Get grounded in energy fundamentals with our new mini-episode series: Getting Grounded. We're breaking down Oregon's energy sources. Up next: Nuclear energy. 
 
Guest: Joni Sliger, ODOE senior policy analyst 
 
Resources:
•	Trojan Nuclear Site: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/facilities-safety/facilities/Pages/TRO.aspx
•	Trojan Nuclear Site Spent Fuel Storage: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Trojan-Site.aspx 
•	Columbia Generating Station Information: https://www.energy-northwest.com/energyprojects/Columbia/Pages/default.aspx 
•	ODOE's Nuclear Safety and Emergency Preparedness resources: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/facilities-safety/safety/pages/default.aspx 
 
Questions or topic suggestions? Write us at askenergy@oregon.gov

Grounded music by PaulYudin and Oregon artist Jana Cushman


Getting Grounded: Oregon’s History with Nuclear Power

In the proverbial shadow of the Naughton Power Plant, a station in Kemmerer, Wyoming, that will stop burning coal at the end of this year, TerraPower is constructing what it calls “the only advanced, non-light-water reactor in the Western Hemisphere being built today.” The project represents more than just a new power source—it’s a symbolic passing of the torch from fossil fuels to next-generation nuclear technology.
“We call it the Natrium reactor because it is in a class of reactors we call sodium fast reactors,” Eric Williams, Chief Operating Officer for TerraPower, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. The Natrium design is a Generation IV reactor type, which is the most advanced class of reactors being developed today. “These designs have a greatly increased level of safety, performance, and economics,” Williams explained.
Williams said the use of liquid metal coolant enhances safety. “Liquid metals are so excellent at transferring heat away from the reactor, both to exchange that heat into other systems to go generate the electricity or to remove the heat in an emergency situation,” he said. “For the Natrium reactor, we can do that heat removal directly to air if we want to, so that provides a very robust safety case for the reactor.”
The design is also safer because it can run at low pressure. “The primary system is at atmospheric pressure; whereas, current pressurized water reactors have to pressurize the system to keep the liquid from boiling—to keep it in a liquid state,” Williams explained. “Liquid metal sodium doesn’t boil until about 800 to 900 degrees Celsius, and the reactor operates down at 500 degrees Celsius, so that can remain a liquid and still be at a very high temperature without having to pressurize it.”
The liquid metal coolant also provides performance benefits. “One of those is the ability to store the energy in the form of molten salt heat coming out of the nuclear island,” said Williams. “That is really giving us the ability to provide basically a grid-scale energy storage solution, and it really matches up well with the current needs of the modern electricity grid.”
Meanwhile, the energy storage aspect also allows decoupling the electricity generation side of the plant—the energy island—from the reactor side of the plant, that is, the nuclear island. That allows the energy island to be classified as “non-safety-related” in the eyes of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). “That side of the plant has nothing to do with keeping the reactor safe, and that means the NRC oversight doesn’t have to apply to the energy island side of the plant, so all of that equipment can be built to lower cost and different codes and standards,” Williams explained.
Notably, this also permits the grid operator to dispatch electricity without changing anything on the nuclear island. “That allows a different kind of integrating with the grid for a nuclear plant that hasn’t been achieved yet in the U.S.,” Williams said. “We’re very excited about that—the safety, the performance, and economics—and it really gives us the ability to have a predictable schedule, and construction will be complete in 2030.”
While there is clearly a lot that needs to be done, and first-of-a-kind projects rarely go off without a hitch, Williams seemed pleased with how the project was progressing. “We’re really excited to be working in the state of Wyoming. It is just an outstanding state for developing any kind of energy project, including nuclear energy. The people in the community are really welcoming to us. The state legislators are always looking for ways to remove any obstacles and just explain to us how to get the permits we need and everything. So, the project has been going really well from that standpoint,” he said. In the end, Williams appeared confident that TerraPower would hit its current target for completion in 2030. 

193. Understanding TerraPower’s Natrium Reactor Design and Demonstration Project Progress

https://thecommunists.org/2025/07/01/news/usa-imperialist-bloc-save-failing-zionist-proxy-iran-war/
Another day of waning global hegemony, another regime-change war launched by the west.
Every day provides fresh evidence of Lenin’s famous dictum that ‘Imperialism seeks domination, not democracy.’ Workers must learn to see through the hysterical onslaught of war propaganda to the real forces beneath. We must understand whose interests western governments really serve. And having seen the truth, we must work to oppose, obstruct and defeat the imperialist war machine at home.
Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity!

