Unlocking Nuclear Power at Scale with Bret Kugelmass of Last Energy

[@Canucklug]

Listening to the first dozens of episodes on Titans of Nuclear is such a blast. I'm sure I've heard 3 or 4 live moments where Bret specifically recognizes a motivation for something that Last Energy does

[@hopliterati61]

Bret is smart in his choice of tech, and his observation about the "real goal" of nuclear companies being 'safety'. He's spot on about the regulatory climate for nuclear in general being dismal. To me, this means that despite the much lower energy density of solar/wind, the combination of subsidies and public opinion (hit job by fossil fuel companies imho) and the speed with which those techs can innovate make them a juggernaut that will be hard to stop. We won't be able to slow down climate change with wind/solar, but we can cover a lot of area with low efficiency, energy 'harvesters' that have intermittency problems.

[@jamesmorton7881]

This reactor is better than nothing. The PWR design is a brute force solution. A bettter solution would address more issues. ( lower operating temp, helium coolant, hydrogen embrittlement efficiency of plant . . . Reduction in waste products . . . . . ❤❤

[@johnhohenadel3099]

Asinine to think otherwise! I agree 100%!

[@AkkarisFox]

Is there going to be equitable access to robot doctors because I have tissue damage between my joints and it's not from a non-controversial diagnosis

[@chriswilfrid]

Get well soon

[@laloatx5892]

13:55 this is not true. I've been around enough high budget construction to know that the outsider's macho assumption of a hostile management is how you end up with disgruntled laborers who do poor work or even sabotage the project. I think Bret's comment here is more of an insight into his mind than it is into construction, and it's disappointing. too many people have this weird dichotomy in their mind that you're either the bully or the bullied. That's only your reality if you make it that way. There are plenty of highly productive teams that are built on aligned incentives and mutual trust. Beating up other people can work in the short term but really doesn't in the long run.

[@Nill757]

Eh, I’ve been years in construction too, and I somewhat disagree. Agree that yelling at everybody all the time is stupid, weak management. If that’s what Brett means yes he’s confused. In hard labor, lots of people on site, there are *always* a few percent that have a lousy attitude, quality doesn’t matter, budget overrun does not matter, or they should be in charge. In an office a talk or performance review might correct that. As you must know, that often won’t work on a big blue collar trade work site. The policy must be, one instruction, one warning, then next time in their face. Quick attention sends the message that time is $. Lots of people are watching. The best of them also want the problem corrected because they know people can get hurt by clowns , or they lose motivation, and others want see if they can get away with same. It has to be stopped and seen to be stopped. Yes the best job supervisors set a tone so yelling rarely happens, yet everybody knows who is in charge, expectations, and that it can happen.

[@volta2aire]

Synthetic hydrocarbon fuels from clean energy and captured carbon dioxide ... that implies electrolytic hydrogen production. ... " *High-temperature electrolysis* is more efficient economically than traditional room-temperature electrolysis because some of the energy is supplied as heat, which is cheaper than electricity, and also because the electrolysis reaction is more efficient at higher temperatures."-Wikipedia

[@chriswilfrid]

How? What? Open source?

[@laloatx5892]

His synthetic fuels comment strikes me as fanciful. DAC will always be terribly inefficient because CO2 is such a low concentration in ambient air, at 0.04%. You have to process massive volumes of air to eke out a small amount of carbon. Even if your energy is crazy cheap ("free" waste heat of of a nuclear core) I'd still think that there are better uses for that heat.

[@Nill757]

@@laloatx5892The idea of zero carbon everything of transportation w out liquid fuels is far far more fanciful. The 9000 gallon fuel tankers we all see patrolling our roads carry the energy equivalent of near an hour of Hoover Dam, yet that tanker delivers it all in minutes to every remote corner. The last mile of the grid and battery tech as they are will not come anywhere close despite the $trillions tossed at it. Syn Fuels are the only viable answer. Aviation alone is enough to make the case, w no commercial E passenger aircraft certified anywhere in the world, nor anywhere close. Yes takes a lot of energy, but cheap reactors per Brett etc could get there. Any one, gung-ho country in the world could make it happen, a syn fuel Saudi Arabia.

[@JohnboyCollins]

@@laloatx5892 Well direct air capture of CO2 is $250-$300 per ton today. Not impossible to imagine that coming down by a factor of 10.