The Most Boring Path to 10 Gigawatts: Why Nuclear Uprates Matter Right Now

For two decades the nuclear conversation has revolved around new builds, advanced reactors, and megaproject risk. Meanwhile, forty Westinghouse pressurized water reactors continue operating at roughly the same thermal output they were commissioned at decades ago, leaving six to ten gigawatts of potential capacity sitting inside existing plants. In this episode, I speak with Robb Stewart and James Krellenstein of Alva Energy about why power uprates may be the fastest and most capital efficient way to expand nuclear generation in the United States. Rather than chasing first of a kind reactor designs, they argue that modern steam generator technology, improved thermal hydraulic modeling, and standardized secondary side upgrades can unlock the equivalent of twenty to thirty 300 megawatt small modular reactors within three to five years.We examine why boiling water reactors captured most historical uprates while pressurized water reactors remained largely untouched, how balance of plant constraints rather than reactor physics often limit output, and why diverting additional steam to a separate turbine island changes both risk and economics. With hyperscalers willing to pay premium prices for reliable, low carbon power, incremental nuclear megawatts now carry real market value. The question is whether the industry can prioritize disciplined industrial execution over novelty and finally harvest the gigawatts hiding in plain sight.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

In this episode of Decouple, Chris sits down with Kyle Chan of the High Capacity Substack to unpack what “AI with Chinese characteristics” actually means. Rather than framing artificial intelligence as a simple US–China race to AGI, they explore how each country is building AI inside very different institutional systems. The conversation covers DeepSeek, compute constraints, quantization, and the surprising reality that many Chinese AI labs operate with far less capital than their American counterparts while still publishing at the frontier.They dig into China’s AI enabling stack, from universities and state-backed labs to energy buildout and the Western Data, Eastern Compute strategy, and examine how AI is being embedded into manufacturing, logistics, grid management, and public services as a tool of state capacity. The discussion also tackles regulatory differences, CCP oversight, training data controls, and the disciplining of China’s tech sector, alongside contrasts with US AI development shaped by venture capital, platform economics, and liability management. This is a deep dive into how institutions shape technology, and why the real story may not be who wins the race, but how AI is absorbed into two very different political economies.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

In this special episode of Decouple, Chris Keefer speaks with Ken Petrunik, one of the few leaders in the Western nuclear industry who has taken large reactors from first concrete to operation under budget and ahead of schedule. Petrunik’s career spans Canada’s nuclear golden age and its export era, with senior roles in Romania, Argentina, and China, including leading the Qinshan Phase III CANDU reactors, delivered ahead of schedule and under budget under a fixed price engineering, procurement, and construction contract. The conversation traces how Canada once built nuclear plants at scale and how that environment shaped project managers capable of carrying real responsibility.We deep dive how nuclear projects are actually delivered, including construction sequencing, labor productivity, schedule control, and on site authority. Petrunik recounts moments when projects nearly failed and explains how early decisions and transparent coordination allowed recovery before delays became irreversible. The episode also examines what was lost as Canada’s build capability faded and what today’s nuclear programs can still learn from the people who led projects when reactors were routinely built.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

In this episode of Decouple we deep dive the European Pressurised Reactor and what its troubled construction history reveals about the real constraints on nuclear build out in the modern West. The conversation traces how a design intended to satisfy every regulator through a design philosophy of extreme redundancy and conservative safety margins instead exposed the limits of Western construction capacity, supply chain readiness, and project management culture. The episode also places the EPR in context alongside other large reactor designs, including AP1000 and APR 1400, highlighting how different philosophies around active redundancy, passive safety, modularity, and operational flexibility shape construction risk and cost. We explore why Germany and Korea were able to execute reactors with highly redundant active safety systems successfully when industrial capacity was warm, and why the EPR pushed that same philosophy beyond the point of diminishing returns. Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

Why have we built nuclear ships before, proven they can operate, and still not made them commonplace? Nick Touran breaks down the history of maritime nuclear power, from the Nuclear Ship Savannah and Otto Hahn to Japan’s Mutsu and Russia’s Sevmorput, then pivots to floating nuclear power concepts such as the MH 1A Sturgis and the Offshore Power Systems program. We explore what worked, what failed, and what keeps blocking adoption, including port access rules, indemnity and international agreements, staffing costs, containerization economics, shielding and public reaction, and the unique operational demands of running reactors at sea.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

