Chris Keefer: "Empowering the Future: from Nuclear to Podcasting"

On this episode, Nate is joined by ER doctor, nuclear power advocate, and podcast host Chris Keefer for a broad ranging conversation including the basics of nuclear energy, how he engages with opposing opinions, and hypotheticals for a future medical system. Coming from a broad background, Chris understands what it means to have a human to human conversation and put together the pieces of our systemic puzzle in a clear and compelling way. What role could nuclear play for our future energy needs - and how are different countries making use of it today? How can we prioritize the health and safety of people under energetic and resource constraints? Most of all, how do we listen to others that we don’t agree with - regardless of the issue - to foster the diverse perspectives necessary to navigate the coming challenges of the human predicament? 

About Chris Keefer:

Chris Keefer MD, CCFP-EM is a Staff Emergency Physician at St Joseph's Health Centre and a Lecturer for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is also an avid advocate for expanding nuclear power as the President of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy. Additionally, he is the host of the Decouple Podcast exploring the most pressing questions in energy, climate, environment, politics, and philosophy.

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Show Notes 

00:00 - Chris Keefer works + info, Decouple Podcast, Canadians for Nuclear Energy

04:45 - Egalitarian hunter gatherer society, infant mortality

05:12 - Bow drill fire

07:10 - Yukon

07:30 - Humans and livestock outweigh wild mammals 50:1, not in the Yukon

08:10 - Dr. Paul Farmer

08:45 - Most humans use to work in agriculture, ~15% now involved in healthcare

10:56 - Ontario nuclear power, one of lowest electric grid in the world

12:01 - Justin Trudeau

12:24 - Simcoe Clinic, Canadian Center for Victims of Torture

14:01 - World population over time

14:36 - Paleodemography

14:59 - Degrowth

15:19 - Infant mortality in developed countries

15:55 - Tight link between energy, materials and GDP

20:54 - Duck and Cover Drills

21:05 - Environmental Movement and Nuclear

21:21 - Nagasaki bomb radiation injuries

21:49 - High dose radiation is deadly, low dose radiation less so

21:05 - Strontium-90 found in the teeth of babies

21:10 - Atmospheric weapons testing ban

22:33 - Fukushima meltdown, health impacts are negligible

23:09 - 20,000 people died from the Fukushima earthquake and following tsunami 

23:47 - Fukushima contaminated water has been filtered out and is safe

24:24 - How radiation is measured

26:02 - Health effects from alcohol

26:16 - Drinking culture in the U.S.

27:22 - Nuclear energy density, land footprint

28:23 - Best nuclear applications and limitations

30:01 - Those who live in nuclear powered areas fare better

30:33 - Price of nuclear energy over the lifetime

30:45 - Nuclear power in France

31:18 - Canada energy history, center for nuclear research outside of the Manhattan Project

32:23 - 1000 people die prematurely every year due to coal

33:25 - Ontario population

33:38 - Candu Reactors

34:15 - Levelized cost of electricity, skewed with renewables

37:01 - Lazard Graphs

38:09 - Mark Jacobson

41:07 - Carbon emissions by power source

41:23 - Lifespan of nuclear plants

43:11 - Land use change impacts

43:31 - Nuclear and job creation

46:05 - US spending on military vs healthcare

48:49 - Meiji Restoration

49:33 - Vaclav Smil

50:42 - AI electricity demands

50:55 - AI risks

51:29 - Meredith Angwin 

52:42 - Nuclear fuel

53:10 - 46% of uranium enrichment happens in Russia

54:15 - Known Uranium Reserves

54:25 - Haber Bosch 

54:55 - Breeder Reactors

55:42 - Uranium in seawater

56:14 - Slow vs Fast Neutrons, fertile elements

57:04 - Sodium Fast Reactor

58:45 - China built a nuclear reactor in less than 4 years

1:00:05 - Defense in depth

1:01:11 - EMP, solar flare

1:01:30 - HBO’s Chernobyl, wildlife thriving in chernobyl area

1:03:13 - Death toll from radiation in Chernobyl

1:05:13 - Scientific literature and confirmation bias

1:08:12 - Chernobyl Children’s International

1:08:44 - Genome sequencing of highest exposures to radiation from chernobyl

1:09:09 - Germline mutations if the father smokes

1:10:02 - The Great Simplification animated video

1:10:32 - Peak Oil

1:12:10 - Complex 6-continent supply chains

1:12:30 - I, Pencil

1:15:19 - Nuclear Fusion

1:16:24 - Lawrence Livermore

1:17:45 - Tomas Murphy, Galactic Scale Energy

1:18:11 - Small Modular Reactor

1:19:26 - Cost saving in nuclear comes from scaling

1:19:34 - Wright’s Law, economies of multiples

1:23:33 - Biden administration policies and advances on nuclear

1:24:00 - Non-profit industrial complex

1:24:24 - The size of the US non-profit economy

1:24:44 - Sierra Club, anti-nuclear history

1:25:14 - Rocky Mountain Club

1:27:15 - Hans Rosling

1:27:32 - Somalia infant mortality rate

1:27:42 - Cuba 1990s economic shock and response

1:27:42 - Vandana Shiva + TGS Episode

1:30:27 - Cognitive Dissonance

1:31:45 - Jonathan Haidt + TGS Podcast, Righteous Mind

1:32:48 - Fatality and hospitalization statistics for COVID for first responders

1:33:22 - Truckers protest in Ottawa

1:34:15 - The problem with superchickens 

1:36:54 - How social media tries to keep you online

1:37:12 - Paleopsychology

1:37:55 - Tristan Harris and Daniel Schmachtenberger on Joe Rogan

1:39:45 - John Kitzhaber + TGS Episode, Robert Lustig + TGS Episode

1:39:55 - US healthcare 20% of GDP, 50% of the world’s medical prescriptions are in the US 

1:41:55 - Superutilizers

1:42:37 - Cuban medical system, spending, life expectancy, infant mortality

1:43:06 - Cuban export of pharmaceuticals

1:44:08 - Preventative medicine, chronic disease management

1:44:25 - Cuban doctor to person ratio, rest of the world

1:48:47 - Social determinants of health

1:49:20 - Cement floor reducing illness in Mexico

1:50:03 - Hygiene hypothesis

1:50:28 - Zoonotic disease and human/animal cohabitation

1:50:50 - Roundworm life cycle

1:52:38 - Acceptable miss rates

1:53:16 - Cancer screening effectiveness 

1:53:58 - Drugs produced from nuclear plant byproducts

1:58:18 - Timothy O’Leary

2:02:28 - Superabundance

2:02:40 - Julian Simons and Paul Ehrlich bet

2:02:15 - Malthusian

2:06:08 - Pickering Plant

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