http://www.thecommunists.org
http://www.lalkar.org
http://www.redyouth.org

Telegram: https://t.me/thecommunists
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpgbml
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/proletarianradio
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/theCommunists
Odysee: https://odysee.com/@proletariantv:2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cpgbml


Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/

Education Program: Each one teach one!
http://www.londonworker.org/education-programme/

Join the struggle!
https://www.thecommunists.org/join/

Donate:
https://www.thecommunists.org/donate/


USA imperialist bloc save failing zionist proxy Iran war

https://thecommunists.org/2025/07/01/news/usa-israel-illegal-immoral-war-against-iran/
In the face of Iran’s devastating counterattack, Netanyahu fled the country, while Israeli citizens were not allowed to leave. They were not so much human shields as bargaining counters to get the USA to join the war against Iran.
Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity!

http://www.thecommunists.org
http://www.lalkar.org
http://www.redyouth.org

Telegram: https://t.me/thecommunists
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpgbml
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/proletarianradio
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/theCommunists
Odysee: https://odysee.com/@proletariantv:2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cpgbml


Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/

Education Program: Each one teach one!
http://www.londonworker.org/education-programme/

Join the struggle!
https://www.thecommunists.org/join/

Donate:
https://www.thecommunists.org/donate/

The illegal and immoral war against Iran

This week's episode of the Business Brief podcast looks at the vision state officials and energy industry leaders have for a nuclear-powered future in Missouri.

Plus, cattle are getting beefier. The show explores why cattle weights are increasing and what that means at different points along the beef supply chain.

Envisioning a nuclear-powered future

https://thecommunists.org/2025/07/01/news/usa-israel-illegal-immoral-war-against-iran/

While trying to reassert their hegemonic primacy, the imperialists continue to drop bunker-busters on their own feet. In the face of Iran’s devastating counterattack, Netanyahu fled the country, while Israeli citizens were not allowed to leave. They were not so much human shields as bargaining counters to get the USA to join the war against Iran.

Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity!
http://www.thecommunists.org
http://www.lalkar.org
http://www.redyouth.or
Telegram: https://t.me/thecommunists
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpgbml
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/proletarianradio
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/theCommunists
Odysee: https://odysee.com/@proletariantv:2
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cpgbml
Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/
Education Program: Each one teach one!
http://www.londonworker.org/education-programme/
Join the struggle!
https://www.thecommunists.org/join/
Donate:
https://www.thecommunists.org/donate/



Despite nuclear power’s unmatched ability to produce reliable, carbon-free energy at scale, it is often dismissed by clean energy advocates in favor of renewable resources like wind and solar. Cost arguments and public misconceptions around safety and radioactive waste have kept it out of many mainstream climate strategies. But as Tim Gregory argues in his new book Going Nuclear: How Atomic Energy Will Save the World, this exclusion may be the greatest obstacle to achieving net zero goals. In fact, Gregory says in his book “net zero is impossible without nuclear power.”
“Claiming renewables on their own are enough to replace fossil fuels is underestimating the challenge of achieving net zero,” Gregory said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “Fossil fuels have basically defined the world order for the last couple of centuries, and to think that we can replace them with wind power and solar power, which are fundamentally tied to the whims of the weather, and the rotation of the planet in the case of solar, is really underestimating the scale of the challenge,” he said.
“We need power that comes in enormous quantities exactly where we need it and when we need it,” Gregory continued. “I don’t want to live in a world without solar panels or wind turbines, but to think that they can do it on their own, I think, is honestly naive. We need something that’s reliable to compensate for the intermittence of renewables, and nuclear power would be absolutely perfect for that.”
Notably, innovative companies and many government leaders around the world are backing nuclear power projects. “Big tech in North America has really cottoned on to these small modular reactors,” said Gregory. “Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all going to be using small modular reactors to power their data centers. … This isn’t just a pipe dream—this is actually happening now in real time. … It’s been very, very encouraging watching that unfold.”
Public perceptions on nuclear power are also trending in a positive direction, and the movement seems to be bipartisan. “It’s very, very encouraging that more than half of people in the UK either strongly support or tend to support nuclear power. Strong opposition to nuclear power, according to the latest poll, is actually below 10%,” Gregory reported. “As such, the two major political parties in the UK—that’s the Labor Party, which is kind of our left leaning party, and the Conservative Party, which is our right leaning party—they both support the massive expansion of nuclear power, which is really, really nice actually. It’s maybe something that both sides of the political spectrum can agree on.”
The same is true in the U.S., where both Democrats and Republicans have gotten behind nuclear power. A case in point is the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act, which was signed into law in July 2024. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate with a vote of 88–2, and in the House of Representatives with a vote of 393–13.
“If your politics has you more concerned with environmental stewardship, and climate change, and phasing out fossil fuels, and getting rid of oil from the energy system, then nuclear power is for you. But then at the same time, if your politics has you perhaps more leaning towards economic growth, and the economy, and prosperity, and all that kind of thing, then nuclear power is for you as well, because it provides the energy that enables that economic growth,” Gregory said. “And so, it’s actually very, very encouraging to see that, at least in most countries, nuclear power is not a partisan issue, which is all too rare in the world these days.”