In this episode of Decouple, Dr. Jeff Waksman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, explains how the U.S. Army is making a second attempt at making microreactors great again. The discussion situates the Janus microreactor program in the long history of the Army Nuclear Power Program and Project Pele, highlighting why earlier small reactor deployments failed to compete with diesel and grid power even in extreme environments, and why Janus represents a fundamentally different approach.Janus is best understood as an attempt to apply the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services model to nuclear energy, using milestone-based funding, hard downselects, and vendor replaceability to subsidize learning rather than electricity sales. The conversation explores the severe economic constraints facing one to ten megawatt reactors, the limits of the SpaceX analogy, and the unglamorous but decisive challenges of fuel logistics, waste removal, and slow nuclear learning cycles that will ultimately determine whether microreactors can ever move beyond demonstration and into durable military let alone commercial service.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

The first U.S. nuclear renaissance collapsed under the weight of cheap shale gas, lost institutional expertise, and disastrous projects like Vogtle and Summer. Today, America is planning a fleet of eight AP1000 reactors, backed by unprecedented federal incentives. But can the country actually build large nuclear again?In this video, we break down what really killed the 2000s revival, why Fukushima wasn’t the turning point, and how AP1000 and ESBWR passive safety performed in station-blackout analyses. Most importantly, we explore why nuclear success depends not on reactor design, but on rebuilding the developer organizations needed to execute these megaprojects.If the United States can rebuild those institutions, a real nuclear comeback is possible. If not, history risks repeating itself.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

Saudi Arabia burns nearly one million barrels of oil per day to keep its lights on, yet it has cheaper and faster ways to replace this than by building large nuclear reactors. So why is the Kingdom pushing so hard for a civil nuclear deal? This episode walks through the strategic logic that has animated Riyadh’s nuclear ambitions for more than a decade. The answer lies in prestige, industrial capacity, and the latent fuel cycle capabilities that come with a power reactor programme, all set against the backdrop of regional tension with Iran.We look closely at the recent Washington announcement that United States Saudi 123 talks have been “concluded,” the unresolved fight over enrichment rights, and the geopolitical pressure being applied to South Korea to align its nuclear exports with American interests. From the legacy of the Quincy pact to the rivalry between Westinghouse and KEPCO, this conversation unpacks how a simple reactor tender has become one of the most consequential energy and security decisions in the Gulf.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media

In this episode, Chris Keefer speaks with Hadron Energy founder Samuel Gibson, the twenty four year old entrepreneur pursuing a ten megawatt integral pressurized water microreactor through a one point two billion dollar business combination with GigCapital7. Gibson outlines why he believes light water is the fastest licensing path, how he assembled a veteran nuclear team, and why Hadron shifted from a one megawatt concept to a ten megawatt design built around LEU plus fuel, modular plant layouts, and air cooled decay heat removal. Keefer presses on the harder questions: whether factory fabrication can overcome the fixed civil works and regulatory burdens that have crippled previous SMR efforts like NuScale and mPower, what off the shelf really means in a hollowed out US supply chain, and how long refueling cycles, fuel qualification, and decommissioning challenges scale at microreactor size. The conversation becomes a broader test case for whether startup optimism can meaningfully confront the industrial, economic, and physics grounded constraints that define real world nuclear deployment.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rss

Fan favourite, James Krellenstein, returns for a deep dive into the AP1000. We walk through how its conservative nuclear steam supply system is built from proven Westinghouse and Combustion Engineering lineage, and where its true innovation lies, in a radically passive safety architecture that removes the traditional race against diesel generators during LOCAs and station blackouts. From core makeup tanks and automatic depressurization to canned pumps, the in containment refueling water storage tank, the passive residual heat removal system and a containment that behaves like a heat exchanger, James explains how the AP1000 achieves passive safety and demonstrates the dynamism of the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This is an unvarnished look at a remarkable nuclear engineering achievement. Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id1516526694?uo=4• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: https://www.decouple.media