Latest Episodes
Episode 1
Wednesday July 26th 2023
Audio Only:
Rewilding The Mind: A calling for conservation, species preservation and climate consciousness to meet Half-Earth's 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050 UN goals - An interview with Kristine Tompkins, President and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation
Sector: Conservation, Endangered Species Preservation, Climate Action and Eco-Philanthrophy
T2C’s Sustainability Steward World Leader: Kristine Tompkins, President and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation
Biography:
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, an American conservationist, and former CEO of Patagonia, Inc.
For three decades, she has committed to protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation.
Kristine and her late husband Douglas Tompkins have protected approximately 14.8 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, making them among the most successful national park-oriented philanthropists in history.
Through Tompkins Conservation and its offspring organizations, Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, she has helped to create or expand 15 national parks in Argentina and Chile, plus two marine national parks in Argentina, and works to bring back species that have gone locally or nationally extinct, such as the jaguar, red-and-green macaw, and giant river otters in Northeast Argentina, and Darwin’s rheas and extremely endangered huemul deer in Chile. Kristine served as Patron for Protected Areas for the UN Environmental Programme from 2018-2022. The recipient of numerous honors, she was the first conservationist to be awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. Her 2020 TED Talk, “Let’s Make the World Wild Again,” has over two million views.
About Tompkins Conservation:
Founded by the late Douglas Tompkins and cofounded by Kristine Tompkins, Tompkins Conservation is protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, bringing back species through rewilding, and fostering regenerative economies. Over three decades, the nonprofit has protected approximately 14.8 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through the creation or expansion of 15 national parks in Chile and Argentina, in addition to two marine national parks of 30 million acres. Through active rewilding, the non profit is bringing back over a dozen species that are in critical numbers, endangered or locally extinct through its offspring organizations, Rewilding Chile and Rewilding Argentina. In 2015, a kayaking accident in Patagonia took Doug’s life.
Alongside his wife Kris, the couple are amongst the foremost conservation philanthropists in history.
Talking Points:
• Introduction, biography and awards and achievements including creating or expanding 15 national parks in Chile & Argentina.
• The public release of Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s new documentary of Kristine and Douglas Tompkins ‘Wild Life.’ How did Kristine experience promoting the film and having the opportunity to put her extraordinary life on record and set out her legacy.
• Why did Kristine trust Jimmy Chin and his wife Chai Vasarhelyi to make ‘Wild Life’? Chin’s remarks that “this is a story that should be told.” How making the film took 7 years to craft and what impact Kris hoped to achieve with the documentary.
• How Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi peeled out the main story from many stories and with 26 years of archival footage.
• ‘Wild Life” on public release now on Disney + and Hulu.
• Before he died in a tragic Kayaking accident, Doug was profiled at home in Pumalin Park in Laetitia Cash’s ‘Journey to The Future Patagonia National Park‘ where he quoted Martin Lurther King’s poem on technology and modernity disconnecting the human being from nature and god.
• Kristine is asked to share about her view of the role of technology in accelerating environmental degradation and climate change – doing more harm than good?
• Kristine shares that it’s not a question of power and technology in and of itself but rather what are “we”, as human collective, doing with it? “The price of technology is being paid today.”
• The 30% by 2030 and 50 by 2050 UNEP/UN conservation goals and the objective to create “durable” National Parks.
• Priorities of tackling the harm being caused to nature by industry, agriculture and industrial fisheries.
• How Kristine believes society can strike the right balance between protecting nature and biodiversity, achieving land restoration and sustainable communities with issues like food security or fuel poverty.
• Ecocentrics (deep ecology movement/nature first) Vs Anthropocentrics (outlook based on climate change caused by humans)
• How to get conservation right and how to can be done wrong. Importance of ‘pecularities of place’.
• Impact on Ibera, wetlands Tompkins Conservation’s (TC’s) 2 million acre National Park and the re-introduction of jaguars (and pumas at Villa Chacabuco).
• Transformative nature of rewilding Ibera to create a sustainable thriving local community and economy with local eco-tourism.
• The role of preserving biodiversity fo the whole ecosystem in the context of Tompkins Conservational National Parks and the significance of the mass extinction crisis.
• Kristine shares the importance of ‘Rewilding our minds” and asks, “how do we judge actions that might protect nature and life into the future? What does it mean to be part of nature?
