionals that operate them at the greenhouse facilities are artists, and that they can get the sort of combustion profile a certain way, and so that that flue gas will go into the greenhouse, but to know exactly how much is being taken down, that is an area of active research, and we don't, we don't know that answer yet. There are people that are looking at it, and you can imagine it's kind of a provocative number for the sector. So, they're being very careful about how they do it.   Trevor Freeman  18:36  I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay, let's, let's park that just for a minute here, and jump back to something you mentioned earlier. You talked about one how flat Southern Ontario is, and it took me leaving, leaving the county before I really knew what skiing and tobogganing and everything else was. So, there's a lot of wind power generation. And for anyone listening, yeah, as rip mentioned, if you ever drive down the 401 going towards Windsor, you'll just start to see these massive wind turbines kind of everywhere you look. So, help us understand how these turbines, you know, you look out over a field and you see, you know, 2030, of them more in your line of sight. How do they connect to our provincial grid? How do the contracts work? Like, who gets that power? Give us a little bit of a sense of how that works.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  19:28 For sure. Yeah, well, so what most people don't realize, and again, it's not something that's talked about, and if it is, I don't know people are necessarily paying attention to it, but, but you know the comment I'll get from relatives we talked about Thanksgiving. So, you know people, because they know I'm a wind person, they'll be like, 'Hey, I was driving down the road and I saw they weren't spinning with, what's going on? Are they broken or what?' Well, you know, because we, we've got some pro wind and some non pro wind folks in the in the family, so it's an exciting time for me. But you know, and I mentioned that the greenhouses I'm working with are often starved for utility supply. And they said, well, how can that be? The turbines are right there. They're sharing the same space, right? And most people don't realize that. Really, I would say 95% of the wind in our corridor is put on a transmission line and sent up to, effectively, to Toronto, to be distributed throughout the province, which is great, but it's not really a local asset. And that was sort of what inspired us when we saw these two sorts of juxtaposed. We thought maybe you could turn these assets into something that acted as really a new type of distributed energy resource, and that you've got a transmission connected asset that's currently under contract, but if that contract could be modified, then the fiscal connections could potentially be modified so you could have local distribution, let's say at a time of maybe at a time of transmission curtailment, maybe under different conditions. So again, looking into the physical plausibility of it was part of our study, and then doing some sort of economic investigation of how that would work, having a nearly 20-year-old asset all of a sudden springing into a new role in a new life, where it continues to perform transmission duties for the province at large, but it also serves local needs in the production, let's say, of hydrogen through an electrolyzer, or just plain electrons turning lights on. That is something that isn't possible yet. Regulatory reasons exist for that that would require some, some significant changes. But it was a really interesting exercise to go through to investigate how that could happen.   Trevor Freeman  22:08 Yeah, so there's just trying to understand how this work. There's someone who owns these turbines. Some conglomerate somewhere, you know, Canadian, not Canadian, who knows. They contract with the Independent Electricity System Operator who operates the grid in the province. And they basically say, yeah, well, look, we'll provide you with X amount of power on some contract, and when ISO needs it, they call on it. How long do those contracts last? Is that a 10-year contract? A 20-year contract?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  22:35 So, they are in Ontario. The ones that I'm familiar with for 20 years. So it's possible there are others. I know. I have a there's a farm that operates in PEI that has a nice 30 year PPA. So the longer you can get, the better. Yeah, and these, these power purchase agreements are, are wonderful for developers, because they're known entities, doing the math on your finances is really straightforward with these contracts. And frankly speaking, when you had a sector that needed to be brought up from nothing, they were very necessary. They were very necessary. And but those contracts, and they're and they're locked down, as much as we try to, you know, persuade the province to get crazy, to amuse us with these new, newfangled ways of of connecting to people, commerce wise, through energy, they are not interested so far, at least in and they're like, let's finish these out, and then we can talk your crazy ideas, you know, and so, but that's we're getting glare, because I would say many, many, many farms in the province will be coming up on the sun setting end of Their power purchase agreements in the coming five, six years.   Trevor Freeman  24:03 Yeah, yeah. Which brings me to my next point, of the assets themselves, the actual physical turbine, I assume last longer than 20 years. You're going to build one of these things. You know, 20 years is not its end of life. So what are the options available today? You talked about regulatory barriers. We talk about regulatory barriers on this show often, what are, what are the options today for a wind farm that is at its end of contract? Does it look at re contracting? Can it kind of direct source to someone else? Like, what are the options available for an owner?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  24:40 Yeah, well, to me, it's an exciting time, because it could be work for us. We get excited about this. I think it could be a source of anxiety for owners, because there's nothing better than that long term contract. So many of them will try to apply for things like a medium, a new medium term length contract from the. Province, like an MT two, I think they're called. There are other contract types that are possible, but there'll be, it'll be a highly competitive landscape for those, and the in the province won't be able to give everyone one of these contracts. So some of these, some of these operators, will likely have to look at other options which may be going into the spot market, potentially, you know, getting into the capacity game by getting a battery on site and firming up their ability to provide power when necessary or provide capacity. And then there's a there isn't a relatively recent regulatory development in the around the middle of July, the province said, you know, if you're a non emitting generator and you're not under contract, you could provide virtual power someone else who might need it, if they're looking if they're a class, a customer that's trying to avoid peak charges. You know, rather than that class a customer buys a battery behind the meter and physically reduce their peaks. They could potentially virtually reduce their peaks by setting up a virtual power purchase agreement with another supplier. So these, these off contract spinning assets could have an opportunity to get into this game of peak relief. Which, which could be very lucrative. Because, based on last year's provincial global adjustment charges at large, you're looking at being paid something on the order of about $72,000 a megawatt hour for the, for the for the for the megawatt hours in question, which, which, of course, you know, try to get as many as you can. .   Trevor Freeman  26:31 Yeah. So there's a couple of things there. Bear with me while I connect a few dots for our listeners. So on different shows, we talk about different things. Global adjustment is one of them. And we've been talking here about these long term contracts. Global adjustment, as you might remember from previous conversations, is one of those mechanisms that bridges the gap between the spot market price, you know, the actual commodity cost of electricity that's out there, and some of the built-in cost to run the system, which includes these long term contracts. So there's a there's a fixed cost to run the system, global adjustment helps bridge that gap. The next concept here that is important to remember is this class, a strategy where the largest the largest customers, electricity customers in the province, have the opportunity to adjust how they are build global adjustment based on their contribution to the most intensive demand peaks in the province over the course of a year. So during a really high demand period, when everybody needs electricity, if they can reduce their demand, there's significant savings. And so what you're saying is there's this new this new ability for kind of a virtual connection, where, if I'm a big facility that has a high demand, and I contract with a generator, like a wind turbine that's not in contract anymore, I can say, hey, it's a peak time now I need to use some of your capacity to offset, you know, some of my demand, and there's those significant savings there. So you're absolutely right. That's a new thing in the province. We haven't had that ability up until just recently. So super fascinating, and that kind of connects our two topics today, that the large demand facilities in southern Ontario and these these generators that are potentially nearing the end of their contract and looking for what else might happen. So are you guys navigating that conversation between the greenhouses or the manufacturers and the generators?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  28:49 I'm so glad you asked. And here comes, here comes a shameless plug. Yeah? So yes. So there's a spin off company from the turbulence and Energy Lab, and it's called jailbreak labs. And jailbreak labs really represents sort of the space that is more commercial than research, but it also was sort of spurned, spurred from research. So jailbreak Labs has developed a registry, and we've been providing some webinars as well. So this, again, this is a company that that is essentially run by students, that this registry allows generators and consumers to ultimately find each other so that, so that these kinds of connections can be made. Because, as you may well imagine, there is no guarantee that the wind will be blowing at the time that you need it so, so and your load may be such that you need a different type of generation profile. So it needs to be profiling on the generation side. There needs to be profiling on the customer side. Yeah, and, you know, we've been doing this on our own for years. It was the time was right for us to sort of step in and say, because we were following this, we were real fanboys of this, of this reg, even before it came into play. And we kept bugging, you know, OEB for meetings and ISO and they, begrudgingly, to their credit, would chat with us about it, and then the next thing we know, it's announced that it's that it's happening. Was very exciting. So, so, yes, so we're really interested in seeing this happen, because it seems like such a unique, we're thrilled, because we're always interested in this sort of Second Life for assets that already have been depreciated and they're clean energy assets. Let's get everything we can out of them and to have this dynamic opportunity for them, and that will help Class A customers too hard for us to ignore.   Trevor Freeman  30:56 And you mentioned the last time we chatted about building a tool that helps evaluate and kind of injecting a little bit of AI decision making into this. Talk to us about that tool a little bit.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  31:08 Yeah. So we have a, we have a tool called quantract which is basically playing on the idea of quantifying all the risk and opportunity in in a contract. So it's really a contract visualization tool. Another way to think of it as a real time Net Present Value tool that allows renewable energy stakeholders to really, evaluate the value of their investment by not only understanding the physical life left in an asset. Let's say that a wind farm that's, you know, at 20 years and it looks like we may need to replace some blades. Do we just walk away and say, look at it. We had a good run contracts over, you know, we made some money. Let's sell the assets as they are. Or do we say, you know, I'm looking into this vppa game, and we could do okay here, but I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work and when. And so this, this tool that we've developed, will do things like will first of all identify all risk factors, and risk includes opportunities and then we'll profile them, and then builds them into basically what is more or less a glorified discounted cash flow model. So it is a way of measuring the potential value of investment in the AI space. I mean, the AI piece of it is that we have developed agents that will actually identify other things that are less, less sort of noticeable to people. In fact, this regulatory change is one of the things that our AI agents would have been looking for. Okay, now it pre it predated our tool going online, so we didn't see it, but it's the kind of thing that we'd be looking for. So the agents look for news, they look for changes online, and then, and then what happens is, they got brought, they get brought into a profiler. The profiler then determines the probability of or makes an estimate of the probability that this risk will occur. IE, a regulatory change will happen. IE, battery plant will come to town at a certain time. IE, a Costco facility will come in. Then we'll determine the potential magnitude. So there'll be uncertainty in the occurrence, there'll be uncertainty in the magnitude, and there'll be uncertainty in the timing. So we have basically statistical distribution functions for each one of those things, the likelihood of it happening, the magnitude and the timing. And so those are all modeled in so that people can push a button and, say, with this level of certainty your investment would be, would be worth this much. And that's dynamic. It's in real time. So it's changing constantly. It's being updated constantly. And so no so that that is something that goes in, and one of these virtual power purchase agreements would be one of the types of things that would go into this sort of investment timeline?   Trevor Freeman  34:22 Yeah, so it's giving these owners of these assets better data to make a decision about what comes next, as you said, and as we're talking I'm kind of doing the math here. If these are typically 20 year contracts, that's bringing us back to, you know, the mid, early, 2000s when we were really pushing to get off coal. So a lot of these assets probably started in and around that time. So you've probably got a whole bunch of customers, for lack of a better term, ready to start making decisions in the next you know, half a decade or so of what do I do with my. Sets. Have you seen this? Has it been used in the real world yet? Or is, are you getting close to that? Like, where are you at in development?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  35:07 Yeah, it actually started. It's funny. It started a little a little bit even before this craze. A couple years ago, we had, we had a manufacturer in our county come to us with, they had a great interest in, in just, just they were trying to be proactive about avoiding carbon tax and so, and they wanted to develop a new generation technology close to their facility. And so we used it there since that time. Yeah, so, so it was field proven that was a still a research contract, because they were the technology that they were interested in was, was, was not off the shelf. But since that time, we got a chance, because we represent Canada in the International Energy Agency, task 43 on wind energy digitalization. And so one of the mandates there was to develop a robust and transparent tools for investment decision support using digital twins. And we had a German partner in Fraunhofer Institute that had developed nice digital twin that would provide us remaining useful life values for things like blades, you know, towers, foundations, etc, and those are, again, those are all costs that just plug into our but they did. They didn't have a framework of how to work that into an investment decision other than, you know, you may have to replace this in three years. Okay, well, that's good to know, but we need the whole picture to make that decision, and that's sort of what we were trying to bring so the short answer is, yes, we're getting a lot of interest now, which is thrilling for us, but it's, I'll be honest with you, it's not, it's not simple, like, you know, I I've talked about it a bunch of times, so I'm pretty good at talking about it, but, but the doing it is still, it's computationally intensive and in the end, it's still an estimate. It's a, it's a, it's a calculated, quantified estimate, but it's an estimate. I think what we like about it is it's better than saying, Well, I have a hunch that it's going to go this way, but we could get beat by the hunches too. Yeah, totally, right. So, so, you know, I'm not trying to sell people things that, like I we have to be transparent about it. It's still probability.   Trevor Freeman  37:35 Well, I think if there's, if there's one thing that is very apparent, as we are well into this energy transition process that we talk about all the time here on the show. It's that the pace of change is is one of the things that's like no other time we are we are seeing things change, and that means both our demand is growing, our need to identify solutions is growing the way that we need to build out the grid and utilize the ers and utilize all these different solutions is growing at a rate that we haven't seen before, and therefore uncertainty goes up. And so to your point, yeah, we need help to make these decisions. We need better ways of doing it than just, as you say, having a hunch. That doesn't mean it's foolproof. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  38:27 Nope, it is not a guarantee.   Trevor Freeman  38:30 Very cool. So Rupp, this is a great conversation. It's really fascinating to talk about to me, two areas of the energy sector that aren't really understood that well. I think the agriculture side of things, not a lot of people think about that as a major demand source. But also wind, I think we talk about solar a lot. It's a little bit more ubiquitous. People's neighbors have solar on their roofs. But wind is this unless you drive through Southern Ontario or other parts of the province where there's a lot of wind, you don't see it a lot. So it's fascinating to kind of help understand where these sectors are going. Is there anything else that the Institute is working on that that's worth chatting about here, or is what we've talked about, you know, kind of filling your day, in your students days?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  39:15 Well, actually there is something we haven't talked about the nuclear option. Literally, literally the nuclear literally the nuclear option. Yeah, so we've been really thrilled to have a growing relationship with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which is much closer to you than it is to me. And specifically in the connection of small modular reactors to meet these growing agricultural loads. So I have a science colleague at the University of Windsor, Dr drew Marquart, who was all hot and bothered about these s. Mrs. And he's like, we should drop one of these SMRs in Leamington. Then I this, this part I really enjoyed, because it's obviously so he came from Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the States, and he's and he's been at CNL as well. So he's fully indoctrinated into the nuclear space. But it just didn't occur to him that that would be provocative or controversial at all, that there wouldn't be some social he, you know, he's like, we can do the math. And I said, Oh yeah, yeah, we can do the math. But I'm like, I think you're missing something. I think you're missing something, right? So, but so it's, it's a super fascinating topic, and we're trying to connect, physically connect. So just before the weekend, I was in the turbulence and Energy Lab, and we were trying to commission what we believe is North America's first we're calling it a model synthetic, small modular reactor, synthetic being the key word, and that it's non nuclear, okay? And so it's non nuclear. What it what it is really and if I'm going to de glamorize it for a second, it's a mini steam thermal power plant, which doesn't embody every SMR design, but many SMRs are designed around this sort of where you've got a nuclear reaction that provides the heat, and then after that, it's kind of a steam thermal power plant. Our interest is in this physical little plant being connected to small electrolyzer, being connected to small thermal battery, being connected to a lab scale electric battery and being connected to a lab scale fully automated inlet, cucumber, small cucumber, greenhouse, mini cubes greenhouse, all this in our lab. The exciting thing around this is, you know, I I've said that I think nuclear technology needs to get out from behind the walls of nuclear facilities for people to start to appreciate it, and by that, to start doing that, you have to take the nuclear part out, which, to me, is not necessarily a deal breaker in terms of these dynamic issues that we want to solve. You know, because nukes have traditionally been said, Well, you know they're not that. You know, you can't just ramp them up and down, and that's true, you know, and small modular reactors are supposed to be considerably more nimble, but there's still lots of challenges that have to be solved in terms of having how it is an asset that is provides copious energy, but does so maybe not, not as dynamic, certainly, as a gas turbine. That how does it? How do you make it nimble, right? How do you partner it up with the right complimentary other grid assets to take advantage of what it does so well, which is crank out great amounts of heat and electricity so, so effortlessly, right? And so that's, that's sort of what we're trying to do, and connecting it to what we're calling atomic agriculture. I don't know that's a good name or not. I like it, but, but, but, yeah, so that that's another thing that we're that we're flirting with right now. We're working on. We've done a few. We've had a few contracts with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to get us this far. We did everything computationally. We're continuing to do computational studies with them. They develop their own hybrid energy systems, optimizer software, HISO, which we use, and we are now trying to put it into sort of the hardware space. So again, just the idea that physically looking at the inertia of spinning up a turbine, the little gap, the little sort of steam powered turbine that we have in the lab that's run by an electric boiler. But our hope is to, ultimately, we're going to get the electric boiler to be mimicking the sort of reaction heating dynamics of a true reactor. So by, but through electrical control. So we'll imitate that by having sort of data from nuclear reactions, and then we'll sort of get an electrical signal analog so that we can do that and basically have a non nuclear model, small modular reactor in the lab.   Trevor Freeman  44:14 Very cool, very neat. Well, Rupp, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate it. We do always end our interviews with a series of questions here, so I'm going to jump right into those. What's a book that you've read that you think everyone should read?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  44:31 I would say any of the Babysitters Club. That's as high as I get in the literary hierarchy. I'm barely literate so and I thoroughly enjoyed reading those books with my daughters that they were great. So I recommend any, any of the Babysitters Club titles. I mean that completely seriously, I that was the peak of my that are dog man, yeah,   Trevor Freeman  44:56 I'm about six months removed from what i. Was about an 18 month run where that's, that's all I read with my youngest kiddo. So they've, they've just moved on to a few other things. But yes, I've been steeped in the Babysitter's Club very recently.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:11 So good. So, you know, absolutely.   Trevor Freeman  45:14 So same question, but for a movie or a show, what's something that you recommend?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:17 Everyone thrilled with that question. If you're looking for a good, good true story. I've always been romantically obsessed with the ghost in the darkness, the true story of, I guess, a civil engineer trying to solve a problem of man eating lions and Tsavo. That's a, that's a, that's a tremendous movie with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Yeah, that's good then, and I think for something a little more light hearted and fun, a big fan of the way, way back and youth and revolt, nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:03 If someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:05 I don't really like flying, I got to be honest. But if, if I was forced onto the plane, I think, I think I go to Japan. Nice. Have you been before? No, I haven't. I'd like to go. Okay, cool. You're not the first guest that has said that someone else was very That's understandable. Yeah, who is someone that you admire? I would say truly selfless people that help people when no one's looking and when it's not being tabulated for likes those people are who I aspire to be more like nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:47 And last question, what's something about the energy sector or its future that you're really excited about?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:53 I think maybe power to the people I really like, the movement of distributed energy resources. I'm sure there's a limit to it, but I think, I think if we have more responsibility for our own power production, and again, I can see there are limits where it's probably, you know, there's, there's a point where it's too much. I'm all for, for major centralized coordination and the security in the reliability that goes with that. But I think a little bit more on the distributed side would be nice, because I think people would understand energy better. They would they would own it more, and I think our grid would probably increase in its resiliency.   Trevor Freeman  47:37 Yeah, that's definitely something that no matter the topic, it seems, is a part of almost every conversation I have here on the show. It works its way in, and I think that's indicative of the fundamental role that decentralizing our energy production and storage is is already playing and is going to play in the years to come as we kind of tackle this energy transition drove this has been a really great conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, and that's great to catch up. Great to chat with you again.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  48:11 Total privilege for me. Trevor, I really appreciate it. Outstanding job.   Trevor Freeman  48:15 Thanks for having me. Yeah, great to chat. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast, don't forget to subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback comments or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.  

