Solutions From The Multiverse
Hosts Adam Braus (@ajbraus) and Scot Maupin (@scotmaupin) meet up each week where Adam brings a new idea to help the world and Scot picks and prods at it with jokes and questions. The result is an informative and entertaining podcast that always gets you thinking.
Solutions From The Multiverse
Solving the Climate: Apple Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) | SFM E83
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Prepare to be tickled by the thought of "Parks and Rec" star Adam Scott endorsing our humble podcast, as we find ourselves wrapped up in a name game that's equal parts amusing and bewildering. But it's not all chuckles and snickers; we strap in for a heady debate on Apple's potential pivot into the nuclear scene with the whimsically coined "Apple Core" reactors. This week's episode jaunts from celebrity musings to the fertile ground of energy innovation, offering a blend of laughter and contemplation that's sure to energize your curiosity.
With the wheels of our conversation greased, we cruise into the enigmatic Project Titan, imagining Apple's automotive ambitions without succumbing to the puns of 'CarPod.' The dialogue then takes a scenic route to discuss corporate giants and their market-shaking moves, all while unpacking the promise of small modular nuclear reactors. These pint-sized powerhouses could alter the energy landscape forever, and we're here painting a vivid picture of this nuclear new world order, minus the usual tech jargon.
Our finale is a globetrotting thank you to you, our international listeners, from every corner of the world. We wrap up with a nod to the craft of plausible science fiction storytelling, indulging in the genre's ability to both stretch the limits of our imagination and echo our reality. Whether you're a fan of witty banter or cerebral debates, you'll find your spark in this episode. So tune in, and let's embark on a journey that's as expansive as it is electrifying.
Help these new solutions spread by ...
- Subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts
- Leaving a 5-star review
- Sharing your favorite solution with your friends and network (this makes a BIG difference)
Comments? Feedback? Questions? Solutions? Message us! We will do a mailbag episode.
Email: solutionsfromthemultiverse@gmail.com
Adam: @ajbraus - braus@hey.com
Scot: @scotmaupin
adambraus.com (Link to Adam's projects and books)
The Perfect Show (Scot's solo podcast)
Thanks to Jonah Burns for the SFM music.
Adam, do you think we need a celebrity to endorse our show?
Speaker 2Celebrities from Multiverse.
Speaker 1Well, just like you know, have a get, a get a perfect celebrity to match our sure, our show.
Speaker 2What are you thinking?
Speaker 1Well, our two names together Give us a couple of options. I'm Scott, you're a high. Everybody the solutions with Multiverse. I'm Scott Moppen, adam Brous. Right, so I'm Scott and you're Adam. So Scott Adams is one celebrity Do you know who this person is?
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1This is he's famous for originally making a little cartoon called Dilbert. Oh, he just got canceled.
Speaker 2Big time yes. He's more famous recently for being wild on the internet and having. Why would we want? This is the worst. I don't think he's good. We're playing the game Worst solutions game or the worst suggestions game.
Speaker 1We'll see what I'm doing here is I'm priming you because I'm going to flip it Okay flip our names Adam Scott's. Adam Scott from is an actor. He was on Parks and Rec. I was just in Madam Web. He does podcasts. I know him from a lot of different comedy bang bang podcast.
Speaker 2Oh, Adam Scott from coming bang bang. Is that the main guy who does coming bang?
Speaker 1No, that's Scott Ockerman, but another, adam Scott, does side projects with him. Like are you talking, you two to me, and rim like great whatever.
Speaker 2Let's get them.
Speaker 1Okay, good.
Speaker 2All right, I wanted your permission. I don't want your permission. Go for it, okay cool.
Speaker 1I'll dial up Adam Scott and say look, my name's Scott. My co-host is named Adam.
Speaker 2We need you to endorse our show or come on. At the very least, just come on.
Speaker 1Right, yeah, he's on a show called Severance actually that was just on Apple TV, isn't that the?
Speaker 2that's the main guy from coming bang bang.
Speaker 1It's really good. That is him. No, Scott Ockerman is the main guy at comedy bang bang, I got confused, but he's on there. He's on there a bunch Adam Scott's on there, yeah, I really like Severance is good.
Speaker 2I loved him on Parks and Rec. I loved him on Severance.