• How, like a Noah’s Ark, the Tompkins created or expanded 15 National Parks (and now 2 marine) to counter the extinction crisis, hoping it could act as a “petri dish” to reboot species continuity against global collapse. Importance of humans understanding they must live within planet’s natural boundaries.
• If Kristine was US President what would be her top 3 policy wishes to save the planet? 1) Stop industrial fisheries 2) Extraction/Mining industries including lithium-ion for batteries and deep-sea mining 3) Preserving forests/Boreal Forests in Eastern Russia (‘Amazon is the one that gets the most attention’) 4) Preserving peatlands
• Sustainable Development Goals and leadership – leading by example – how to strike the right balance protecting the environment and maintaining standards of life for ordinary people? Should we have de-industrialization? What is the cost to climate and the environment?
• What are some of the things Kristine thinks should happen: 1) A carbon tax for Western world 2) End subsidies on industrial fisheries and instead subsidize regenerative farming 3) raise corporation tax in the USA
• Raise awareness that only 3% of overall philanthrophy goes to “the environmental movement” and only 10% of that goes to conservation.
• What environmental and social mpact does Kristine, Yvon Chouinard and the late Doug Tompkins feel their own legacies with The NorthFace, Esprit and Patagonia Inc and now their eco-philanthrophy and creation and expansion of 15 national parks has made?
• Kristine shares the important distinction between private and public companies and the difficulty in changing behaviour and the agressive pursuit of profit on the part of public companies.
• Founder and owner of Patagonia Inc has chosen to donate the billions of profts of their company to environmentally dedicated trust via a 501C4 foundation – Kristine and Doug Tompkins invested $480 million, including funding from donors, to help create or expand 15 NationalParks and rewild.
• The special attraction to Tompkins Conservation due to the sheer scale of their projects.
• TC’s inclusive and welcoming ethos that no contribution is too small or too big.
• Volunteering opportunities across all the Chile and Argentinian projects. Doug Tompkins’ famous style ethos “no detail is too small.”
• Kristine’s recommendations of the gems to travel in the Patagonia region: Ibera, wetlands. Inland terrestrial projects where lots of tourism jobs need to be filled and “everyone is welcome”, from the rich and famous to the modest backpacker. Doug’ 5 Star service in his venacular style accomodation lodges across the 15 National Parks, incuding several without infrastructure, to preserve it just for preservation not eco-tourism.
• Kristine is asked for one more project she sees as imperative to TC team? Marine Conservation “no take zones” along the coastal areas of their National Parks in Argentina and Chile (e.g. 3 years ago Kristine helped secure 30 million acres of “no take zones”).
• Priority for Kristine is in this arena is to “get the designated areas on the books”. The main question being how to enforce these marine protections and ensure they are ‘durable and real” especially when on a very large scale.
• Which marine life is most at risk? Krill in Antarctica and phytoplanktons; “the tiny things in the sea” upon which all sea life depends that are vital. Sardine and anchovy are being hoovered up. Kristine warns, “this can trigger the most incomprehensible species collapse.”
• SCPS podcast wrap up: How to Get involved? Donate or volunteer to participate in specific projects (Ibera (wetlands), Patagonia Azul (“Blue Patagonia”, Cape Froward), become a supporter of Tompkins Conservation. Go to Get Involved, “Get Wild” Section – www.tompkinsconservation.org
SCPS top energy transition experts & thought-leaders corner
London
Milan
Rome
Geneva
New York
Los Angeles
Austin
Paris
Berlin
Madrid
Zurich
San Francisco
Houston
Seattle
Dubai
Abu Dhabi
Riyadh
Athens
Johannesburg
Latest Episodes
Episode 4
Wednesday July 26th 2023
Audio Only:
Sector: New Energy, Infrastructure & Innovation (including hydrogen) Systems
Dr Shannon Bragg-Sitton is the Director for the Integrated Energy & Storage Systems Division, Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
She is internationally recognized for her work on innovative applications of nuclear energy and other clean energies. Nuclear energy can indeed go beyond supporting “only” the electricity grid: it can supply energy to various industrial, transportation and energy storage applications. Thus, Shannon’s research enables us to maximize energy utilization, increase energy production facilities’ profitability, and improve grid reliability and resilience.
