nuclear power

Sign displayed at the NEI conferenceI learned many things at the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI's) annual meeting, but perhaps none more surprising than this: When nuclear power executives discuss the state of their industry, they highlight many of the same issues as their environmentalist opponents.

Of course, the emphasis and even the language are different. But presenters at the "Nuclear Energy Assembly," held in Chicago from May 5 to 7, discussed financing for new nuclear plants, nuclear waste storage and nuclear weapons proliferation concerns.

Nuclear power opponents argue that the industry shouldn't expect or need government support, some fifty years into its existence. In a hotel conference room populated mostly with gray-suited older white men, industry executives repeatedly called for an expansion of federal loan guarantees for new nuclear plants.

Early on in the conference, NEI president and CEO Frank L. "Skip" Bowman said, "We use loan guarantees in this country to support ship building, steel making, student loans, rural electrification, affordable housing, construction of critical transportation infrastructure, and for many other purposes. Please don't tell me that America's electric infrastructure is any less important." He added, "I wish someone would tell me when the word 'subsidy' became a slur, a four-letter word. ... What is there of value in American life that is not subsidized, to some extent?"

If they thought this was safe to breathe, what would it take for them to think something is dangerous?
A federal appeals court in Manhattan has ruled that Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, cannot be held personally liable for false reassurances that she gave about the air quality in New York City following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As we reported previously, reassurances from Whitman's EPA encouraged rescue workers to dig through the rubble, often without face masks or other respiratory protection, in their frantic search for survivors. Hundreds of firefighters and other rescue workers subsequently became disabled from "World Trade Center cough" linked to asbestos and other deadly dust caused by the collapse of New York's Twin Towers. In defense of her handling of the crisis, Whitman says that "Every statement I made was based on what experts, who had a great deal of experience in these things, conveyed to me." (Whitman now works as a spokesperson for the nuclear power industry, which is also safe according to their experts.)

NEI coasterSwiss auto racer Simona De Silvestro isn't only "the second woman in the 34-year history of the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda to win a race with her victory in the Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Challenge of Long Beach." Believe it or not, there's another sponsor involved -- the U.S. nuclear power lobby group the Nuclear Energy Institute. "It was a very tough weekend, especially on Friday, but we got everything together," De Silvestro said about her recent win. "For the race, I was pretty confident, because the car felt really good. ... I also need to thank the Nuclear Energy Institute for supporting me. I am proud to be a brand ambassador for the Nuclear Clean Air Energy Initiative."

Entergy's Indian Point nuclear power plantThere's no question that New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant could use some public relations help. But Entergy, Indian Point's owner, might have chosen their new PR firm a little more carefully.

Last year, the state of New York asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to deny the plant's license extension application, citing "a long and troubling history of problems." It was "the first time that a state had stepped forward to flatly oppose license renewals," according to the New York Times.

Then, in January, the NRC proposed a $650,000 fine against Indian Point, for having repeatedly missed deadlines to install a new emergency siren system. The fine is "10 times the normal size" of such sanctions, reported the Times.

To address such criticisms, Entergy has retained the Burson-Marsteller firm, funded the pro-nuclear "New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance" and brought Greenpeace activist-turned-PR consultant Patrick Moore to New York. Last month, Entergy made another effort to, in their own words, "provide public assurances about the operation and protection of New York's largest nuclear power facility." They announced the formation of an "Independent Safety Evaluation" panel to investigate Indian Point.

The American Enterprise Institute, one of the premier U.S. think tanks, has presented former Australian Prime Minister John Howard with the Irving Kristol Award for 2008. The award, AEI states, is for "individuals who have made exceptional intellectual or practical contributions to improved government policy, social welfare, or political understanding." Howard, AEI gushed, "is one of the world's most successful democratic politicians." While Howard did win four elections, AEI doesn't mention that he made history by being only the second serving Prime Minister to lose his own parliamentary seat. Howard also led his party to a humiliating defeat in the November 2007 election. Many of Howard's hallmark policies -- his support for radical anti-union policies, his refusal to support the Kyoto Protocol to combat rising greenhouse gas emissions, his support for domestic nuclear power plants and his refusal to apologize to indigenous Australians for former governments' policies of separating children from their parents -- have subsequently been jettisoned by his own party.

General Electric's power industry division, GE Energy, is set to launch a greenwashing blitz in five European countries, including the United Kingdom. The centerpiece of the campaign will, according to PR Week, be an "aggressive green strategy" including the promotion of new GE technologies "including its Arklow Bank wind turbine park off the Irish coast." The campaign will be run by the Paris-based Hopscotch and its Irish subsidiary, Hopscotch Europe in One. Patrick Frison-Roche, the Managing Director of Hopscotch Europe in One, stated that "the company is still perceived as a large US corporation, so what we are doing here is ensuring stakeholders, influencers and other audiences are clear about its importance in Europe." In May 2005 GE launched its Ecomagination campaign, under which it is seeking to portray itself as an environmental leader. In the UK, GE Energy has been lobbying the UK government for an expansion of the nuclear power industry.

"As Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was blasting Sen. Barack Obama for his ties to the Exelon Corporation, the firm of Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very same nuclear energy client," reports Sam Stein. Penn's PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, works for Exelon and the Exelon-funded pro-nuclear group New Jersey Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy Coalition (NJ ACRE), as the Center for Media and Democracy previously reported. Recently, Exelon paid Burson-Marsteller more than $230,000, coded as "public affairs." Exelon said the work involved NJ ACRE and strengthening local support for "the renewal of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant's operating license." The payment covered Burson-Marsteller's work between June and November 2007, which included carrying out a poll and setting up "speaking engagements and events for Patrick Moore," the Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant and co-chair of the nuclear industry-funded group Clean and Safe Energy Coalition.

The Center for Media and Democracy is contributing biweekly radio reports on politics and spin to "Election Unspun," a daily news show put together by Pacifica Radio and Free Speech Radio News. CMD's first "Election Unspun" segment focuses on the public relations pros in the top tier of the Democratic presidential campaigns -- Burson-Marsteller's Mark Penn on Senator Hillary Clinton's team, and David Axelrod of AKP&D Message & Media on Senator Barack Obama's team. Recently, another PR executive became Clinton's campaign manager -- Maggie Williams, who headed the Fenton Communications firm after serving as Clinton's chief of staff, when she was First Lady.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at nuclear power plant safety, officially misleading green marketing and what happens when Big Oil's on campus. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from Hillary Rodham Clinton to Mitt Romney. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

Linda KeenThe fifty-year old nuclear reactor at Chalk River in Ontario, Canada, is running again after the Canadian Parliament overruled the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The facility is owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which is a public-owned corporation of the Government of Canada. Then-Commission President Linda Keen has since been fired from her position. But she still testified in front of the House of Commons' Natural Resources committee Tuesday, saying, "When it comes to nuclear facilities, ignoring safety requirements is simply not an option – not now, not ever." At issue was the lack of adequate safety systems at the plant. "Ms. Keen said that without the backup system in place, the risk of a nuclear accident stood at one in a thousand -- 1,000 times higher than the international standard of one in a million." The reactor produces nuclear isotopes for medical use, and the members of the Conservative party in Parliament claimed that keeping the reactor shut down was leading to a medical emergency in Canada and worldwide. Others have disputed this, and point to the lag in time between the plant's shutdown and the government's sounding the alarm with other isotope producers. Regardless, Keen pointed out: "Under the law, the commission did not have the authority to take the issue of isotopes into consideration." She also added that "the Chalk River reactor, which is more than 50 years old, would not be licensed today by any nuclear regulator in the world."