Decouple

Just How Cheap are Wind & Solar?

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Muckraking physicist and data scientist Aidan Morrison has thrown doubt on the oft repeated mantra in Australia that wind and solar are the lowest cos...

How Ontario Decarbonized

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Geothermal Masterclass

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Enhanced geothermal has been a scientific white whale since the 1970’s but a recent breakthrough announcement is causing waves. Is Baseload cool aga...

Quebec reconsiders Nuclear. Waters up with that?

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Jigar Shah: Breaking the Nuclear Stalemate

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 financ...

An Oppenheimer on Oppenheimer

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Oppenheimer, a serial entrepreneur in the software business and the grandson of J Robert Oppenheimer joins me to discuss the Christopher Nolan...

American Nuclear: The Next Chapter

05 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

American Nuclear: Failure to Learn, Destined to Repeat?

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“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 g...

Gone With the Wind: Denmark’s Stalled Energy Transition

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Embrace the Waste

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Case for CANDU

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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. Rea...

Bridging the Metabolic Rift

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by the recent Breakthrough Dialogues theme of the “Metabolic Rift,”Leigh Phillips joins me for a far ranging discussion about the challen...

Stormy Waters Ahead for Offshore Wind

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Decouple correspondent Angelica Oung joins me to discuss the challenges facing the offshore wind industry as commodity prices rise, turbines scale eve...

Can the Left be Saved From Itself?

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ruy Texeira, an American political scientist and commentator, joins me to discuss the “5 deadly sins” of the modern left and its growing self impo...

Peak Oil and the End of Globalization

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Systems engineer, James Fleay, joins me to discuss the unique relationship between liquid hydrocarbons and our six continent supply chains. Oil is the...

What About the Waste?

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 abo...

Non-Proliferation & the Antinuclear Mind

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Whitlock of the IAEA joins me to debrief “The Great Canadian Nuclear Debate” explore the “antinuclear mind” and brush us up on the chal...

The Uranium Masterclass

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson returns for an “Insanium Uranium Explanium!”

What’s Nu-clear in Japan

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 M...

The Great Canadian Nuclear Debate

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Decouple host Dr. Keefer faces off against Canada’s most prolific antinuclear activist Dr. Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian coalition for N...

A Eulogy for the German Atom

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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

Peak Shale: Not so fast!

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 cl...

Barakah - A Nuclear Success Story

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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-14...

Limits to Growth for Precision Fermentation

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With concerns mounting about the biodiversity crisis, precision fermentation and cultured meats offer an enticing solution. Proponents argue that cul...

Ontario’s Nuclear Advantage

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gary Rose, VP of New Nuclear Growth at Ontario Power Generation, builds our understand of the CANDU refurbishment program, whose successes have laid t...

The State of the Atom

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson delivers his annual “State of the Atom” address, taking a global look at the rapidly unfolding changes to the prospects of nuclear ene...

Peak Shale

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we deep dive fracking and shale, the energy source that put Peak Oil concerns on the back burner for a decade and a half. According to recent an...

Much Ado About Tritium

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The topic of tritium continues to be a focal point for nuclear opponents, who use anti-science claims to stoke fear among a public they know does not,...

How Big Things Get Done

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Decouple correspondent, Angelica Oung, joins me for a review of Bent Flyvbjerg’s new book which examines the lessons that can be learned from the fa...

Energy Modeling: the Good, the Bad, and the Misleading

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of the Radiant Energy Group, joins me for a deep dive of the uses and abuses of energy modelling.  Intro and outro...

The Climate Aristocracy

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Bryce, author, film producer, and host of the Power Hungry Podcast, discusses his recent article "The Billionaires Behind the Gas Bans", and gi...

It's Not Impossible, We Just Need a Better Plan

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Simon Michaux, Associate Professor at Geometallurgy at Geological Survey of Finland, discusses the minimum requirements for a net zero future...

