Decouple

Why have we built nuclear ships before, proven they can operate, and still not made them commonplace? 

Nick Touran breaks down the history of maritime nuclear power, from the Nuclear Ship Savannah and Otto Hahn to Japan’s Mutsu and Russia’s Sevmorput, then pivots to floating nuclear power concepts such as the MH 1A Sturgis and the Offshore Power Systems program. We explore what worked, what failed, and what keeps blocking adoption, including port access rules, indemnity and international agreements, staffing costs, containerization economics, shielding and public reaction, and the unique operational demands of running reactors at se...

In this episode of Decouple, Dr. Jeff Waksman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, explains how the U.S. Army is making a second attempt at making microreactors great again. The discussion situates the Janus microreactor program in the long history of the Army Nuclear Power Program and Project Pele, highlighting why earlier small reactor deployments failed to compete with diesel and grid power even in extreme environments, and why Janus represents a fundamentally different approach.

Janus is best understood as an attempt to apply the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services model...

The first U.S. nuclear renaissance collapsed under the weight of cheap shale gas, lost institutional expertise, and disastrous projects like Vogtle and Summer. Today, America is planning a fleet of eight AP1000 reactors, backed by unprecedented federal incentives. But can the country actually build large nuclear again?

In this video, we break down what really killed the 2000s revival, why Fukushima wasn’t the turning point, and how AP1000 and ESBWR passive safety performed in station-blackout analyses. Most importantly, we explore why nuclear success depends not on reactor design, but on rebuilding the developer organizations needed to...

Saudi Arabia burns nearly one million barrels of oil per day to keep its lights on, yet it has cheaper and faster ways to replace this than by building large nuclear reactors. So why is the Kingdom pushing so hard for a civil nuclear deal? This episode walks through the strategic logic that has animated Riyadh’s nuclear ambitions for more than a decade. The answer lies in prestige, industrial capacity, and the latent fuel cycle capabilities that come with a power reactor programme, all set against the backdrop of regional tension with Iran.

We look closely at...

In this episode, Chris Keefer speaks with Hadron Energy founder Samuel Gibson, the twenty four year old entrepreneur pursuing a ten megawatt integral pressurized water microreactor through a one point two billion dollar business combination with GigCapital7. Gibson outlines why he believes light water is the fastest licensing path, how he assembled a veteran nuclear team, and why Hadron shifted from a one megawatt concept to a ten megawatt design built around LEU plus fuel, modular plant layouts, and air cooled decay heat removal. Keefer presses on the harder questions: whether factory fabrication can overcome the fixed civil works...

Fan favourite, James Krellenstein, returns for a deep dive into the AP1000. We walk through how its conservative nuclear steam supply system is built from proven Westinghouse and Combustion Engineering lineage, and where its true innovation lies, in a radically passive safety architecture that removes the traditional race against diesel generators during LOCAs and station blackouts. 

From core makeup tanks and automatic depressurization to canned pumps, the in containment refueling water storage tank, the passive residual heat removal system and a containment that behaves like a heat exchanger, James explains how the AP1000 achieves passive safety and d...

In late October, amid the choreography of President Trump’s visit to Tokyo, two vast and curiously intertwined announcements were made: an $80 billion strategic partnership between the U.S. government and Westinghouse Electric Company, and a $550 billion investment framework between the United States and Japan.

This episode of Decouple, hosted by AJ Camacho of Politico and E&E News, brought together Michael Seely, Yuri Humber and Chris Keefer this time in the guest seat to discuss the implications of this deal for the United States, Japan and Canada. 

Listen to Decouple on:

• Spotify: https...

This week on Decouple, I sit down with Aleksey Rezvoi, a veteran maritime nuclear engineer who began his career in the Soviet Union designing third- and fourth-generation submarine and icebreaker reactors before later working in the U.S. nuclear sector.

We explore the hidden history and living reality of Russia’s civilian nuclear fleet—a line that began with the icebreaker Lenin in 1959 and continues today with the RITM-200, the world’s only serially produced small modular reactor.

From Arctic logistics and reactor design philosophy to advanced fuels and industrial ecosystems, Rezvoi offers a rare inside...