197. Debunking Nuclear Power’s Biggest Misconceptions and Why It’s Needed Today

Could Nuclear Power be a solution to increasing electricity needs in the state and the nation? 

In this episode, we learn about the nuclear topics considered during the 2025 legislative session and Oregon’s nuclear future. We also hear from a company developing small modular reactors about their technology and potential roles for nuclear power. 

Guests: Max Woods, ODOE Assistant Director for Nuclear Safety and Energy Security, and Dr. Jose Reyes, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of NuScale Power. 

Additional Resources
Getting Grounded: Oregon’s History with Nuclear Power: https://soundcloud.com/oregonenergy/getting-grounded-oregons-history-with-nuclear-power
Trojan Nuclear Site: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Trojan-Site.aspx
About Hanford: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/About-Hanford.aspx
ODOE’s Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Program: https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Emergency-Preparedness.aspx
Episode 14: NuScale’s New Scale for Nuclear (2018): https://soundcloud.com/oregonenergy/episode-14-nuscales-new-scale-for-nuclear?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing&si=c5cf695ab05142b4958f7d80be6bfd87 


Episode 50: Oregon’s Nuclear Future

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, and oddballs who are making the 21st century more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging old, worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today's guest is Pablos Holman, a legendary hacker and cypherpunk who holds over 100 patents and has worked with Bill Gates to cure malaria and with Jeff Bezos to get Blue Origin off the ground.

Pablos also runs a venture fund called Deep Future, which is committed to "creating technology that matters." In his new book—also called Deep Future—he exhorts the reader to "boycott dystopia" and describes companies that are saving bee colonies by using mushroom spores to inoculate bees against pests; recovering ancient Roman secrets to make concrete that lasts for thousands of years; and launching solar panels into space to deliver a constant, uninterruptible supply of clean energy.

He and Nick Gillespie talk about the need to move faster with AI, why hardware ultimately matters more than software, and why decentralization will eventually triumph over the Facebooks, Apples, and Googles of the world.

How can we make The Reason Interview better? Take our listener survey for a chance to win a $300 gift card: http://reason.com/podsurvey

0:00–Intro

1:53–Evaluating our technology

3:55–Deep tech and Holman's innovation investments

7:36–Energy demand, consumption, and production

15:09–Nuclear energy adoption

20:05–AI and creating better hardware

27:31–Holman's introduction to computers and hacking

33:06–Who were the cypherpunks?

37:30–BitTorrent, Bitcoin, and decentralization

43:41–Can RSS feeds solve tech pessimism?

49:28–The origin of Holman's eyewear

Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast


We're Moving Too Slow on AI

This week on Green Street, Patti and Doug talk about chemical lobbyists inside the EPA gutting regulations on PFAS, how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been ordered by the administration to quickly approve new nuclear power plants, and a new study showing that males are more impacted by exposure to some PFAS chemicals than females. Then Dr. Silvia Calbo Aroca talks about her new book, “Playing with the Invisible: The secrets to raising healthy kids in a world of technology.

The Invisible Threat with Dr. Silvia Aroca

Marxist analysis of current events and scientific socialist theoretical insights from the CPGB-ML. Get educated and get organised!

Founded in 1968, Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Our podcast offerings include:

The Reason Roundtable
Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week’s biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie
Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.

The Soho Forum Debates
Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of bitcoin, veganism, sex work, illegal drugs, electric vehicles, abortion, robotics, government debt, and other controversial topics.

Grounded is a podcast by the Oregon Department of Energy. Here on Grounded, we're talking energy – from renewable energy and the history of nuclear power… to utilities, businesses, nonprofits, schools, and Oregon families going green and making a difference.

Missouri Business Alert’s Business Brief is a podcast covering business news and issues shaping the state.

The POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight into the latest news and technology that is poised to affect the power industry. POWER’s Executive Editor Aaron Larson conducts interviews with leading industry experts and gets updates from insiders at power-related conferences and events held around the world.

Green Street is a science-based environmental health program hosted by Patti and Doug Wood. Each week, we bring you news and information you need to know and practical solutions for navigating an unhealthy world.

New tracks tagged #Nuclear Power