Wizards and Prophets, Ecomodernists and Environmentalists w/ Charles C. Mann

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just as the political spectrum is divided between left and right, thinking on environmental problem solving is similarly split into two rival camps ex...

Lignite Coal: A German Love Story

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Rettberg, physics lab technician in training and popular Decouple guest, sheds some light on the protests regarding the expansion of the Garzweil...

Peak Oil & the End of Growth

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nate Hagens, host of the podcast “The Great Simplification,” discusses the implications of fossil fuel/material depletion and the ways that our fi...

Natrium, Coal Gasification, and Synfuels, Oh My!

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cal Abel, CTO of Signal Power and Light, discusses the engineering behind the sodium-cooled fast reactor Natrium, and argues for their centrality in t...

What’s All the Fuss About Fusion?

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gerrit Bruhaug, based out of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at Rochester University, joins Decouple to talk about the significance of the recent ...

From Sierra Leone to Sweden: A Panel Discussion on Nuclear at COP27

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An IAEA panel discussion at COP27 on how nuclear energy intersects with the lives of individuals and a diverse array of nations including Sierra Leone...

Human Factors and Nuclear Reactors

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Rettberg, physics lab technician in training and popular Decouple guest, updates us on Germany's return to fossil fuels and discusses a salient t...

Mining Our Way to Net Zero

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Simon Michaux, Associate Professor at Geometallurgy at Geological Survey of Finland, uncovers the truth about the vast mining requirements behind ...

Mark Nelson on Pyramids & COP27 Panels

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of the Radiant Energy Group, digests COP27, whose location in Egypt leads him to reflect on the incredible structure an...

Nuclear Energy at COP27

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Seth Grae, CEO of Lightbridge Corporation, reflects on the 2022 UN Climate Chance Conference, or COP27, held this year in Egypt. We discuss perceived ...

Nuclear Energy: Climate Friend or Foe?

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of the Radiant Energy Group, debates Tobias Holle, an activist with Fridays for Future Germany, at the pavilion of the ...

An American Doctor’s Experience of the Chernobyl Accident

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A very special guest, Dr. Robert Gale, a physician and medical researcher who pioneered knowledge on bone marrow transplantation and the molecular bio...

What is the nuclear secret sauce?

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kalev Kallemets, CEO of Fermi Energia, joins us once again to discuss the "secret sauce" of successful nuclear construction, and how his company is wo...

Diesel Powered Decoupling?

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

BF Randall, an environmental lawyer who has made a rapid rise on #energytwitter for his detailed threads on mining and energy, explains why we may be ...

A Canada-Germany Hydrogen Scandal?

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

James Fleay, an Australian engineer and project manager in the energy sector, joins Dr. Keefer to discuss the "Hydrogen Alliance" proposed between Can...

Nuclear Advocacy and Labour

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to a panel discussion hosted in-person in Ontario by the Canadian Nuclear Workers Council, featuring: Ross Galbraith, International Represent...

A Physician's Perspective on Nuclear Waste

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Chris Keefer teamed up with Dr. Douglas Boreham, Professor and Division Head of Medical Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, to sp...

Nord Stream Sabotaged, Energiewende Over?

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Blazowski, an engineer and co-founder of FOTA4Climate, joins us to provide context to the breaking news of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage and ...

Germany: How to Fail An Energy Transition

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Rettberg returns for an update on the tragedy of German energy and energy policy. As politicians continue to mislead the public and force a nucle...

A Cold Old World feat. Doomberg

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Doomberg, author of the leading Substack newsletter on energy, finance, and the economy at-large, has written extensively on the energy crisis devasta...

Avoiding an Energy Blunder Down Under

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Parker, a civil engineer and ex-president of the Australian Nuclear Association, walks us through Australia's misguided energy aspirations, and...

Behind the Diablo Canyon Victory feat. Isabelle Boemeke

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Isabelle Boemeke, the founder of Isodope and a key influencer in the recent victory to keep Diablo Canyon Power Plant online, reflects on the organizi...