This week I sit back down with François Morin in his third appearance on the show. François is the World Nuclear Association’s point person on China. He works and travels inside China, speaks fluent Mandarin, and spends time at the conventional and advanced reactor sites that the rest of us argue about on Twitter. 

We cover how quickly China is really building nuclear power compared to the heyday of the French Mesmer plan, how that compares to Chinese coal and gas deployment, why Chinese nuclear is still mostly coastal, and the use case, build times...

This week on Decouple, I sit down with Dan Wang, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover History Lab and author of "Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future." We trace how China became an “engineering state” while America turned into a “lawyerly society,” and what that means for infrastructure, energy, industry, birthrates, social security, and human lives. From Guizhou’s skyways to Jane Jacobs’ shadow over North American cities, Wang shows the upside of abundant state capacity and the dark side of excessive control.Buy Breakneck: https://danwang.co/breakneck/

This week, we zoom out to the broader intellectual themes that shaped Decouple’s origins five years ago. I’m joined by Jesse Ausubel, a visionary in sustainability and biodiversity research and the Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University in New York City. In his long career, Ausubel pioneered the modern study of decarbonization and dematerialization in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He helped organize the first UN World Climate Conference in 1979 and spent the 1980s at the National Academies formulating U.S. and global climate research programs. In parallel, he has led...

Process heat accounts for two-thirds of industrial emissions. Yet talk of decarbonization often misses the engineering realities that separate viable solutions from expensive dead ends. To understand process heat and the technologies capable of providing it, I’m joined by returning guest Jesse Huebsch, a process engineer specializing in chemical plants. Our conversation ranges from steel and cement to plastics and ammonia, examining which processes can be electrified, where steam dominates, and why the most advanced high-temperature reactor designs may not be the answer.

Nuclear has entered its meme stock moment. Last week, Oklo hit a market capitalization of $20.7 billion—more than established nuclear giants BWXT, Curtiss-Wright, and AtkinsRéalis—despite having zero revenue, no NRC design certification, and a rejected license application. In my conversation with returning guest Michael Seely, aka AtomicBlender, we examine this preposterous valuation built on glossy renderings rather than demonstrated readiness. If Rosatom, with 70 years of R&D and thousands of specialized engineers, struggles to make sodium fast reactors commercially viable, how will a Silicon Valley startup accomplish it in two years? When this bubble bursts, the entire nucle...

This week, award-winning science writer Peter Brannen returns to Decouple to explore the 4.5 billion-year story of carbon dioxide on Earth. Grounding our discussion is his new book, The Story of CO2 Is The Story of Everything. From the alien world of the Hadean eon to humanity's emergence as the "pyromaniac ape," Brannen reveals how this trace gas has shaped every aspect of our planet's evolution, through Snowball Earth, mass extinctions, and the rise of complex life, culminating in humanity's unprecedented ability to burn fossil fuels.

We talk about:

The origin of life and early carbon...

Professor Alex Wellerstein returns from the set of WIRED (watch his excellent appearance here) to help me understand the origins of Middle Eastern nuclear programs and where they stand today. From France’s covert assistance to Israel’s bomb program in the 1960s to the mysterious Vela incident over the South Atlantic, Wellerstein shows how nuclear weapons spread through unofficial networks of scientists, spies, and opportunistic allies. We explore Iran’s strategic nuclear hedging, Israel’s policy of deliberate ambiguity, and the disturbing possibility that recent attacks on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities may force the country’s hand toward weapo...

This week, we talk about rare earth metals. What are they, where do they come from, and how are they redefining global power? I’m joined by David Abraham, a natural resource strategist who saw the future of rare earths in 2010 while working in Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. When China cut off rare earth exports over a territorial dispute, Abraham realized these obscure elements, sprinkled into our steel, the magnets in our speakers, the phosphors in our screens, held more geopolitical power than oil ever could. The warnings in his book, “The Elements of Power,” now writte...

This week, we talk about the rise of the global battery industry: its history, key players, raw material struggles, and how China came to dominate it. To do so, I’m joined by Henry Sanderson, author of "Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green." We trace the story of electrification from Volta’s early experiments to the supply chains that now shape global power. Sanderson brings decades of reporting to a narrative that reveals China’s industrial strategy, the entrepreneurs behind battery giants, and the troubling realities of mining cobalt, nickel, and lithium. Together, we exa...

