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The Real Stakes of a Saudi Nuclear Deal
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?
Microreactors: A Mirage of American Nuclear Innovation?
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
The AP1000 Masterclass
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
The Great Nuclear Reshoring
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
Russia’s Maritime Nuclear Fleet: A Glimpse Behind the Curtain
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. nu
How China Builds Reactors So Fast
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 conventi
Engineering State v. Lawyerly Society
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
Where Is Nature Going?
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 Envi
Handling the Heat
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 capabl
Nuclear Meme Stocks
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, an
Carbon Dioxide: Earth's Thermostat
This week, award-winning science writer Peter Brannen (https://bsky.app/profile/peterbrannen.bsky.social) returns to Decouple to explore the 4.5 billion-year story of carbon dioxide on Earth. Grounding our discussion is his new book, The St
To Bomb or Not to Bomb
Professor Alex Wellerstein returns from the set of WIRED (watch his excellent appearance here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJTA2OinEHw)) to help me understand the origins of Middle Eastern nuclear programs and where they stand today. Fr
Rare Earth Emergency
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
Battery Power
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 Export Expert
This week, we talk about Russian nuclear exports. Michael Seely, host of AtomicBlender (https://www.youtube.com/@atomicblender), joins me to discuss the rise of Rosatom: Russia’s nuclear energy behemoth that now builds nearly half of the wo
#289 - Breaking the Ice
This week, we travel to the edge of the map with Aleksandr Surtcev (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandr-surtcev-88295052/), an engineer who has crewed Russian nuclear icebreakers along the Northern Sea Route. We explore how Russia’s Arcti
The State of the Atom (2025)
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 i
Sun, Silicon, and Xinjiang
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 justif
Small Reactor, Big Price
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
Is Wright's Law Wrong?
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 boostin
Is America Making Itself Irrelevant?
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
Tim Cook, Nation-Builder
This week, I’m joined by Patrick McGee, a journalist and author of Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/books/review/apple-in-china-patrick-mcgee.html). I recommended this book on L
Trump's Nuclear Executive Orders
Last week, U.S. President Trump signed four executive orders to accelerate nuclear power deployment: • Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/deploying-
No Risk, All Reward
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, joi
Hellbrise
In the wake of Europe's largest blackout in decades, commodities investor Alexander Stahel (https://www.thecommoditycompass.com/p/europes-largest-blackout-exposes) helps us to understand the physics of power grids, and how Spain's celebrate
The Iberian Blackout
This week, we cover the recent blackout on the Iberian peninsula. Guillem Sanchis Ramirez (http://linkedin.com/in/guillem-sr/), a Spanish nuclear engineer and advocate, walks us through the event that plunged over 50 million people into pow
Cycles of Life
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 (https://www.harpercollins.com/products/a-brief-histo
Hard Lessons with Hot Helium
This week, we talk High Temperature Gas Reactors, or HTGRs, with a Decouple favorite: reactor designer and nuclear historian Nick Touran (What Is Nuclear (https://whatisnuclear.com/about.html) | X (https://x.com/whatisnuclear?lang=en)). Fro
The Machines Behind The Machines
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 f
Respect the Rads
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 p
