The Big Lies (and Truths) about Nuclear Power
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- Welcome to the first episode of the first season of “Age of Miracles”. This new show from Packy McCormick, investor and writer of the Not Boring newsletter, asks the question: how do we create a future of abundance?
This season, we’re exploring the future of energy - specifically, diving deep into nuclear energy, both fission and fusion. The world needs more energy, not less, argues Packy, and nuclear has been neglected as a clean, reliable source of energy for too long. Joining Packy as co-host this season is Julia DeWahl, who previously helped scale SpaceX’s Starlink and Opendoor and is now co-founder of micro-nuclear reactor startup Antares.
In this episode, Packy and Julia set the stage for the season. They start with how they each got nuke-pilled and how the global narrative on energy has shifted, following events like the war in Ukraine and growing inflation. Next, they bust the three most common myths about nuclear energy: it’s too unsafe, there’s too much nuclear waste, and nuclear energy = nuclear weapons. And then they set the stage for the real challenges we’ll tackle this season: the economics of nuclear power, regulation and the role of government, and the power of public perception.
If you’re curious about the future of energy, technology, or how to get out of a doomer loop and start working towards an abundant future, join us. An age of miracles is within reach - if we're willing to work for it.
Huge thank you to our sponsors:
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For the full list of resources referenced in this show: ageofmiracles.co/
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Why the world needs more energy
(06:43) Preview of this season of Age of Miracles
(10:03) Let's talk nuclear fission
(19:15) Busting common nuclear myths: disasters, waste, and proliferation
(30:22) The 201 challenges with nuclear energy
(36:21) Could all the energy in 2050 just be fusion?
(45:23) Closing thoughts
This show is produced and distributed by Turpentine, a network of shows and other media properties.
Credits: Nancy Xu produced this season of Age of Miracles. Audio editor: Justin Golden. Video editor: Jake Salyers. Executive producers: Amelia Salyers, Packy McCormick, and Erik Torenberg.
Many years ago, I was a summer intern contractor at NASA, in that building with the resteraunt they used on Seinfeld. I wrote software to generate contour plots of model outputs, with titles like "2XCO2 2100". I worked for Dr Hansen's group. Years later I read a paper Hansen wrote, posted on M Seto's website that hosts his writings. In it he expressed a fair amount of bitterness about the fate of nuclear power in the West, and the propagandists who brought that about. I think it's since been taken down, but people who actually understand climate change and its consequences understand this issue.
4:42 LCOE is only suitable for assessing dispatchable generators. It cannot be used for Intermittent energy collectors and Lazard itself explicitly states that it does not account for externalities like reliability requirements. It's like trying to pass off the fuel costs as the total price of owning a vehicle.
Not Boring mission sounds like what I call "taking the sun pill." You're not just refusing the black pill but you spreading the light to the world. ☀️🌍
I had not heard about that sierra club tweet and the response. That's the best news I've heard in 10 years 🥰
LFG Packy and Julia!! Energy++++++++
Fortunately this podcast exists, thank you very much, a great episode. I am looking forward to listen to the others
As for oil and gas, AKA Fossil fuels, it is possible to synthesise oil from any carbon source, water and electricity. Sure it is expensive but if there was abundant energy from nuclear the recycling of carbon waste into oil could help break the cycle of simply drilling more holes in the ground and fighting over those lands. My country has little to no oil but massive coal reserves. Without nuclear and the ability to synthesis oil we spend BILLIONS of dollars each year to countries that would not be considered as friendly and possibly have a degree of animosity towards us. If we did not to buy their oil they would not have the money to militarily threaten anyone.
woah we can print energy, capture carbon, and store it underground in old fossil fuel locations :O
Yes we can!
this was sweet can't believe it's a whole season :D
Thanks Alex! I think they keep getting better from here
Carbon capture is a stupid wasteful solution to a NON problem. Wasting 30% of whatever energy resource you are talking about is NOT "green" , it's dumb.
@@tuberroot1112 are you just worried it uses too much energy?
The Magna Carta requires today overhauling - adding to it the right for humans to understand what Energy really is - before any other commandment;
“In any system of energy, Control is what consumes energy the most.
No energy store holds enough energy to extract an amount of energy equal to the total energy it stores.
No system of energy can deliver sum useful energy in excess of the total energy put into constructing it.
This universal truth applies to all systems.
Energy, like time, flows from past to future” (2017).
Are you high?
Do you even understand what the Magna Carta is?
