Show notes
Gary Schuster of Sioux Falls, a retired metallurgical engineer with a B.S. in physics from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Illinois, joins Dave Roetman to explain why he supports nuclear energy. He was director of research and development at Materion, the world's largest beryllium producer, where he worked on beryllium for test reactors, for the ITER fusion project and for commercial reactor cores. He ran for the South Dakota House in District 12 in 2022.
Recorded in late summer 2023 and first published Nov. 23, 2023. Figures in the conversation are as Gary cited them at the time.
Context on the numbers: Our World in Data's current estimates of deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity, from accidents and air pollution, are coal 24.6, oil 18.4, natural gas 2.8, wind 0.04, nuclear 0.03 (including Chernobyl and Fukushima) and solar 0.02. The ranking matches Gary's, but his coal and oil figures are higher than these. The University of Chicago study he describes is "Do Renewable Portfolio Standards Deliver?" by Michael Greenstone and Ishan Nath (2019). It found that retail electricity prices were 11% higher seven years after a state adopted a renewable mandate, and 17% higher after 12 years.
Update (Oct. 2026): Nuclear power is back on South Dakota's agenda. Gov. Larry Rhoden's Resilience and Infrastructure Task Force recommended a state nuclear energy study, and the Legislature's fiscal year 2026 budget revision (SB 78, signed March 30, 2026) added the $300,000 the governor requested for it to the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen said a reasonable timeline was to hire a consultant by the end of spring 2026 and have results by the end of the year. NorthWestern Energy is studying small modular reactors for its South Dakota customers. The Public Utilities Commission approved recovery of those study costs in July 2025, and the company's 2026 filing says a go/no-go decision could come as early as late 2028, with the earliest modeled deployment in 2032. South Dakota still produces no nuclear power; about 4% of the electricity it uses comes from nuclear plants in other states. Nationally, on the issues Gary raised: a May 2025 executive order directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide new reactor license applications within 18 months and set a goal of 400 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050. The nuclear production tax credit Gary mentioned was created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and the July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act kept the nuclear tax credits while ending credits for new wind and solar projects that don't start construction by July 4, 2026 or go into service by the end of 2027. Yucca Mountain is still unbuilt, and Congress hasn't funded it since 2010. (Sources are linked below.)
More on energy on Making Waves
Interview: Don Haggar, on South Dakota energy policy and his run for the Public Utilities Commission (Aug. 19, 2025): https://daveroetman.substack.com/p/interview-don-haggar
About the guest
Gary Schuster (Ballotpedia): https://ballotpedia.org/Gary_Schuster
Materion: https://www.materion.com/
ITER, the international fusion project: https://www.iter.org/
Background
Do Renewable Portfolio Standards Deliver? (Greenstone and Nath, University of Chicago EPIC, 2019): https://epic.uchicago.edu/research/do-renewable-portfolio-standards-deliver/
What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy? (Our World in Data): https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy
2023 Senate Concurrent Resolution 601, encouraging an interim legislative committee on nuclear power (adopted February 2023): https://mylrc.sdlegislature.gov/api/Documents/248883.pdf
Update sources
Rhoden's budget proposes modernizing state's IT systems and studying nuclear energy (KOTA, Dec. 3, 2025): https://www.kotatv.com/2025/12/04/rhodens-budget-proposes-modernizing-states-it-systems-studying-nuclear-energy/
South Dakota inches toward studying nuclear power as data center energy demands loom (South Dakota Searchlight, Jan. 30, 2026): https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2026/01/30/south-dakota-inches-toward-studying-nuclear-power-data-center-energy-demands-loom/
2026 Senate Bill 78 (South Dakota Legislature): https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/26950
SB 78 fiscal note listing the $300,000 nuclear energy study: https://mylrc.sdlegislature.gov/api/Documents/FiscalNote/306824.pdf?Year=2026
PUC order approving NorthWestern Energy's rider, including small modular reactor study costs (Docket EL25-013, July 2025): https://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/electric/2025/el25-013/EL25-013PIPR.pdf
NorthWestern Energy 2026 rider petition with SMR timeline (Docket EL26-019): https://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/electric/2026/EL26-019/Petition.pdf
Executive Order 14300, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (May 23, 2025): https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/ordering-the-reform-of-the-nuclear-regulatory-commission/
The Impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Nuclear Tax Incentives (Morgan Lewis, July 2025): https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2025/07/the-impact-of-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act-on-nuclear-tax-incentives
Technology-Neutral Clean Electricity Tax Credits Under the IRA and the OBBBA (Congressional Research Service, updated July 27, 2026): https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IN/PDF/IN12719/IN12719.4.pdf
2025 Report and Recommendations, status of the Yucca Mountain project (Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects): https://www.anp.nv.gov/siteassets/content/commission/report-and-recommendations/2025_Report_and_Recommendations_English.pdf
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