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.We have just wrapped up an especially heavy 3-week stretch of board, management, and industry meetings. Included have been various meetings in and around the power sector. As someone who has spent his career on the other side of energy--i.e., oil & gas--it has been a lot of fun ramping up on the power side of the business. Historically oil & gas and power have been essentially two completely separate industries, each with their own macro drivers, corporate outlooks, and analyst coverage. And while today many differences of course remain, there are a growing number of areas of convergence. In this short video, we will give a few thoughts from our recent travels that we will expand upon in coming months. There are five points we want to highlight:First, we think energy is in the early days of the 3rd major super-cycle in our lifetime. The first was the Arab Oil Embargo years of the 1970s and the second was the Chia/BRICs expansion of the 2000s. Both were at their core crude oil market events. Geopolitical security was the dominant narrative of the 1970s. Billion-person scale emerging market (EM) demand growth characterized the latter. The current super-cycle marries both drivers but it is power, rather than crude oil, that is at the heart of this era. AI datacenters rightfully get a lot of attention. But aging developed market grids that need new investment is also an important trend. Perhaps most importantly, the substantial unmet energy needs of the other 7 billion people on Earth will arguably be the greatest driver of global power demand. This super-cycle is all about global power needs on multiple fronts. Second point and a key lesson from the mis-guided “The Energy Transition” era is that the world clearly is going to need all forms of energy, including many newer technologies where the timing of scaling economics is still uncertain. Examples of that last point are nuclear SMRs and enhanced geothermal to name just two. Power is an enabling driver of crude oil demand in the developing world. We suspect this is most visible in Africa today as an example. It is interesting and ironic: growth in renewables power is boosting oil demand.Third point: energy sources and technologies are not in competition with each other for a finite pool of demand. That is the energy substitution argument being trotted out by those that in recent years believed in The Energy Transition. Rather, relative economics, reliability, and geopolitical security are going to cause periods of strong and weaker demand at various points of time for different areas. As an example, LNG priced at world oil prices we do not think displaces domestic coal demand in places like India and China. But it is a complementary and diversifying fuel for power generation which is important to having a healthy power market. And new areas like LNG trucks can help reduce dependence on crude oil imports from what would otherwise be the case. Again, it is additive, not substitutive. Fourth, where crude oil cycles are inherently global in nature, power is typically highly local or regional, but today also has a global overlay via EM growth. Fifth, we are perhaps most optimistic to see major energy consumers, in particular Big Tech and Big Industrials, proactively engaging in energy macro and policy discussions. We see this at Veriten via an expanding and increasingly diversified client base. We see it in the many meetings we have attended. This in our view significantly raises the odds that we move away from the divisive rhetoric and policies that characterized The Energy Transition era to one that appropriately prioritizes energy's natural hierarchy of needs.

GE Vernova chief commercial officer Pablo Koziner on the latest thinking around data centres, wind energy, gas, SMRs and batteries. Plus: News of the week.

Texas Talks host Brad Swail sits down with Reed Clay, President of the Texas Nuclear Alliance, to discuss how nuclear energy could reshape Texas' power future. Clay explains why the state hasn't built a new plant in over 30 years, the myths and politics that sidelined nuclear in the 1990s, and how AI data centers and small modular reactors (SMRs) are driving a modern nuclear renaissance. From Winter Storm Uri to House Bill 14 and the creation of the Texas Nuclear Energy Office, this episode explores how Texas can stay competitive, reliable, and carbon-free through a smart mix of nuclear and natural gas. Watch Full-Length Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@TexasTalks

Mike Walsh, IMEG Senior Director of Industrial, joins this episode to discuss small modular reactors (SMRs) and their potential for becoming an integral source of power for manufacturers and industrial campuses. SMRs typically produce 50 to 300 megawatts of power, unlike traditional nuclear plants that generate between 1,000 and 1,500 megawatts. Mike is quick to clarify, however, that the adjective “small” is relative in comparison to traditional reactors. “They're not small—they're just smaller,” he says of SMRs. “They're still large, sophisticated facilities. But their modular construction changes everything.” SMRs work on the same basic principle as traditional reactors: nuclear fission heats water into steam, which drives a turbine to produce electricity. Unlike traditional reactors, the reactor portion is manufactured within a factory—where conditions are controlled and quality assurance is consistent—and are then shipped to a location. They require significant real estate—typically 10 to 100 acres, but still far less than the 250 to 400 acres for a traditional nuclear plant. Their smaller footprint makes SMRs particularly well suited for industrial campuses. And while roughly two-thirds of a traditional nuclear plant's thermal energy is lost as waste heat, SMRs can capture and reuse that excess energy. “If we can use that heat for industrial processes or building systems, overall efficiency on an industrial site could reach 80 or 90 percent,” Mike says. The 24/7 on-site generation of power also will be highly beneficial to industries as the reliability and strain on the grid continue to worsen, energy costs rise, and owners begin to see high demand factors on utility bills. With few new nuclear plants built in the U.S. since the 1970s, the path forward for SMRs is murky. “No one really knows yet how these will be regulated,” Mike says. “You can't apply the same rules that were written for massive, one-of-a-kind nuclear facilities. This is new territory.” Economics also is a factor. Early SMRs will be expensive, but Mike draws a parallel to renewable energy's evolution. “Solar was once prohibitively costly too,” he says. “Then technology improved, production scaled, and prices fell. The same thing will happen here.” The general perception of nuclear power will also need to be overcome. ”It's the not-in-my-backyard syndrome kind of thing,” Mike says. “There are reasons why nuclear accidents happened in the past, but it's highly improbable that that would happen with these newer facilities and the way they have some passive ability, if they lost all power to the site, to still cool that reactor and not have a meltdown. Despite the challenges, Mike believes nuclear power will be an essential part of a diversified energy mix of the future, which will also include wind, solar, hydro-electric, and, for some time at least, coal. “There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle for how we are going to create energy now and into the future.” Several companies are now building various versions of SMRs. One of them, Kairos Power, is constructing a demonstration reactor in Tennessee; IMEG is collaborating with HDR on the project. The facility is expected to be online in 2027 and will provide essential data on performance, safety, and cost, laying the groundwork for future deployment. Compared to traditional nuclear plants that take decades to bring online, Mike believes that the faster production and startup of SMRs will be key to addressing current and future energy needs. “SMRs are made to help with a problem we have right now, not a problem we're going to have in 30 years.”

Nuclear power is back at the centre of the global energy conversation again. Is a real renaissance in the industry under way? Or are we just in another moment of excitement before familiar challenges emerge and the hype cycle turns down again?In the second of three special episodes ahead of ADIPEC 2025, host Ed Crooks speaks with Dr Sama Bilbao y León, Director General of the World Nuclear Association, about how the role of nuclear power in a world of turbocharged electricity demand growth and continuing pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions.Sama explains how nuclear power has shifted from an afterthought at climate summits to a cornerstone of countries' decarbonisation strategies. COP28 in Dubai in 2023 marked a turning point, she says. 199 countries formally recognised nuclear power as essential to meeting their climate goals, and 31 of them committed to triple nuclear generation capacity by 2050. Investment is accelerating, with new projects breaking ground across Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. And where new developments are slow, countries are embracing lower-cost options, including extending plant lifetimes and restarting previously retired reactors.The discussion explores the growing influence of AI and data centres, which give new relevance to nuclear because of their round-the-clock need for electricity. AI is part of a new alignment of conditions that mean that this time the momentum behind nuclear power is real, Sama argues. Financing is available, governments are pragmatic, and the tech giants are now among the most vocal advocates for 24/7 clean baseload power.Sama and Ed also unpack the rise of small modular reactors (SMRs). Factory-built to a larger degree, repeatable, and scalable, SMRs could open new opportunities for industrial clusters, remote regions, and energy-hungry digital infrastructure. They may not be the answer to all the challenges the nuclear industry faces, but they should definitely have a role to play. However, Sama warns that probably only a handful of designs will survive the early shake-out that will be needed to streamline the SMR industry. Finally, the conversation turns to policy and politics. In a more polarised world, nuclear is emerging as rare common ground, backed by governments seeking climate progress, energy security, and economic competitiveness. Sama calls for a balanced system that values integration over ideology: renewables, nuclear, and smarter grids working in tandem.This is the second of three special episodes sponsored by ADIPEC 2025, where the theme is Energy Intelligence Impact. The event brings together 205,000+ attendees and 1,800+ speakers in Abu Dhabi from 3–6 November 2025. The Energy Gang will be recording live at the event. Join us there to be part of the conversation. Learn more and register at adipec.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is dedicated to all of the light water reactor fans out there. Especially if you like your LWRs in water. Listen to this conversation with the co-founder and CEO of Blue Energy, Jake Jurewicz, and you'll understand what I mean. Jake is a utility industry veteran with a lifetime of experience on construction sites, so our discussion about how his new company is going to site SMRs on waterways and ship them by barge gets into all kinds of deployment nitty gritty: management, permitting, financing, you name it.  Check out Blue Energy's website, LinkedIn, and X account. 

