Catalyst with Shayle Kann

Dr. Jen Schaefer, a nuclear fuel-cycle expert and professor at Colorado School of Mines, breaks down what spent fuel is and which isotopes drive long-term risk. She walks through storage methods from pools to dry casks. The conversation covers Yucca Mountain, recycling versus disposal, how advanced reactor fuels change the problem, and novel take-back ideas for microreactors.

Scott Moskowitz, VP of market strategy and public affairs at Qcells and chair of the SEIA board, discusses U.S. efforts to reshore solar manufacturing. He digs into which supply-chain steps are coming back, why clustering and scale matter, and how costs, policy incentives, and permitting shape competitiveness. The conversation highlights chokepoints from polysilicon to modules and the politics behind industrial policy.

Jake Elder, SVP of Research and Innovation at Energy Impact Partners, specializes in built environment and data center energy issues. He walks through four compute pathways: on grid, on edge, off grid, and off planet. Short takes cover grid transmission limits, edge scalability doubts, engineering reliability for off-grid sites, and the physics and feasibility of orbital data centers.

Seth Frater-Thompson, president and co-founder of EnergyHub, builds DERMS and VPP frameworks. Stacey Phillips, Managing Director at Duke Energy, runs customer load programs and VPP deployments. They discuss VPP reliability at scale, the Huels Test for grid-grade trust, how utilities integrate customer devices into planning, and the evolution from demand response to operational virtual power plants.

Carlos Araque, founder and CEO of Quaise Energy, is developing millimeter-wave drilling to reach ultra-deep, ~800°F geothermal resources. He discusses why 800°F is the sweet spot for high-density geothermal. They cover how activating deep rock permeability differs from fracking. Carlos outlines drilling challenges, materials and electronics for extreme heat, and Quaise’s plan and timeline toward a 2026 flow test.

David Roberts, journalist and Volts podcast host known for climate and clean energy policy, joins for a rapid-fire tour of six big energy questions. They probe self-driving cars and urban sprawl. They debate data centers going off-grid versus grid benefits. They examine risks from home software platforms, industrial electrification under rising power prices, recycling’s role in critical minerals, and the prospects and moral hazards of geoengineering.

Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power and ex-Tesla energy and powertrain lead, explains the rise of solid-state transformers. He traces power transistor evolution. He discusses replacing legacy transformers, solving the transformer shortage, enabling major infrastructure reductions at data centers, and how SSTs could make the grid more intelligent and efficient.

Paul Siegel, CEO of LS Power, a developer and operator of generation, storage, and transmission assets. He digs into PJM’s sudden flip from surplus to shortage and why capacity prices surged. He discusses the DOE’s push to make hyperscalers pay and interim fixes like batteries and uprates. He also unpacks why ERCOT felt cyclical despite big load growth and how price signals unlocked flexible demand.

Katy Huff, former DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy and current University of Illinois professor focused on nuclear policy and licensing. She breaks down licensing pathways, the NRC’s opaque pre-application maze, why DOE’s “criticality by July 4” goal is extremely aggressive, microreactor economics and factory needs, and realistic timelines for advanced reactors reaching the grid.

James McGinniss, founder and CEO of David Energy, builds plug-in distributed energy systems for homes and small businesses. He explains why simple plug-in batteries and balcony solar can slash soft costs and scale fast. They discuss regulatory gray areas, Germany’s rapid adoption, commercial demand‑charge savings, and future appliance-integrated storage.