Decouple

Dr Keefer’s Testimony at the House of Commons Natural Resources Committee on what Canada can learn from the Inflation Reduction Act’s “good union jobs” provisions. In the words of NYT labour reporter Noam Scheiber “The green economy is shaping up to look less like the industrial workplace that lifted workers into the middle class in the 20th century and more like an Amazon warehouse with grueling...

Muckraking physicist and data scientist Aidan Morrison has thrown doubt on the oft repeated mantra in Australia that wind and solar are the lowest cost option for a clean energy transition. He discovered that the modelling used to justify these claims leaves out the massive investments in storage and transmission required to balance the system treating them as sunk costs. See Aidan’s own excellent...

Dr. Keefer’s speech at Minerals Week in Australia sharing the story of Ontario’s coal phaseout & the decarbonization of its electricity grid.

Enhanced geothermal has been a scientific white whale since the 1970’s but a recent breakthrough announcement is causing waves. Is Baseload cool again? Will enhanced geothermal eat nuclear’s lunch or for that matter renewable’s lunch? The potential to unlock the energy potential of hot dry rocks by leveraging hydraulic fracturing opens up a vast geography for exploitation as 98% of worlds geotherm...

As electricity demands increase Quebec is looking into refurbishing its lone mothballed CANDU reactor Gentilly-2. Mark Nelson joins us to discuss.

Today I am joined by Jigar Shah, the director of the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office to discuss the future of nuclear, and nuclear finance in the USA.

Charles Oppenheimer, a serial entrepreneur in the software business and the grandson of J Robert Oppenheimer joins me to discuss the Christopher Nolan film, his Grandfather’s legacy and the organization he recently co-founded, the Oppenheimer project.

Physicist James Krellenstein returns for a part two to talk about America’s nuclear future.

“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Physicist James Krellenstein joins me to deep dive the history of America’s great nuclear build out, its stalling and the age of the operator which saw capacity factors at US plants leap from 60% to 90%. How should this history inform future policy? What's the bull’s case for US nuclear going forward?

Denmark is known around the world as a wind turbine superpower. It has been an early mover with the largest per capita deployments and large interties to manage fluctuating output. Denmark has implemented the world's most ambitious target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. But underlying this target is burning large amounts of biomass imported from abroad mainly the Baltics. New analysis...

In this “Decouple Short” Madi Hilly shares the experience of her maternity photo shoot at Idaho National Laboratories and the responses so far.

Chris Adlam, a senior analyst and cofounder of Canadians for Nuclear Energy joins me for an in depth discussion on the Case for the CANDU reactor. Read the “Case for CANDU” report from Canadians for Nuclear Energy at www.c4ne.ca

Inspired by the recent Breakthrough Dialogues theme of the “Metabolic Rift,”Leigh Phillips joins me for a far ranging discussion about the challenges and consequences of humanity’s decoupling from natural ecological flows. We navigate perspectives from deep geologic time on mass extinction or so called “biological revolutions,” the likelihood of modern humanity’s disentanglement from fossil fuels...

Decouple correspondent Angelica Oung joins me to discuss the challenges facing the offshore wind industry as commodity prices rise, turbines scale ever larger and countries struggle with supply chain localization.

Ruy Texeira, an American political scientist and commentator, joins me to discuss the “5 deadly sins” of the modern left and its growing self imposed exile from the working class and production itself. These “sins” coupled with an increasing intolerance for open debate and a reflex towards de-platforming and cancel culture are crippling the Left’s ability to self analyze and correct course. What i...

Systems engineer, James Fleay, joins me to discuss the unique relationship between liquid hydrocarbons and our six continent supply chains. Oil is the enabler of low cost transportation of people and goods. What does an inevitable decline in oil production, whenever it comes, mean for globalization and our future economies. What forms of economical and industrial complexity should be prioritized?...

Madi Hilly, author of nuclear advocacy’s most viral tweet, joins me to discuss the ultimate bogeyman and best practices when it comes to talking about nuclear waste. https://twitter.com/madihilly/status/1550148385931513856?s=46&t=N4_61zANEvl1W3Q_ehy1nw

Jeremy Whitlock of the IAEA joins me to debrief “The Great Canadian Nuclear Debate” explore the “antinuclear mind” and brush us up on the challenges of non-proliferation and safeguards. Jeremy’s Website: https://www.nuclearfaq.ca/

Mark Nelson returns for an “Insanium Uranium Explanium!”

Robert Bryce joins me to discuss his recent trip to Japan where climate concern is at the bottom of the list of grid planning priorities in favour of energy security imperatives. We discuss the Japanese U-turn on nuclear and the prospects of nuclear restarts and new build.

Emmet Penney returns to offer a review of the film “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” which is based on the work of radical Swedish geographer Andreas Malm. Read About the Movie here: https://compactmag.com/article/a-hollywood-ode-to-eco-terrorism

Decouple host Dr. Keefer faces off against Canada’s most prolific antinuclear activist Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, in a cordial but passionate debate on the question “Do We Need to Scale Up Nuclear Power to Combat Climate Change?” This public debate took place at the University of Ottawa on April 25th and was hosted by Canada’s former ambassa...

Decouple’s Germany correspondent Noah Rettberg returns for a sombre discussion about the conclusion of Germany’s “Atom Exit” and its consequences.

Mark Hinaman, Director of Engineering and Innovation at Franklin Mountain Energy, joins me to give us a pad side view on Fracking and a response to claims of “Peak Shale” Mark is also the Principal and Founder of the nuclear energy think-tank, Fire2Fission and although he believes that there’s oil everywhere and natural gas is even more abundant, he explains why he thinks that nuclear is the ultim...

In an era in which the nuclear industry has struggled to deliver new nuclear power plants on time and on budget, the example of Barakah, a four APR-1400 reactor nuclear station located in the United Arab Emirates is an important success story and case study. His Excellency Mohammed Al Hammadi, the CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, has been front and center throughout the planning, co...