Speaker 1He was in an old movie called Torque which was basically Fast and Furious with motorcycles. It did not blow up like Fast and Furious, but I remember him on that when I was in Japan seeing him there. Yeah, he's fun.
Speaker 2Okay, I'll go Okay.
Speaker 1I'll put that in the Okay, we'll put that on the to do list, we'll have Adam Scott We'll see who will as soon as I can get him.
Speaker 2All right, well, we just we already introduced the podcast, but just so everyone knows, you know, we always talk about new solutions every week. That's the concept, that's the, that's the core. That's the core. Yeah, that's funny that you said that.
Speaker 1What Wait? Why is that funny? Oh, because I'm a comedy guy. Well, anything I say is funny.
Speaker 2Well, it's debating two solutions to do, but then you just said, like the word, that is one of them and I was going to do the other one. Okay, so now you said the actual ideas name.
Speaker 1No, you just said the ideas name. Wait what I'm joking.
Speaker 2Okay, switch gears audible. We're going to do that one instead of the other one. We'll do the other one next week.
Speaker 1Okay, so stay tuned.
Speaker 2Have you seen this new? Okay, should I say the solution? Sure, okay, the solution is Apple. What the company Apple? Okay, instead of launching the Vision Pro, which is a bunch of crap, they should launch small modular nuclear reactors and call it Apple core.
Speaker 1That was the idea that I.
Speaker 2You just said that, what that was weird. Did I like queue you up somehow to say it? No, whoa, so wait, that's the idea.
Speaker 1Apple core. I just said that, Okay, that's really wild. But Back up to the weird part where you're saying small, what Small modular reactors.
Speaker 2Yeah, they're called SMR small modular reactors, Like the thing in Iron Man's chest. Yeah, but bigger than that they're the size of Well. The common size is like a two-story building, but a tube. They kind of look like Well, you can build them. All different form factors, A two-story tall tube. It's like a two-story.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's like a With nuclear reactor stuff inside.
Speaker 2Well, think of a normal reactor.
Speaker 1This is huge like Simpsons. I think of a normal reactor all the time.
Speaker 2Bro, I'm always thinking about normal reactors you don't have to tell me the classic traditional reactor is 50 stories tall. Think of Homer Simpson where he worked the big, huge.
Speaker 1The funnel, funnel, yeah, chernobyl thing, exactly so.
Speaker 2The classic reactor is ginormous and it's extremely expensive, and this is what everybody says oh my God, nuclear is so expensive. So even though there's all these problems with nuclear, but the worm hath turned on nuclear in public opinion.
Speaker 1The worm hath turned. The worm hath turned Is that a phrase to you.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's a phrase Actually I think it's the worm doth turn. Where is it from? It's just a phrase in English. It means like there's been a sea change. It means there's been a reversal, the tables have turned.
Speaker 1The worm hath turned you wake up. Good morning Adam, good morning Herman. Maybe it is hath turned.
Speaker 2Maybe it's the worm hath turned.
Speaker 1Anyways, the point is there's been a reversal, so a lot of people environmentalists were like first. Environmentalists were against nuclear from the 60s and 70s.
Speaker 2And then even in the 2000s, people like kind of progressives, were kind of against Environmentalists, were kind of against nuclear. But now a bunch of really smart environmentalists are actually like, no, we definitely do need to do nuclear and it was a big mistake to slow down and stop nuclear at all. We should have been doing it this whole time because people are starting to weigh risks against each other and the risk of climate change is at this point entirely eminent. We are already hurtling towards very bad scenarios and I know there's like optimists out there who are like, oh, but the government policies on the books will limit heating to two degrees centigrade. It's like.
Speaker 2It's like when have you believed governments to like do things on the timelines? They say they're gonna do Like everything's quadrupled the budget in 10 times the length, so yeah, so I think we're hurtling towards this negative outcome. So people are starting to realize, oh, the long-term risk of like managing nuclear waste and building reactors that are kind of expensive is way smaller than the. They force certain near-term risks of the oils, the hyperstorms and millions of refugees from moving out of drought.
Speaker 1Can we just not build them near like places where?
Speaker 2tidal waves. So this is the cool thing. Yeah, don't build them by the ocean. But here's the cool thing these small modular reactors are like the future and people are already doing this, and this is how Apple builds products.
Speaker 1People are doing their own small modular nuclear reactors. I have two in my basement, shut up.