Diablo Canyon Lives feat. Michael Shellenberger

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shellenberger, best-selling author and an early organizer of the pro-nuclear movement, joins Dr. Keefer to discuss the landmark victory of sav...

Decouple Reads: Fossil Future/Climate Change as Class War

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Brahm Neufeld, senior engineer of process controls at CAMECO and a lifelong avid reader, joins Dr. Keefer on a new Decouple series: Decouple Reads. We...

The World's Largest Nuclear Refurbishment

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jeff Phelps, Vice President of Major Operations at Bruce Power, sits down with Dr. Keefer at Bruce Nuclear Generating Station to discuss the ongoing r...

The Inflation Reduction Act with Robert Bryce

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Bryce, author, film producer, and host of the Power Hungry Podcast, discusses headlines and current events in energy, notably the recently-pass...

The Story of Storage (Mark Nelson Masterclass)

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of the Radiant Energy Group, joins us for the third installation of our masterclass series, this time all about energy ...

Gold Standard or Standstill? Reflections on the Nuclear Waste Management Organization

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Keefer and Decouple producer Dylan Moon reflect on their visit to Ontario's Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). The NWMO is tasked with ...

This Land Is Mined: The Coal Masterclass

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of the Radiant Energy Group, joins us for his second masterclass, this time all about coal. Much maligned by environmen...

Germany: The Canary in the Coal Mine

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Noah Rettberg returns to update us on how Germany is faring amid its ongoing energy crisis. How and why is the crisis unfolding, how have key industri...

Ontario's Energy Conundrum

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ontario can't seem to make up its mind about energy. Partway through a historic nuclear-powered coal phaseout, the province adopted the Green Energy A...

Is Russia’s War the End of Climate Policy as We Know It?

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ted Nordhaus, executive director of The Breakthrough Institute, discusses his recent article in Foreign Policy: "Russia's War Is the End of Climate Po...

Something's Rotten with French Nuclear

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With Europe held hostage due to its dependence on Russian oil and gas, France had the potential with its gargantuan nuclear fleet to defend Europe’s...

Testing the Credibility of Linear No-Threshold

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kilometers below the Canadian shield, in a laboratory painstakingly designed to eliminate nearly all sources of background radiation, radiobiologists ...

What Does a Just Transition Look Like?

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Campbell, a licensed nuclear operator, reflects on losing his job at the coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station during Ontario's coal phaseout an...

Who Killed Nuclear Energy?

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Emmet Penney, creator of Nuclear Barbarians, Grid Brief, and the ex.haust podcast, walks us through the rise, fall and future prospects of nuclear pow...

Sri Lanka's Fast Track to Agricultural Collapse

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Saloni Shah, a food and agriculture analyst at The Breakthrough Institute, dives into the policy disaster that was Sri Lanka's sudden ban on the impor...

Getting Serious About Our Energy Future

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Edesess, a mathematician, economist, and former chairman of the board of the Rocky Mountain Institute, discusses his recent article for the Bu...

Old Nuclear, New Ideas

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bret Kugelmass, host of the Titans of Nuclear podcast and Managing Director of the Energy Impact Center, joins with Dr. Keefer to share their experien...

Public Power Politics

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Huber, a professor of geography at Syracuse University, discusses his recent piece for Jacobin Magazine, "In Defense of the Tennessee Valley Auth...

Dr. Keefer Testifies on the “Just Transition”

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Decouple Podcast Host Dr. Chris Keefer is called as a witness to  Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada to answer questions from members of  Parliament ...

From Consultant for Gazprom to Belgian Energy Minister

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Marco Visscher, a Dutch writer and editor, discusses some of the actors, including Tinne Van Der Straeten, who are behind the now partially postponed ...

Electrification 2.0

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edgardo Sepulveda, energy economist and seven-time Decouple guest, returns to delivers a synthesis episode. We draw together our previous analysis of ...

Doomberg: Famine on the horizon?

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Doomberg, the anonymous author of the popular Substack publication on energy, finance, and the economy at-large, walks us through their recent piece t...

