NEI Nuclear Notes

NEI's Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs, Alex Flint welcomes Pres. Obama's effort to unify safety lessons from Japan accident. We’ll keep posting these over the next few days. You can watch the whole set – still in progress – over at the NEI Network on YouTube.

The three videos below all appear on NEI’s dedicated YouTube page, the NEI Network . More videos will be offered in the coming days to provide perspectives on events in Japan. I’ll post them here as they appear and, if you cast your eyes rightward, you will see that we are tweeting them, too. But they will all be housed at YouTube. It’s worth a visit, as there are a lot of other interesting videos there on a range of nuclear energy topics. By all means, explore the offerings and see what you think.

As the post below reminds us, NEI has a thriving YouTube channel where anything regarding nuclear energy is neatly extracted from longer talks or press conferences for your viewing pleasure. Here’s White House Science Director John Holdren during the Q&A after his speech at MIT (our transcript): I think for a whole variety of reasons the United States needs to stay at the cutting edge of nuclear technology. And in order for us to do that, it would be nice if we had a domestic nuclear industry; building nuclear power plants in this country. I would like to see that happen. Steve Chu would like to see it happen. The President would like to see it happen. Not least, because if I didn't make that clear enough in this talk, although nuclear energy is not a panacea for the climate problem, there is no panacea, it could make a significant contribution if we could make it expandable again. It would be easier to solve the climate problem with the help of nuclear energy than w...

Nuclear Power Pants , a band from Baltimore, MD, has a uniquely awful video up on YouTube that might best be described as GWAR meets Ed Wood . (That's one heckuva high bar for this high camp.) Enjoy. Can the nuclear energy industry sue for defamation of character?

For those unable to attend the Nuclear Energy Assembly a few weeks back, video clips of the events are now up on NEI's YouTube channel . Clips include speeches by: Congressman James Clyburn , Congressman Steny Hoyer , Senator Lisa Murkowski , FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and NEI CEO Marv Fertel . Sadly, footage of the Dancing With the NEA Stars competition remains on the cutting room floor. In the unlikely event that you were jonesing for dancing utility industry employees, we present the good folks from the Swedish power company, Vattenfall . Yikes . (Or yïkesa, as they say in Stockholm.)

A couple of weeks back, we pointed readers to "the unlikeliest beach book of the year:" David MacKay's Sustainable Energy - without the hot air . Yesterday, this well-produced trailer for the book was passed along to us. Using a common 40-watt light bulb, MacKay provides a lucid demonstration of an individual's daily energy consumption. Touring the English countryside on his bicycle, the Cambridge physicist asks, and answers, what does the landscape look like when a country moves away from fossil fuels? Good show, indeed.

Adhering to Friday YouTube Fun precedent , we serve up the vegetables before the ice cream sundae. Two new ad campaigns caught our eye this week. The Alliance for Nevada's Economic Prosperity released two spots promoting the economic benefits of the Yucca Mountain project. The group seeks to reposition Yucca Mt. as a center for nuclear research and reprocessing, instead of a long-term storage facility. Somewhat unlikely advertising partners, Exelon and Environmental Defense Action Fund have teamed up to launch a national TV, print, and online campaign. Titled " a Smart Cap ," the ads tout the benefits of a national cap on carbon emissions. Exelon CEO John Rowe makes the pitch, delivering the tag line, "You'll be surprised." And now your YouTube sundae: an episode from the Walt Disney Science series from 1957, "Our Friend the Atom," introduced by Mr. Disney himself. Fifty plus years later, the animation still holds up.

Wednesday morning, NEI's president and CEO Marv Fertel sat down for a Newsmaker interview with Amanda DeBard, a reporter from The Washington Times . Her article, Nuclear chief says Obama shuns science , is now available online here . (Shameless self-promotion alert: followers of NEI's Twitter feed were already aware of this .) Fans of YouTube/Those who dislike the written word, can view clips of the Q&A below. On the science behind Yucca Mountain: On spent fuel storage:

First, the spinach: NEI's 2009 financial briefing for Wall Street analysts is now available on NEI's YouTube channel . Part 1 can be seen here : And now, the ice cream: AREVA Resources Canada sponsored a Save the Planet video contest . Contestants were asked to submit a "fun, creative, educational video" that answered the question, "How do you propose to solve the world's increasing energy demands?" Here is your 2009 People's Choice winner, The Adventures of Nuclear Power Man & the Energizers . Honorable mention honors [mine] for the PC/Mac spoof .

In looking for videos to include on NEI's newly created YouTube channel ( NEI Network ), we came across an excellent online resource there this week: Third Wave Digital . Third Wave is an advertising company that has created over 50 high quality animated clips that explain how a nuclear plant works. The videos were created for Progress Energy's Harris Plant Visitors Center. Be sure to check out the Third Wave's YouTube channel . And if you have any suggested clips for the NEI Network channel, please send them our way.

Friends of the Earth , a grassroots environmental activist organization, has initiated a new national ad campaign focused on nuclear energy. Against the backdrop of the nation’s banking crisis, the campaign alleges that the Energy Department’s federal loan guarantee program will necessitate a “preemptive government bailout” for the nuclear energy industry. The campaign kicked off with a YouTube ad claiming that federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants will risk billions of taxpayer dollars on projects that have a 50 percent default rate. The ad likens this potential “bailout” to the proposed $700 billion rescue package being considered by Congress to alleviate the financial stress caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. What our Friends don’t mention is that the loan guarantee program is not just for nuclear power – in fact, the program allows DOE to grant federal loan guarantees to all projects that avoid, reduce or sequester greenhouse gas emissions by employing a new...