Speaker 2Is that why Iron man? Is that why my hair stands up right in my chest?
Speaker 1Put it into my chest already. There's a vague hum everywhere.
Speaker 2when I get near your house, it's delicious, keeps everything nice and toasty, nice and warm. No, so let me explain how Apple builds products. Okay, All right, so Apple innovating Wait I know this answer.
Speaker 1They have a factory with nets around it because it makes people miserable, oh my God. And then they work them 26 hours a day building phones. Those are probably.
Speaker 2Apple's suppliers.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, those are Apple. Maybe it is Apple.
Speaker 2I don't know, but here's how Apple builds products. They do not. So people think Apple's innovative and they are sort of innovative, but they're not actually like breakthrough innovative. What they do is they find a market, they wait until that market develops and a bunch of people spend a ton of money developing that market, developing consumer awareness for that product, developing the technology for that product, and then Apple comes out late in that competitive process with their take on that thing inside of their vertical integration system.
Speaker 1I thought you were gonna say they buy over the company.
Speaker 2No, they just do Well, they do make small acquisitions around in the space.
Speaker 1But a lot of times they'll just snake up, but then they make their own product.
Speaker 2So, like Bluetooth headphones, there were, remember, those like ugly plastic, like gray, like Bluetooth headphone, things that people would have.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2They were like on their. They were on their face and they looked like little torpedoes and they'd go on their ear.
Speaker 1It was like a Bluetooth headphone. Okay, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2Yeah, so that was already there. Yeah, so that was already there. That was a developing market. And then Apple came out with the AirPods and it just Destroyed it, it just obliterated it because the AirPods you just opened the little opening case and it synced with your phone instantly. They pop in, they pop out, they charge, they got a battery, they got a thing it's like perfectly in their ecosystem and just disrupts that growing market.
Speaker 1I've never used AirPods. I've never had an iPhone. Do you? Are they that much better?
Speaker 2Like, do you?
Speaker 1are they really good? They're amazing Cause I mean I have had I have cordless earphones and I think they're great.
Speaker 2They're fine. Yeah, apple headphones are just fantastic, okay, and then a lot of the ones you see now Is that why they dominated, though?
Speaker 1Because they build out like not just come out with the same thing, but come out with a high quality, like version that people like High quality version and integrated into their vertical sort of system, and they've already created this brand desire where now they're like well, if I'm choosing between two things, the one's the Apple brand. I'm the Apple brand person, so I buy the Apple brand person and it's not completely like on the Apple brand person, like I'm the Prada brand person.
Speaker 2There's a reason. I mean they integrate with your other devices perfectly, like I can sit down on my couch and put in my Bluetooth earphones and press power on my Apple TV and it instantly syncs cause it knows it's in my ears and so it just contextually-.
Speaker 1So they know the importance of that frustration point of trying to get something to connect and not connecting over and over and having to turn off your one thing and turn off the other thing and turn off your. Bluetooth and then turn it back on.
Speaker 2That doesn't happen at all, and they're like if we can eliminate that.
Speaker 1If we can prioritize, this thing connects instantly. People are gonna put it ahead of other things in like far ahead.
Speaker 2Okay, this is called, like it just works, sort of the user experience theory.
Speaker 1So the nuclear reactor syncs to my phone.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you can track all your nuclear reactor energy. So here's my premise the small nuclear reactor market is exactly at that moment when Apple usually swoops in and, like, releases their version.
Speaker 1It's that stage of evolution, at that stage, yeah.
Speaker 2There's already, like lots of people, lots of little companies and even big companies have put a lot of money in to like make a lot of headway and like develop people's awareness of it and develop, you know, technologies that are breakthrough technologies. You need to make it work and have tried a few things and a few things didn't work and a few things have been working. This is the perfect time for Apple to do it. Now, why should Apple do that? Two reasons. I got a third reason. Well, it's your reason.
Speaker 1Well, I mean, I was gonna say climate change. Oh, go ahead, no yeah.
Speaker 2Climate change. The climate crisis can't just be something governments do and green companies do. It has to be something that every single corporation does. They have to change everything they're doing and fix the climate change.
Speaker 1That's for sure, the bigger the corporation, the more you need to do and the bigger the corporation the more responsibility you have and the more opportunity you have to do it Okay.
