The Untold History of Nuclear Energy with Packy McCormick and Julia DeWahl

Today on Upstream we’re dropping a special episode of @age-of-miracles which dives into the rise and fall of nuclear power in the 20th century. Make informed decision for high impact donations with GiveWell, which is offering Upstream listeners donation matching up to $100. To claim your match, go to www.givewell.org ➡️ pick “Podcast” enter "Upstream with Erik Torenberg" at checkout.
Subscribe to @age-of-miracles to hear the next episodes of Age of Miracles, a narrative show that explores the complex industries that will play an important role in creating an abundant future for humanity. You can also subscribe to the audio podcast: link.chtbl.com/ageofmiracles
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X / TWITTER:
@packym (Packy)
@juliadewahl (Julia)
@eriktorenberg (Erik)
@upstream__pod
@turpentinemedia
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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Episode Preview
(00:50) Erik introduces Age of Miracles
(03:03) Two narratives of nuclear energy
(06:43) Nuclear’s early history and rise
(12:26) The start of the fall
(15:20) Sponsors: Shopify | Oracle
(23:08) Five key factors that led to nuclear’s decline
(23:30) Factor #1: the AEC
(29:00) Factor #2: good old-fashioned economics
(30:30) Sponsor: GiveWell
(34:21) Factor #3: regulation
(46:25) Factor #4: the environmentalists
(54:05) Factor #5: the nuclear disasters
(57:53) Recap of the historical lessons
(1:02:49) Wrap
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Upstream is a production from Turpentine
Producer: Sam Kaufman
Editor: Graham Bessellieu
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[@marosini]

Overall a good work, very appreciated. But the charachterisation of Chernobil is completely out of line. We were here, we had people horribly killed on site, and people all over Europe suffering the consequences. Do you know that in the Varsaw pact States civilians were not informed about the cloud? For years, we had children coming in summer from Poland and Romania to recover. We have friends who still feel the consequences, miscarriages, genetic disorders. The fact that other reactors kept on producing energy is just a testament about how dire life was in the USSR. The numbers are numbers, nothing to discuss, and was not Bhopal. But the caricatural tone from the San Francisco hike is very offensive and disqualifies the very good work overall. Kind regards from the EU.

[@somacoma2219]

I skipped ahead to that bit of nonsense. "Not that bad" He didn't seem to be aware of the Russian soldiers who were ordered to dig foxholes in contaminated soil near the plant. Mr. California jogger was really ignorant, and to have that as the capstone to their history video is really bad. He jogged with someone who was er either studying to be a ph.d or was a ph.d... but was the credentialed jogger a nuclear researcher or a licensed nuclear engineer? ....and does that have anything to do with history? probably not.

[@JesseDw676]

I too found myself raising my eyebrow at this part. Both Chernobyl and Fukushima had exclusion zones around them for years afterward to protect people from radiation. That seems like a big deal to me. Are they saying those zones were unnecessary, or unnecessary in scale and duration, or that they are necessary but not a big deal, or... what are they saying exactly?