"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.

Posting By The Palace

 Whether you parlez vous Francais ou no, you might be able to put a make on this Mercure sign. Yep, that's a hotel. And that's me striking a not-so-medieval French pose in the 14th-Century town of Avignon.

 

 This is Day Two for us on a special-access tour of French nuclear facilities, all of them run by one of the world leaders in nuclear energy AREVA. In fact, the French company bills itself as the only fully-integrated nuclear company in the entire world. 

 Rare air, indeed.  And CO2-free air as well, so to speak, since nuclear power generates electricity without producing significant CO2 emissions. That's the major selling point for proponents in the U.S right now, including some very big names in Congress (John McCain, among them). 

 If The President gets his way and we implement a cap-&-trade system to limit our carbon emissions, the nuclear option for power generation could become more attractive than ever. Especially interesting, given that last month was the 30th anniversary of the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island.

 Photojournalist Ian McAllister and I visited nuclear sites in five French towns last week, sites that represent various stages in the nuclear energy production process. Stick around, and I'll show you what we saw. Unusual sights inside plants, impressive scale of reactor components, and occasional unsettling proximity to potentially dangerous material.

 As for our stay at The Mercure in Avignon? Well, you're looking at my final few minutes there. I'm standing/working about 50 yards from Les Palais de Papes, the 14th Century home of the Avignon Papacy as an alternate to Rome.

 Want more details? Try this site: http://www.palais-des-papes.com/anglais/index.html. We arrived in town after the palace closed for the day and left before it opened the following morning, so I have little to reference about the Les Palais. Other than Le Mutardier across the square has some creative dishes.

A Tiger and His Tale

 This is the tale of Samuel, an up-and-coming Northern Virginia Tiger Cub clawing for his next badge. That's him between me and Susan, the only one of us not wearing eye concealer.

 Well, Samuel needed to meet his scouting communication requirement. And since his dad Tim and I have an Oklahoma connection, Samuel tapped us. So the whole family, Samuel's three younger siblings included, spent an afternoon at the Clean Skies TV studios watching our team in action. Personally, I think Samuel's mom deserves a merit badge of her own for keeping all the youngsters entertained and occupied during the newscast.

 He's only six, but I get the feeling Samuel has "Eagle Scout" written all over him. No pressure there, huh, Tim?

How Mad Is John McCain?

 Let me start by making it clear that John McCain is not mad at me. In fact, during our conversation yesterday he was rather polite and thoughtful. But it seems clear that he is indeed mad. Quite mad. At the Obama Administration.

 Comparing our experiences over recent weeks, our executive editor Margaret Ryan and I concluded that from what we've seen, Sen. McCain has taken every opportunity to just hammer administration officials during hearings. The trend continued at the Senate Energy Committe's hearing on nuclear energy development. This time Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Dale Klein was in the crosshairs.

 Sen. McCain, like many other committee members who attended the hearing, wanted to complain about the White House "taking Yucca Mountain off the table." First, some background. More than 20 years ago, Congress designated Yucca as the nation's nuclear waste repository. "The" repository, as in, "The one and only place within the U.S. that we have for long-term storage!" But that law has not stopped Senate majority leader Harry Reid from doing what he can to keep the waste our of his home state (Nevada). And it didn't stop the current administration from declaring Yucca Mountain as essentially a non-viable site.

 You can see what he had to say to me about the administration, and specifically its decision on the Yucca Mountain repository, on the Clean Skies TV website. My story (and my conversation with Sen. McCain) is on the March 18th edition of The Energy Report in our Interactive Programming Guide.

 Now, Sen. McCain pressed Klein on the issue, asking him, "Are you operating under the assumption that Yucca Mountain will become a reality?" When Klein didn't respond directly, McCain asked again with emphasis, "Are you operating under the assumption that Yucca Mountain will become a reality?" Eventually, Klein said, "We are not counting on Yucca Mountain being successful." So there.

 Then, Sen. McCain honed in on security issues. His point? Having dozens and dozes of dry-cask storage sites across the country poses a much greater security risk than having a single, well-guarded site for nuclear waste. But, as he said to needle the Obama administration, "that's not gonna happen."

