Atomically Speaking, the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition's Official Podcast

In this episode, NENSC Co-Chair Daniel Poneman sits down with Jay Tilden and Chris Ploch — the Coalition's newly appointed Executive Director and Deputy Director — to explore how DOE's twin missions of national nuclear security and civilian energy must work in concert, why a domestic uranium enrichment capability is both a security and economic imperative, and what listeners can expect from NENSC in the months ahead.

In this episode of Atomically Speaking, NENSC Co-Chair, Daniel Poneman sits down with Bryan Hanson to explore the resurgence of nuclear energy in the United States. From restarting Three Mile Island as the Chris Crane Clean Energy Center to extending reactor lifespans and meeting surging demand from AI and electrification, Mr. Hanson shares an inside look at how the nation’s largest nuclear fleet is navigating a rapidly evolving energy landscape and why nuclear power remains critical to both economic growth and national security.

In this episode of Atomically Speaking, NENSC Co-Chair Daniel Poneman sits down with Brad Williams, Senior Policy Advisor at the Idaho National Laboratory to explore the evolving landscape of nuclear energy in the United States. From rebuilding the nuclear fuel supply chain to advancing bipartisan legislation, they discuss how policy, innovation, and collaboration are shaping a new era of nuclear deployment both at home and globally.

In this episode of Atomically Speaking, NENSC Co-Chair Daniel Poneman sits down with Dr. Stephen Streiffer to discuss the legacy of the Manhattan Project and how it continues to shape the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s mission today. Dr. Streiffer walks through the history of uranium enrichment and the technologies used over the years, from the gaseous diffusion process and electromagnetic separation to laser isotope separation technologies now being studied for potential commercial energy applications. He also discusses Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s current priorities and the role it plays in supporting the May 2025 White House Executive Orders aimed at restoring U.S. nuclear leadership, including the DOE Genesis Mission — a national initiative to accelerate scientific discovery through the use of artificial intelligence.

In this episode of Atomically Speaking, NENSC Co-Chair Daniel Poneman and Jake Jurewicz, CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Energy, sat down during CERAWeek to talk about what led him to co-found Blue Energy and to discuss Blue Energy’s model aimed at accelerating nuclear energy deployment globally.

In this episode of Atomically Speaking, NENSC Co-Chair Dan Poneman sits down with Dr. John Wagner to discuss the Idaho National Laboratory’s historic role in Advanced Reactor Technology, his perspective on the future direction of modern Advanced Reactor Technology in the United States, and his thoughts on the safety of nuclear applications in the U.S. and other countries around the world.

In this episode, NENSC Co-Chair Dan Poneman and Dr. Kim Budil talk about the path that led her to leading the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, reflections on the history of the lab and its prior leaders, and explore the science of fusion, its potential commercial viability, and the role of NIF and fusion testing in ensuring the safety of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

In this episode, NENSC Co-chair Daniel Poneman and Dr. Thom Mason, Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, talk about Dr. Mason’s three decades of experience in the industry, and his leadership of the Laboratory’s national security, science, and mission-delivery portfolio. This active discussion covers prior and recent geopolitical events, the evolution of the nuclear deterrence environment, and the state of the U.S. national security and civilian nuclear energy enterprise.

In this episode, NENSC Co-Chair Dan Poneman convenes two leading experts for a thoughtful conversation regarding ongoing negotiations between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a “123 agreement,” a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that provides a framework for peaceful nuclear energy cooperation. Participants include Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative and the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the Brookings Institution, and Pranay Vaddi, a senior nuclear fellow at the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In this episode, NENSC Co-Chair Dan Poneman sat down for an informative discussion with Dr. Jeff Waksman, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment, to discuss the evolving landscape of military energy resilience. Their conversation centered on the critical role of Project Pele, the strategic value of nuclear energy for the U.S. military, the promise of civil-military collaboration in advanced nuclear technologies, and how the pursuit of these innovations by the Department of Defense aligns with broader U.S. ambitions for technological and energy leadership.