Speaker 2The other reason is that this actually, I believe, fits into Apple's ecosystem. Not necessarily to their consumers, but it fits into Apple's ecosystem in the sense that the consumers are all charging their phone, it's all electricity, and Apple has these huge data centers that all use a huge amount of electricity and these modular nuclear reactors could be used in those data centers and chip factories and every part of the ecosystem that battery factories, everywhere where you need energy, that Apple could be then selling these Apple Core small nuclear reactors.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, and the same way that, like, one of the assets of having a Tesla is that you get access to these Tesla superchargers wherever you go. It's like you're free electricity generated by us.
Speaker 2You're like all right. I mean, if that was Well, it's not generated by them, but yeah.
Speaker 1All right. Well, if that was Apple's, yeah, provided for you. If that was Apple's like thing where they're just like, yeah, we're.
Speaker 2Have you ever heard of Project Titan?
Speaker 1No.
Apple's Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Speaker 2This is Apple's self-driving car. Oh Okay, apple building a self-driving car Cool. So basically, this To the same playbook. I just told you they're doing it for self-driving cars. Okay, they're waiting for Tesla and Waymo and Cruz and Zooks and to do all the mistakes and develop all this technology and train all these employees, and then Apple will just come out with the Apple car.
Speaker 2The project's called Project Titan. Who knows what it'll be called? I car, I car. What a horrible name. Probably Apple. They've gotten rid of the I stuff. They're switching over to Apple X, apple, this.
Speaker 1That's true, so maybe they'll call them.
Speaker 2Apple or air car.
Speaker 1Car plus Car pod.
Speaker 2Car pod is pretty good. No, it's not.
Speaker 1No, it's not Tim Cook. Do not do that.
Speaker 2Do not do it. I know you're listening, don't call it a car pod. But so I was gonna say.
Speaker 1The third thing that I was gonna say is that companies, big companies, are trying to buy things and get bigger and, like Disney, sort of has the corner now on media, where Apple's a media company but Disney's like we'll buy Fox.
Speaker 2They will buy Apple.
Speaker 1If Sony comes up for sale, disney's gonna gobble them up, because Spider-Man or whatever you know like they'll be by Marvel. They buy Star Wars and so Apple's like okay, I guess we'll start buying like nuclear react, like we need to pivot somewhere and this is another space to get big.
Speaker 2They did this for streaming. They let Netflix and all these you know, Matt, HBO, all these people start everything, try things, develop a whole sort of flow of how things got created and purchasing agreements worked and how actors thought about the new streaming marketplace and then they launched.
Speaker 1Apple TV Plus. Who kicks the door in and comes right into the room? Ted freaking Lasso Exactly Walks in the door and says welcome to Apple everybody. People love Ted Lasso, love it.
Speaker 2Yeah, and morning show people love that, and Killers of the Flower Moon just recently was like, really was like really big and important. So it was just like Apple does this. This is their playbook. So the solution today is do this for small modular nuclear reactors. They can do it. They have a supply chain to build things like this. They are okay. Now we gotta get into small modular nuclear reactors.
Speaker 1We've gotta get into this, so people learn about this. Okay, so these are the two of us are the people to tell people about nuclear reaction.
Speaker 2Yeah, I know, some I've educated myself about this?
Speaker 1I do not. I'm not an expert.
Speaker 2But I've learned a lot about it. Okay, so, basically, the idea is, the bulk of the lift is If you build a nuclear power plant at any time in history, even current ones that are being built, they're totally bespoke, they're built completely. Yeah, they're Artisanal. Yeah, they're bespoke.
Speaker 1They're built by hand. There's not a lot of I imagine something like a steampunk thing with people turning wrenches and gaskets and different things, and it's going.
Speaker 2They have like a thing on the side of their top hats.
Speaker 1Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future like something that he would build like some weird that's how nuclear reactors are built. They literally what?
Speaker 2They're not standardized. Oh my gosh, they're not standardized. You're freaking me out. No, it's true. Every nuclear actor, they have some standardized things. Like you buy wire, it's all gonna come wire. You buy tubes?
Speaker 1you buy tubes, but if you hey, buy some tubes, buy some wire. You need to like move what kind, I don't know. It's gonna be wire Wires, gonna be wire tubes.