 While we're talking Nuclear with a capital N, Dale Klein shared a few predictions during his testimony and afterward during a conversation outside the hearing room. He expects all 104 U.S. reactors to be successfully relicensed and still operating in the 20 years. The first new reactor to come online will most likely be Southern Company's Vogtle unit in Georgia. And there is no way any new reactor will be providing any electricity generation before the year 2016. So sit tight if you're clamoring for a low-carbon economy.

 Interestingly, Sen McCain initially said that he didn't have time for my questions as he left the hearing room in DOB at a brisk walk. But not three seconds passed before he promptly stopped dead in his stride, performed a 180, and said that, sure, he could answer a few of my questions about the hearing. Oh, and after out interview the senator actually apologized to me for being rude. 

 He's not a Virginian by birth, but the senior senator from Arizona has always acted like A Gentlemen during our conversations.

 Here's a link to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's website, where you can find the opening statements from the NRC's Dale Klein and other witnesses on developing nuclear energy.

Preaching The Pickens Plan

Yep, that's a pic of me and T. Boone himself. And, hey, which one of us did you recognize first? No, that's not a question born out of personal insecurity. But while we're on the topic, how does my make-up look, anyway?

For all of his billions of dollars, his runaway financial success and energy-field endeavors, and his profile as the nation's record-breaking university donor, did you know who T. Boone Pickens was nine months ago, much less what he looked like? Hell, I know someone who covers energy for a living and thought the man's name was actually "T-Bone." Pickens is from Texas, cattle country, after all.

Well, that's what a $60-million p.r. campaign (his number) can do for you. With the unfurling of The Pickens Plan last summer, Boone has introduced himself to the nation at large. And now you Oklahomans and Wall Street Watchers aren't the only ones to tilt your heads toward him when he's speaking.

The basics? I'd be surprised if you don't know them already, given all the nightly news appearances and newspaper editorials. Still, he reiterated them (and to some extent reworked the emphasis) during this week's speech at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum here in DC.

Boone wants Wind energy to generate 22% of our nation's electricity. Got that, 22%? The EIA says in 2006 wind accounted for a little more than one-quarter of 1% of U.S. energy consumption.

According to Pickens, what we need is new transmission lines (many, many, many new lines) to carry the electricity from turbines to customers. And he's right. When you see federal funding bills for new transmission this year, you can bet Wind is one of the driving factors. Lately, he has added some Solar to this part of his plan.

The other half of Pickens' preaching seems more easily attainable to me. Use Natural Gas as a bridge fuel for transportation. Get us off of foreign oil and carry us for a few decades until we have commercially-viable vehicle battery technology. As the saying goes, Natural Gas is "Affordable, Abundant, and American."

Plus, Boone has an influential advocate in the White House. No, not him. When Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was in the upper echelons of Democratic House leadership, he supported Natural Gas as a transportation fuel. Apparently, Rahm even inserted language supporting the infrastructure transition in the Dems' stalled House energy bill last year. Boone is tweaking this part of the pitch a bit, now emphasizing Natural Gas for the commercial sector.

And, lo and behold, just today AT&T announced it's going with Natural Gas, spending $565 million over a decade on 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles ($350 million of which will buy 8,000 compressed natural gas vehicles). An article on Fortune.com says, "...the purchase is smart economics.

Back to the pic with Boone and, yes, Cowboy fans, I'm wearing a black suit with an orange tie. And, well, OK I'll admit it...I always wear orange and black when I know I'll be interviewing Boone. As much as he enjoys talking about The Pickens Plan, my best conversations with him inevitably seem to involve Oklahoma State athletics.

By the way, Boone tells me the Cowboys' Holiday Bowl loss to Oregon is the one game from last season that bothers him the most. And did you know QB Zac Robinson sustained a concussion and a separated shoulder? So says Boone. The Cowboys' home stadium does bear his name, after all.

CNN Money posted the Fortune.com article here: http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/gigaom/green/2009_03_11_att_to_make_massive_natural_gas_vehicle_purchase.html

And the Washington Post's Dana Milbank ran a biting commentary on Boone's recent speech at EnergyBiz. Keep in mind that Pickens made many of these quoted comments in tongue-in-cheek fashion. Understanding a little bit about Boone's Texas and Oklahoma roots, I like to think I got the jokes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/09/AR2009030902463.html

Finally, here's a look ahead at Pickens' beloved OSU Cowboys' 2009 schedule:
http://www.okstate.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=200&KEY=&SPID=143&SPSID=1420