Among many leadership roles she held during her career, Shannon served from 2014-2023 as National Technical Director for the Integrated Energy Systems program, supported by Department of Energy DOE Office of Nuclear Energy.
Shannon is also currently the Chair of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) Task Force on Non-electric Applications of Nuclear Heat (NEANH). Shannon holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from University of Michigan.
Talking Points:
• About INL’s history:- U.S. Department of Energy’s’s Office of Nuclear Energy Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is one of 17 national labs in the US. Was originally set up under President Eisenhower’s to support his 1953 ‘Atoms For Peace’ initiative that sought to transform the atom from a lethal WMD, into a safe civil nuclear programme that is a benefit for mankind. INL has lead scientific innovation for more than 70 years, having built 52 reactors operating on INL’s 890 square mile site since 1949.
• INL’s significant scientific and technological innovatons include; i) the first usable electricity generated by nuclear power ii) the first city powered by atomic energy (iii) the first nuclear propulsion systems for Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. Their legacy now includes the advancement of small modular reactors, microreactors and the Versatile Test Reactor program.
• INL’s activities in general, how INL supports the “nuclear revolution” and how it aligns with DOE’s energy strategy. Dr Bragg-Sitton shares about some specific projects, developments and prototyping including:
• How nuclear energy will support climate mitigation, energy security, efficient land use, boosting innovation jobs and academia, sustainable local and indigenous communities and help to decarbonise heavy industry including steel manufcturing or mining and provide a broad range of flexible applications for generating clean power, heat and hydrogen.
• INL’s work on Small Modular Reactors (SMR) and other advanced nuclear reactors. In particular, Dr Bragg-Sitton explains the important distinctions between the different types of reactors and how their affects their range of applications. Also shares how INL supports new breaking ground projects in the U.S. and in the world.
• Perspectives on SMR/advanced reactors’ pros and cons, markets, commercialization, challenges, prototyping, investments and political support.
• INL’s involvement in developing advanced fission systems and continuing operation of the current fleet.
• Laetitia Cash asks about the environmental movements’ main issue with nuclear energy, including radiation and perceptions from well known accidents in the past, in addition to the often cited issue of dangerous nuclear “waste” or as Dr Bragg Sitton perfer to call “used fuel” which she goes onto to explain is smaller scale than most imagine, meticulously managed, monitored and recycled whenever possible.
• Dr Bragg Sitton shares about how INL activities and other countries similar activities featured in the recent Nuclear Now documentary by Oliver Stone [which is based on the book by Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change And The Rest Can Follow].
• Dr Bragg-Sitton shares some examples of INL’s main technology providers joint programmes and regulators with whom INL collaborates with and how such ventures are being approached to assist in the R&D phase ahead of commercialisation readiness.
• How INL is now promoting nuclear energy and encouraging a new generation of visitors to their TREAT [Transient Reactor Test Facility] site, [including recent a visit by pro-nuclear youth social media influencer and model, Isabelle Boemeke, [on Twitter @isodope]. Dr Bragg-Sitton concludes the interview sharing how the INL is focused on educating and encouraging more young people to STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) and as a place for the public to better understand the nuclear industry’s innovative role in decarbonizing electricity, heat and transportation and in doing so significantly improving climate and energy security and providing safe clean energy for many sectors across the world.
Episode 3
Wednesday July 26th 2023
Audio Only:
Sector: New Energy, Infrastructure & New Nuclear Innovation (including hydrogen) Systems
Carol Tansley, Vice President UK Nuclear New Build Projects at Advanced Modular Reactor firm X-energy (with their Xe-100 “Four Pack” of reactor units and Triso Fuel package)
Carol has extensive experience in delivering major programmes and change transformation in the UK and Middle East having previously worked at Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and Nawah Energy Company, over consecutive years as:
Head of Programme Management
Director of Strategic Programmes & Director of the Operational Readiness Control Centre, Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Prior to her nuclear career, Carol served as a Senior Director for PWC in the UK and UAE and worked with Accenture delivering some of the largest UK public sector change programs.
Carol is a graduate of Aston University in the UK. She studied at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Nantes in France, and in 2023 she was awarded a Distinction from Oxford University for her Masters on Integrated Project Development and its potential to improve performance on nuclear megaprojects.
Talking Points:
• Introduction and Carol Tansley’ UK, French and UAE resume and her celebrated role building the first ever 4 nuclear units in Barakah, UAE from scratch. (Tansley has the Operating Licence certificate framed on her wall).