Speaker 2You buy fans, they're all kind of things. But if you say, okay, what's the constellation of all those things into a nuclear reactor? Every one is very different. They each do it a different way. And then when they do it, they do it at a certain scale, to a certain size, and then all these problems come up and it's like they have to overcome all these problems. It's a huge engineering problem because everything's different in every location and the cooling systems are done a little differently. Oh, we'll do it this way this time, we'll do it that way, we'll do it a little better next time. So every single time it's like different.
Speaker 2The small modular nuclear reactors eliminates that. Every single one is just like a self-contained nuclear reactor that's built exactly to spec and then it goes into a system it plugs into like a system that is also to spec. So if you want one, you just order it whatever. If a hospital wants to have endless energy, never it would be off the grid. Like, say, a hospital says we don't ever wanna be on the grid anymore. Like, mayo Clinic doesn't wanna be connected to the American grid, they just wanna be off the grid and be totally protected.
Speaker 1They could just and job security If they have constant nuclear radiation going on in their communities then they're gonna have more people coming in.
Speaker 2There's no radiation Needing treatment.
Speaker 1Oh sorry, what this is a safe? These are extremely safe.
Speaker 2These are extremely safe. So what they do is they order it. It comes, it arrives on like a truck and the specifications of where it needs to be plugged in. The people show up, they dig a hole that's two stories deep, like a 25 foot hole. They fill it in with concrete. They build the electricity wiring so that the electricity can come out. Transformers, whatever it needs, everything it needs.
Speaker 2And then the nuclear reactor just gets slotted in like a battery, and then it just gets cemented over the top and all that comes out is power, completely self-contained.
Speaker 1And it's all has. Is that possible? That's what it is.
Speaker 2This is what small modular reactors are. They don't require maintenance, and when they do need maintenance, the company comes and does the maintenance. So there's no like.
Speaker 1Well, how are you gonna do maintenance on something that's encased in?
Speaker 2like a mile of concrete. Well, I don't know if they encase the top. I can't remember if they really close it off but it's completely self-contained and you don't go in there. Only the people from the company go in and do anything in there. You just order it and pay the money and they show up and they put it in and then now you have free power. It produces megawatts of energy, like huge amounts of electricity, and you can have them in series.
Speaker 1So say you want triple that, you just buy three of them and they're in series in one and three things. You think these are safe enough, you'd be okay with one, being like next door to eat.
Speaker 2I'd eat breakfast on top one every day. I wouldn't care at all. No, because it's just science. The radiation can't get through. I think they're also encased in the tube. Inside has the actual radioactive uranium fuel rod is inside.
Speaker 2And then that is encased in I think water, and then that's encased in the actual tube which has multiple layers and then that's put inside of the cement thing and then that has safety things all around it and every layer has sensors and all of it is sensorized. So everyone knows what the temperature is all the time and it's always it's totally maintained and protected and safe.
Speaker 1Now imagine that within one of those tubes there's actually a tiny spider. Okay, Now follow me on this the tiny spider is in the radiation but, it's small enough to get through the crack.
Speaker 2Yes, yes, All right. Do you see where I'm going? And I'm sitting there eating a croissant.
Speaker 1And you see the spider coming up to you and you just squish it with your, you just stomp on it and smash the spider.
Speaker 2I went another direction than I thought.
Speaker 1Cause I kill spiders, isn't it?
Speaker 2crazy that you said apple core.
Speaker 1That is weird. I didn't prime you to do that. That was not set up at all. I didn't set that up. That's weird. Yeah, that's a Creepy Synchrony. That's not the word Synchrony.
Speaker 2Synchrony yeah, so apple could do this. They could be saying this is our climate privilege. Also, I'll just point out the energy market in the world. Right Cause apple is a global company. Yes, the energy market in the world is I mean, I don't even know the number, but it's gotta be what 10, a hundred times larger than the personal electronics market, which means, from a business perspective, this is like you know. This is like a big opportunity to make like a lot of money, like more money than they couldn't make as an electronics company.
Speaker 1I think so I mean to become a utility. Essentially is the yeah, and they could do it, they could pull it off.
Speaker 2They have the global footprint, the manufacturing relationships, supply chain, engineering ability, cash cash on hand and they have 300, they have a couple hundred billion dollars just cash. They could pour that cash into this investment.
Speaker 1It would be a worthwhile investment to do, and it lets you pivot your society into electrified society.