In this episode recorded live at our Investing in the Energy Transition event in Milan, inspiratia speaks with Luca Matrone, Global Head of Energy at Intesa Sanpaolo, about how Europe's leading lenders are navigating a rapidly changing energy market. Maya and Luca discuss the bank's global renewable strategy, the outlook for hydrogen and storage, and why Italy's regulatory framework continues to attract capital. From blended finance models to the future of SMRs, this episode explores where institutional finance meets the next wave of clean energy investment.Interested in tickets for our Munich event? Email conferences@inspiratia.com or buy them directly on our website.Reach out to us at: podcasts@inspiratia.comFind all of our latest news and analysis by subscribing to inspiratiaListen to all our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other providers. Music credit: NDA/Show You instrumental/Tribe of Noise©2025 inspiratia. All rights reserved.This content is protected by copyright. Please respect the author's rights and do not copy or reproduce it without permission.

In this episode, Gerard Reid, Laurent Segalen and Michael Barnard dug into the technologies and narratives that keep surfacing in discussions about the energy transition, but which continue to underdeliver when you scrutinize the economics and engineering realities.Carbon capture and direct air capture remain heavily subsidy-driven, often costing more to operate than the value of the CO₂ they sequester. The dilution of carbon in the atmosphere makes the whole proposition profoundly inefficient, and while there are niche opportunities where high-purity CO₂ streams are adjacent to storage infrastructure, those remain exceptions. Enhanced oil recovery is the only space where the numbers truly add up, which means the public ends up footing the bill for most other applications. Even regulatory pushes, such as Germany's, can't overcome the fundamental cost and scalability barriers. Hydrogen suffers from a parallel set of problems. The sector's viability as a broad energy carrier depends on hitting a production cost of around $1 per kilogram, but real-world projects are stuck closer to $8 per kilogram. That gap has led to a string of cancellations from heavy hitters like BP, Exxon, and Air Products. Despite the hype around green hydrogen, the underlying assumptions never matched the physics or the economics. Battery electrification has emerged as the far more effective pathway for most transport, leaving hydrogen to fight for narrow industrial niches while its infrastructure and fuel cell supply chains lag behind.Nuclear energy is facing its own reckoning. The pivot toward small modular reactors was meant to revive the industry with faster, cheaper, more scalable deployment, but the reality looks different. Project sizes have crept upward, wiping out the “modular” advantage, and costs are trending well above $200 per megawatt-hour—hardly competitive. Ontario's flagship SMR project is already slipping years past its promised delivery, and there's little to suggest Wright's Law cost declines will appear in a sector defined by bespoke builds and long lead times. Investors may find opportunities in the extended development cycles, but the contribution to near-term decarbonization remains negligible.Fusion is another seductive technology that continues to consume enormous sums of capital without altering the climate trajectory. ITER alone is 30 years behind schedule and twenty times over budget, aiming only for a five-minute sustained reaction by 2040—without generating electricity. Private startups are raising capital but remain decades away from surmounting fundamental engineering barriers. I've said before that fusion may eventually matter for space exploration, but it's irrelevant for terrestrial energy in this century. Still, as a scientific project, it's worth continuing—but policymakers must not confuse it with a climate solution.Biofuels offer a more mixed picture. First-generation projects like corn ethanol were both environmentally and economically flawed, but second- and third-generation fuels derived from waste streams are showing promise. These have a real role to play in hard-to-electrify domains like aviation and maritime shipping. However, they're not a replacement for direct electrification on the ground. European policy still reflects caution due to food-versus-fuel concerns, but as technologies improve, biofuels can carve out a targeted and pragmatic role.We also touched on the politics and market dynamics of offshore wind and ESG. Offshore wind in the U.S. continues to face transmission bottlenecks, fragmented policy, and outright political hostility, leading to cancelled and delayed projects. Meanwhile, Europe's integrated approach in the North Sea demonstrates what's possible with coordinated policy. On ESG, we acknowledged the criticisms around greenwashing and governance metrics that often make little sense. Yet, even through the noise, investment flows tell a real story: fossil fuel funding is down 25%, and corporate decarbonization continues, even if much of it is “green hushed.” Governance frameworks are evolving, with multi-stakeholder models like B Corps pointing toward a fundamental redefinition of fiduciary responsibility.Taken together, these discussions reinforce a central theme: the energy transition isn't about wishful thinking or fashionable narratives. It's about hard economics, engineering constraints, and political realities. Technologies like carbon capture, hydrogen, SMRs, and fusion may attract attention and capital, but their roles are narrow at best and distractions at worst. The real work is in scaling what actually delivers—electrification, renewables, smarter grids, and targeted complementary solutions like advanced biofuels.

Duke Energy's Andy Browning joins Dave and Steve to unpack how a modern utility balances today's demand spikes—especially from data centers—with tomorrow's low-carbon grid. Andy traces his path from Babcock & Wilcox field engineer to Duke's GM of Engineering & Construction Services, explains why Duke runs an “all-of-the-above” strategy (gas as a bridge, batteries for flexibility, solar growth, hydro upgrades), and makes the case that nuclear—both large units and SMRs—will anchor long-term reliability. The trio dig into dam stabilization, battery use cases (peak shaving and PV smoothing), project timelines and costs, community engagement, and how policy and tariffs shape what actually gets built. They close with a look at fusion research and a rapid-fire on bourbon, woodworking, and what fuels resilience.Key TakeawaysCareer & scope: Andy oversees engineering, construction, commissioning, quality, safety, and project controls for Duke's big builds.Cultural lesson: International work taught him to respect local pace and processes—context changes what “top priority” means.Hydro safety: Post-FERC reviews are driving earthen-dam rebuilds (compaction, drainage layers) to prevent liquefaction under seismic events.Resource mix: Duke is pursuing gas, nuclear, solar, hydro, and batteries; offshore wind unlikely near-term given costs and policy headwinds.Batteries' role: Great for peak shaving and smoothing solar variability; typical systems are 2–4-hour duration (e.g., 10 MW / 40 MWh).Scale & siting: Solar needs ~6–10 acres per MW and only delivers during daylight; data centers requesting 400–1,000 MW reshape planning.Timelines & costs (rule of thumb): Batteries ~12–15 months after development; solar similar; combined-cycle gas ~4 years; nuclear 10+ years.Cost reality: A 75-MW solar site ≈ $100–150M; a 1,000-MW gas plant ≈ ~$2B; nuclear is multiples beyond—but with long lifespans.Nuclear outlook: Expect SMRs + large reactors; challenges include qualified supply chains, workforce, and public education; existing units targeting 80-year life via extensions.Data-center surge: Demand is soaring; innovative financing/ownership models (e.g., behind-the-meter, cost-sharing) may protect retail customers.

Last week, the UK Prime Minister was the latest leader in Europe to announce his commitment to nuclear energy production by announcing plans to build "a fleet" of small modular reactors (SMRs). The UK's announcement followed similar plans elsewhere in Europe over the last year.Why are we seeing the focus shift from larger nuclear plants to small modular reactors?In this episode, Richard speaks to Rolls Royce to understand the tech behind SMRs, the role they can play in reduce dependance on fossil fuels, and why they could prove to be an economically viable option for Europe's rollout of nuclear energy. Host: Richard Sverrisson - Editor-in-Chief, Montel NewsContributor: Chris Eales - France Editor, Montel NewsGuest: Sophie Macfarlane-Smith - Head of Customer Engagement, Rolls Royce SMREditor: Bled MaliqiProducer: Sarah Knowles

Show Notes: Uday Turaga runs ADI Analytics, a boutique firm specializing in oil and gas, energy, and chemical industries. ADI Analytics was founded in 2009, has 20 employees, and operates globally. The firm focuses on the value chain across oil and gas, energy, and chemicals, including upstream exploration, midstream natural gas and LNG markets, downstream fuels, power utilities, and energy transition. In 2017, ADI Analytics acquired Chemical Market Resources, expanding its capabilities in the chemicals and materials spaces. Oil and Gas Projects Uday discusses various oil and gas projects, including work with large oil and gas majors like Exxon, BP, and Shell. ADI Analytics helps refining independents explore export markets in Latin America due to the US refining complex's gasoline surplus. The firm conducts feasibility studies for LNG export terminals on the US Gulf Coast, analyzing competitive positioning, technology, risks, and financing. He explains that scenario planning for an oil major focuses on long-term energy demand, and how it can be affected by the growing demand for natural gas from data centers and emerging markets globally. About ADI Analytics  Uday talks about ADI Analytics. They work with large chemical players like BASF, Dow, and SABIC, covering the entire value chain, and help them on the feedstocks conversion into key building blocks in the chemicals industries, such as olefins, aromatics, and then all the derivatives, and further down into plastics, polymers and and how those plastics and polymers end up in our lives as consumers. He explains why the chemical industry is distressed, and how the firm helps clients understand the cost competitiveness of different chemicals globally and the impact of energy transition on the industry. Projects include due diligence for private equity firms on specialty chemical and materials markets and mapping the impact of energy transition on supply chains. Data Center Growth in the US Uday provides an overview of the data center landscape, noting the significant growth in data center capacity in the US Hyperscalers are building larger data centers, often in non-traditional locations like Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, driven by the need for secure energy and power. He explains how large the demand for electricity from data centers is with hyperscalers requiring up to a gigawatt of power, which is challenging to secure. Energy needs between households and data centers are compared to give an example of the scale needed. However, the process of adding new power generation capacity to the grid is slow, with interconnection queues taking multiple years, leading to delays in meeting data center power needs. Energy Sources and Strategies for Data Centers  Hyperscalers are pursuing various strategies to secure power, including building data centers in non-preferred locations, partnering with utilities, and investing in early-stage technologies like geothermal and small modular nuclear reactors. Uday discusses the challenges of securing power for data centers, including the need for significant new power generation capacity and the difficulties in connecting to the grid. The conversation highlights the importance of low-carbon energy sources for data centers, with interest in geothermal, nuclear, and hydrogen. ADI Analytics is involved in projects helping tech companies identify sources of low-carbon energy and exploring opportunities for oil and gas majors in the power generation space. Geothermal Energy and Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Uday explains the potential of geothermal energy, including traditional hydrothermal resources and advanced geothermal systems (EGS). EGS involves drilling deep into the Earth's surface to extract heat, but the technology is still in development and faces challenges like high costs and engineering complexities. Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are gaining interest due to growing electricity demand from data centers and industrial electrification. The conversation covers the regulatory and permitting challenges for SMRs, the need for innovation in nuclear power, and the potential for these technologies to address energy needs. Politics and Policy on Energy Projects The conversation turns to the impact of political and policy decisions on energy projects, including the opposition to renewable energy projects and support for nuclear power. Uday highlights the need for a balanced energy policy that supports all forms of energy, recognizing the unique advantages and challenges of each technology. He emphasizes the importance of allowing markets to determine the most competitive energy solutions, rather than imposing political or regulatory barriers. The discussion concludes with a call for a more cohesive and market-driven energy policy to meet the diverse energy needs of the future. Timestamps 02:22 Oil and Gas Project Examples  04:56: Chemical Industry Projects 08:16: Data Center Trends and Challenges  23:45: Energy Sources and Strategies for Data Centers 25:28: Geothermal Energy and Small Modular Nuclear Reactors  33:18: Political and Policy Considerations  Links: ADI Analytics website: www.adi-analytics.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turaga/   Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.  

In this episode of the Energy Newsbeat Daily Standup - Weekly Recap, Stu Turley and Michael Tanner break down a pivotal week in energy and markets. The U.S. power grid is strained by AI, EVs, and aging infrastructure—creating big opportunities in battery storage, microgrids, and SMRs. A $14 trillion stock rally now hinges on a likely 25bps Fed rate cut, which could ease borrowing for energy investments. The IEA is walking back its peak oil claims under pressure, acknowledging oil and gas demand will grow for decades. Natural gas is set to dominate U.S., China, and India's energy mix by 2050, while LNG exports are poised to double. But rising global decline rates mean trillions in capex are needed just to stay even—highlighting massive investment potential in U.S. energy infrastructure.Subscribe to Our Substack For Daily InsightsWant to Add Oil & Gas To Your Portfolio? Fill Out Our Oil & Gas Portfolio SurveyNeed Power For Your Data Center, Hospital, or Business?Follow Stuart On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuturley/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/STUARTTURLEY16Follow Michael On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelta... and Twitter: https://twitter.com/mtanner_1Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:14 - America's Grid is Nearing Its Breaking Point05:38 - $14 Trillion Stock Rally Expects a Fed Cut: What Happens If They Only Get a Quarter Point?10:36 - IEA Prepares to Walk Back Predictions of Peak Oil and Gas Demand13:39 - Fed cuts rates by 0.25% after flagging risks from softening labor marketNatural Gas to Absolutely Dominate U.S., China and India's Energy Mix by 205021:36 - Global Oil and Gas Field Decline Rates Are Increasing, IEA Says – Trillions of dollars needed just to meet decline curves.25:04 - OutroLinks to articles discussed:America's Grid is Nearing Its Breaking Point$14 Trillion Stock Rally Expects a Fed Cut: What Happens If They Only Get a Quarter Point?IEA Prepares to Walk Back Predictions of Peak Oil and Gas DemandFed cuts rates by 0.25% after flagging risks from softening labor marketNatural Gas to Absolutely Dominate U.S., China and India's Energy Mix by 2050Global Oil and Gas Field Decline Rates Are Increasing, IEA Says – Trillions of dollars needed just to meet decline curves.