• Laetitia Cash asks Tansley about how X-energy is thinking about COP28 in December 2023 in Abu Dhabi, given her background there and with Great British Nuclear (GBN) just being launched July 2023.
• Tansley’s background: She joined the Barakah project in 2014 and delivered the nuclear plant’s first unit 2 days ahead of schedule and on budget. Which Tansley says given it’s an oil nation played a very important role in the energy transition and with decarbonization.
• Tansley is asked if she can give the listeners a sense of the scale of what an Xe-100 can provide for customers against the backdrop of the nuclear industry historically not being their own best communicators and operating in their own silo/echo chamber. Safer Cleaner Planet Series was founded to provide the full range of energy choices to be explained to marketplace, so that the experts focused on sustainable development and energy security can make the most informed decisions based on companies and organisations telling their own stories first-hand.
• As new nuclear (NN) can alleviate fuel poverty and assist with climate mitigation, cash asks Tansley if she can give an idea of the scale and how NN has helped UAE meet their baseload power needs?
• Cash asks Tansley to explain, in the context of Great British Nuclear’s launch as a key component of UK’s energy transition towards decarbonization of the electricity supply (additionally heat and hydrogen for fuel), what are the main goals the UK Government has set for rolling out a new nuclear programme.
• Cash asks Tansley about the main merits of new nuclear as part of the “Nuables” solution X-energy is promoting? Tansley’s reply focuses on the Xe-100’s ability to “provide reliable stable baseload 24/7 but also operate flexibly as a compliment to renewables, including wind and solar, as part of this transition.
• Cash asks if Tansley can explain X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor attributes, what kind of reactor they are bringing to market and how their reactor differs from other technology providers, given the X-energy package also includes Triso Fuel and accompanying facilities to produce the fuel.
• Tansley discusses High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and how they are “cheaper and faster to build”, “extremely safe” and as such “takes it to the next level.” She explains how it, “helps to promote clean electricity as well as the generation of high temperature steam which enables effective decarbonization of district heating and heavy industries such as chemical processes (e.g. the Seadrift, Texas, USA 4 pack SMR plant planned with Dow Chemical as their first major customer).
• Explanation of the additional safety attributes of the “pebble-bed-reactor” encased in a unique ceramic and carbon ball that contains the nuclear fuel/waste within it. (80 MWe or 200 MWth of high temperature steam provision and using a fleet/modular approach)
• Cash asks why X-energy chose, uniquely, to include Triso Fuel and production as part of the overall commercial package/product? Also asks Tansley to explain about the US TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) creating 400 jobs and to be commercialised and operational by 2025, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
• Tansley explains X-energy design, develop and manufacture the reactor and the fuel, talks about the Pebble-Bed reactors (PBMR) coming on line in 2029 and the number of reactors the fuel aims to supply.
• Cash observes the Xe-100 reactor has considerable flexibility for applications making X-energy unique, what are these? Able to produce steam, heat and hydrogen, is there anything missing?
• Tansley adds that as well as providing stable baseload electricity, X-energy’s Xe-100 “can also load follow” to help keep balance a grid fed by renewable generation.
• Cash asks Tansley to explain X-energy’s “four pack” rationale and approach to comercializing new nuclear modularization? What is the scale of power/heat households/customers one to four units can supply? The decarbonization of mining in remote offgrid locations dependent on diesel generators for power. Ability for Xe-100 to provide electricity also for local indigenous communities, a kind of “democratization of new nuclear if you like”?
• Tansley covers all these topics including mentioning billionaire space and tech entrepreneurial Founder of X-energy Kam Ghaffarian “safety first/flexible & commercial” approach based around initially seeing the potential for a remote South African school and village, providing for sustainable communities self-reliance. The Founder’s attraction to the pebble-bed-reactor (PBMR) as a form of new nuclear technology that helps to boost economic prosperity in areas of fuel poverty in remote parts of the world, while simultaneously providing a small carbon footprint compared with conventional renewables and the hydrocarbons industry.
