Introduction

Nuclear: The perfect energy or perfect weapon.

There are such widely-held—and understandable—fears surrounding nuclear that in 2023 the Green party in Germany were instrumental in decommissioning the nation’s final plants—in the middle of an energy crisis. The environmentalists in the sixtoies and seventies were key to the anti-nuclear movement which swept the world, with France one of the only nations to resist the calls to shut down the reactors for fear of states weaponising the waste. That decision means France is now one of the only energy resilient nations in Europe.

There are obvious benefits to nuclear, and a new generation of nuclear engineers desperate to prove it. Mark Nelson is one of them. An engineer and consultant in the energy transition, Mark joined me to dispel myths around nuclear, where he believes the backlash started, and how we can transform existing fossil fuel infrastructure into truly renewable energy. We cover a lot in this conversation—including a couple of disagreements on the social and political angles—and there’s a lot to be mined in the episode. It certainly won’t be the last one on nuclear energy.