This week, we talk about Russian nuclear exports. Michael Seely, host of AtomicBlender, joins me to discuss the rise of Rosatom: Russia’s nuclear energy behemoth that now builds nearly half of the world’s new reactors. We trace its formation after the Soviet collapse, its grip on the nuclear fuel market, and its unmatched “turnkey” model for newcomer nations. Rosatom’s nuclear exports are more than just a commercial endeavour—they can reshape global influence for decades.

Michael's videos on Canada, Russia, and Ukraine.

This week, we travel to the edge of the map with Aleksandr Surtcev, an engineer who has crewed Russian nuclear icebreakers along the Northern Sea Route. We explore how Russia’s Arctic fleet keeps this strategic corridor open, why floating nuclear plants are powering remote communities and mines, and what life looks like in a place where polar bears trail ships for fish and resupply markets pop up on the ice. Beneath the stories lies a deeper discussion of geopolitics, engineering, and the hard logistics of operating in one of the most unforgiving regions on Earth.

This week, Mark Nelson joins us to deliver his second annual “State of the Atom” address. The nuclear power landscape has transformed in the last two years. Russia continues its nuclear export dominance while the West at last awakens from its stupor, driven by an unexpected force: artificial intelligence's insatiable appetite for baseload power. From Amazon's billion-dollar Susquehanna deal to Three Mile Island's resurrection, Big Tech is discovering what nuclear advocates have long known: that when you need reliable electricity around the clock, few other generation sources compare. Nelson maps the new nuclear battlefield where Chinese reactors scale up to 1...

This week, we talk solar power—a long overdue topic on Decouple. In the past, guests have often been critical of the value of renewables on grids without extensive storage, and of the quality of jobs that politicians often claim when justifying renewables programs. Today, however, we drop preconceptions and get to the nuts and bolts. My guest is Seaver Wang, director of the Climate and Energy Research Program at The Breakthrough Institute. Despite is imperfections, the solar power has a remarkable story, from its technological origins, to its dramatic cost reductions in the last decade, to the sheer sc...

We have an unusual episode today. One, because of its length (1 hour 40 minutes), and two, because I’m the guest. Joined by Aidan Morrison as acting host, I talk about a topic of intense interest to me: the Darlington SMR project in Ontario, Canada. I’ve been critical of this SMR project, which recently received its final investment decision, by calling for a pivot to CANDU reactors at the site.

I use this episode to break down all my reasons for being critical, and to concede ground to this bold SMR project where earned. This is not the...

This week, we return to nuclear power. Specifically, nuclear construction and “learning curves.” It is intuitive that doing something over and over makes you better at it. In industry, this means driving down costs and timelines and boosting efficiencies. In many industries, the truth of learning curves is readily apparent. However, in Western nuclear construction it has been largely absent for decades. Robbie Stewart, CTO of Alva Energy, joins me to dissect why the nuclear industry struggles with what other industries take for granted, and highlight a few cases in nuclear that managed to buck this trend. From France's stan...

This week, I’m joined by Kyle Chan, author of the recent NYTimes Op-Ed titled "In the Future, China Will Be Dominant. The U.S. Will Be Irrelevant." Exploring the intense competitive pressures of Chinese “involution capitalism” and America’s fixation on shareholder returns, we discuss America’s waning relevance in global technology and manufacturing, and how critical choices made now could shape the economic and geopolitical landscape for decades.

Chan is a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, adjunct researcher at the RAND Corporation, and the author of High Capacity.

This week, I’m joined by Patrick McGee, a journalist and author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company. I recommended this book on LinkedIn as a MUST READ, and stand by it.

Apple in China is an in-depth corporate history which examines one of the most important symbioses in economic history. It explains Apple's meteoric rise in market capitalization/revenue, as well as China's newfound dominance in precision manufacturing. McGee argues convincingly that neither outcome would have happened without this relationship.

To back up this extraordinary claim, McGee closely maps...

Last week, U.S. President Trump signed four executive orders to accelerate nuclear power deployment:

Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security

Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base

Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

To help us understand the implications of these executive orders, I was joined by Thomas Hochman, director of infrastructure policy at the Foundation for American Innovation. We discuss the policy shifts needed to bridge political divides and streamline regulation as the U.S. grapples...