India's Nuclear Past and Future with Dr. Anil Kakodkar

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Anil Kakodkar—the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India, Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre from 1996–2000 and r...

The Energy Poverty Returns on Energy Malinvested

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Commodities investor Leigh Goehring breaks down the supply AND demand origins of our current energy crisis and its dire consequences, especially for o...

The Finns Know How to Green Party

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tea Törmänen discusses the exception to the rule that is Finland's pro-nuclear and biotech-curious Green Party.  Tea is a member of Viite, an umbre...

The Canada Green Bond Framework Needs a Rework

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edgardo Sepulveda, a regulatory economist and the creator of edecarb.org, responds to the exclusion of nuclear energy from the recently-released Canad...

The War on Energy

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kalev Kallemets, CEO of Fermi Energia, joins Dr. Keefer to reflect on energy, geopolitics, and SMRs in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Re...

The Fog of Peace Lifts on the Energy Transition

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the politics of energy factor heavily in the Russia-Ukraine war, Dr. John Constable, Director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, shines a light on...

So You're Telling Me There's a Chance: Germany's Nuclear Wobble

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson breaks the news that the German Ministry of Finance is discussing rolling back the country's nuclear phaseout. Why? How foreseeable was th...

Russian Troops at Chernobyl

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson provides early insight on the news that Russian forces have captured the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Mark is the managing director of Radiant...

The Lazard People Are Taking Over

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group, explains one of the most cited yet misunderstood metrics in the energy debate: LCOE, the Level...

Romantic Agriculture

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Iida Ruishalme, biologist and science communicator behind the blog Thoughtscapism, digs into the origins and dogmas of organic agriculture. Does the p...

My Mother Explains Romanticism to Me

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Janice Kulyk Keefer, literary theorist, writer, award-winning poet, and my mom decodes the Romantic tradition for me. Janice weaves a compelling narra...

Keeping the Northern Lights On

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Madeleine Redfern is an Inuit businesswoman and former two-term mayor of Iqaluit in the far northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. Redfern describes ...

A Hard Landing for Soft Energy

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson joins me to discuss Amory Lovins, the man behind the “soft energy path” and the intellectual godfather of Germany’s Energiewende. ...

The Children of Chernobyl

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Geraldine Thomas, Director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank and leading global expert on the impacts of radiation, joins me to discuss the phenomenon ...

An Indigenous Woman in Nuclear

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy Primeau is a retired Shift Manager at Bruce Power who is now on the Board of Directors at Ontario Power Generation (OPG). She is a member of the...

Doomberg Lays Out the Global Pecking Order

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is the sky falling on the west? I am joined by the green chicken avatar representing the anonymous Substack: Doomberg. Doomberg is home to entertainin...

Goodbye, Grohnde

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland is a scientist at the Herder Institute and a historian of science and technology. She calls in from Germany's Grohnde Nucle...

The Wicked Problem With "Don't Look Up"

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this short episode, I am joined by Alex Trembath, Deputy Director of The Breakthrough Institute, to discuss Adam McKay's film "Don't Look Up," an o...

The Grim Fairy Tale of German Electricity

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the closure of three of Germany’s remaining six nuclear reactors coming offline within the week, I am joined by Noah Jakob Rettberg, a young ph...

Into the Wild: Dr. Keefer Before the MD

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Many years ago, before Dr. Keefer was a nuclear power-loving, techno-optimist physician, he was a self-described neo-luddite. He made his beliefs a re...

Are Nuclear Plants Immortal?

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group, and I dig into his claims about the functional "immortality" of nuclear power plants. We explo...

Precision Agriculture and Angry Optimism

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Kenneth Cassman joins to explore the state of innovation in agriculture. Where are the knowledge gaps? And what changes must take place if we hope...

One Billion Tons

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rauli Partanen, an award-winning science communicator and energy analyst from Finland, comes on to discuss his new report, “One Billion Tons" on the...