In this episode, Simon Smith from Frazer-Nash Consultancy joins the Podbite series to discuss the realities of industrial decarbonization. The conversation explores the role of small modular reactors (SMRs), the opportunities and limits of existing carbon technologies, and the commercial hurdles facing heavy industry as it moves toward net zero.Simon shares both technical insights and industry perspectives from their roundtable discussion held at Decarb Connect UK in Manchester.Why Tune InHear how Frazer-Nash supports heavy industry with decarbonization assessments, emissions evaluations and technology integration strategies.Get the latest on carbon technologies: CCUS is gaining traction, hydrogen adoption faces price concerns, and direct air capture is starting to scale in the US.Explore the potential of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to integrate into industrial sites, supported by government planning reforms.Understand the commercial viability challenges: economics and lead times are the real barriers to deploying new technologies.Learn what industry leaders are saying: insights from Frazer-Nash's roundtable on practical challenges and real-world progress.Recorded live at Decarb Connect UK Summit, March 2025.Show links: -          Connect with Simon Smith and the team at Frazer-Nash Consultancy-          Follow Melissa Chew on LinkedIn and find how to get involved with the membership and work of Decarb ConnectWant to learn more about Decarb Connect?We provide insights and introductions that derisk decision-making and support industrial leaders in deploying decarbonization and low carbon product strategy. Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support commercial decarb planning and business models around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors. If you enjoyed this conversation, find out about our portfolio of events in US, Canada, UK and Europe – or explore our Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), and learn why more than 200 members from the energy-intensive sectors have joined to share insights, meet partners who can accelerate their net zero plans and why it's the fastest growing network of its kind.     (00:00) - Introduction and background (00:43) - - How Frazer-Nash supports clients with decarbonization (01:13) - - Technology trends: carbon capture, hydrogen, and direct air capture (02:21) - - SMR roundtable discussion and government planning reforms (03:19) - - Industry interest and main concerns about SMR adoption (03:44) - - Business case challenges and carbon pricing (04:33) - - Key takeaways from Decarb Connect UK 2025 (05:05) - - Wrap up

PWR-HR, a segment of the Energy Espresso Podcast, returns with hosts Dave Bosco and Travis Simmering taking on a seven-iron challenge at Pebble Beach and sharing quick sports updates, from DJ Dad's softball coaching to the FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup. They then shift to power markets: natural gas outlook, SMRs, AI-driven demand, and Caterpillar's 1.1-GW sale to a Utah data center.Tune in now!00:00 Welcome to The PWR-HR00:26 Inaugural Episode Competition02:28 DJ Dad and The Bomb Squad07:02 Golf Talk: FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup09:40 Nuclear Power and SMRs Discussion13:21 Upcoming Energy Projects and Natural Gas Outlook16:35 Fusion Technology and Future Energy Innovations17:55 Geothermal Energy and Natural Gas Dominance18:40 Challenges and Opportunities in Power Generation21:09 Data Centers and Energy Efficiency25:01 The Future of Power Generation and Efficiency29:57 Engaging with the Audience and Closing Remarks

ASEAN’s electricity demand is set to nearly triple by 2050, and renewables alone won’t be enough to keep the lights on. One option making a quiet comeback is nuclear power—this time in the form of small modular reactors (SMRs) that are safer, smaller, and more flexible than the plants of the past. On Industry Insight, Trung Ghi, Partner and Head of Energy & Utilities Practice at Arthur D. Little, explains why SMRs are gaining traction across Southeast Asia, how new technologies like AI and 3D printing are reshaping nuclear’s future, and why Singapore can still play a leadership role in policy and safety without building a reactor. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Loszak, the cofounder and CEO of Aalo Atomics, joined me to talk about Aalo's progress rolling SMRs off the factory line. We get into Aalo's test reactor at Idaho National Labs, a DOE path toward approving nuclear designs, how Trump's nuclear executive orders have helped the industry, “zero power criticality,” and more.Since we recorded this episode, Aalo has closed its $100 million Series B and has officially been selected by the DOE to test the Aalo-X reactor at INL by hitting zero power criticality. And then they broke ground on the project just a few days ago! Get full access to Nuclear Barbarians at www.nuclearbarbarians.com/subscribe

We start with commodities expert Alex Hamer, the author of this week's Big Read on nuclear power. Tech giants' need for the contentious energy source has revived plants around the globe. Alex unpacks what this means for the industry so far, and the prospects for the uranium market and small modular reactors (SMRs). Next up, the world's most valuable company, Nvidia (NVDA). New York-based reporter Arthur Sants discusses the company's latest results, the uncertainty regarding sales to China, as well as Intel's two recent big investors: the US government and SoftBank. Alex Newman also weighs in on the subject. Mark Robinson covers Boohoo's (DEBS) recent, delayed results, which showed some overhang from its old business. It's move to be a third-party seller, similar to that of M&S (MKS) and Next (NXT) could be fruitful, but the competition is rife. Listen to find out more. Timestamps1:30 Nuclear 15:48 Nvidia 37:07 BoohooRead more on these topics How to invest in the world's nuclear futureNvidia beats expectations despite China uncertaintyBoohoo cuts inventories and capex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andy White, senior vice president of Energy and Environment International for Amentum, talks about his background and the work Amentum is doing in the UK and across Europe in the nuclear sector.Among the topics covered:* The change of attitudes which means that the future decommissioning process is included in the planning stages for new nuclear (and how that should reduce the number of 'surprises' when decommissioning plants)* The company's work on new nuclear in the UK at Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C and SMRs and operations in Poland, France, the Czech Republic as well as Norway and the Netherlands* The benefits of bringing in technology, skills and people from other sectors (and countries) to help with what looks like being a forthcoming rapid expansion of new nuclear. * Plus Amentum's nuclear fusion work, including at ITER, and the general outlook for nuclear, and how financing and regulation can help industry meet the demand for new capacityWe also bring you Claire Maden's conversation with Nima Ashkeboussi, vice president government relations and communications at Global Laser Enrichment, earlier this year at the World Nuclear Fuel Cycle conference in Canada.In it he talks about the company's laser enrichment technology, explaining how it works and the big plans the company has - including 30-years' worth of work relating to the US Department of Energy's 200,000+ tonnes of depleted uranium. GLE's plan is to re-enrich this, so cleaning up a stranded asset and in the process providing a new source of fresh fuel.GLE began a large-scale enrichment demonstration programme in May, and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted for review the company's licensing application for a new facility to be built at Paducah, Kentucky earlier this month.Key links to find out more:World Nuclear NewsAmentumGLEGLE submits full application for laser enrichment facility licenceAmentum, Multiconsult to assess Norway's nuclear optionsAmentum awarded Sizewell C project management contractEmail newsletter:Sign up to the World Nuclear News daily or weekly news round-upsContact info:alex.hunt@world-nuclear.orgEpisode credit:  Presenter Alex Hunt. Co-produced and mixed by Pixelkisser Production

Our analysts Tim Chan and Mayank Maheshwari discuss how nuclear power and natural gas are reshaping Asia's evolving energy mix, and what these trends mean for sustainability and the future of energy. Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Tim Chan: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Tim Chan, Morgan Stanley's Head of Asia Sustainability Research.Mayank Maheshwari: And I am Mayank Maheshwari, the Energy Analyst for India and Southeast Asia.Tim Chan: Today – a major shift in global energy. We are talking about nuclear power, gas adoption, and what the future holds.It's Monday, August 18th at 8am in Hong Kong.Mayank Maheshwari: And it's 8am in Singapore.Tim Chan: Nuclear power is no longer niche; it's a megatrend. It was once seen as controversial and capital intensive. But now nuclear power is stepping into the spotlight—not just for decarbonization, but for energy security. Global investment projections in this sector are now topping more than $2 trillion by 2050. This is fueled by a growing appetite from major tech companies for clean, reliable 24/7 energy. More specifically, Asia is emerging as the epicenter of capacity growth, and that's where your coverage comes in, Mayank.With the rising consumption of electricity, how does nuclear energy adoption stack up in your universe?Mayank Maheshwari: Tim, it's a fascinating world on power right now that we are seeing. Now the tight global power markets perspective is key on why there is so much investor and policymaker attention to nuclear power.Nuclear fuels accounted for about a tenth of the power units produced globally. However, they are almost a fifth of the global clean power generation. Now, power consumption is at another tripping point, and this is after tripling since 1980s. To give you a perspective, Tim, 25 trillion units of power were consumed worldwide last year, and we see this growing rapidly at a 25 percent pace in the next five years or so. And if you look at consumption growth outside of China, it's even faster at 2.5x for the rest of the decade when compared to the last decade.Now policy makers need energy security and hence, nuclear is getting a lot more attention. In Asia, while China, Korea, and Japan have been using nuclear energy to power the economy, the rest of Asia, it has been more an ambition – with India being the only country making progress last decade. Southeast Asia still has a lot more coal, and nuclear remains an ambition as technology acceptance by public and regulatory framework remains a key handicap. We do, however, see policy makers in Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia looking at nuclear fuels more seriously now, with SMRs also being discussed.Tim Chan: That is a really interesting perspective, Mayank. So, you have been bullish on the Asia gas adoption story. So, how do you think gas and nuclear will intersect in this region?Mayank Maheshwari: I think nuclear and natural gas, like all of the fuel stem, will complement each other. However, the long gestation to put nuclear capacity makes gas a viable alternative for energy security. As I was telling you earlier, policy makers are definitely focusing on it. As you know, the last big increase in focus in nuclear fuels also happened in the 1970s oil shock, again when energy security came into play.Global natural gas consumption has more than doubled in the last three decades, and it's set to surprise again with AsiaPac's consumption pretty much set to rise at twice the pace versus what right now expectations are by the street. In this age of electrification and AI adoption, natural gas is definitely emerging as a dependable and an affordable fuel of the future to power everything from automobiles to humanoids, biogenetics, to AI data centers, and even semiconductor production, which is getting so much focus nowadays.We expect global consumption to rise again after not growing this decade for natural gas. As Asia's natural gas adoption rises and grows at 5 percent CAGR 2024-2030; with consumption for gas surprising in China, India, and Japan. So, all the large economies are seeing this big increases, especially versus expectations.The region will consume 70 percent of the globally traded natural gas by 2030. So that's how important Asia will be for the world. And while global gas glut is well flagged, especially coming out of the U.S., Asia's ability to absorb this glut is not very well appreciated.Tim, having said that, nuclear energy is clearly getting more interest globally and is often debated in sustainability circles. How do you see its role evolving in sustainability frameworks as well as green taxonomies?Tim Chan: On sustainability, one thing to talk about is exclusion. That is really important for many sustainable sustainability investors. And when it comes to exclusion for nuclear power, only 2.3 percent of global AUM now exclude nuclear power. And then, that percentage is lower than alcohol, military contracting and gambling. And the exclusion rate is also different dependent on the region. Right now, European investors have the highest exclusion rate but have reduced the nuclear exclusion from 10.9 percent to 8.4 percent as of December last year. And North American and Asian exclusion rates are very, very low. Just 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.So, this exclusion in North America and Asia are minimal. The World Bank has also lifted, its decades long ban on financing nuclear project, which is important because World Bank can provide capital to fund the early stage of nuclear plant project or construction.And finally, on green finance. The EU, China and Japan have incorporated the nuclear power into their green taxonomies. So that means in some circumstances, nuclear project can be considered as green.Mayank Maheshwari: Now we have talked about AI and its need for power on this show. Nuclear power has a significant role to play in that equation, with hyperscalers paying premium for nuclear power. How does this support the investment case for nuclear utilities?Tim Chan: Yeah, so that depends on the region; and then different region we have different dilemmas. So, let's talk about U.S. first. In the U.S. we are seeing nuclear power is commanding a premium of approximately around $30-$50 per megawatt hour – above the market rate. So, when it comes to this price premium, we do think that will support the nuclear utilities in the U.S. And then in the report we highlighted a few names that we believe the current stock price haven't really priced in this premium in the market.And then for other regions, it depends on the region as well. So, Mayank, you have talked about Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia right now, given the lack of nuclear pipeline and then also the favorable economies of gas, we are not seeing that sort of premium yet in the Southeast Asia. We are also not seeing that premium in the Europe and in China as well, given that right now this sort of premium is mainly a U.S. exclusive situation. So dependent on the region, we are seeing different opportunities for nuclear utilities when it comes to the price premium.Mayank Maheshwari: Definitely Tim, I think the price premiums are dependent on how tight these power markets in each of the geographies are. But like, how does nuclear fit into broader energy mix alongside renewables and natural gas for you?Tim Chan: So, all these are really important. For nuclear power, investors really appreciate the clean and reliable, and for the 24x7 nature of the energy supply to support their operations and sustainability goals. And then nuclear is also important to bring the power additionality, which means nuclear is bringing truly new energy generation rather than simply utilizing a system or already planned capacity. We are seeing that sort of additionality in the new nuclear project and also the SMR in future as well.So, for natural gas, that is also important. As Mayank you have mentioned, natural gas money adds as a bridge field to provide flexibility to the grid. And then in the U.S., it is currently the primary near-term solution for powering AI and data center to increase the electricity supply due to its speed to the market and reliability. And natural gas is suspected to meet immediate demand, while longer term solutions like nuclear projects and also SMR are developed.And finally, renewable energy is also important. It represents the fastest growing and increasingly cost competitive energy source. They also dominate the new capacity additions as well. But for renewable energy, it also requires complimentary technology such as battery ESS to adjust intermittency issues.So, Mayank we have talked so much about nuclear, and back to you on natural gas. You are really bullish on natural gas. So how and where do you think are the best way to play it?Mayank Maheshwari: As you were kind of talking about the intersection and diffusion between nuclear, natural gas and the renewable markets, what you're seeing is that our bullishness on consumption of natural gas is basically all about how this diffusion plays out. Consumption on natural gas will rise much quicker than most fuels for the rest of the decade, if you think about numbers – making it more than just a transition fuel.Hence, Morgan Stanley research has a list of 75 equities globally to play the thematic of this diffusion, and it is happening in the power markets. These equities are part of the natural gas adoption and the powering AI thematic as well. So, these include the equipment producers on power, the gas pipeline players who are basically supporting the supply of natural gas to some of these pipelines. Hybrid power generation companies which have a good mix of renewables, natural gas, a bit of nuclear sometimes. And infrastructure providers for energy security.So, all these 75 stocks are effective playing at the intersection of all these three thematics that we are talking about as Morgan Stanley research. It is clear that nuclear renaissance, Tim, isn't just about reactors. It's about rethinking energy systems, sustainability, and geopolitics.Tim Chan: Yes, and the last decade will be defined by how we balance ambition with execution. Nuclear together with gas and renewables will be central to Asia's energy future. Mayank, thanks for taking the time to talk,Mayank Maheshwari: Great speaking to you, Tim.Tim Chan: And thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share the podcast with a friend or colleague today.