This week, we look beyond the physical infrastructure supporting our lives to the owners taking over that infrastructure: asset managers. Brett Christophers, an author, professor, and economic geographer at Uppsala University in Sweden, joins me to explore the troubling transformation of infrastructure ownership in today's economy. From housing to energy to water, massive asset management firms like Blackstone and Brookfield have positioned themselves more and more between citizens and essential services, extracting wealth while taking minimal risk. Christophers explains how this shift from public to private control has reshaped our relationship with everyday infrastructure, particularly as we attempt to...

In the wake of Europe's largest blackout in decades, commodities investor Alexander Stahel helps us to understand the physics of power grids, and how Spain's celebrated renewable transition became its Achilles' heel. He introduces the “hellbrise” phenomenon—excessive, rather than too little, renewable generation—as he considers the role of grid inertia in preventing minor disruptions from cascading into failures in mere seconds. Spanish energy policy isn’t the first time that green idealism has brushed over the fundamental requirements of reliable electricity, and it is unlikely to be the last. But it has certainly provided a stark example of the dan...

This week, we cover the recent blackout on the Iberian peninsula. Guillem Sanchis Ramirez, a Spanish nuclear engineer and advocate, walks us through the event that plunged over 50 million people into powerlessness and the power grid on which it happened. We cover Spain’s precarious dance with renewable energy, its political resistance to nuclear power, possible paths forward for the country’s energy supply, and our essential human reliance on stable electrical systems.

Note: This interview was recorded on April 30, 2025, still in the midst of the story’s rapid development.

This week, we take a break from nuclear power to talk about larger systems: those of Planet Earth. Professor Andy Knoll, renowned Harvard geologist and author of A Brief History of Earth, reveals how life itself has shaped Earth's chemistry, climate, and geology. From the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere to the potential colonization of Mars, we explore the constant and delicate dance between life and the planet.

Read extended shownotes on Substack.

This week, we talk High Temperature Gas Reactors, or HTGRs, with a Decouple favorite: reactor designer and nuclear historian Nick Touran (What Is Nuclear | X). From the first conceptual sketch of an HTGR in wartime labs to today’s revival by players like X-energy and China’s fast-moving reactor fleet, we dissect what makes HTGRs unique—both in engineering promise and the difficulties that have long haunted their success. With helium cooling, TRISO fuel, and ambitions beyond electricity into process heat and industrial decarbonization, HTGRs may be poised for a comeback. But will history repeat itself, or finally break the cy...

This week, we talk tools. With precision machinist Noah Rettberg, we explore a facet of modernity as important as energy, for it is the technology that energy powers and the technology that makes that technology: machine tools. Noah draws from his professional knowledge and passion for history to takes from Roman metallurgy through the guild-protected craftsmanship of medieval Europe to the steam-powered revolution in machining to the cutting-edge of metalworking tools. Riveting!

This week, we talk radiation—the elephant in the room during many conversations about nuclear power. Nick Touran, a reactor designer and nuclear historian, helps us along. While nuclear advocates have made remarkable strides in dispelling public fears about radiation, Touran warns against the pendulum swinging too far toward complacency. We explore why maintaining a healthy respect for radiation remains crucial even as we champion nuclear power's expansion.

Read the extended shownotes on Substack.

Molten Salt Reactors are often portrayed as nuclear’s great missed opportunity, promising unparalleled safety, efficiency, and fuel sustainability. But are these promises reality or hype? Nick Touran, reactor designer and nuclear historian, joins me to tell the complex story behind molten salt reactors—from their ambitious beginnings during Cold War nuclear airplane experiments to the realities of managing radioactive liquid fuels. This conversation clears the mist around one of nuclear's most intriguing yet misunderstood technologies.Read more in-depth show notes on Substack.

This week, we talk Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) with James Krellenstein, the CEO of Alva Energy. We dive into the engineering, history, and physics of these reactors, how they differ from other designs, and why the United States may have erred in not choosing the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) instead of the Westinghouse AP-1000 for the Vogtle nuclear power plant.For this episode, we’ve included a glossary below to help with unfamiliar terms:

This week, we talk industrial policy. Economist and author Steve Keen joins me to shine light on the present moment by exploring the historical use of tariffs and industrial policy in the development of industrial powers from Britain to China. In his usual style, Keen aims to dismantle the myths of free-market economics, explaining how virtually every successful industrial nation began with protectionist policies. With the US now engaged in a trade war with Canada and other nations under Trump's renewed tariffs, we examine whether such measures can effectively rebuild American industry without the comprehensive industrial policies that powered...