It would seem not, since you're advocating alteration and "updates"
, 😫🙈🙉🙈😫
You mentioned the IAEA but do not acknowledge that its own policies aid in the nuclear proliferation problem. Imagine if a country that needed or wanted a nuclear power solution for their country. They currently have few choices but to plug into the rebel alliance so to speak because of IAEA roadblocks. Ideally if the IAEA was empowered to assist in the construction of reactors and to then provide the services to refuel and even decommission them at the end of life as a part of economic aid. As for funding I believe that nuclear power is a matter of national security and prosperity. A totally different funding model is needed because the US model inhibits nuclear development whereas the French model has ensured that France has the cheapest power in the entire EU. Russia has even cheaper electricity but a chronic oversupply situation.
I belive that we taking it higher. I belive that world on fire. I belive that nuclear energy make human life more pleasant. I beliv that we taking it higher.
⚛💊
Something about this feels like innocent-looking propaganda. Was a cool doc, but I want to learn more from varying sources/viewpoints
More to come throughout the season on that front. This one was mainly just an intro.
Nuclear energy remains popular because of powerful interests who invested in it long ago, plus those who want access to the raw materials from which to build bombs. To be brutally blunt, EVERY use case advanced for nuclear energy has been convincingly refuted. Let's face it; wind turbines and solar panels won't poison people for dozens of generations. Japan will not be getting the district Fukushima was built in back anytime soon, likely not for generations. Just ask the Ukrainians who had to leave Chernobyl. Even without the threat of meltdowns and nuclear weapons, nuclear power is just plain obsolete. Nothing about this slickly produced video changes that fundamental fact; pour the same money into solar and batteries as we have into Votgle 3 and 4 and we would have some 20x the energy production! I would say, "prove me wrong" but no one can.
Learn what propaganda means before using it in a sentence. The problem you're suffering is that nuclear power has been so severely libeled and slandered for decades that being even half fair to it looks like "propaganda" to you.
@@JacobNeff-oq5km I'm saying when the hosts briefly down play / brush passed the disasters of fukushima and chernobyl, and claim nuclear to be the greenest energy source while accusing everyone else of being propaganda, this starts to feel like propaganda.
Simply, theres not that much uranium around. Nuclear fission is just a temporary stop gap measure
What are you smoking? There's nearly 20 times the power already generated left in just the "spent" fuel rods stored at power plants, who knows how much undiscovered reserves, roughly 3 times the amount of Thorium, and more than 4 BILLION tons dissolved in the oceans that is constantly replenished from the Earth's crust. We're talking about enough to last geologically significant amounts of time.
The sun will burn out before we run out of uranium and thorium.
You are obviously not very well educated so we'll just ignore you.
@@barrywilliams991 uranium resources are expected to run out before the end of the century. It's a very finite resource
Thank god your audience is small.Few people will hear your CO2 and climate hype spouted in the first few minutes if episode 1.
You are right about nuclear and wrong abot "green" solar wind and batteries.
If you are going to talk about things you need to have your facts right.
CO2 is plant food and more of it means a greener planet.
We don't need to take CO2 out of the atmosphere.
CO2 does not determine the temperature of the planet.
The SUN controls the environment. PERIOD.
If you want to talk to experts, you should have the real experts about the climate on.
Windmills, solar panels and batteries require a lot of mining and mining is driven by diesel and fresh water. It also creates a great deal of pollution.
If you are worried about CO2, consider how much CO2 is produced by the huge amount of concrete that has to be poured for each windmill foundation.
So, don't try to convince people of the truth by starting with a load of BS!
You instantly lost me on the parroting of the stupid climate misinformation.
If you are going to present facts, present FACTS and not HYPE.
When you start saying "we need to pull gigatons of it out of the atmosphere" , I realise that you have no idea what you are talking about and stop wasting my time. Neither do I trust the opinion of a guy who wears nail varnish and talks with voice fry. No miracles here.
Even failing elementary school math wouldn't explain what you just said. Humans have added roughly 300 gt of carbon (1100 gt of CO2) to the atmosphere. As 300 gigatons is an amount measured in gigatons, duh, that amount we need to pull back out is measured in gigatons. duh.
And actually, the amount is significantly greater than that because the oceans have been absorbing a substantial amount of emissions.
@JacobNeff-oq5km pure nonsense wow. You guys are absolutely hilarious. A bunch of kindergarten nonsense.
@@JacobNeff-oq5kmAs the oceans warm the CO2 escapes. Kinda like your soda as it warms. So no, the oceans are not absorbing and retaining CO2.