Speaker 2Electrified society.
Speaker 1I mean it's like Tron cities or like. Tokyo, you know like where things are. You can use power to do all sorts of new things you didn't even think of. You can have sections of the yeah. You can start doing maglev trains everywhere. You know what I mean, Like high speed rail.
Speaker 2Right, and then you can plug in. You plug into these nuclear reactors, you can plug in green hydrogen. So this is what people are talking about. Green hydrogen is just Sounds dangerous Sounds, toxic bro. A bunch of green hydrogen gas.
Speaker 1Now, that's where your superhero comes from. So green hydrogen, so there's blue hydrogen, oh, there's gray, I think it's gray hydrogen, blue hydrogen, green hydrogen and pink and red, and then they all have, and then they turn orange and then they go to get, and then they Voltron, they go to get, they form hydrogen Voltron and they take on the reader of Pulsar.
Speaker 2I got you, bro.
Speaker 1I understand, yes, you are way ahead of me, the green hydrogen ranger. What are you saying?
Speaker 2So you say you don't want to have electric cars because you don't like I don't know, you think the batteries wear out or something. You want to have hydrogen cars. This is not a crazy idea. Actually, Toyota is not investing in lithium ion cars. They're investing way more in hydrogen cars, which sounds crazy to a lot of people, but actually that's what they're doing. That's what the biggest car company in the world is doing.
Speaker 1No one talks about that. How do you fill up a car like a hydrogen fuel cell? Do you have?
Speaker 2to fill that up.
Speaker 1Do you go to a place and put hydrogen in your car? Hydrogen.
Speaker 2I think they make the cells and then you just take the cells and replace empty cartridges with new cartridges.
Speaker 1You don't like fill it.
Speaker 2Do you do that at your house? Or no just stations, or they could be delivered to your house.
Speaker 1I just don't know that process. I don't know that.
Speaker 2That's one of the things they kind of have to figure out, but mostly they put them in these like tanks.
Speaker 1Because I understand plug my car into this thing in the wall Because, like gas, that makes sense. I understand that you would not do that with hydrogen, because the hydrogen would be under high pressure.
Speaker 2So you put it in this like tube that's safe, wrapped in aluminum and strong metals and carbon fibers.
Speaker 1Like the CO2 cartridges To really protect it.
Speaker 2And then it'd be really under pressure. You would not want to like shoot this thing with a gun, that would be bad, but it would be safe otherwise and then you'd put it into your car, you'd slot it in and you'd slot the empty one out and slot it Probably I don't really know exactly but I think that's what they do.
Speaker 1Okay, that's not important, but anyways, green hydrogen.
Speaker 2So right now most of the hydrogen in the world is gray hydrogen. Which means they burn you know they're burning coal or they're burning natural gas and actually hydrogen is released.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2And they gather it and then they're like here's some hydrogen, but that's not carbon neutral. That's bad. You don't want to burn natural gas to get you know, you want to get green hydrogen. So then there's blue hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is where you generate hydrogen from electrolysis. So you put electricity into water and then water unbinds itself, so H2O becomes H2 and O2. So you get your hydrogen out of that that's called blue hydrogen.
Speaker 1Does that create ozone? No, is that O2? No, that's O3. But the problem is.
Speaker 2Blue hydrogen is when you do that with electricity generated through burning coal, still like burning fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is when you do electrolysis with renewable energy.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2And now there's a bunch of subsidies for green hydrogen. And if you're creating hydrogen, you have to now prove to the government that you are producing it in a green way, not with blue or gray way, and there's subsidies for that. So that means there's subsidies for you to take one of these nuclear reactors, or 20 of them in series, yeah, and be a green hydrogen Producer. Even a gas station which was like a hydrogen gas station could have one of these nuclear reactors, or two of them on site right and have its own electrolysis hydrogen generation on site and be producing. So essentially, today you get gas out of the ground in Saudi Arabia yeah.
Speaker 2You ship it all the way to America tankers they put they put it on trucks, they ship it to every gas station and they transplanted into the ground. This, you would just that there would just be a station and it would just be producing all the energy that all the cars needed To have high. I like that cool. Yeah, and it's always safe and there's a and there's a recycling aspect here. So when you use a uranium rod, like a fuel rod, when I use one, when you use it, what do you do? With it.