Today, we talk uranium nuclear fuel. MIT Professor Koroush Shirvan, joins me to dive into the hidden complexities of nuclear fuels. From early fuel experiments that saw uranium rods turn into spaghetti-like structures under neutron bombardment to the intricate economics shaping the future of fuels like TRISO, Shirvan offers insights into the realities behind nuclear power’s remarkable yet challenging fuel technologies.

Listen to discover how history shaped today's dominant fuel choices, why accident-tolerant innovations are critical, and about the economic realities that could either launch or limit the nuclear renaissance.

This week, we return to China. David Fishman, senior manager at The Lantau Group, joins me again to dissect the unprecedented scale of China’s electrification, which Fishman says is driven by a mix of state planning, brutal market competition, and strategic energy security concerns. Our discussion ranges from the world's largest hydro projects to a coal industry that refuses to die; the forces driving China's power sector; the balance between state planning and market competition; and how this all fits into the larger economic shift towards innovation-driven, rather than imitiation-driven, growth.

Read extended shownotes on Substack.

This week,Decouple Germany correspondent Noah Rettberg, a physics laboratory technician and precision machinist, talks about the potential to restart German nuclear reactors. Anew analysis from Radiant Energy Group examines Germany's potential to redeploy nuclear power using its existing reactor fleet. Through assessment of recently shuttered reactors, their report suggests Germany could restore up to 13 gigawatts of nuclear power to the European grid within eight years – potentially at much lower costs and faster speeds than new construction. As Germany's electricity imports have risen sharply – from 9 TWh in 2023 to 25 TWh by late 2024 – and its economy faces headwinds, the country's nuclear infras...

This week, we talk carbon capture. Canadian engineer and entrepreneur Ian MacGregor joins me to explore this misunderstood technology through the lens of someone who's actually built it. MacGregor, the architect behind the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line—the largest carbon capture and storage project in the world—cuts through the hype to discuss the thermodynamic and economic realities that govern this technology. Informed by decades of hands-on experience, he challenges popular narratives while offering a pragmatic vision for how carbon capture might realistically develop.

Read more on Substack.

This week, we go to China. I spoke with David Fishman, senior manager at The Lantau Group, on the motivations and strategy behind China’s world-leading electrification efforts. What seems like a climate-action utopia to Western analysts appears to be a pragmatic response to pollution and energy security concerns. China's vulnerability to maritime oil blockades has spurred aggressive electrification across transport, industry, and urban infrastructure; and its state capitalist model has enabled a pace and scale of investment in nuclear power, electrified transport, and renewable energy that makes Western efforts to achieve an energy transformation look piecemeal.

Wa...

Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group, joins us for a Masterclass on the slippery subject of oil. We zoom from ancient plankton to modern empires to see how a mysterious black liquid birthed from prehistoric seas now powers our civilization, touching on the complex chemistry, geology and history of oil.

Two thought leaders in the nuclear energy conversation, James Krellenstein and Ted Nordhaus, join Decouple for a “debate” over the question of reactor size: should advanced, small nuclear technologies lead the way for nuclear energy, or should conventional large reactors? What could have been a heated debate over nuclear energy's future ended up a nuanced discussion about the industry’s challenges—and how to overcome them.

James Krellenstein is the co-founder and CEO of Alva Energy. Ted Nordhaus is the co-founder and executive director of The Breakthrough Institute.

Jeff Waksman, program manager for Project Pele, joins Dr. Chris Keefer to discuss the impetus for the military microreactor project, the logistics and energy challenges at the heart of modern warfare, and the technical considerations of microreactor development. Few voices are more qualified to speak on the state-of-the-art in tiny nuclear reactors. Tune in.

Support Decouple: https://www.decouple.media

Steve Keen, economist and author, joins me to explain how modern economics has catastrophically misunderstood the role of energy in our world and underestimated the risks of climate change through oversimple models. In this in-person conversation, we discuss the evolution of economic thinking since feudalism, the shortcomings of prevailing economic models, modern monetary theory, the role of state capitalism in funding large infrastructure projects, and much else. Tune in!

