In the 40th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with a quick debrief of McMaster’s Nuclear Renaissance 2.0, then shift to the Business of Nuclear. They compare GE Vernova, NuScale, and Oklo in simple terms, separating what each actually does from the story the market is pricing. Along the way they unpack why gas is powering today’s data centers, where small modular reactors could fit next, how price to book hints at narrative versus assets, and what would count as proof that promises become programs. They close with a straight allocation exercise for a hypothetical one million dollars and the takeaway that in nuclear the program is the product. Tune in for a tour of technology, buyers, and valuation discipline.

In the 39th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous welcome back Matt to continue discussing Project Phoenix. After a quick recap of last week’s forging choke points, they shift to the operational side: fuel. Together they follow the path from mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, to reprocessing and ask what would count as proof that North America can supply a much larger fleet. They set the stakes with why more electricity is needed now, from decarbonization and electrified heat to the rise of AI data centers, then explore how small modular reactors, standardization, and a rebuilt domestic industrial base could accelerate delivery. Tune in for a tour of supply chains, institutions, and a pragmatic path forward.

In the 38th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous welcome lab teammate Matt Player to map the real bottlenecks behind America’s proposed fourfold nuclear buildout. They set the context for why this study exists and what would count as proof that the goal is more than a slogan. Then they dig into the industrial choke point of heavy forgings for reactor pressure vessels, who actually makes them, how heat treatment and certification shape the pace, and why geography and geopolitics matter. Along the way they sketch paths to go faster, from program standardization and a stronger domestic industrial base to small modular reactors and a continuous workforce pipeline, and they close by teeing up part two on the fuel cycle. Tune in for a concept-first tour of supply chains, institutions, and what it would take to turn ambition into steel.

In the 37th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with a check-in from a Toronto nuclear conference on cybersecurity, where simple devices and supply chain gaps show how human habits can still beat high-tech defenses. Michael shares a behind-the-scenes look at his Georgetown Law group interview and uses its ethics hypotheticals to ask what good judgment really looks like inside institutions. Then they return to Castle Rock and stress-test last week’s rooftop solar stories, mapping how rate design, fixed grid charges, insurance, and net metering shape real-world payback, and when home solar truly makes sense. They close by asking what fair policy looks like for households and the grid, and how to align incentives with reliability and decarbonization. Tune in for a tour of cyber, ethics, and home energy economics.

In the 36th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with a quick check-in: a producer from CBC’s Quirks & Quarks reached out after reading their piece in The Conversation, and Michael’s law-school interview season is underway. Then Michael brings fieldwork, door-to-door solar interviews in Castle Rock, Colorado. They compare an earlier, higher-priced install with big credits and a long payback; a newer, leaner system that slashes monthly bills; and a recent install with low financing that brings costs down further. Along the way they map how the economics hinge on installer markups versus DIY labor, financing, realistic lifetimes, hail/insurance, and the policy plumbing behind net-metering, helpful when it exists, painful when it shifts. They close by zooming out to Colorado’s mix and a pragmatic path to decarbonization, retire coal first, keep standardized nuclear on the table, then reassess gas versus renewables. Tune in for a candid tour of on-the-ground solar economics, behavioral finance, and grid-policy risk.

In the 35th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with a light check-in that turns into an unexpected strategy lesson: IKEA’s modular design, network effects, and why flat-pack execution often beats “custom” complexity. From there they head to Castle Rock, Colorado, where rooftop solar appears on roughly every other home, and work through the mystery with incentives, politics, ROI math, and what might really be driving adoption when prices and policy do not fully explain it. The episode then shifts to AI power at industrial scale, unpacking Elon Musk’s Colossus data centers, 122-day build timelines, gas turbines staged just over the Mississippi–Tennessee line, the path to a gigawatt site, and how funding from personal equity, Gulf capital, and intercompany charges could fuel a winner-takes-most race. They close by asking what a Musk playbook would look like in nuclear, from radical simplification to factory-built units, and whether utilities should keep options open for a new wave of fast, standardized builds. Tune in for a practical, numbers-first tour of consumer tech, rooftop economics, and AI-era electricity.

In the 34th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with a personal check-in, global-events insomnia on one side and a birthday week on the other, before launching into Nuclear in the News. First up: Oklo’s plan for a used-fuel recycling plant in Oak Ridge and the BWXT–Kairos tie-up to scale TRISO fuel, and what that signals for a domestic advanced-fuel supply chain. Then to London, where WNA said it is “difficult to overstate” institutional investor demand while Microsoft joined as the Association’s first big-tech member, alongside new data on industrial “clustering” around nuclear sites. Back home, they parse Reuters’ build sheet, about 114 GW of new U.S. gas in the pipeline vs about 36 GW hydro and about 8 GW nuclear, and weigh pro-nuclear rhetoric against near-term gas realities. Along the way they ask whether to recycle fuel now or prioritize R&D, why TRISO is interesting, how depreciation rules (MACRS) tilt LCOE, and which messages actually move public support. Tune in for a candid, numbers-first tour of fuel cycles and finance signals.

In the 33rd installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with light notes on grout, a new smart lock, and Colorado’s wide-open neighborhoods before turning to Nuclear in the News. They weigh the Trump administration’s pause on several East Coast offshore wind projects, asking whether it is a needed security reset or an expensive mid-stream stop, and what government intervention does to project risk, financing, and ratepayers. From there, they dive into how risk really shows up in power prices, unpacking levelized cost of electricity through the lens of capital cost, firming, and both technical and non-technical risks. Examples include why nuclear in Ontario carries low completion and fuel risk, why gas looks very different in Texas than in Europe, and how solar and storage depend on long, fragile supply chains. They close by sketching a risk-adjusted LCOE framework and a case study idea comparing identical gas plants in Texas and Germany. Tune in for a practical look at policy shocks, project finance, and why the true cost of power depends on more than a single headline number.