Speaker 1Tell me what your day-to-day me, I like to decorate with uranium rods around the house from here there to kind of brighten up a dark space with a warm I do them like in my fingers, like this, and then I rave. Oh yeah, I've seen the videos of you doing that on tiktok. People like you could use glow sticks, you like? No, no, no, you're ready.
Speaker 2Well, huh, but uh so when you use up a uranium fuel rod, say it's at the end of its life, guess what percentage of it has been used? It's gonna be low, it's gotta be low Uh. I don't know. 5% no yes. Yes.
Speaker 1You've only used 5% and then they're like all right, chuck, it's done.
Speaker 2Because because, because all that 5% is scattered throughout the whole thing, okay, and so it's not gonna give off nearly, it's not gonna do what it's supposed to do. Not, it's not sparkly you keep, you keep shooting things at it to try to keep Fissioning. It's a flat and it's not gonna fission anymore because the reaction can't go through. It, can't you know?
Speaker 1because the reaction is a chain reaction has to go through it, yeah it stops going through it because it's all right.
Speaker 2It keeps hitting dead ones already.
Speaker 1Right, a flat soda. Like you pour the soda, it's all nice and sparkly. You drink it, yeah, and then you only drink five and then it goes flat.
Speaker 2You're like I just pour anything that takes like a network effect, you know, like an echo effect, if you, if you dampen it, then it stops, it Retards the, you know, the ability to go all the way through it. We're not supposed to say that word, but I think you're. Sorry guys, this is not a politically correct podcast. So basically here's the thing there is a way to recycle them so you can take that 95% good Uranium right and you can recycle it into 100% again and send it back out.
Speaker 2Just put it in the blue bin, yeah so Apple, with the launch of Apple Corps, could say this is a closed loop system. Not only are we planning the full development of Apple, new small nuclear reactors that are much cheaper and extremely afford, you know, because they're using our full kind of Engineers and our full you know abilities and ecosystem and manufacturing to do this. So it's way cheaper and and you trust it because it's Apple and it's fully integrated into our you know, our power systems are using our own Apple core stuff. Actually, maybe it can't be called Apple core, cuz maybe that's the name of their chips already. Aren't the M3 chips? Aren't those called Apple core?
Speaker 1I don't know you, you, you slipped with Apple nuke there for a second I was like no that's not a good one.
Speaker 2You can't have that one.
Speaker 1So I was thinking Apple core is not a bad brand anyways.
Speaker 2So they they could launch that all and then they could say this is a closed loop system, we're gonna also recycle all of it which you wouldn't have to recycle the first one, for you know, 30 or 20 years or whatever, like they last a decade and recycling.
Speaker 1It is dig out, the giant come they pick, yeah they.
Speaker 2They take out the tube crack it all? No, they don't know. Well, they take it into a very safe you know. They truck it away totally sealed, okay, in a very safe environment. They, you know, they deconstruct it, pull out the tube right, safely, you know, carefully, make, do the process of recycling it and then that's connected to the manufacturing factory that's making the next one right.
Speaker 1What I love about that is I Don't have to think about it for 30 years, like that's gonna be those people. Probably you never have to think about it 30 years from now I'll be retired and Enjoying the effects of climate change.
Speaker 2Yes, and you can. Apple can charge, not just for the manufacture of these things, but they can charge a subscription. So they can say okay, you're, you're a hospital who wants to do this, or you're a green hydrogen place and you want one of these or euro, whatever and you want one of these, great, you buy it for you know, 25 million dollars, which you can then finance over its whole lifetime because it's insured to work right 30 years right, and we want a subscription that whole time too, for all the maintenance and everything, and then you have a recycling fee at the end, all baked in it sounds, it's not.
Speaker 1That plan is not dissimilar to the ones where you get one of those full Solar roof things. Yeah, where you like, it's a huge upfront investment that it pays off slowly over time and you do a subscription to whatever the Whoever, the generator, and you ensure it and yeah, yeah yeah, yeah so. I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2I don't know if this works out with what's called the levelized cost, the levelized cost of energy. The levelized cost of energy what?
Speaker 1is that.
Speaker 2That's how you compare apples to apples between different methods of generation of electricity.
Speaker 1So if you look at like wind, solar, okay, you know natural gas the best for the buck. Yeah, exactly, these are all so different.
