Is nuclear power the key to sustainability? With data centers consuming massive amounts of energy, can we keep up? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gary O’Reilly & Paul Mecurio discuss the physics, safety, and future of nuclear reactors in a world of increasing power demands with nuclear engineer Kathryn Huff.NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/solving-ais-energy-problem-with-kathryn-huff/Thanks to our Patrons Diokindacute, Wheeler Weise, coryb440, Tim Itoi, Curiosidad científica podcast, Deborah Wales, nahar najjar, Scott Jewell, richard ravelo, Samuel Tomka, zackery Cool, Alexis Schad, Sean Smith, KEO LYPENG, Simon Tang, Thomas Coppola, Joseph, Monchelle Hicks, Paul Nowosielcki, Andrei Sirbu, bgbng, Neil Juanillo, Neal Beaton, Vic, PENE WILSON, Brendan Gombosi, Chad Jubyna, Jacob Narr, Mike, Nick H. is AllDamgeNoCntrol, Suliman, and Christoph Hermann for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
Chapter 1: Why is nuclear power a key topic in today's energy conversation?
Gentlemen, it looks like we may need nukes to realize the future we all imagine for ourselves.
Yes.
The flying cars, you still want those.
I want flying cars, I want moving sidewalks, I want portability of nuclear reactors. Data centers are starting to chew up their share of the energy. And they're gonna continue to do it. AI and Bitcoin mining. And the right color bag to put your nuclear waste in when you put it out on a Sunday. Important. I'm not touching it.
I got a guy that does that. We've got one of the world's experts on those very subjects coming right up. Welcome to StarTalk. Your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. This is StarTalk Special Edition. Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And of a special edition, you know what that means. We've got Gary O'Reilly.
Hi, Neil.
Hey, former soccer pro.
Yes.
Soccer announcer. And we're borrowing you from your soccer people.
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Chapter 2: Who are the hosts and guests in this episode?
Yeah. So Paul, you're so highfalutin. Do you still even do stand up like regular comedians?
I'm so highfalutin. You're not supposed to look me in the eye when you're talking. That's highfalutin. I have to avert.
I heard rumor you have a Broadway show, a state show.
Yeah, called Permission to Speak. And it involves, we're all disconnected and divisive, but if we get together and share stories, realize we have more in common than we think. So it's me involving. Yeah, it's born out of my standup and liking to talk to audience members and it's grown into the show and, The great Frank Oz is directing it, which still blows my mind.
We'd love me some Frank Oz. Yeah, I know.
He's been a guest on our show. I know. He's constantly backwards talking, though, with that Yoda thing. It's extremely annoying. No, it's been really cool. We take it around the country, and folks can go to my website to check it out, where we're going to be, paulmancurio.com. But it's been really cool and sort of a breakout from my stand-up.
Okay, cool. So Gary, you and your producer put together this topic.
We did.
And I love me, it's nukes. I love me some nukes. Not the missile kind. Nukes predate missiles. Okay, good. As long as you're not. When I say nuke, I mean the nucleus of the atom. Yes. And the energy contained therein. It's the OG. What you do with it after, that's your problem. That is, okay, so. Set up this show. What do you have?
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Chapter 3: What are the differences between nuclear fission and fusion?
There you go. It all comes full circle. Well, let me offer a cosmic perspective here.
All right.
If I may.
You may.
Yeah. Those of us old enough remember back in the 50s and 60s where people were imagining futures, and we didn't have to wait longer than a month, maybe not even a week, before one of the major magazines, Life magazine, Look magazine, had a cover story. The city of tomorrow, the home of tomorrow, transportation of tomorrow, food of tomorrow. And you'd see these artists' illustrations
of what tomorrow would look like. And that tomorrow was not infinitely far away. It was like in your lifetime. What every single one of those projections got wrong was the assumption that we'd have unlimited access to energy. Because every one of those illustrations, they had flying cars, motorized sidewalks, everything was in motion from a power source, an energy source.
And what it got wrong was, no, we didn't walk into a future of unlimited energy. we walked into a future of cheap computing. So we became an information technology future, not an energy technology future. And what I wonder now, hearing these developments on the horizon and our needs that will require it, perhaps though it's long overdue, we're on the doorstep of a future
where we derive our energy from any one of a dozen ways, and we have as much of it as we need to do anything we want. And that is a cosmic perspective. Join me in thanking Catherine Hough for your brilliant expositions on the state of the industry. And, dude. Always fun. Good to have you, man. Absolutely. And tell Frank Oz I said hi, because we became good friends when he was on the show.
Yeah, he's not a fan. Okay. Why are you laughing? Because it's funny. All right, Gary, we'll catch up with you next time. For StarTalk Special Edition, Neil deGrasse Tyson, as always, bidding you to keep looking up.
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