Electricity demand is soaring, and some think the answer isn’t building bigger, but smaller. That’s the idea behind small modular reactors (SMRs): take a large-scale nuclear plant that’s hard to build, and shrink it down to something that’s more manageable, cheaper and easier to replicate. Instead of one huge nuclear plant, you build 10 small ones. Right now these kinds of small modular reactors are in the startup phase, with only two in commercial operation in Russia and China. So how viable is the business for these small modular reactors? And will SMRs ever become a scaled up solution for our energy needs? Rachel Slaybaugh joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to discuss. Explore further: What Are Small Nuclear Reactors and How Do SMRs Help Solve Climate Change? - Bloomberg Canada to Build $15 Billion Modular Nuclear Plant, First in G-7 - Bloomberg UK Selects Rolls-Royce to Build First Small Modular Reactors - Bloomberg China is Home to World's First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers,Nuclear fission is a safe, powerful, and reliable means of generating nearly limitless clean energy to power the modern world. A few public safety scares and a lot of bad press over the half-century has greatly delayed our nuclear future. But with climate change and energy-hungry AI making daily headlines, the time — finally — for a nuclear renaissance seems to have arrived.Today on Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I talk with Dr. Tim Gregory about the safety and efficacy of modern nuclear power, as well as the ambitious energy goals we should set for our society.Gregory is a nuclear scientist at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. He is also a popular science broadcaster on radio and TV, and an author. His most recent book, Going Nuclear: How Atomic Energy Will Save the World is out now.In This Episode* A false start for a nuclear future (1:29)* Motivators for a revival (7:20)* About nuclear waste . . . (12:41)* Not your mother's reactors (17:25)* Commercial fusion, coming soon . . . ? (23:06)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. A false start for a nuclear future (1:29)The truth is that radiation, we're living in it all the time, it's completely inescapable because we're all living in a sea of background radiation.Pethokoukis: Why do America, Europe, Japan not today get most of their power from nuclear fission, since that would've been a very reasonable prediction to make in 1965 or 1975, but it has not worked out that way? What's your best take on why it hasn't?Going back to the '50s and '60s, it looked like that was the world that we currently live in. It was all to play for, and there were a few reasons why that didn't happen, but the main two were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It's a startling statistic that the US built more nuclear reactors in the five years leading up to Three Mile Island than it has built since. And similarly on this side of the Atlantic, Europe built more nuclear reactors in the five years leading up to Chernobyl than it has built since, which is just astounding, especially given that nobody died in Three Mile Island and nobody was even exposed to anything beyond the background radiation as a result of that nuclear accident.Chernobyl, of course, was far more consequential and far more serious than Three Mile Island. 30-odd people died in the immediate aftermath, mostly people who were working at the power station and the first responders, famously the firefighters who were exposed to massive amounts of radiation, and probably a couple of hundred people died in the affected population from thyroid cancer. It was people who were children and adolescents at the time of the accident.So although every death from Chernobyl was a tragedy because it was avoidable, they're not in proportion to the mythic reputation of the night in question. It certainly wasn't reason to effectively end nuclear power expansion in Europe because of course we had to get that power from somewhere, and it mainly came from fossil fuels, which are not just a little bit more deadly than nuclear power, they're orders of magnitude more deadly than nuclear power. When you add up all of the deaths from nuclear power and compare those deaths to the amount of electricity that we harvest from nuclear power, it's actually as safe as wind and solar, whereas fossil fuels kill hundreds or thousands of times more people per unit of power. To answer your question, it's complicated and there are many answers, but the main two were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.I wonder how things might have unfolded if those events hadn't happened or if society had responded proportionally to the actual damage. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are portrayed in documentaries and on TV as far deadlier than they really were, and they still loom large in the public imagination in a really unhelpful way.You see it online, actually, quite a lot about the predicted death toll from Chernobyl, because, of course, there's no way of saying exactly which cases of cancer were caused by Chernobyl and which ones would've happened anyway. Sometimes you see estimates that are up in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of deaths from Chernobyl. They are always based on a flawed scientific hypothesis called the linear no-threshold model that I go into in quite some detail in chapter eight of my book, which is all about the human health effects of exposure to radiation. This model is very contested in the literature. It's one of the most controversial areas of medical science, actually, the effects of radiation on the human body, and all of these massive numbers you see of the death toll from Chernobyl, they're all based on this really kind of clunky, flawed, contentious hypothesis. My reading of the literature is that there's very, very little physical evidence to support this particular hypothesis, but people take it and run. I don't know if it would be too far to accuse people of pushing a certain idea of Chernobyl, but it almost certainly vastly, vastly overestimates the effects.I think a large part of the reason of why this had such a massive impact on the public and politicians is this lingering sense of radiophobia that completely blight society. We've all seen it in the movies, in TV shows, even in music and computer games — radiation is constantly used as a tool to invoke fear and mistrust. It's this invisible, centerless, silent specter that's kind of there in the background: It means birth defects, it means cancers, it means ill health. We've all kind of grown up in this culture where the motif of radiation is bad news, it's dangerous, and that inevitably gets tied to people's sense of nuclear power. So when you get something like Three Mile Island, society's imagination and its preconceptions of radiation, it's just like a dry haystack waiting for a flint spark to land on it, and up it goes in flames and people's imaginations run away with them.The truth is that radiation, we're living in it all the time, it's completely inescapable because we're all living in a sea of background radiation. There's this amazing statistic that if you live within a couple of miles of a nuclear power station, the extra amount of radiation you're exposed to annually is about the same as eating a banana. Bananas are slightly radioactive because of the slight amount of potassium-40 that they naturally contain. Even in the wake of these nuclear accidents like Chernobyl, and more recently Fukushima, the amount of radiation that the public was exposed to barely registers and, in fact, is less than the background radiation in lots of places on the earth.Motivators for a revival (7:20)We have no idea what emerging technologies are on the horizon that will also require massive amounts of power, and that's exactly where nuclear can shine.You just suddenly reminded me of a story of when I was in college in the late 1980s, taking a class on the nuclear fuel cycle. You know it was an easy class because there was an ampersand in it. “Nuclear fuel cycle” would've been difficult. “Nuclear fuel cycle & the environment,” you knew it was not a difficult class.The man who taught it was a nuclear scientist and, at one point, he said that he would have no problem having a nuclear reactor in his backyard. This was post-Three Mile Island, post-Chernobyl, and the reaction among the students — they were just astounded that he would be willing to have this unbelievably dangerous facility in his backyard.We have this fear of nuclear power, and there's sort of an economic component, but now we're seeing what appears to be a nuclear renaissance. I don't think it's driven by fear of climate change, I think it's driven A) by fear that if you are afraid of climate change, just solar and wind aren't going to get you to where you want to be; and then B) we seem like we're going to need a lot of clean energy for all these AI data centers. So it really does seem to be a perfect storm after a half-century.And who knows what next. When I started writing Going Nuclear, the AI story hadn't broken yet, and so all of the electricity projections for our future demand, which, they range from doubling to tripling, we're going to need a lot of carbon-free electricity if we've got any hope of electrifying society whilst getting rid of fossil fuels. All of those estimates were underestimates because nobody saw AI coming.It's been very, very interesting just in the last six, 12 months seeing Big Tech in North America moving first on this. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta have all either invested or actually placed orders for small modular reactors specifically to power their AI data centers. In some ways, they've kind of led the charge on this. They've moved faster than most nation states, although it is encouraging, actually, here in the UK, just a couple of weeks ago, the government announced that our new nuclear power station is definitely going ahead down in Sizewell in Suffolk in the south of England. That's a 3.2 gigawatt nuclear reactor, it's absolutely massive. But it's been really, really encouraging to see Big Tech in the private sector in North America take the situation into their own hands. If anyone's real about electricity demands and how reliable you need it, it's Big Tech with these data centers.I always think, go back five, 10 years, talk of AI was only on the niche subreddits and techie podcasts where people were talking about it. It broke into the mainstream all of a sudden. Who knows what is going to happen in the next five or 10 years. We have no idea what emerging technologies are on the horizon that will also require massive amounts of power, and that's exactly where nuclear can shine.In the US, at least, I don't think decarbonization alone is enough to win broad support for nuclear, since a big chunk of the country doesn't think we actually need to do that. But I think that pairing it with the promise of rapid AI-driven economic growth creates a stronger case.I tried to appeal to a really broad church in Going Nuclear because I really, really do believe that whether you are completely preoccupied by climate change and environmental issues or you're completely preoccupied by economic growth, and raising living, standards and all of that kind of thing, all the monetary side of things, nuclear is for you because if you solve the energy problem, you solve both problems at once. You solve the economic problem and the environmental problem.There's this really interesting relationship between GDP per head — which is obviously incredibly important in economic terms — and energy consumption per head, and it's basically a straight line relationship between the two. There are no rich countries that aren't also massive consumers of energy, so if you really, really care about the economy, you should really also be caring about energy consumption and providing energy abundance so people can go out and use that energy to create wealth and prosperity. Again, that's where nuclear comes in. You can use nuclear power to sate that massive energy demand that growing economies require.This podcast is very pro-wealth and prosperity, but I'll also say, if the nuclear dreams of the '60s where you had, in this country, what was the former Atomic Energy Commission expecting there to be 1000 nuclear reactors in this country by the year 2000, we're not having this conversation about climate change. It is amazing that what some people view as an existential crisis could have been prevented — by the United States and other western countries, at least — just making a different political decision.We would be spending all of our time talking about something else, and how nice would that be?For sure. I'm sure there'd be other existential crises to worry about.But for sure, we wouldn't be talking about climate change was anywhere near the volume or the sense of urgency as we are now if we would've carried on with the nuclear expansion that really took off in the '70s and the '80s. It would be something that would be coming our way in a couple of centuries.About nuclear waste . . . (12:41). . . a 100 percent nuclear-powered life for about 80 years, their nuclear waste would barely fill a wine glass or a coffee cup. I don't know if you've ever seen the television show For All Mankind?I haven't. So many people have recommended it to me.It's great. It's an alt-history that looks at what if the Space Race had never stopped. As a result, we had a much more tech-enthusiastic society, which included being much more pro-nuclear.Anyway, imagine if you are on a plane talking to the person next to you, and the topic of your book comes up, and the person says hey, I like energy, wealth, prosperity, but what are you going to do about the nuclear waste?That almost exact situation has happened, but on a train rather than an airplane. One of the cool things about uranium is just how much energy you can get from a very small amount of it. If typical person in a highly developed economy, say North America, Europe, something like that, if they produced all of their power over their entire lifetime from nuclear alone, so forget fossil fuels, forget wind and solar, a 100 percent nuclear-powered life for about 80 years, their nuclear waste would barely fill a wine glass or a coffee cup. You need a very small amount of uranium to power somebody's life, and the natural conclusion of that is you get a very small amount of waste for a lifetime of power. So in terms of the numbers, and the amount of nuclear waste, it's just not that much of a problem.However, I don't want to just try and trivialize it out of existence with some cool pithy statistics and some cool back-of-the-envelopes physics calculations because we still have to do something with the nuclear waste. This stuff is going to be radioactive for the best part of a million years. Thankfully, it's quite an easy argument to make because good old Finland, which is one of the most nuclear nations on the planet as a share of nuclear in its grid, has solved this problem. It has implemented — and it's actually working now — the world's first and currently only geological repository for nuclear waste. Their idea is essentially to bury it in impermeable bedrock and leave it there because, as with all radioactive objects, nuclear waste becomes less radioactive over time. The idea is that, in a million years, Finland's nuclear waste won't be nuclear waste anymore, it will just be waste. A million years sounds like a really long time to our ears, but it's actually —It does.It sounds like a long time, but it is the blink of an eye, geologically. So to a geologist, a million years just comes and goes straight away. So it's really not that difficult to keep nuclear waste safe underground on those sorts of timescales. However — and this is the really cool thing, and this is one of the arguments that I make in my book — there are actually technologies that we can use to recycle nuclear waste. It turns out that when you pull uranium out of a reactor, once it's been burned for a couple of years in a reactor, 95 percent of the atoms are still usable. You can still use them to generate nuclear power. So by throwing away nuclear waste when it's been through a nuclear reactor once, we're actually squandering like 95 percent of material that we're throwing away.The theory is this sort of the technology behind breeder reactors?That's exactly right, yes.What about the plutonium? People are worried about the plutonium!People are worried about the plutonium, but in a breeder reactor, you get rid of the plutonium because you split it into fission products, and fission products are still radioactive, but they have much shorter half-lives than plutonium. So rather than being radioactive for, say, a million years, they're only radioactive, really, for a couple of centuries, maybe 1000 years, which is a very, very different situation when you think about long-term storage.I read so many papers and memos from the '50s when these reactors were first being built and demonstrated, and they worked, by the way, they're actually quite easy to build, it just happened in a couple of years. Breeder reactors were really seen as the future of humanity's power demands. Forget traditional nuclear power stations that we all use at the moment, which are just kind of once through and then you throw away 95 percent of the energy at the end of it. These breeder reactors were really, really seen as the future.They never came to fruition because we discovered lots of uranium around the globe, and so the supply of uranium went up around the time that the nuclear power expansion around the world kind of seized up, so the uranium demand dropped as the supply increased, so the demand for these breeder reactors kind of petered out and fizzled out. But if we're really, really serious about the medium-term future of humanity when it comes to energy, abundance, and prosperity, we need to be taking a second look at these breeder reactors because there's enough uranium and thorium in the ground around the world now to power the world for almost 1000 years. After that, we'll have something else. Maybe we'll have nuclear fusion.Well, I hope it doesn't take a thousand years for nuclear fusion.Yes, me too.Not your mother's reactors (17:25)In 2005, France got 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear. They almost decarbonized their grid by accident before anybody cared about climate change, and that was during a time when their economy was absolutely booming.I don't think most people are aware of how much innovation has taken place around nuclear in the past few years, or even few decades. It's not just a climate change issue or that we need to power these data centers — the technology has vastly improved. There are newer, safer technologies, so we're not talking about 1975-style reactors.Even if it were the 1975-style reactors, that would be fine because they're pretty good and they have an absolutely impeccable safety record punctuated by a very small number of high-profile events such as Chernobyl and Fukushima. I'm not to count Three Mile Island on that list because nobody died, but you know what I mean.But the modern nuclear reactors are amazing. The ones that are coming out of France, the EPRs, the European Power Reactors, there are going to be two of those in the UK's new nuclear power station, and they've been designed to withstand an airplane flying into the side of them, so they're basically bomb-proof.As for these small modular reactors, that's getting people very excited, too. As their name suggests, they're small. How small is a reasonable question — the answer is as small as you want to go. These things are scalable, and I've seen designs for just one-megawatt reactors that could easily fit inside a shipping container. They could fit in the parking lots around the side of a data center, or in the basement even, all the way up to multi-hundred-megawatt reactors that could fit on a couple of tennis courts worth of land. But it's really the modular part that's the most interesting thing. That's the ‘M' and that's never been done before.Which really gets to the economics of the SMRs.It really does. The idea is you could build upwards of 90 percent of these reactors on a factory line. We know from the history of industrialization that as soon as you start mass producing things, the unit cost just plummets and the timescales shrink. No one has achieved that yet, though. There's a lot of hype around small modular reactors, and so it's kind of important not to get complacent and really keep our eye on the ultimate goal, which is mass-production and mass rapid deployment of nuclear power stations, crucially in the places where you need them the most, as well.We often think about just decarbonizing our electricity supply or decoupling our electricity supply from volatilities in the fossil fuel market, but it's about more than electricity, as well. We need heat for things like making steel, making the ammonia that feeds most people on the planet, food and drinks factories, car manufacturers, plants that rely on steam. You need heat, and thankfully, the primary energy from a nuclear reactor is heat. The electricity is secondary. We have to put effort into making that. The heat just kind of happens. So there's this idea that we could use the surplus heat from nuclear reactors to power industrial processes that are very, very difficult to decarbonize. Small modular reactors would be perfect for that because you could nestle them into the industrial centers that need the heat close by. So honestly, it is really our imaginations that are the limits with these small modular reactors.They've opened a couple of nuclear reactors down in Georgia here. The second one was a lot cheaper and faster to build because they had already learned a bunch of lessons building that first one, and it really gets at sort of that repeatability where every single reactor doesn't have to be this one-off bespoke project. That is not how it works in the world of business. How you get cheaper things is by building things over and over, you get very good at building them, and then you're able to turn these things out at scale. That has not been the economic situation with nuclear reactors, but hopefully with small modular reactors, or even if we just start building a lot of big advanced reactors, we'll get those economies of scale and hopefully the economic issue will then take care of itself.For sure, and it is exactly the same here in the UK. The last reactor that we connected to the grid was in 1995. I was 18 months old. I don't even know if I was fluent in speaking at 18 months old. I was really, really young. Our newest nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C, which is going to come online in the next couple of years, was hideously expensive. The uncharitable view of that is that it's just a complete farce and is just a complete embarrassment, but honestly, you've got to think about it: 1995, the last nuclear reactor in the UK, it was going to take a long time, it was going to be expensive, basically doing it from scratch. We had no supply chain. We didn't really have a workforce that had ever built a nuclear reactor before, and with this new reactor that just got announced a couple of weeks ago, the projected price is 20 percent cheaper, and it is still too expensive, it's still more expensive than it should be, but you're exactly right.By tapping into those economies of scale, the cost per nuclear reactor will fall, and France did this in the '70s and '80s. Their nuclear program is so amazing. France is still the most nuclear nation on the planet as a share of its total electricity. In 2005, France got 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear. They almost decarbonized their grid by accident before anybody cared about climate change, and that was during a time when their economy was absolutely booming. By the way, still today, all of those reactors are still working and they pay less than the European Union average for that electricity, so this idea that nuclear makes your electricity expensive is simply not true. They built 55 nuclear reactors in 25 years, and they did them in parallel. It was just absolutely amazing. I would love to see a French-style nuclear rollout in all developed countries across the world. I think that would just be absolutely amazing.Commercial fusion, coming soon . . . ? (23:06)I think we're pretty good at doing things when we put our minds to it, but certainly not in the next couple of decades. But luckily, we already have a proven way of producing lots of energy, and that's with nuclear fission, in the meantime.What is your enthusiasm level or expectation about nuclear fusion? I can tell you that the Silicon Valley people I talk to are very positive. I know they're inherently very positive people, but they're very enthusiastic about the prospects over the next decade, if not sooner, of commercial fusion. How about you?It would be incredible. The last question that I was asked in my PhD interview 10 years ago was, “If you could solve one scientific or engineering problem, what would it be?” and my answer was nuclear fusion. And that would be the answer that I would give today. It just seems to me to be obviously the solution to the long-term energy needs of humanity. However, I'm less optimistic, perhaps, than the Silicon Valley crowd. The running joke, of course, is that it's always 40 years away and it recedes into the future at one year per year. So I would love to be proved wrong, but realistically — no one's even got it working in a prototype power station. That's before we even think about commercializing it and deploying it at scale. I really, really think that we're decades away, maybe even something like a century. I'd be surprised if it took longer than a century, actually. I think we're pretty good at doing things when we put our minds to it, but certainly not in the next couple of decades. But luckily, we already have a proven way of producing lots of energy, and that's with nuclear fission, in the meantime.Don't go to California with that attitude. I can tell you that even when I go there and I talk about AI, if I say that AI will do anything less than improve economic growth by a factor of 100, they just about throw me out over there. Let me just finish up by asking you this: Earlier, we mentioned Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. How resilient do you think this nuclear renaissance is to an accident?Even if we take the rate of accident over the last 70 years of nuclear power production and we maintain that same level of rate of accident, if you like, it's still one of the safest things that our species does, and everyone talks about the death toll from nuclear power, but nobody talks about the lives that it's already saved because of the fossil fuels, that it's displaced fossil fuels. They're so amazing in some ways, they're so convenient, they're so energy-dense, they've created the modern world as we all enjoy it in the developed world and as the developing world is heading towards it. But there are some really, really nasty consequences of fossil fuels, and whether or not you care about climate change, even the air pollution alone and the toll that that takes on human health is enough to want to phase them out. Nuclear power already is orders of magnitude safer than fossil fuels and I read this really amazing paper that globally, it was something like between the '70s and the '90s, nuclear power saved about two million lives because of the fossil fuels that it displaced. That's, again, orders of magnitude more lives that have been lost as a consequence of nuclear power, mostly because of Chernobyl and Fukushima. Even if the safety record of nuclear in the past stays the same and we forward-project that into the future, it's still a winning horse to bet on.If in the UK they've started up one new nuclear reactor in the past 30 years, right? How many would you guess will be started over the next 15 years?Four or five. Something like that, I think; although I don't know.Is that a significant number to you?It's not enough for my liking. I would like to see many, many more. Look at France. I know I keep going back to it, but it's such a brilliant example. If France hadn't done what they'd done in between the '70s and the '90s — 55 nuclear reactors in 25 years, all of which are still working — it would be a much more difficult case to make because there would be no historical precedent for it. So, maybe predictably, I wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a French-scale nuclear rollout, let's put it that way.On sale everywhere The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were PromisedMicro Reads▶ Economics* The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics - WSJ* AI Spending Is Propping Up the Economy, Right? It's Complicated. - Barron's* Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. 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How Smart Is It Now? - NYT* Google and IBM believe first workable quantum computer is in sight - FT* Why does Jeff Bezos keep buying launches from Elon Musk? - Ars* Beijing demands Chinese tech giants justify purchases of Nvidia's H20 chips - FT* An AI Replay of the Browser Wars, Bankrolled by Google - Bberg Opinion* Why Businesses Say Tariffs Have a Delayed Effect on Inflation - Richmond Fed* Lisa Su Runs AMD—and Is Out for Nvidia's Blood - Wired* Forget the White House Sideshow. Intel Must Decide What It Wants to Be. - WSJ* With Billions at Risk, Nvidia CEO Buys His Way Out of the Trade Battle - WSJ* Donald Trump's 100% tariff threat looms over chip sector despite relief for Apple - FT* Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival - FT* Threads is nearing X's daily app users, new data shows - TechCrunch▶ Policy/Politics* Trump's China gamble - Axios* U.S. Government to Take Cut of Nvidia and AMD A.I. Chip Sales to China - NYT* A Guaranteed Annual Income Flop - WSJ Opinion* Big Tech's next major political battle may already be brewing in your backyard - Politico* Trump order gives political appointees vast powers over research grants - Nature* China has its own concerns about Nvidia H20 chips - FT* How the US Could Lose the AI Arms Race to China - Bberg Opinion* America's New AI Plan Is Great. There's Just One Problem. - Bberg Opinion* Trump, Seeking Friendlier Economic Data, Names New Statistics Chief - NYT* Trump's chief science adviser faces a storm of criticism: what's next? - Nature* Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project - NYT Opinion▶ AI/Digital* Can OpenAI's GPT-5 model live up to sky-high expectations? - FT* Google, Schmoogle: When to Ditch Web Search for Deep Research - WSJ* AI Won't Kill Software. It Will Simply Give It New Life. - Barron's* Chatbot Conversations Never End. That's a Problem for Autistic People. - WSJ* Volunteers fight to keep ‘AI slop' off Wikipedia - Wapo* Trump's Tariffs Won't Solve U.S. Chip-Making Dilemma - WSJ* GenAI Misinformation, Trust, and News Consumption: Evidence from a Field Experiment - NBER* GPT-5s Are Alive: Basic Facts, Benchmarks and the Model Card - Don't Worry About the Vase* What you may have missed about GPT-5 - MIT* Why A.I. Should Make Parents Rethink Posting Photos of Their Children Online - NYT* 21 Ways People Are Using A.I. at Work - NYT* AI and Jobs: The Final Word (Until the Next One) - EIG* These workers don't fear artificial intelligence. They're getting degrees in it. - Wapo* AI Gossip - Arxiv* Meet the early-adopter judges using AI - MIT* The GPT-5 rollout has been a big mess - Ars* A Humanoid Social Robot as a Teaching Assistant in the Classroom - Arxiv* OpenAI Scrambles to Update GPT-5 After Users Revolt - Wired* Sam Altman and the whale - MIT* This is what happens when ChatGPT tries to write scripture - Vox* How AI could create the first one-person unicorn - Economist* AI Robs My Students of the Ability to Think - WSJ Opinion* Part I: Tricks or Traps? A Deep Dive into RL for LLM Reasoning - Arxiv▶ Biotech/Health* Scientists Are Finally Making Progress Against Alzheimer's - WSJ Opinion* The Dawn of a New Era in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Treatment - RealClearScience* RFK Jr. shifts $500 million from mRNA research to 'safer' vaccines. Do the data back that up? - Reason* How Older People Are Reaping Brain Benefits From New Tech - NYT* Did Disease Defeat Napoleon? - SciAm* Scientists Discover a Viral Cause of One of The World's Most Common Cancers - ScienceAlert* ‘A tipping point': An update from the frontiers of Alzheimer's disease research - Yale News* A new measure of health is revolutionising how we think about ageing - NS* First proof brain's powerhouses drive – and can reverse – dementia symptoms - NA* The Problem Is With Men's Sperm - NYT Opinion▶ Clean Energy/Climate* The Whole World Is Switching to EVs Faster Than You - Bberg Opinion* Misperceptions About Air Pollution: Implications for Willingness to Pay and Environmental Inequality - NBER* Texas prepares for war as invasion of flesh-eating flies appears imminent - Ars* Data Center Energy Demand Will Double Over the Next Five Years - Apollo Academy* Why Did Air Conditioning Adoption Accelerate Faster Than Predicted? Evidence from Mexico - NBER* Microwaving rocks could help mining operations pull CO2 out of the air - NS* Ford's Model T Moment Isn't About the Car - Heatmap* Five countries account for 71% of the world's nuclear generation capacity - EIA* AI may need the power equivalent of 50 large nuclear plants - E&E▶ Space/Transportation* NASA plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon—a space lawyer explains why - Ars* Rocket Lab's Surprise Stock Move After Solid Earnings - Barron's▶ Up Wing/Down Wing* James Lovell, the steady astronaut who brought Apollo 13 home safely, has died - Ars* Vaccine Misinformation Is a Symptom of a Dangerous Breakdown - NYT Opinion* We're hardwired for negativity. That doesn't mean we're doomed to it. - Vox* To Study Viking Seafarers, He Took 26 Voyages in a Traditional Boat - NYT* End is near for the landline-based service that got America online in the '90s - Wapo▶ Substacks/Newsletters* Who will actually profit from the AI boom? - Noahpinion* OpenAI GPT-5 One Unified System - AI Supremacy* Proportional representation is the solution to gerrymandering - Slow Boring* Why I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist - The Ecomodernist* How Many Jobs Depend on Exports? - Conversable Economist* ChatGPT Classic - Joshua Gans' Newsletter* Is Air Travel Getting Worse? - Maximum Progress▶ Social Media* On AI Progress - @daniel_271828* On AI Usage - @emollick* On Generative AI and Student Learning - @jburnmurdoch Faster, Please! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. 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Peter Van Doren and David Kemp bring libertarian skepticism to the bipartisan political support for nuclear power. They analyze why regulatory reform alone may not solve nuclear's economic problems and discuss how recent U.S. projects have failed to deliver on promises of cost-effectiveness even after a supposed "renaissance" in the late 2000s. They finish up with a discussion on whether small modular reactors (SMRs) are the nuclear silver bullet.Show Notes:Peter Van Doren and David Kemp, Nuclear Power in the Context of Climate Change, Cato Institute Working Paper, April 27, 2023. https://www.cato.org/working-paper/nuclear-power-context-climate-change.David Kemp and Peter Van Doren, "Would a Carbon Tax Rejuvenate Nuclear Energy?" Regulation 45, no. 3 (Fall 2022). https://www.cato.org/regulation/fall-2022/would-carbon-tax-rejuvenate-nuclear-energy.David Kemp, "Nuclear Power's Newest Cautionary Tale," Cato at Liberty (blog), January 23, 2024. https://www.cato.org/blog/nuclear-powers-newest-cautionary-tale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justin Maierhofer is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at the Tennessee Valley Authority and serves as TVA's representative on the newly formed Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority. With more than two decades of experience in public power and federal energy policy, he's helping lead TVA through a landmark moment: becoming the first U.S. utility to advance a small modular reactor (SMR) construction permit through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's initial review phase.What does this milestone mean for America's energy future? Why are SMRs such a big deal - and why now? And how does Kentucky fit into this next-generation nuclear conversation?Expect to learn why TVA's Clinch River SMR project is seen as a blueprint for clean, scalable baseload power, how AI and data centers are reshaping electricity demand, the opportunity Kentucky has to repurpose coal infrastructure for nuclear, what the newly established Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority is working on, and how public-private partnerships are driving this new energy era forward.If you'd like to stay up to date on all things Middle Tech subscribe to our newsletter at middletech.beehiiv.com.