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Support Decouple: https://www.decouple.media/

Phil Chaffee, Editor of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly and Bureau Chief of Energy Intelligence’s New York offices, joins me to discuss the implications of a second Trump administration on U.S. nuclear energy. Will the tantalizing nuclear power purchase agreements signed by hyperscalers evaporate as carbon pricing becomes less likely? Will free-market ideology manage to sustain the government support needed to deploy nuclear power at scale? We speculate about these questions and more.

Note: This interview was recorded on 20 November 2024.

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, a French historian of science & technology, shares how European societies grappled with climate change centuries before modern science proved the scale and breadth of its impact, revealing a forgotten saga where colonial ambitions and volcanic winters shaped our earliest understanding of Earth's shifting climate.

Grounding our discussion is his Fressoz’s 2024 book Chaos in the Heavens: The Forgotten History of Climate Change, co-authored with Fabien Locher.

Aidan Morrison, director of energy research at Australia’s Centre for Independent Studies, takes us to the depths of Australia’s security predicament as a country near Maritime Southeast Asia dependent on liquid hydrocarbon imports. We discuss military strategy, the use of nuclear and diesel-electric submarines, and the continent’s precarious dependence on maritime trade and military alliances.

Nick Touran, a nuclear engineer and manager at TerraPower, unearths the sobering realities of micro nuclear reactors. Through a detailed discussion of physics, engineering, economics, and history, Touran explains why microreactors face fundamental challenges that factory production alone cannot solve.

Nick Touran tells the story of Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy” and author of the legendary "Paper Reactor" memo. We discover how Rickover’s hard-driving management and obsession with practical engineering shaped not just the US nuclear navy, but the entire landscape of modern nuclear power.

Touran is manager of digital engineering at TerraPower and creator of Whatisnuclear.com.

Decouple Substack: https://www.decouple.media/

James Krellenstein, co-founder of Alva Energy, explains precisely what happened at the Three Mile Island accident, in which an ordinary reactor trip cascaded into a partial meltdown due primarily to errors in the human-machine interface. Krellenstein discusses how the 1979 incident, despite its severity, actually showed the effectiveness of the “defense in depth” principle and led to significant improvements in plant operations and nuclear safety culture.

Watch the episode on YouTube to follow along with visuals.

Koroush Shirvan, an MIT professor and consultant on recent major reports on nuclear economics, sheds light on the hidden costs of small modular reactors. Lower power densities, ballooning containment and reactor vessel sizes, poor economies of scale, and missed opportunities for cost reductions mean that SMRs may not be the panacea for nuclear that many believe them to be.

Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy, joins me to discuss his office’s latest Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report on nuclear energy. We touch on the state of the American nuclear industry, its surge of policy and private sector support, and outstanding obstacles to tripling nuclear capacity in the United States.

In addition to emphasizing the need for standardization in reactor designs and a unified communications strategy from the nuclear industry, Jigar sets the record straight on what the LPO can and, importantly, cannot do for the se...

Fred Stafford, a STEM professional and anonymous energy commentator, discusses the Tennessee Valley Authority's potential to lead a nuclear revival in the United States — that is, if it can overcome the tensions between public and private interests and a looming debt ceiling that threatens to dim its nuclear ambitions.

Read more on Substack: www.decouple.media

Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, a French historian of science and technology, challenges our understanding of energy history. He unravels the myth of energy transitions, revealing symbiotic relationships between coal, wood, and oil that have shaped our world in unexpected ways.

Mark P. Mills returns to Decouple to challenge our understanding of energy scarcity and efficiency. In this episode, he unravels the paradox of how pursuing energy efficiency often leads to increased consumption, and explains why he believes our energy resources are functionally limitless.

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Mark P. Mills on X: https://x.com/MarkPMills

Decouple: https://www.decouple.media

Microsoft and nuclear plant owner Constellation have entered into to an unprecedented deal to restart the closed Three Mile Island by 2028 to power its data centres.

Microsoft will purchase as much power as possible from its 880 MW reactor over 20 years for prices rumored to be above $100 per MWh.