• Tansley mentions the history of how the South Africa pebble bed reactor (PBMR) was initially funded by the UK Government and involved BNFL Ltd (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd). This company produced fuel for all of the nuclear power stations in the UK and was a worldwide supplier of uranium fuel for civilian applications, primarily the generation of electricity. In March 9 2023 X-Energy & Cavendish Nuclear welcomed the decision for the Hartlepool Power Station site (owned by EDF) to be extended. The relevance being that according to X-energy’s press release, “the Xe-100 can build on gas reactor technologies that have been pioneered in the UK, leveraging the experience in the Hartlepool area and across the UK”).
• Cash asks Tansley how she believes PBMR technology is particularly good for indigenous communities, given that environmentalists traditionally don’t see nuclear technologies as “environmentally-friendly”.
• Cash asks Tansley to explain more about the safety features of Xe-100. And how it is adapted for sustainable/decarbonized mining and extraction industries (e.g. Alberta)?
• Tansley shares about the Xe-100’s economic viability, ability to produce very high temperature steam, which has led to Dow Chemical in Seadrift ,Texas being X-energy’s first major customer.
• Cash asks Tansley again, from an environmentalist perspective, if Tansley could talk to the main criticisms about nuclear around fears of explosions, radiation exposure if something goes wrong and how new nuclear technology and X-energy’s Xe-100 has safety advances the public may not yet be aware of.
• Tansley explains the temperatures Xe-100 can/usually reach/operate at -c750 celsius (producing usable steam at565 celsius). She also explains the PBMR contains all the waste within the ceramic/carbon “pebble” balls, therefore dramatically reducing the safety risk of any waste or radiation from occurring. Tansley goes as far as to say with the Xe-100, as it “contains all the waste”, which dramatically reduces risks concerning radiation and any meltdown scenario.
• Cash explains the ideal scenario is highest temperature generation to decarbonize the steel industry, for example, with best safety measures and most flexible for a variety of applications.
• Cash asks Tansley to bring listeners up to speed with X-energy’s US operations? Including the upcoming public listing (the company has announced a public listing this summer 2023 which looks not dissimilar to the SPAC model Founder Kam Ghaffarian has used before). The significance of this is that X-energy is, as far as Cash knows, the only new nuclear tech provider who has decided to go to the marketplace to raise capital with a public listing (this is after they have secured $1.2 billion in funding from the Department of Energy for their first “four pack” US NPP). Cash asks Tansley what has been X-energy’s philosophy behind these decisions? Is it part of the “democratization of nuclear” and X-energy’s drive as a clean energy transition solution.
• Cash mentions the First of A Kind (FOAK) main projects at; Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA, the TF3 Facility, Project planned in Richland, Washington State (nr Seattle), And Seadrift Site in Texas (Dow Chemical’s 4,700 acres where they manufacture more than 4 million pounds of materials per year). “The project is expected to reduce the Seadrift Site’s emissions by approximately 440,000 MT CO2e/year. Dow and X-energy and preparing to submit Construction Permit applications to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Construction of the four-reactor project is expected to begin in 2026 and to be completed by the end of this decade.” (X-energy press release).
• Tansley explains about how X-energy’s plans for the UK involve “de-risking” the project both technologically and financially with the first Xe-100 UK site being a “Fifth Of A Kind” currently hoped to be constructed on the EDF Hartlepool Power Station, which includes a Triso-X Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Springfield Site currently owned by Westinghouse.
• Cash asks Tansley to talk about Xe-100 projected costs (its been suggested costs for Xe-100 plant “4 pack” would be $4.5-$5.75bn) and how she and X-energy intends to draw on her groundbreaking delivery success for the nuclear plant in Barakah the UAE. Environmental lobby always criticises nuclear for its multi billion dollar costs, overuns and decades long build timeframes, (e.g. Hinkley Point in Somerset UK and Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, USA).
• Cash asks Tansley about how X-energy intends to de-risk and use economies of scale to bring costs of construction down for the UK’s Fifth Of A Kind. Also asks about the DOE’s $1.2 bn grant which clearly shows it has alot fo confidence in the technology and operations and management team and what her time in UAE taught it it will take to get the Xe-100 operating licence in the UK.
• Tansley talks about her experience and how her 10 years working on Units 1-3 for the Barakah nuclear plan in UAE, has helped her understand the dual challenge of construction alongside obtaining the operating licence and the processes of working on both simultaneously.
• Tansley talks about the UK’s ONR Generic Design Process (GDA) and cost barriers to entry to pass through the onerous regulatory process (in the region of £500m.
