NEI Nuclear Notes

From time to time, we see newspapers run online polls to pulse the public mood about nuclear power plants (stories about our plants tend to generate a lot of click-throughs and online media naturally tries to take advantage of that).  With that in mind, it's not a big surprise that the Cape Cod Times is running a poll concerning the future of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station owned by Entergy. The poll (pictured to the left) is embedded on the newspaper's local news section in the middle of the page. Just click the link and scroll about half-way down the page and you'll find it embedded slightly off center to the right. When you get there, let the editors know that you support clean, safe and reliable nuclear energy.

The following post was sent to us via email by John Keeley, who is travelling with a delegation of American chief nuclear officers in Japan this week. You can follow John's observations on Twitter by following @nei_media and the #CNOSummit hash tag. In summer, in morning or early afternoon, when a traveler moves by air many thousands of miles from east to west, he never quite escapes the bright sun of day. My communicator colleagues here in Japan all noted the difficulty we had securing substantive rest on our flights over the Pacific during this novel journey. We were ever chasing the sun, they said. The American chief nuclear officers we're following with our cameras and electronica this week have been, ever since their arrival here, in perpetual motion in pursuit of safety lessons. In making the unprecedented and extraordinary commitment to "put eyes on the problem" created by the 3/11 Fukushima tragedy, our CNOs, it occurs to me, are following a global commit...

Following on John Keeley's message from earlier this morning , here's the first video message we've received out of Japan regarding the #CNOSummit that's taking place there this week. It's from Randy Edington, Executive Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer of Arizona Public Service . Though the video is intended for Randy's team back in Arizona, we think the message about the trip is universal: Look for more content from the #CNOSummit all week both here at NEI Nuclear Notes and on Twitter.

Often, I travel most modestly on behalf of the U.S. nuclear industry -- like say up and back to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for public meetings, some 7 miles from NEI's offices in Northwest Washington. But about a month ago, as word began circulating in the office about a sizable contingent (almost all) of our nation's chief nuclear officers traveling to Japan to meet with their Japanese CNO counterparts, NEI communications leadership saw a clear role to try and capture the historic visit in words and images. And tweets, of course. My bosses picked me to tag along with the CNOs (almost 30 of them), as a bit of an embedded reporter. I've a daunting task in that regard.  To be sure, this is a historic visit; nothing of its kind has been undertaken before in the history of commercial nuclear operations in the U.S. For the first time, the chief nuclear officers from the U.S. and Japan will meet together to discuss lessons learned from a severe accident: specifically,...

Ever since Pandora's Promise premiered back in June, we've been getting requests from our readers asking how they might be able to engineer a screening closer to where they live. That's not a surprise, as many of the nation's nuclear energy facilities are located far from major media centers where the majority of documentary films are screened. But now it seems there's a new way to get Pandora's Promise to your town. Earlier today we got word that the producers of the film have just signed an agreement with the team at Tugg -- a business that looks like a neat cross between Kickstarter and MovieTickets.com. By using Tugg , you can petition a theater near you to schedule a screening of a movie you're interested in. If you're able to get 100 people to commit to pay for their tickets ahead of time, the theater will schedule a screening. What happens if you don't reach the 100 mark before the recruiting deadline? No worries, as Tugg won't cha...

This week's announcement that Vermont Yankee would be shut down in 2014 was sad news to bear for our industry. Here at NEI, we covered the negative impact on the local economy that this closing will have, and our CEO Marv Fertel's comments  expressed how disappointing it is when a well-run and highly productive nuclear plant gets shuttered because of skewed markets . Caroline Cochran  It was easy to feel discouraged by this, especially knowing all of the hard work put forth by the talented employees and tireless supporters of Vermont Yankee. That's why it was both inspiring and uplifting to read the following message to industry communicators from Caroline Cochran , a nuclear engineer, blogger and advocate. I wish we were fighting a battle of facts, but clearly that's not what this is. This is a battle of hearts and guts and cool and public opinion. That’s why what you all are doing is so important. Organizations like PopAtomic Studios and The Breakthrough ...

Entergy's Vermont Yankee Here at NEI, we're used to producing economic benefits reports to quantify exactly what sort of impact the operation of a nuclear plant has on a local economy. But from time to time, it's important to hear from the folks who live closest to the plants to really understand how important they can be. Here's an excerpt from a story that ran earlier this week on VT Digger  that reinforces the point: “Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, said the closing will have an irreparable impact on local towns. ‘It’s going to be devastating to our communities because of the volunteers,’ he said. ‘Our local rescue is predominantly Yankee employees, the volunteer fire department is predominantly Yankee employees, just about every charitable organization in the county has received something from Yankee. … It will be a brain drain,’ he added. ‘It’s not just the economic impact.’ The economic impact will be significant. Since 2007, the Windham Regional Commission...