NEI Nuclear Notes

Steve McQueen On this day in 1944, 76 Allied prisoners of war broke out of a Nazi POW camp. It was a daring operation that later became known as "The Great Escape" thanks to a book and film adaptation of the same name. What in the world does this have to do with nuclear energy? One of the main characters in the film is U.S. Army Air Force pilot Virgil Hilts. He was played by Hollywood legend Steve McQueen. Virgil Hilts was just a fictional character. But Alvin Vogtle was the real deal. I'll let NEI's Mark Flanagan pick it up from here in an excerpt from a 2010 blog post  about the federal loan guarantees for the construction of two AP-1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. * * * Who was Alvin Ward Vogtle, Jr., after whom the plant is named? According to his 1994 New York Time obituary, he was : A former president and chairman of the Atlanta-based Southern Company. Vogtle (3rd from right) & his POW bunk mates. Well, that makes sense. But ...