• Cash asks Tansley about how X-energy is drawing on international partners and forging collaborations on harmonization an standardization for similar SMR/AMR regulatory regimes for different site locations worldwide. e.g. Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as Safer Cleaner Planet Series interviewed the President for Episode 2 regarding the first ever utility scale SMR site in the West in the Darlington, Ontario (OPG) site, Canada.
• Cash talks about the high calibre of the X-energy executive and management team including founder Kam Ghaffarian (Chairman), Benjamen Reinke (Head of Global BUsiness Development, former US DOE office of Strategic Planning & Policy/US Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources/NRC Commission & NASA Space technology Research Fellow. Tom Dixon – Nuclear Data and technology expert anc nuclear engineer from Google’s Data Centre Strategic Initiatives. “I believe that X-energy’s innovative Xe-100 ASMR and Triso X Fuel will change our industry as we know it. I’m excited to be part of this transformation.” Chris Ginther – new X-energy Board Member; previously OPG (where GE Hitachi is building its FOAK in Darlington, Ontario)/Leading nuclear corporate lawyer. Lastly, Kathleen Hale – also new Board Member with public company governance experience with Constellation Energy Resources/Constellation Energy nuclear Group/ANC Rental Corp/Auto Nation and Black & Decker, AmericansourceBergen Corp (NYSE) and Bunge Limited (NYSE).
• Cash asks Tansley how important STEM (science technology engineering and maths) recruitment is to X-energy as she had achieved 20% of women into the UAE Barakah nuclear power plant project.
• Cash asks Tansley to share about what her hopes and plans for X-energy are in the UK’s NorthEast in terms of benefits to the region. Hartlepool power station are including the highest paid jobs in the energy sector it could bring, its inclusion in the vision for Teeside, the role X-energy’s Xe-100 reactors “pack of four” could play in meeting the UK Government’s “Powering Up Britain” and Levelling Up commitments/targets.
• Running up to elections in US and UK next year, whether Tansley thinks new nuclear and GBN programme has non-partisan support?
• How X-energy is hoping Great British Nuclear’s tender procurement or “competition” will enable them to progress? The scale of the project and how many houses and what kind of businesses and industry customers X-energy hopes to cater for from the Hartlepool site.
• Cash concludes by asking Tansley to give an idea of the Xe-100′ planned variety of applications at Hartlepool including provision of fuel, nuclear-to-hydrogen and use of gas-turbines-to-nuclear and how it is likely to impact the local population.
Episode 2
Audio Only:
Sector: Safety Regulation & Nuclear
Rumina Velshi, President of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Chairperson of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Commission on Safety Standards, Co-Chair of the International Gender Champions Impact Group on Gender Equality in Nuclear Regulatory Agencies.
Talking Points:
• Importance of domestic and international collaboration relating to Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
• An update on the current nuclear activities Canada is currently undergoing, including what CNSC is doing to prepare for all the existing and new projects that are being developing across Canada. For example, the Darlington New Nuclear Project, Ontario, Canada being the first-to-market country to deploy a utility scale SMR for commercial electricity generation use. CNSC’s role in this project and collaboration with the US, NRC and the Oakridge, Tennessee Authority.
• Explanation of international harmonization and standardization in the context of nuclear regulation. Key to safe and effective global deployment of SMRs and the challenges.
• How emerging nuclear countries can get involved with developing SMRs.
• The increasing popularity of SMRs. How large reactor technologies and SMRs can working together to meet global energy targets.
• Addressing hesitancies from potential investors into new nuclear projects over cost overruns and delays due to lack of readiness by national nuclear regulators. How regulators are trying to address these concerns so as not to be a barrier to the nuclear industry.
• Building trust with the public when developing large or small reactor technologies. How CNSC is approaching building relationships with the public and how is that influencing other countries or organizations to enhance their trust strategies and engagement.
• How CNSC is addressing the many uncertainties for the industry and public around the use and disposal of nuclear waste. How CNSC, as a regulator, engages with the public to keep them informed and increase transparency regarding radioactive waste and how they are establishing clear pathways to manage and monitor waste to the highest standards.
• Equity and inclusion advocacy at CNSC championed by President Velshi and encouraged across the global industry, especially for women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). What CNSC is doing her leadership to promote women in these fields and what other countries like UAE have achieved in this area to enhance their equity and inclusion efforts.
