@AdamBlazowski is a founder of the Polish pragmatic environmentalist group FOTA4Climate. FOTA came together in 2018 out of a frustration with the limits of the mainstream environmental movement. Check out the interview on the @DecouplePodcastanchor.fm/chris15401/epi…
2.) @fota4climate includes a broad spectrum of experts and activists ranging from energy analysts to herpetologists and characterizes itself as a “tech agnostic group.”
3.) @fota4climate are supportive of nuclear energy not because of a bias towards the technology but rather because they believe it is the most effective means to the end of preserving bio-diversity, mitigating climate change and maintaining human development.
4.) Poland is a highly fossil fuel dependent country with 80% of its electricity generated by coal. As these plants reach the end of their life, and climate and air pollution become more pressing concerns, there is growing support for nuclear energy as a replacement.
5.) @AdamBlazowski and I explore wheter there is a role for wind as a transition technology & fuel sparing tool in the context of such a FF heavy grid or whether increased investment in wind lock in Gas infrastructure that will become difficult to retire for economic reasons?
6.) We examine why Poland has no nuclear energy while its neighbour Ukraine gets 50% of its electricity from nuclear despite the Chernobyl accident? We explore some of the underlying geopolitics facing Poland with a need for energy independence from both Russia and Germany.
7.) We also discuss the EU politics, the green taxonomy with its loopholes that favour the use of biomass and what it means for the funding of nuclear projects in Poland.
8.) @AdamBlazowski explains that with the nuclear shutdowns in Sweden and Germany these countries are increasingly importing Polish coal fired electricity to meet their shortfalls.
9.) @fota4climate is a small but growing volunteer grassroots organization which on a shoestring budget has managed to do impressive on the ground activism.
10.) @fota4climate participate regularly in climate events and even staged a protest against the closure of the Phillipsburg Nuclear power plant in Germany with 20 Poles travelling over 800 kilometers to condemn the clilmate vandalism of the AtomExit.
11.) @AdamBlazowski is a software engineer, manager, author and activist with over 15 years working in energy efficiency, smart cities, renewable energy and advocacy for tech agnostic decarbonisation
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I am joined by @Heather_mom4nuk on the @DecouplePodcast. Heather is the co-founder of Mothers for Nuclear. She is a materials scientist, nuclear reactor operator at Diablo Canyon and a lifelong environmentalist. anchor.fm/chris15401/epi…
In the words of their website @moms4nuclear is an organization of environmentalists, humanitarians, and caring human beings.
3.) "We were initially skeptical of nuclear, but learned through asking a lot of questions. We started Mothers for Nuclear as a way to share our stories and begin a dialogue with others who want to protect nature for future generations."
I am joined by @E_R_Sepulveda, a telecoms regulatory economist with an interest in the electricity sector focussing on restructuring and privatization for a deep dive of electricity regulation and deregulation and its impacts on deep decarbonisation. anchor.fm/chris15401/epi…
2.) We begin with the first private companies at the dawn of electrification in the 1880’s and the populist push to exert some form of public control to curb abusive pricing, including setting up regulatory commissions to protect the public interest.
3.) Consolidation from this multi-private operator model to the “traditional” monopoly vertically-integrated firm occurred after World War II, when the idea that strategic sectors should be publicly-owned via state-owned enterprises (SOEs) drove a series of nationalizations.
Is China on the verge of a historic moment like the Messmer plan which saw France accidentally decarbonize by nuclearizing its grid in 15 years while electrifying much of its heating & rail? Francois Morin of the @WorldNuclear answers this and more.. anchor.fm/chris15401/epi…
2.) China is currently third in the world in Nuclear Energy capacity with ambitious plans to have the most reactors in the world by 2030. The Tsinghua climate plan calls for a 7 fold increase by 2050.
3.) At great expense in a time of post civil war crushing agrarian poverty and "great leap forward" economic mismanagement China managed to join the nuclear weapons club in the 1964. It was however very late to develop power reactors with its first coming online only in 1991.