Most famous for its 1979 meltdown, TMI closed in 2019 because of cheap fossil fuels and tech companies refusing at the time to consider buying its electricity to meet clean energy goals.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with Westinghouse over IP rights and export control obligations. Will this conflict stymie Western nuclear ambitions? Does this legal battle risk ceding the longterm geopolitical alliances intrinsic to nuclear exports in non-aligned countries to Russia and China? What are the motivations and likely outcomes? Phil Chaffee of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly joins me to provide context and inferences.

Tim Freeman, VP of Field Services and Manufacturing at CANDU Energy Inc joins me to discuss the 3rd most widely deployed reactor technology in the world, Canada's Heavy Pressurized Water Reactor the CANDU.

Note this conversation was recorded in March of 2024.

Ashley Nunes, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School, joins me to disentangle the hope from the hype in the EV debate.

Ashley Nunes, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School, joins me to disentangle the hope from the hype in the EV debate.

Robbie Stewart and Enrique Velez-Lopez, the founders of nuclear start up Boston Atomics, join me to discuss the true costs of advanced nuclear design engineering.

Jimmy Fortuna of Enverus takes me on a world tour of oil production by region illuminating the unique geopolitical, technological and political challenges to accessing our most important form of energy.

...

Aidan Morrison, Director of Energy Research at the Centre for Independent Studies joins me for an update on the Australian nuclear debate which is shaping up to be a core issue in the approaching federal election.

Mark Mills is the executive director of the National Centre for Energy Analytics and author of “The Cloud Revolution” How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and A Roaring 2020s. Join us as we explore how to power an AI enhanced Cloud network and its implications on the grid and climate politics.

Professor Alex Wellerstein returns for a part two answering questions about the bomb, near misses, command and control and more.

Is overzealous regulation the root cause of the contemporary crisis in deployment of nuclear reactors in the USA? James Krellenstein argues that Nuclear Regulatory Commission critics are trapped in the 1980’s and that the spectre haunting today’s deployments are not primarily regulatory. Due to simplified systems and lower material costs modern NRC approved passive reactors should be cheaper than complex Gen 2 reactors. In addition there are 17GWe worth of combined construction and operating licenses in the USA ready to go. All that and more on this week’s episode.

Science journalist Peter Brannen joins me to discuss the kill mechanisms of Earth’s five mass extinctions. Humanity has developed the god like power’s to mimic all of them. From altering the carbon cycle to eutrophication of oceans and to a far lesser degree our asteroid like thermonuclear weapon arsenal.

How should we think about modularity in the nuclear space? Jesse Hubesch joins me to disentangle the much hyped concept of modularity from his perspective as a chemical process engineer.

Historian of science Professor Alex Wellerstein joins me to talk about the sword haunting the ploughshare of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Marcel Boiteux, a shy economist who escaped occupied France to fight the Nazis before working out the theory of electricity pricing for newly-nationalized Electricite de France, rose to become the greatest builder of nuclear power the world has ever seen.

Mark Nelson, founder of Radiant Energy Group, explains what forces shaped his mind, his role in the fateful "War of the Nuclear Systems," how he prepared for the oil crisis that triggered the "all nuclear" Messmer plan, and how he survived an ecoterrorist attack to construct the famous nuclear fleet that now lies underused and underappreciated.

While the west struggles to deliver nuclear plants and dreams about novel reactor technologies China is deploying it all: large LWR, SMR and MSR/HTGR. World Nuclear Association China lead Francois Morin joins me to catch us up on recent developments and trends.

In the early days of nuclear power uranium was thought to be a critically rare mineral. Nuclear engineers sought to solve this problem with a special type of reactor that produced more fissile material than they consume. Nick Touran joins me to discuss and explore the long term sustainability of nuclear power.

The Grand Finale is here. We wrestle with the question of whether nuclear can find its groove and the positive learning rates that have eluded it so frequently. Vogtle unit 4 came in 40% cheaper than unit 3. Can those gains continue downwards? Is Vogtle 5 more likely to follow this cost reduction curve compared to a new AP1000 elsewhere?

Emmet Penney joins me to shoot the breeze and catch up on the whirlwind developments of the last few months.

Fan favourite, Mark Nelson, joins me for an update on California’s soaring electricity prices and worsening grid dysfunction.

Seaver Wang, oceanographer and co-director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute joins me to unravel controversies surrounding deep sea mining for the polymetallic nodules of the abyssal plains.