• Recent recognition by governments and NGO’s that nuclear needs to be a key component of the global energy mix in order to meet our collective climate and security goals. Overview of how this is being anticipated and received.
Episode 1
Friday March 10th 2023
Audio Only:
Sector: Film Media & Communications, Climate & Environment Academia and Nuclear Advocacy
Joshua Goldstein, Co-Author of A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change And The Rest Can Follow
Adapted as the basis for Oliver Stone’s latest documentary Nuclear Now is due for public release in April 2023. International Energy Scholar, Professor
Emeritus of International Relations at American University. BA Stanford University and PHD MIT.
Talking Points:
• Throwback to Jane Fonda’s anti-nuclear concerts in 1979 that feature in Oliver Stone’s new documentary Nuclear Now, based on Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist’s book A Bright Future. How Professor Goldstein, as an environmentalist, first became aware of the benefits of nuclear power, the resistance he experienced in people’s attitudes and how that has recently shifted.
• Discussion of how Professor Goldstein approached narrowing down his themes and explanation of nuclear’s benefits in solving climate change. New nuclear’s distinction with renewables, his concept of “nuables” as part of the solution regarding the ideal energy mix, including countries that have led by example as best performers.
• Discussion of how the three main nuclear accidents; Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have created an ingrained fear of nuclear power and how that might be changing.
• The potential for nuclear to solve climate change and the distinction between large new builds nuclear and the introduction of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) onto the scene. What Professor Goldstein most likes about SMRs and which companies are leading in the race to commercialisation.
• Discussion about “Nuclear Now” that Professor Goldstein worked with Oliver Stone to adapt from his book A Bright Future into a documentary film to appeal to broad audience and his journey through this last year of working with Stone the filmmaker. Different countries reception of the film, the launch at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022 and how it has captured the enthusiasm of the next generation concerned to find solutions for climate change. What Professor Goldstein and Oliver Stone most wanted to achieve by showing the documentary to the general public.
• Discussion about the content of the documentary and its exploration of the history of the nuclear industry, correcting common misconceptions and how the US has championed the industry as well as fallen short. The role of the Idaho Laboratory in developing new projects and which projects and companies are breaking ground today. Commentary of different technology providers and which companies have left an impression on Professor Goldstein.
• Discussion of the controversial topic of nuclear waste often cited by anti-nuclear commentators, which Professor Goldstein devotes an entire chapter in his book to explain the scale misconceptions and high standards of monitoring and management adopted by best performing countries such as Sweden.
Roundup about the documentary and overview of the release of “Nuclear Now” in April 2023.
Website Podcast Disclaimer:
The Safer Cleaner Planet Series (Podcast) is hosted by Laetitia Cash in her role as Director of Transition2Zero Ltd (us, we or our).
The primary purpose of this Podcast is to educate and inform. It does not constitute professional advice or services.
We invite guests on the Podcast from time to time (Guests). In listening to this Podcast you acknowledge and agree that the views expressed in this podcast are:
- information only and do not constitute professional advice from us or our Guests;
- personal to us and our Guests and do not necessarily reflect any other agency, organisation, employer or company and may not be verified for accuracy; and
- general in nature and do not refer to any unique situation. If you take action on the basis of any Podcast episode, you should obtain professional advice – whether legal, financial, accounting, medical or otherwise – before proceeding.
This Podcast is available for private, non-commercial use only. Advertising which is incorporated into, placed in association with or targeted toward the content of this Podcast without our express approval is forbidden. You may not edit, modify, or redistribute this Podcast.
We assume no liability for any activities in connection with this Podcast or for use of this Podcast in connection with any other website, third party streaming service, computer or playing device.
Safer cleaner affordable sustainable energy for all
Produced as part of the Transition2Zero platform, the Safer Cleaner Planet Series is a podcast featuring “global best performer” interviews with regulatory and policy, science, technology and engineering, investment and industry experts, dedicated to achieving Net Zero by 2030 and 2050.
The series seeks to solve the energy transition trilemma for decarbonization; the climate change, energy security and peak costs challenge. Our collective goal as a community is to share information, best practices and learn about first-to-market projects in order to accelerate the efficient provision of reliable, affordable and clean energy supply with high environmental and safety standards across the entire energy mix and sustainable business spectrum.
