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Why Nuclear Energy's Loss is Warren Buffet's Gain

By Eric McErlain
David Bradish
Over the 10 years that NEI Nuclear Notes has been in business, we've seen a lot of bloggers come and go, but today, I'd like to note the departure of one of our earliest contributors, NEI's David Bradish.

It's impossible to overestimate the impact that Dave has had on our blog and NEI's digital properties over the 11 years he's worked here. The son of a nuclear plant employee, Dave came to NEI out of Graceland University in Iowa (Dave is generally acknowledged to be the school's most famous graduate next to former Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner - wink) to work as an economist in our Policy Division. If Dave had done nothing more than simply do his job, he would have been seen as an important contributor. Whenever you read an NEI economic benefits study or study some the industry performance statistics we publish, you're enjoying Dave's handiwork. He's been responsible for the care and feeding of a significant portion of the content on NEI.org, including many of our most popular web pages. Over the years, our media team has come to rely on Dave to help extract real information from reams of industry financial and performance data, as well as more than a few interviews with the press.

Dave and one of his dangerous charts.
But what I'm most grateful for was the work he did here on the pages of NEI Nuclear Notes, where he regularly crossed swords with some of the nuclear energy industry's most vocal critics. Of course, the difference between Dave and folks like Amory Lovins, Helen Caldicott & Michael Mariotte, was that Dave came ready to fight with a calculator in one hand and an Excel spreadsheet in the other. It wasn't long after he arrived at NEI that Dave discovered that most anti-nuclear activists weren't very good at math, something he used to his, and NEI's advantage on these pages 177 times since 2008.

As good as that run was, it ends today, as Dave is packing his bags, wife, son and daughter to head back to Iowa where his kids can be closer to their grandparents. It's the sort of decision that tells you all you need to know about Dave and what's important to him. He'll be working in Des Moines for Wells Fargo (hence the Warren Buffet reference), doing big data analytics for their mortgage division. And while we'll miss him, we can't help but be happy for a friend that's doing what's best for him and his family. Bravo Zulu, Dave. Fair winds and following seas.

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