
The CS Primer Show
A show about computer science and computer science education by Charlie Harrington and Oz Nova.
Latest episodes

Oct 29, 2024 • 1h 7min
TMI: Too Much Intervention?
James Krellenstein, co-founder of Alva Energy, explains precisely what happened at the Three Mile Island accident, in which an ordinary reactor trip cascaded into a partial meltdown due primarily to errors in the human-machine interface. Krellenstein discusses how the 1979 incident, despite its severity, actually showed the effectiveness of the “defense in depth” principle and led to significant improvements in plant operations and nuclear safety culture.
Watch the episode on YouTube to follow along with visuals.

Oct 22, 2024 • 1h 13min
Small Reactors Are Bulking Up
Koroush Shirvan, an MIT professor and consultant on recent major reports on nuclear economics, sheds light on the hidden costs of small modular reactors. Lower power densities, ballooning containment and reactor vessel sizes, poor economies of scale, and missed opportunities for cost reductions mean that SMRs may not be the panacea for nuclear that many believe them to be.

Oct 15, 2024 • 54min
321, Liftoff!
Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the U.S. Department of Energy, joins me to discuss his office’s latest Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report on nuclear energy. We touch on the state of the American nuclear industry, its surge of policy and private sector support, and outstanding obstacles to tripling nuclear capacity in the United States.
In addition to emphasizing the need for standardization in reactor designs and a unified communications strategy from the nuclear industry, Jigar sets the record straight on what the LPO can and, importantly, cannot do for the sector. While the LPO offers extensive support in the form of loans and high-quality information, it is up to industry to lead the charge. In his words, “we can’t want this more than industry.”
Read more on Substack: https://www.decouple.media/

Oct 9, 2024 • 1h 3min
Lead the Way, TVA
Fred Stafford, a STEM professional and anonymous energy commentator, discusses the Tennessee Valley Authority's potential to lead a nuclear revival in the United States — that is, if it can overcome the tensions between public and private interests and a looming debt ceiling that threatens to dim its nuclear ambitions.
Read more on Substack: www.decouple.media

Oct 2, 2024 • 1h 18min
The Energy Transition Will Not Happen
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, a French historian specializing in energy history, challenges the traditional narratives of energy transitions. He reveals the complex symbiotic relationships between coal, wood, and oil that have shaped our energy landscape. Fressoz critiques misconceptions about forests' roles in climate solutions and debunks myths around the oil industry's impact on whale conservation. He emphasizes the necessity of a realistic approach to climate action, urging a reevaluation of past predictions and adapting to our historical energy realities.

Sep 25, 2024 • 57min
The Bottomless Well
Mark P. Mills returns to Decouple to challenge our understanding of energy scarcity and efficiency. In this episode, he unravels the paradox of how pursuing energy efficiency often leads to increased consumption, and explains why he believes our energy resources are functionally limitless.
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Mark P. Mills on X: https://x.com/MarkPMills
Decouple: https://www.decouple.media

Sep 20, 2024 • 17min
The Three Mile Island Melt Up
Microsoft and nuclear plant owner Constellation have entered into to an unprecedented deal to restart the closed Three Mile Island by 2028 to power its data centres.
Microsoft will purchase as much power as possible from its 880 MW reactor over 20 years for prices rumored to be above $100 per MWh.
Most famous for its 1979 meltdown, TMI closed in 2019 because of cheap fossil fuels and tech companies refusing at the time to consider buying its electricity to meet clean energy goals.

Sep 10, 2024 • 1h 9min
A Westinghouse of Pain for Korea
Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with Westinghouse over IP rights and export control obligations. Will this conflict stymie Western nuclear ambitions? Does this legal battle risk ceding the longterm geopolitical alliances intrinsic to nuclear exports in non-aligned countries to Russia and China? What are the motivations and likely outcomes? Phil Chaffee of Nuclear Intelligence Weekly joins me to provide context and inferences.

Sep 5, 2024 • 55min
The CANDU Story
Tim Freeman, VP of Field Services and Manufacturing at CANDU Energy Inc joins me to discuss the 3rd most widely deployed reactor technology in the world, Canada's Heavy Pressurized Water Reactor the CANDU.
Note this conversation was recorded in March of 2024.

Aug 17, 2024 • 55min
Will EVs Deliver on Decarbonisation?
Ashley Nunes, a senior research associate at Harvard Law School, joins me to disentangle the hope from the hype in the EV debate.
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