Virtual-to-studio updates from the world’s most accomplished ‘gamechangers’ in energy transition, sustainable development and conservation, successfully turning their organisations, companies and thought-leadership breakthroughs into reality for greater sustainabiity and Net Zero 2030>2050 and beyond for future generations.
Transition2Zero’s (T20) Safer Cleaner Planet Series is a recorded podcast format of video interviews aimed at sharing specialist knowledge and insights across the whole energy transition and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) community to encourage responsible stewardship and accelerate positive change.
The primary sectors covered include: new energy, heat, power & electricity, climate & innovation tech, infrastructure & systems, transportation EV’s & shipping, heavy industries & mining, supply chain security, agriculture & food, sustainable brands & eco-tourism.
Energy coverage includes new nuclear, renewables, batteries & storage, hydro and geo-thermal, alternative fuels and hydrogen, hydrocarbons and CCS, sustainable forestry, agri-tech and farming, carbon & lifecycle monitoring, land and marine conservation, restoration & rewilding and much more.
Our “First Fifty” Experts Episodes hosted by Transition2Zero founder, Laetitia Cash, from our podcast studios in Hoxton, Shoreditch, London.
Safer, cleaner, affordable, reliable, Sustainable Energy For All (SEFA) and Future Generations.
Meeting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Nationally Determined Contributions NDC’s.
Restoring balance to the energy and climate conversation with Environmental Social Governance and Environmental Social Governance and supporting those who follow values of responsible investing.
The Safer Cleaner Planet Series is a podcast platform of interviews focused on energy transition and sustainable development, drawing from an international community of pioneering experts, entrepreneurs and investors selected from across the full spectrum of energy, clean tech, infrastructure, transport, fuel and heavy industry sectors, dedicated to ever cleaner baseload and off-grid solutions to compliment a Nuclear for Net Zero vision alongside other forms of alternative energy and storage.
SCPS covers independently minded professionals and institutional thought leaders leading the way on climate and energy security action, by formulating ambitious pathways and greater understanding to accelerate the latest technological advances to commercialisation, from new nuclear technologies, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen production, renewables and to waste-to-energy, new recycling applications and much more.
Through greater cohesiveness and understanding between international best performers on policy, standards and best practices, it is SCPS’s aim to encourage greater investment into these more sustainable sectors following entrepreneurship, improved timeline management and reliable stewardship of the safety, adaptation and regulatory dimensions across all our identified fields of expertise.
SECTORS: New nuclear for Net Zero, conventional renewables, batteries and storage, hydrocarbons & carbon capture and storage, hydrogen & alternative fuels and biomass, renewables (solar, wind, hydro and geothermal), batteries and utility scale storage, EV’s and charging, clean-tech, innovation and energy efficiency, infrastructure grid systems and networks, transportation, SAF, hydrogen and shipping, supply chain security, waste-to-energy, agri-tech and sustainable farming, forestry, land and marine conservation, restoration and rewilding, eco-tourism.
The Energy Transition
SCPS CORE SECTORS
New Energy, Infrastructure & Innovation Systems
Sustainable Transportation
New Energy, MENA & Emerging Markets
Regulation & Safety Standards & ESG
Energy & Supply Chain Security
Leading Clean Energy & Climate Funds
Institutional Investors & Insurers
New Energy, Infrastructure and Innovation Systems
New Nuclear
Renewables Batteries & Storage
Energy Efficiency
Power Generation
Carbon Capture Storage & Hydrocarbons
Transition Fuels & Hydrogen
Clean-Tech & Innovation
Infrastructure & Grid Systems
Waste-To-Energy
EV’s & Charging
Key sustainability sub-sectors
Carbon Intensive Industries; iron & steel, cement, chemicals
Green Buildings & Construction Commercial & Residential
Minerals & Mining
Agriculture & Sustainable Farming & Food Production
Sustainable Forestry and Rainforests
Drawdown Oversight & Offsets
Carbon Sequestration & Carbon Credits
Land Restoration & Rewilding
Seed & Soil Biodiversity Preservation
Marine Conservation & Sustainable Fisheries
Carbon Monitoring & Lifestyle Analysis
Energy-As-A-Service
Impact, Sustainable Business & Brands
Copyright 2023
www.transition2zero.net
Company Number: 14426692
Transition2Zero Ltd