"An American In Paris" (or "An American Roughly 230 Miles West-by-Northwest of Paris")

Dan Harper is as American as they come, as apple pie as they make them in The South. Grew up in small-town Alabama. Loves his college football, and thinks his Auburn Tigers are gonna be even better this season. Now he's making a career out of helping the U.S. get more energy.

Thing is, he's doing it in France. On the Contentin Peninsula of Normandy, to be more precise. And even more accurately, Dan's learning his trade on-site at Areva's La Hague nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Yep, a long, long way from The Plains of 'Bama.

Simply put, France reprocesses its spent nuclear fuel. Some striking numbers, from Areva. The process turns up to 96% of what would be nuclear waste into reusable nuclear fuel. That means only the leftover 4%, the really nasty stuff, has to be stored.

Here's my recent story about how the French Nuclear Industry does it and why we don't. Yet.

As for Dan's War Eagles, CollegeFootballPoll.com projects Auburn to 507, 5th in the SEC West. Tough schedule for the Tigers.

Sharp Dressed Man (no, not me)

Pictured: (from left): Clean Skies chief correspondent Tyler Suiters, who always seems to blink when a camera flashes; Clean Skies communications director Jim Allen, who was the best-dressed man in the house.

Location: Blue Duck Tavern, 24th and M Street NW, Washington, DC

Occasion: The American News Women's Club Roast & Toast for Katie Couric, winner of the Helen Thomas Award for Excellence in Journalism or Outstanding Public Service.

Note: Jim has a great deal of experience in out-dressing everyone in the room, given his impressive career in music. Just take a look at this Rick Astley video and focus on the handsome guy gettin' his groove on the keyboard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgB7qVh0-w If you can't sit through The Rick doing his thing, Jim's highlights are about :50 into the video.

Behind the Scenes, In Front of the Scene

Foreground: Clean Skies News Photojournalist Ian McCallister performing one of the tasks not expressly listed within his job description, making me look sharper than I am.

Background (not pictured): Flamanville-3, the EPW nuclear reactor Areva is currently building for Electricite de France.

The low wall you see behind Ian and me is a retainer that separates a winding, two-lane road from the short beach of Flamanville, France. We're facing north, with the EDF Flamanville nuclear generation site behind us. That's also where Areva is building a third reactor for the plant, but because of EDF press restrictions while the reactor is under construction, this is as close we we could get to shoot video. And by "close", I mean more than 1/4-mile from the site.

We're about to tape a "stand-up" segment for our future story on reactor design and the potential for a nuclear build-out here in the U.S. Because of EDF's restrictions, and our own travel schedule, Ian and I had roughly five minutes to set-up our camera, get this microphone on my collar, and start knocking out intelligible stand-ups. Pressure? Nah, not after some of the things we've both experienced cutting our teeth in local news.

The result: two good takes worthy of airtime, one take interrupted by a passing bus, and a timely arrival at the nearby train station to catch our ride back to Paris. Oh, and the anticipated rush of adrenaline that comes from meeting a rock-hard deadline.

My celebratory meal? A protein bar and a quart of 2% milk. Couldn't find any skim at the local market.