In this episode, Brad Mines and Ryan McLeod, known as Nuclear Bitcoiner, discuss the intersection of Bitcoin and nuclear power. Ryan shares his background in the energy sector and how he became involved with Bitcoin, particularly in relation to small modular reactors (SMRs) and their potential to provide stable energy for Bitcoin mining. The conversation explores the growing demand for energy in Bitcoin mining, the societal impacts of energy infrastructure, and the future of nuclear power as a viable energy source. Ryan emphasizes the importance of empowering marginalized communities through reliable energy and the role of Bitcoin in this transformation. The discussion also touches on the political landscape surrounding energy and Bitcoin, concluding with thoughts on the future of these technologies and their potential to reshape society.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Bitcoin and Nuclear Energy04:38 The Role of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)08:58 Nuclear Power's Global Landscape13:31 Bitcoin Mining and Energy Demand18:05 Canada's Energy Market and Bitcoin Mining22:31 Future Impacts of Bitcoin and Energy Infrastructure27:01 Personal Motivations and Broader Implications39:23 The Double Spend Problem and Bitcoin's Role44:45 Bitcoin and Energy: A Perfect Synergy49:18 Nuclear Power and Global Politics53:57 The Polarization of Politics and Media58:52 Nuclear Waste Management and Safety01:08:51 The Future of Bitcoin and Nuclear EnergyFollow Ryan McLeod: https://x.com/NuclearBitcoinr

In this episode of Construction Blueprints, Gemma Tait, Head of GB Construction, is joined by Kate Fowler, Global Head of Nuclear, to explore small modular reactors (SMRs).  Within this episode, our experts discuss what makes nuclear construction unique and challenges faced by insurers and the industry. From determining who holds primary responsibility for insurance obligations, to understanding how limits may vary across different SMR developments, the conversation also examines major supply chain hurdles like sourcing nuclear fuel and managing skilled labor. 

