"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.