Fissionary is back for a sixth season—and we’ve gone global! This season, Mary and Jordan are exploring the role of nuclear energy in countries all around the world.
For the season six premiere, our cohosts sat down with Justin Friedman, founder of Friedman Global Strategies and formerly of the U.S. State Department, to take the global nuclear pulse. As a former diplomat, Justin was able to provide insight into how countries around the world are approaching nuclear energy in different ways and for different reasons.
In the U.S. right now, it seems like a lot of nuclear energy conversations lead back to AI and data centers. But Justin argues that the most significant aspect of nuclear that we should focus on when we tell the nuclear story is energy security.
Now the story is back to the most important story in my mind, which is about energy security, and recent events in the Persian Gulf and around the world about hydrocarbon supply vulnerabilities have only reemphasized the importance of nuclear as the piece of the puzzle that provides secure, clean baseload power, and that energy security is the driver for nuclear. And I think that's what's going to drive us going forward.
As more and more countries are changing their minds about nuclear energy or making plans to build their first reactors, it’s important that they team up with a reliable international partner. Justin makes the case for the U.S.:
When you're ready to do nuclear, you need a good, reliable partner. And when you look at the partners that are available from the U.S., you've got a competitive market, so you're getting a good price, and you've got a reliable supplier and a multiplicity of vendors, so that you know that you're gonna get the best possible deal for your country.
One crucial area where the U.S. stands out as a partner is regulation. Justin describes the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as the “gold standard” regulator—and when we team up with other strong regulators in partner countries, we create a “platinum standard.”
Maintaining the gold standard but improving efficiency is central to what NRC is all about. When we take that overseas, what customers say—especially if they're newcomers—look, we don't know how to regulate a power reactor. We may have a test reactor or a research reactor in our country, but we don't know what to do with a power reactor. And so, they will look to mentorship from an institution like the NRC to help them move through the process of review.
Don’t miss the season six premiere for a primer on international nuclear before we set off to our first destination!
The next episode airs on Thursday, July 23. Make sure to tune in, Fissionaries!
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