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Isabelle Boemeke, author of the forthcoming book, “Rad Future: The Untold Story of Nuclear Electricity and How It Will Save the World.” The book will be published on August 12 and is available for preorder here. Isabelle is a passionate advocate for nuclear energy and is also the creator of Isodope, a social media persona she uses to engage and educate the public about the benefits of nuclear power. Isabelle was involved in pushing to save the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility and has visited nuclear sites around the world. We were thrilled to hear her fresh and insightful perspectives. In our conversation, we explore nuclear energy's rapid shift in public perception and the surge in investment and media attention from just three years ago to today. We discuss the role of advocacy in changing narratives, generational differences in attitudes toward nuclear, and the decline of the organized anti-nuclear movement. Isabelle shares her perspective on international attitudes toward nuclear, the origin of Isodope and her use of social media as an educational tool, the gender gap in nuclear support, and her personal background and journey to becoming curious about nuclear energy. We touch on the nuclear industry's reception to Isabelle, including the strong support she's received from women in the field. She shares her strategy for communicating complex nuclear topics to a broader audience, the key risks facing the nuclear renaissance, and the next major hurdles the industry must overcome, particularly challenges around financing and project management. We cover public awareness of SMRs compared to large-scale nuclear, community attitudes toward nuclear, and the strong local support Isabelle has seen near existing plants. Isabelle discusses her continued focus on nuclear for the next few years, where her interests may take her in the future, her 10-year outlook for energy and climate, and more. Mike Bradley kicked off the show by noting that broader U.S. equity markets continue to hit new all-time highs. A major driver of broader markets so far this year has been euphoria surrounding AI/Tech equities and the significant capital spending to support data centers. “Meme stock mania” seems to be rearing its head again and could be an early signal of a frothy equity market. On the energy equity front, he highlighted that both HAL and SLB have reported Q2 results and, for the most part, are guiding towards a weaker 2H25 market (especially NAM oil service pricing). Most oil service investors were hopeful Q2 would be the last quarter for downward 2025 revisions, which could be a reason why oil service stocks aren't reacting to negative downward 2025 EPS revisions. Electric Utilities are up ~13% this year and continue to be viewed as “growth” stocks. The PJM Capacity Auction posted results after the close, with pricing coming in at ~$330/mw versus last year's print of ~$270/mw. A handful of PJM exposed IPPs were up modestly after the close on the news. Mike wrapped by noting that SMR equities are up on average ~175% YTD and continue to be electricity darlings. He also flagged today's news out of Japan that Kansai Electric is reportedly exploring a plan to build the country's first nuclear plant since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Brett Rampal peppered in his nuclear perspective and questions to the discussion. We are excited to continue following Isabelle's activities as a positive “influencer” for nuclear and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Our best to you all!

The latest episode of the Engineers Collective is out now: listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, your usual platform or the player below.   After a busy month of infrastructure commitments from the UK government, host Rob Hakimian welcomes Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) director of policy and external affairs Sam Gould to the podcast to discuss it all.   They touch on spending settlements for England's city regions to upgrade their transport offerings, investment in the railways via projects such as HS2 and East West Rail, the large financial commitments to nuclear energy including Sizewell C and small modular reactors (SMRs) and more.   Gould also talks about what the updates to the Green Book could mean for improving delivery of infrastructure and the certainty that the release of the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy will bring to private entities looking to invest in the UK's future.   Prior to the interview portion, Rob is joined by NCE senior reporter Tom Pashby to discuss the Industrial Strategy, specifically the way that it entwines the UK's civil nuclear and defence nuclear sectors.

In the wake of new executive orders elevating nuclear energy as a national security priority, there's growing momentum—and urgency—behind advanced fission technologies. Few are better positioned to talk about this shift than Jordan Bramble, co-founder and CEO of Antares Nuclear, a startup building microreactors for defense and space.In this episode of Valley of Depth, we explore the strategic, technical, and geopolitical dimensions driving the nuclear renaissance. We cover:• Why microreactors are built for strategic energy and not just the grid• The real story behind public support for nuclear energy• How Antares plans to deploy sub-megawatt nuclear systems on U.S. military installations• The challenges of fuel supply, regulation, and capital• Why China is pulling ahead and what the U.S. must do to catch up• Nuclear-powered space assets and propulsion• Why Jordan believes venture-scale outcomes are coming to nuclear energy • Chapters •00:00 - Intro00:56 - Payload Pro01:39 - State of fission03:38 - Is renewed nuclear interest driven by political or environmental factors?05:23 - Are small modular reactors (SMRs) going to replace large, conventional nuclear reactors?07:31 - Is nuclear still a controversial topic?09:27 - Cultural legacy of nuclear in media11:49 - Antares and how Jordan got into nuclear14:16 - What does 1 Megawatt mean?15:53 - Game changing environments for Antares's SMR19:30 - Terrestrial business model20:39 - Nuclear fuel supply chain21:35 - Current state and future prediction of fuel pipeline23:42 - Safety in contested environments26:49 - Hardest technical challenges29:52 - What will it take to get to their first electron31:23 - Competition34:27 - US vs its adversaries36:29 - Navigating regulatory guidelines38:10 - Impact of Trump's Executive Orders40:03 - NRC41:12 - Are we living in a VC renaissance for nuclear?44:05 - What drives Jordan to work on nuclear?46:30 - For those afraid of nuclear • Show notes •Jordan's socials — https://x.com/jordanbrambleAntares' socials — https://x.com/AntaresNuclearAntares' website — https://boomsupersonic.com/Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislamPayload's socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspaceIgnition's socials — https://twitter.com/ignitionnuclear /  https://www.linkedin.com/company/ignition-nuclear/Tectonic's socials  — https://twitter.com/tectonicdefense / https://www.linkedin.com/company/tectonicdefense/Valley of Depth archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/  • About us •Valley of Depth is a podcast about the technologies that matter — and the people building them. Brought to you by Arkaea Media, the team behind Payload (space), Ignition (nuclear energy), and Tectonic (defense tech), this show goes beyond headlines and hype. We talk to founders, investors, government officials, and military leaders shaping the future of national security and deep tech. From breakthrough science to strategic policy, we dive into the high-stakes decisions behind the world's hardest technologies.• Payload: www.payloadspace.com• Ignition: www.ignition-news.com• Tectonic: www.tectonicdefense.com

Justin Huhn, Founder and Publisher of the Uranium Insider, joins me for yet another very comprehensive macro update on the supply and demand fundamentals for uranium and the nuclear fuel sector, how the longer-term contracting cycle is setting up with utility companies, and what he is watching and how he is positioning in the uranium equities as we've started to see a bounce across the sector the last 2 months. This is a longer-format discussion building upon our prior conversations in 2024, because even more key news and developments have been announced in the nuclear and uranium sector.   We start off reviewing the 4 executive orders out of the Trump Administration in May that deal with the nuclear and uranium industries, and what this means for the sector and public perception.   We spend some time discussing both the tailwinds from the broader generalist interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and nuclear stocks, but also make the larger point about the attractive supply/demand fundamentals that already existed and still exist, even without AI datacenter electricity demand or even modeling in the SMRS.  The global reactor fleet is only continuing to grow,  with more new reactor builds in the East, plus mine restarts and mine extensions.  There are growing initiatives globally,  coming out of the COP29 conference for many nations to triple their nuclear power capacity by 2050.   Transitioning over the supply environment from the uranium mining companies, we've seen a flurry of news all year out of US and African producers struggling to ramp up production, noting the slower than anticipated restart of the Langer Heinrich Mine operated in Namibia by Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) (OTCQX: PALAF). Additionally, with Kazakhstan being the largest uranium swing producer via Kazatomprom, we've seen guidance lowered the last couple years due to a shortfall of sulphuric acid, and increased taxes on production, with both expected to crimp output.  Then, there were even more surprises when Kazatomprom announced a big decrease in their JV production for Canada with Cameco (CCO.V) (CCJ).      Next we point out that large development projects in the Athabasca Basin of Canada, like the Phoenix Project held by Denison Mines (TSX: DML) (NYSE: DNN), and in specific the Arrow Project from NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE) (NYSE: NXE), initially anticipated to start bringing on production by 2028 are also seeing timelines get pushed back to 2030 or later. There is very little new supply coming online globally, with the exception of some smaller production out of the US and Australian producers. All of this points to a much more constrained output from global uranium producers, even in face of growing demand.   Wrapping up, Justin weighs in on which types and what stage of uranium mining stocks have his interest, and why he remains bullish on US producers and developers, and select Canadian developers and explorers.   Click here to visit the Uranium Insider website.

Investing in Bizarro World Episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIAfIjKxr02sAztzlJNy1ug5bDvTVZkME&si=w2d_EF-B5jMo1dYD Subscribe to Investing In Bizarro World: @bizarroworld The free version of the 321st episode of Investing in Bizarro World is now published.Here's what was covered:Macro Musings - Gerardo opens with a personal story about his mother being kidnapped by a cartel and connects it to the broader collapse of constitutional norms in the U.S.—warning that even senators are now being unlawfully detained. He says if they'll do that to a senator on camera, imagine what's happening to undocumented people without a platform. Nick expands on the idea of institutional decay by invoking the Fourth Turning and compares the volatility in politics to spikes in the VIX. The duo agrees: what we're seeing isn't just a political problem—it's the breakdown of the rule of law in real time.Market Takes - Commodities are surging. Gold is holding strong near $3,500. Silver finally broke $35 and is pushing toward $38. Gerardo says if it breaks $38, $42 is next—and new all-time highs aren't far behind. Platinum is up 30% in 30 days, while copper and uranium stocks are leading the rotation back into hard assets. Oil jumped from $55 to $75 in a matter of weeks, front-running geopolitical risks with Israel and Iran. Inflation is ticking back up, and with fewer rate cuts priced in, silver may now have the edge over gold due to its industrial exposure.Bizarro Banter - Gerardo and Nick riff on Tesla, Trump, and the theater of geopolitical headlines. From Meta's 20-year nuclear power deal to the U.S. Air Force installing SMRs on military bases, it's clear the market is rethinking energy security via nuclear. Paul Tudor Jones gets a shoutout for recommending diversification into stocks, gold, and Bitcoin. Gerardo adds: “You don't have to choose between Bitcoin and gold—we're making money with both.” Reader question about Resource Stock Digest and Digest Publishing. Premium Portfolio Picks - For paid listeners only. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4411f870:00 Introduction1:15 Macro Musings: Institutional Decay. Oil Surges. Inflation & Commodity Cycle.21:09 Market Takes: Gold & Silver Edge Higher. PGMs Breakout. Private Placements Performing. Uranium Industry Insights.41:02 Bizarro Banter: Reader Question. Resource Stock Digest vs. Digest Publishing.34:49 Premium Portfolio Picks: A Gold Stock Dip to Buy. An Emerging Critical Element Leader. (You need to subscribe to Bizarro World Live to get this section) Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/4411f87PLEASE NOTE: There are now two versions of this podcast. 1. Bizarro World Live — Pay $2 per episode to watch us record the podcast live every Thursday and get Premium Portfolio Picks every week. You can do that here: https://bit.ly/4411f872. Bizarro World Free — Published the Monday after the live recording with no Premium Portfolio Picks.Visit our website Daily Profit Cycle for more content like this and more! https://dailyprofitcycle.com/

Nuclear power is experiencing a notable revival in policy circles. The Trump administration has moved quickly on this front, drafting executive orders to accelerate plant construction, directing the Pentagon to explore reactor installations on military bases, and reshaping the regulatory landscape. A recent $900 million solicitation for small modular reactors (SMRs) has been modified to emphasize technical merit and streamline deployment.But can America's nuclear renaissance actually deliver? Traditional nuclear plants remain staggeringly expensive—the recent Vogtle reactors in Georgia arrived seven years late and $35 billion over budget (the kind of numbers that make even venture capitalists nervous). A dozen startups are betting smaller, modular designs can slash costs and deployment times, but they face the triple threat of regulatory uncertainty, NIMBY resistance, and an energy market still obsessed with quarterly returns. Yet the alignment of energy security needs, climate goals, and now AI's voracious power requirements creates a potential inflection point for nuclear technology.Joining us to explore these questions are Ed Petit de Mange, Director of Fuel Recycling at Oklo, whose next-generation microreactors can operate on recycled nuclear fuel; Patrick O'Brien, Director of Government Affairs at Holtec International, bringing decades of industry experience to the SMR revolution, Kathleen Nelson Romans, Head of Commercial Development at Aalo Atomics, whose compact reactors aim to serve rapidly deployable off-grid and microgrid applications, and Emmet Penney, energy writer and Senior Fellow at FAI, who provides critical context on nuclear's role in our energy transition.

