In the 30th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous open with lab updates: early demos of their custom AI for the Canadian nuclear sector with McMaster Nuclear Operations & Facilities and Ontario Power Generation (OPG), plus a check-in on a new workforce input–output model and paper on what it would take to triple Canada’s nuclear capacity by 2050. They also pause to explain what the lab actually studies at the intersection of nuclear, economics, and policy. Then they run another Good Science vs Bad Science segment, taking apart an anti-nuclear op-ed. Point by point they test claims about build times, costs, and LCOE sources, add firming and financing where it belongs, and compare real-world grids like France and Germany. They look at mining risks across uranium, solar, wind, and hydro, clarify what “meltdown” rates really mean, and show how waste is stored and tracked. The takeaway is simple: fix execution and timelines, keep existing plants running where safe, and judge technologies on apples-to-apples numbers that reflect how power systems actually work. Tune in for another thoughtful discussion on all things nuclear.

In the 29th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous start with Goran's recent “less golf, more miniatures” lifestyle change, trading four-hour rounds for meditative tabletop painting and a quick riff on career phases and moderation. Then they dig into Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project: 2.6 GW across 176 turbines with a $10.7B headline that feels like “almost three gigawatts” until you factor capacity (about 42% on average, weaker in summer), a 30-year life, and the firming needed when wind drops. Goran walks through the real planner math, including financing and why firming can add roughly $40 per MWh now and rise as renewables grow. They compare CVOW to Vogtle 3 & 4, noting the $32B “nuclear cost” hides interest on an overnight cost near $12.5B, and that faster builds and realistic risk pricing can bring firm nuclear to about $150 per MWh, under wind once firming and financing are counted. They also hit incentives and politics, regulated-utility pass-throughs, AI data centers that can’t curtail, and the unglamorous risks of offshore hardware, from corrosion to cut cables, in a country with just one new jack-up vessel. A candid, numbers-first episode on speed to grid versus longevity, and why Dominion’s short-run choice may still leave a long-run gap that nuclear can fill.

In the 28th installment of The Atomic Exchange Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Goran Calic and Michael Tadrous welcome their first ever guest, Scott MacKinnon, Senior Director of Logistics & Supply-Chain Network Integration at EtherLog°. Scott recounts how Goran’s McMaster talk on “why standardization can slow nuclear builds” sparked a pub-side debate that now becomes a full episode on logistics. The trio unpack codification creep, ask why 75 % of craft labour often waits idle, and probe whether just-in-time delivery really fits multi-gigawatt projects or if local buffers and “zero-trust” micro-measurement are safer bets. They model a hypothetical four-unit program, debate which chokepoint (reactor pressure vessels, grid gear or regulatory sign-offs) most threatens a schedule, and swap ideas for Apollo-style medals, pain-and-gain contracts, and 100 % completion bonuses to turn nuclear megaprojects into a true mission. Tune in for supply-chain stories, systems thinking, and a fresh lens on how logistics could shave years (and billions) off the next reactor build.