Speaker 2How do you really compare their costs? Well, you do this thing called levelized cost of energy, and so I don't know exactly what it boils down to, but but the, the cost, the. I know that small modular nuclear reactors are Right now having like a breakout moment, like they're happening. This is it. They're starting. There will be SMR's. They're called SMR's small nuclear react, small modular reactors. Okay, they're already happening. I heard a podcast the other day of a guy who's the CEO.
Speaker 1I've heard of a SMR's. Yeah, those are a little similar. They're like yeah, that's my Trap trap, trap, trap, trap, trap, trap, trap, trap.
Speaker 2Do you get the freeze on from ASMR? No.
Speaker 1What's the freeze on?
Speaker 2That's, some people get this really pleasant experience.
Speaker 1I don't think it does for me. No, I don't think I have that ASMR, I just like everyone likes it. But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2But anyways, you'd have to look at the levelized cost and everything and you'd have to see what Apple would say the levelized cost of energy is for them and their supply chain and their sort of whole financial set Do you think that's the next step toward like smaller and smaller nuclear power?
Speaker 1I mean, I'm trying to get to Iron man, but not this is the next step. Yes, Well, I'm trying to get to Iron man, but not get to Terminators. You know what I mean. I want that power to be powering human suits, but not powering AI robots.
Speaker 2Good luck, good luck.
Speaker 1Do you know any way to do that? Is there a way to One of the reasons people are building.
Speaker 2I have a couple of companies that are building like humanoid robots. They were actually inspired by the Fukushima disaster because in Fukushima there was like part I guess there were things in Fukushima where it was like the doors were all closed and it was like you can't go in there or you'll die of radiation. But literally, if someone just could walk in and like turn to knob, it would have like stopped the whole thing.
Speaker 1And so if they just had had To sacrifice yourself moment.
Speaker 2If there had been a humanoid robot, they could have just walked in and done it. They could have stayed in there for hours, you know, and they would have been a radioactive robot. At the end you would have to destroy it. But who cares as a robot, Right? So actually some people are, you know, this is sort of a safety thing. But, these SMRs things, their chances of going like you know, nuclear or whatever are even like already modern nuclear reactors. There's like no chance of them going like Chernobyl.
Speaker 1Very low, like all like it happened in my lifetime In decimal, yeah.
Speaker 2But here's the thing about nuclear, though. People should not be so scared nuclear, especially not the small modular reactors, and the reason is, if you look at the number of people who have died due to different energy sources, this is a critical thing. The number of people who have died from nuclear energy is like in the last, like 50 years, is like 10 people. It's like nobody.
Speaker 1They've had less time to go than like coal, but coal.
Speaker 2Even just now, coal is like hundreds of thousands, like millions. Because they get lung disease and they die. And it's like they die of lung disease from the coal. And it's not just the coal miners, it's anybody who lives anywhere near a coal power plant gets terrible, you know particulate coal Oil is guilt-free, right, totally guilt-free.
Speaker 1Well, that is where we started talking about an apple.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Well, that is weird synchronicity. You know it's so weird.
Speaker 2I was gonna talk about something completely different. It's weird.
Speaker 1This is how you find out that I've hacked your phone.
Speaker 2Yeah right, you just know the ones. No, there's no way, because you still wouldn't know, because I make the decision at the very last minute. I decided at the very last split second what to do.
Speaker 1This is how I tell you I have Professor X powers.
Speaker 2That's true. That would be a solution. That would be a good solution.
Global Reach of SFM Podcast
Speaker 1Having Professor X. Yeah, here's the solution have Professor X powers.
Speaker 2I guess one of the rules of SFM is it has to be plausible. It can't just be fantastical, it's a global we actually have.
Speaker 1I mean, we do have listeners in. That's true. Every continent, yes, every continent we have. There is like one person in South America that's holding us strong there. I don't know who it is. If you're the person in South America that keeps listening, this is great You're keeping us on all the. We have more in other ones, but I love this. The one in South America. Who is it?
Speaker 2Solutiones del multiverso Perfecto.
Speaker 1Perfecto.
Speaker 2Perfecto, everyone is welcome. We are global podcast. Yeah, buenas noches, everybody. Buenas noches.
Speaker 1All right, take everybody.
Speaker 2See ya, keep it climbing, ms News.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
The Perfect Show
Scot Maupin