With electricity demand in the U.S. surging—driven by data centers, electrification, manufacturing, and population growth—utilities are under pressure to deliver clean, reliable power at scale. In this episode of Power Perspectives, we explore how Duke Energy, which operates the largest regulated nuclear fleet in the nation, is answering that call. Joining for the conversation is Rounette Nader, Vice President of New Nuclear Generation and License Renewal at Duke Energy. Rounette walks listeners through the company's multi-faceted strategy to meet rising demand through power uprates, long-term relicensing efforts, and laying the groundwork for deploying advanced nuclear tech like small modular reactors (SMRs). Beyond the technical needs, we also dive into strategies related to community perceptions of nuclear, the ever-evolving regulatory landscape, and what the next few years are expected to look like for Duke Energy's nuclear fleet. This episode is essential listening for utility leaders, policymakers, and clean energy advocates looking to understand how nuclear fits into the future of the grid. Key Links: Energy Central Post with Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/duke-energys-nuclear-renaissance Video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LMEQJKJGQsM Ask a Question to Our Future Guests: Do you have a burning question for the utility executives and energy industry thought leaders that we feature each week on Power Perspectives? Leave us a message here for your chance to be featured in an upcoming episode: www.speakpipe.com/EnergyCentralPodcast

This week, our guest is Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot, a Senior Fellow and Director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, a Special Advisor to the Business Council of Canada, and a Research Advisor to the Indigenous Resource Network. Heather has twenty years of experience in Indigenous, Arctic and resource development and governance. She has published on Indigenous economic and resource development, energy security, and politics. Here are some of the questions that Peter and Jackie asked Heather: Does Canada have defense and security issues in the north? Politicians, including our Prime Minister, support Arctic export ports—do you expect to see new export corridors to the north? The Russians ship LNG from the Arctic, so why not Canada? What are your concerns about Prime Minister Mark Carney's climate policy, as outlined in his Liberal leadership and election platforms? What are the issues with Canada's greenwashing rules that were made law about one year ago? How would you recommend Canada move forward with speeding up the development of large projects—should the Impact Assessment Act (Bill C-69) be scrapped or just modified? What are the prospects for deploying small or micro nuclear reactors (SMRs) in the north? What does the future hold for Indigenous equity participation in major projects? Content referenced in this podcast:Northern Corridors: Hype or Hope? Macdonald-Laurier Institute, April 2025 Heather Exner-Pirot: Mark Carney's climate plan is already outdated, The Hub, February 2025 Canada's Greenwashing Amendment: A failure of process and policy, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, February 2025 From emergency to miracle – Germany's LNG Acceleration Law shows that Western states can still build when they need to, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, January 2024 Learn more about Ontario Power Generation's SMR project, including a video of the site preparation progress, Spring 2025Please review our disclaimer at: https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/disclaimer/ Check us out on social media: X (Twitter): @arcenergyinstLinkedIn: @ARC Energy Research Institute Subscribe to ARC Energy Ideas PodcastApple PodcastsAmazon MusicSpotify 

Matt Loszak is CEO and co-founder of Aalo Atomics, a startup designing 50-megawatt nuclear power plants made of pods of five 10-megawatt reactors each, targeting the data center market. Inspired by the MARVEL test reactor that his CTO Yasir Arafat led at Idaho National Lab, Aalo pursues parallel DOE and NRC pathways, betting that factory-built, pad-ready nuclear plants can slash cost, schedule, and grid-interconnection delays. Now 45 teammates strong and raising a Series B, Aalo aims to break ground on its first plant within 12 months and go critical the year after, powering the AI era with compact, clean, always-on fission.In this episode, we cover: [02:31] From SaaS to fission: Matt's founder journey[07:08] Yasir's path and the Marvel reactor at INL[08:56] How national labs help launch commercial nuclear[12:12] Aalo's dual regulatory path: DOE + NRC[13:45] Why Aalo is building reactors for data centers[17:19] Designing for mass manufacturing, not megaprojects[21:50] Security differences across nuclear facility types[25:03] Fuel and enrichment: what Aalo had to consider[28:02] Switching to LEU+ for supply chain resilience[31:04] Comparing XMRs, SMRs, and micro‑reactors[33:25] Inside the Aalo Pod: 5 x 10MW modules with built-in redundancy[37:15] Regulatory updates on NRC civilian licensing[38:43] Nuclear + AI: mutually transformative technologies[41:35] Hiring at Aalo: who they need nextEpisode recorded on April 23, 2025 (Published on May 19, 2025) Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Nuclear power is back in favour, as more countries across the world consider ways to cut carbon emissions to combat climate change. Countries like China and Japan are planning to build more reactors, but should nations in Africa invest in renewable sources of generating electricity, like solar panels, wind turbines and geo-thermal power, instead of nuclear? We examine how energy generated from nuclear fission has huge advance costs which would mean African governments finding loans from willing investors, but that might cede more economic influence to China or Russia. We also hear how Amazon, Google and Microsoft are investing in nuclear power, using smaller modular reactors to run data storage centres in the United States, as demand for electricity is expected to surge when artificial intelligence is running at full capacity. Could the developing technology of SMRs prove useful in Africa?If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: businessdaily@bbc.co.ukPresented and produced by Russell Padmore(Picture: The Koeberg nuclear power station, Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: Getty Images)

Canada approves its first Small Modular Reactor (SMR), but critics argue it's a costly, high-risk distraction from cheaper, proven renewables. Ontario Clean Air Alliance explains the financial and security risks Plug-and-play solar is finally coming to the U.S., launching in Utah this summer with no permits or installers required. EcoFlow's new modular solar kits, with similar kits already popular in Europe and China, they could revolutionize backyard and balcony power for American homeowners. Support The Clean Energy Show on Patreon for exciting perks! Also this week: Thames Water warns that London may face water restrictions following the driest spring in nearly 70 years. As Brian plans his summer visit, the city's leaky infrastructure—losing enough water daily to fill 230 Olympic-sized pools—adds urgency to the crisis. – EcoFlow's new “Stream” solar energy system starts at $599, with optional battery backup. See ZDNet. – Manitoba's skyrocketing EV charging prices spark backlash—$700 for two hours? – Mazda switches to Tesla's NACS charging plug in Japan, adding to the global shift.  The Lightning Round: – U.S. budget cuts all tax incentives for new nuclear – Sweden hits 63.3% EV adoption – U.S. could be powered 1x over by solar-covered parking lots – GM unveils a lithium manganese-rich battery promising higher range and lower costs – Plus: A look at Onox, the all-electric tractor with swappable battery packs via Electrek Email us at CleanEnergyShow@gmail.com or leave a voice message at speakpipe.com/cleanenergyshow Donate via PayPal.

Bienvenido a un nuevo episodio de Invierto para ganar dinero.Hoy te hablo de un tema tan polémico como rentable: la energía nuclear.Comentamos por qué España está cerrando centrales mientras Microsoft y Amazon invierten millones en construir las suyas.Descubres qué son los SMRs, cómo la inteligencia artificial está disparando la demanda energética, y sobre todo, qué empresas cotizadas ya se están beneficiando de esta nueva ola nuclear.También te cuento:Qué empresas han subido un +700% en pocos mesesCómo invertir en IPOs nucleares sin ir a ciegasY por qué la nuclear no es el enemigo, sino la oportunidad que casi nadie quiere verUn episodio directo, con crítica, con datos... y con oportunidades reales de inversión.Así que sin más dilación, empezamos.════════════════

In this edition of Our Burning Planet on CapeTalk’s Afternoon Drive, Graeme Raubenheimer is joined by environmental journalist Ethan van Diemen to unpack Eskom’s controversial new direction for South Africa’s coal-fired power stations. Departing from its original Just Energy Transition (JET) commitments, Eskom is now exploring plans to repurpose ageing coal plants to run on gas, nuclear, or even so-called 'clean coal' technology.  Afternoon Drive with John Maytham is the late afternoon show on CapeTalk. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30 pm. CapeTalk fans call in, in an attempt to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live – Afternoon Drive with John Maytham is broadcast weekdays between 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) https://www.primediaplus.com/station/capetalk Find all the catch-up podcasts here https://www.primediaplus.com/capetalk/afternoon-drive-with-john-maytham/audio-podcasts/afternoon-drive-with-john-maytham/ Subscribe to the CapeTalk daily and weekly newsletters https://www.primediaplus.com/competitions/newsletter-subscription/ Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CapeTalk   CapeTalk on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@capetalk   CapeTalk on Instagram: www.instagram.com/capetalkza  CapeTalk on X: www.x.com/CapeTalk  CapeTalk on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's episode features William Sheriff, founder and executive chairman of enCore Energy, in conversation with host Adrian Pocobelli. Sheriff shares his insights on the current state of the uranium industry in the United States, highlighting how supply constraints and lengthy permitting processes are setting the stage for a looming uranium shortage. He also explores the growing role of small modular reactors (SMRs) and the rising demand for nuclear power driven by the rapid expansion of AI technology. All this and more with host Adrian Pocobelli. This week's Spotlight features Candace MacGibbon, former CEO of INV Metals and incoming president of CIM, discussing the organization's upcoming CIM Connect conference in Montreal, taking place May 4–7, 2025. For more information, visit: https://convention.cim.org/ Music Credits “Rattlesnake Railroad”, “Big Western Sky”, “Western Adventure” and “Battle on the Western Frontier” by Brett Van Donsel (⁠www.incompetech.com⁠). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0⁠ Apple Podcasts:⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-northern-miner-podcast/id1099281201⁠ Spotify:⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/78lyjMTRlRwZxQwz2fwQ4K⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernMiner⁠ Soundcloud:⁠ https://soundcloud.com/northern-miner

Many of the innovations that have come to define the technological age we live in—from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency mining—all have one thing in common: they demand large amounts of electricity. Tech companies and utilities are currently grappling with ways to meet this need. You've likely read headlines about proposals to power data centers using “small modular rectors” (SMRs) and even a push to restart Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. HB 672, a bill in the New Hampshire Legislature, is aimed at encouraging similar developments in New Hampshire by allowing off-grid electricity providers. Listen as hosts Anna Brown and Mike Dunbar, of Citizens Count break it down in  $100 Plus Mileage. This podcast is produced in partnership with Citizens Count, Granite State News Collaborative and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications at Franklin Pierce University. Listen as hosts Anna Brown and Mike Dunbar, of Citizens Count break it down in  $100 Plus Mileage. This podcast is produced in partnership with Citizens Count, Granite State News Collaborative and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications at Franklin Pierce University. Listen as hosts Anna Brown and Mike Dunbar, of Citizens Count break it down in  $100 Plus Mileage. This podcast is produced in partnership with Citizens Count, Granite State News Collaborative and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications at Franklin Pierce University. Listen as hosts Anna Brown and Mike Dunbar, of Citizens Count break it down in  $100 Plus Mileage. This podcast is produced in partnership with Citizens Count, Granite State News Collaborative and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications at Franklin Pierce University.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has for many years been evaluating emerging nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, as part of technology innovation efforts aimed at developing the energy system of the future. TVA—the largest public power provider in the U.S., serving more than 10 million people in parts of seven states—currently operates seven reactors at three nuclear power plants: Browns Ferry, Sequoyah, and Watts Bar. Meanwhile, it's also been investing in the exploration of new nuclear technology by pursuing small modular reactors (SMRs) at the Clinch River Nuclear (CRN) site in Tennessee. “TVA does have a very diverse energy portfolio, including the third-largest nuclear fleet [in the U.S.],” Greg Boerschig, TVA's vice president for the Clinch River project, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Our nuclear power plants provide about 40% of our electricity generated at TVA. So, this Clinch River project and our new nuclear program is building on a long history of excellence in nuclear at the Tennessee Valley.” TVA completed an extensive site selection process before choosing the CRN site as the preferred location for its first SMR. The CRN site was originally the site of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project in the early 1980s. Extensive grading and excavation disturbed approximately 240 acres on the project site before the project was terminated. Upon termination of the project, the site was redressed and returned to an environmentally acceptable condition. The CRN property is approximately 1,200 acres of land located on the northern bank of the Clinch River arm of the Watts Bar Reservoir in Oak Ridge, Roane County, Tennessee. The CRN site has a number of significant advantages, which include two existing power lines that cross the site, easy access off of Tennessee State Route 58, and the fact that it is a brownfield site previously disturbed and characterized as a part of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor project. The Oak Ridge area is also noted to have a skilled local workforce, including many people familiar with the complexities of nuclear work. “The community acceptance here is really just phenomenal,” said Boerschig. “The community is very educated and very well informed.” TVA began exploring advanced nuclear technologies in 2010. In 2016, it submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for an Early Site Permit for one or more SMRs with a total combined generating capacity not to exceed 800 MW of electricity for the CRN site. In December 2019, TVA became the first utility in the nation to successfully obtain approval for an Early Site Permit from the NRC to potentially construct and operate SMRs at the site. While the decision to potentially build SMRs is an ongoing discussion as part of the asset strategy for TVA's future generation portfolio, significant investments have been made in the Clinch River project with the goal of moving it forward. OPG has a BWRX-300 project well underway at its Darlington New Nuclear Project site in Clarington, Ontario, with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2028. While OPG is developing its project in parallel with the design process, TVA expects to wait for more design maturity before launching its CRN project. “As far as the standard design is concerned, we're at the same pace, but overall, their project is about two years in front of ours,” said Boerschig. “And that's by design—they are the lead plant for this effort.” In the meantime, there are two primary items on TVA's to-do list. “Right now, the two biggest things that we have on our list are completing the standard design work, and then the construction permit application,” Boerschig said, noting the standard design is “somewhere north of 75% complete” and that TVA's plan is to submit the construction permit application “sometime around mid-year of this year.”

Is nuclear power the key to sustainability? With data centers consuming massive amounts of energy, can we keep up? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gary O'Reilly & Paul Mecurio discuss the physics, safety, and future of nuclear reactors in a world of increasing power demands with nuclear engineer Kathryn Huff.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/solving-ais-energy-problem-with-kathryn-huff/Thanks to our Patrons Diokindacute, Wheeler Weise, coryb440, Tim Itoi, Curiosidad científica podcast, Deborah Wales, nahar najjar, Scott Jewell, richard ravelo, Samuel Tomka, zackery Cool, Alexis Schad, Sean Smith, KEO LYPENG, Simon Tang, Thomas Coppola, Joseph, Monchelle Hicks, Paul Nowosielcki, Andrei Sirbu, bgbng, Neil Juanillo, Neal Beaton, Vic, PENE WILSON, Brendan Gombosi, Chad Jubyna, Jacob Narr, Mike, Nick H. is AllDamgeNoCntrol, Suliman, and Christoph Hermann for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.