James Krellenstein joins me to explore the extraordinary power requirements of the AI revolution and how this demand for vast amounts of baseload generation will impact the nuclear sector.

David March CEO of Exergy/Energy joins me to discuss the sharp decline in power quality from increasing penetration of intermittent generation and the impact its having on mission critical industries and manufacturing.

Art Berman joins me to discuss the likelihood and implications of cheap peak oil.

Stephen Stapczynski, Bloomberg Business senior reporter, joins me to discuss everything you always wanted to know about LNG but were afraid to ask.

Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith joins me to discuss the phenomenon of Ontario’s centrality to the West’s nuclear energy aspirations.

James Krellenstein returns to deeper dive the lessons of Vogtle and VC Summer

Chris Popoff returns to talk unconventional oil with a focus on oil sands. What is it? What are its energy economics? How is it like a battery? What does it have to do with peak cheap oil and how does nuclear fit into the picture?

James Krellenstein and I continue our deep dive analysis of what went wrong at Vogtle.

As Canada embarks on a new nuclear build out of SMRs and large Reactors, Professor Duane Bratt joins me to provide a political scientists perspective on the history and future of the Canadian nuclear sector.

Noah Rettberg walks us through an in depth exploration on the challenges of decarbonizing process heat.

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

James Krellenstein returns to dig into what went wrong at Vogtle and why the nuclear “Renaissance” of the early 2000’s ended up a flop.

Alberta, sitting on massive reserves of oil and gas, found itself teetering on the edge of blackout this week as temperatures in the negative 40 degree ranges led to multiple grid alerts. As a new record for peak demand was set at 12,384 MW, Alberta's 4481MW wind fleet went AWOL. This raises major concerns regarding electricity planning with a country wide federal mandate for Net Zero electricity by 2035 having already generated significant political controversy in Alberta which has imposed a moratorium on new wind and solar over affordability and reliability concerns. Its is therefore a timely occurrence that this same week...

Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO at Microsoft and vice chairman of TerraPower joins me to discuss his experience bridging the world of software and nuclear power.

Sec Ernie Moniz and I chat about best practices for “embarking” and “re-embarking” nations as 24 countries pledge to triple nuclear energy by 2050.

Humanity went from inducing the first fissions of heavy elements in 1938 to a nuclear powered submarine in just 16 years. Why has that tremendous pace of nuclear innovation seemingly slowed down to a crawl? Nuclear historian Nick Touran joins me for an in depth analysis of the historic preconditions of nuclear innovation and its opportunities and limits going into the future.

Robert Bryce joins me for a COP28 “reactions” episode and drops some hard truths on the world’s ever increasing appetite for coal.

Dr. Keefer sat down with some of the Titans of the nuclear fuel cycle at the “Net Zero Nuclear Summit” on the sidelines of COP28 in the UAE where 24 countries have pledged to triple nuclear energy by 2050. The topic: How to scale up Uranium mining, enrichment and advanced fuel manufacturing in the context of our emerging multipolar world and the West’s dependence on Russia for almost 1/4 of its enrichment needs. Enjoy! Feat. Tim Gitzel CEO Cameco, Dan Poneman CEO Centrus, Boris Schucht CEO Urenco and Clay Sell CEO X-Energy

The cancellation of the Carbon Free Power Project was a massive blow to US SMR front runner NuScale. James Krellenstein joins me for a deep dive.

Chris Adlam joins me to discuss Ontario’s attempt to imitate Germany’s Energiewende. It began as an attempt to kickstart a green energy industry by retooling struggling automotive plants in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The lucrative 20 year feed in tariff contracts for wind and solar will end up costing Ontario more than 62 billion dollars.

One in 20 American homes are powered by Russian enriched uranium because the USA lacks sufficient enrichment capacity to meet its own needs. Energy and fuel security are supposed to be a strong point of the technology but the US nuclear industry faces further reputational risk because no-one is taking responsibility and adequately planning adequate solutions despite NRC licenses being in place. James Krellenstein returns to take our proverbial hands and walk us through the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Enjoy!

The recent cancellation of two large wind projects in New Jersey are the latest in a series of setbacks for the nascent US offshore wind industry. Mark Nelson joins me to analyze whether the nuclear industry is vulnerable to the same cost drivers plaguing this sector.