Thank you, and I want to thank Don Hintz for that warm welcome, and Senator Mike Crapo for his thoughtful views on nuclear energy. The efforts of Senator Crapo and many of his Senate colleagues are helping to ensure that nuclear energy will continue to play a vital role in the nation’s energy and environmental future.

This is a very exciting time to be part of the nuclear energy industry. Sure, we have our challenges—but one of the biggest challenges we face is also our greatest opportunity: Communicating to policymakers, the media and the public about our industry’s remarkable achievements … like the security and emergency preparedness programs at our nuclear power plants.

The nuclear industry leads the commercial sector in both these areas. We are head and shoulders above all others … including those with a comparable, or maybe even greater, safety risk.

Our critics, as always, paint quite a different picture. Criticism of both our security and emergency preparedness programs has forced us to respond—to communicate about the tremendous efforts we make to keep our plants not only operating safely, but safe from outside interference as well. And we don’t stop there. Our industry is the gold standard in preparing for potential emergencies.

I commend all of you for the important work you are doing to reassure people about nuclear plant safety … and to counter misunderstandings that could present roadblocks to our industry’s future.

This morning I want to share three key messages with you:

• First, it’s vital that we aggressively communicate all the positive news about nuclear energy. Our critics are unnerved by the industry’s success—and they are more vocal than ever.
• Second, the industry needs to work together to brand nuclear energy—to help provide a positive and recognizable “face” for nuclear energy.  NEI’s tagline—“Nuclear. The clean air energy.”—is a case in point.
• And third, never underestimate the national importance of your company’s individual efforts—whether it’s plant performance or communications. Competition notwithstanding, the nuclear energy industry must work as a team. Our individual successes are something we all celebrate, but we share our individual failures as well.

I.  Communicating the Positive News About Nuclear Energy
The industry often finds itself in a defensive position on communications. Our critics are more determined than ever to build public opposition to nuclear energy—even if they have to strangle the facts to do it.

Clearly we have to counter these potentially damaging arguments.

But where we can, we should turn things around and be more aggressive in getting out the positive messages about nuclear energy. The positive messages are numerous. As nuclear communicators—and I include myself—we need to share these messages with policymakers, the media and the public. Otherwise:

• Who will know that nuclear energy is our most reliable source of baseload power? U.S. nuclear electricity generation in 2002 set a record of 780 billion kilowatt-hours—enough to power one of every five U.S. homes and businesses. And, increased efficiency since 1990 has lowered consumer electricity costs and added the equivalent of 25 new nuclear plants since 1990.
• Who will know that it’s efficient? The public doesn’t realize how important reliable electricity is until it isn’t there—as we saw in the recent blackout. It’s incredible how much we rely on electricity for the most routine things—like recharging our cell phones! With nuclear energy in recent years, the public has benefited from a capacity factor above 90 percent. And for the top quartile of plants, it’s even better on a three-year rolling average.
• And who will know that nuclear plants are emission-free? Nuclear power plants have avoided the emission of more than three billion tons of carbon dioxide … and more than a hundred million tons of other pollutants during the past 30 years. Yet public opinion research consistently shows that most consumers don’t know that nuclear power plants don’t pollute the air. Clearly, that’s a challenge for all of us.

The environmental benefits of nuclear energy is one of the most essential parts of the industry’s message. As a marketing executive once told me, “No one buys products.  They buy benefits." Public opinion research backs her up: We consistently see that people are more favorable toward nuclear energy once they learn about the clean air benefits. And we are sensitive to the fact that all of you also operate fossil-fired plants. We all support diversity of fuel supply and technology.

Nuclear energy’s clean air benefits are increasingly important at the state level, as state governments grow impatient with the pace of change from Washington. You’ll hear more about environmental developments from NEI’s Mary Quillian later today.

Stakeholders also need to hear the favorable public opinion data on nuclear energy.

Two out of three Americans say they support nuclear energy and the trend of public favorability for nuclear energy has been consistently high for many years. Americans also support license renewal at very high levels and believe that we should keep the option to build new nuclear plants in the future. But they also have lingering concerns about safety and nuclear waste disposal.

And in Washington, we still sometimes hear a familiar refrain: “I support nuclear energy personally, but my constituents don’t.”

They do … but that support is largely silent unless drawn out … because Americans simply don’t think about broad energy issues, much less the complex issues that accompany a discussion of nuclear energy. These policymakers are mistaken. We call that the “perception gap”—and the industry needs you to close that gap. A vocal minority makes it look as if the public opposes nuclear energy. Don’t let them get away with it. Help your employees, the media and policymakers know how much support we have, and change that policymaker statement to one that says, “I support nuclear energy—and so does two-thirds of the American public.”

NEI visits Wall Street several times a year to brief financial analysts on the state of the industry. For years, we’ve been telling investment houses and the New York media about improved nuclear industry performance, cost-effectiveness, environmental advantages, public favorability and all the other advantages in what we call nuclear energy’s value chain. Your companies share similar information with the financial community.

If your chief nuclear officers aren’t already well-known on Wall Street, I urge you to get them involved with the financial community. Wall Street associates chief nuclear officers with nuclear safety and management at the plants. So if the analysts know and respect your CNO, it influences their reaction to any form of bad news about operations.

II.  Branding Nuclear Energy
A major part of NEI’s communications program is focused on branding nuclear energy.

Emission-free nuclear energy is one of the world’s most important energy sources for the future. That’s the industry’s basic message. That’s what we want the “nuclear energy” brand to mean to people.

Establishing that brand—if you will—in people’s minds is not just NEI’s job. It’s all of our jobs.

Beyond the brand level, we also have to communicate nuclear energy’s benefits and features. It isn’t like Coca-Cola—so well known that a couple of words and a logo can make you thirsty.

NEI runs a targeted advertising campaign, aiming to make the most of our advertising budget. We typically advertise in the Washington, D.C., area in media outlets whose audiences include policymakers—NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CNN, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, Roll Call and so on. Leading up to the Yucca Mountain vote in Congress last year, we also did some targeted advertising in states like Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Delaware and Rhode Island … where we needed to win the votes of some undecided Senators.  

But for the most part, we focus on branding nuclear energy as an emission-free source of electricity for one in five homes and businesses in the United States. We have tested our print advertisements with focus groups to ensure that the message we intend to convey is, in fact, the one they receive from the ads.

Of course, advertising is just one aspect of branding.

NEI conveys the same messages consistently in its media outreach … on our public Web site … in executive speeches … in our new ecology booklet … and in Nuclear Energy Insight, our monthly newsletter targeted to policymakers.  Clearly, we have to provide extensive information on safety, security and other issues … but it’s important that we also brand nuclear energy based on its benefits … because survey results and marketing wisdom tell us that people buy benefits—not products or features, per se.

Also, in policy and political space, branding based on our inherent energy supply and environmental benefits yields supporters.

NEI has a variety of advertising and other branding materials that could be tailored to your individual use and folded into your advertising campaigns. I encourage you to use these materials in your states and regions. If you want more information, contact Scott Peterson, our vice president for communications.

III.  The Importance of Excellence Industrywide
Whether you’re coordinating a press conference or reaching out to local stakeholder groups, it’s always challenging to communicate about nuclear energy issues. It’s especially difficult when the industry, or a plant, is under special scrutiny … whether for regulatory or technical issues—or just where it happens to be located.

Never underestimate the national importance of your own plant’s operations and communications … because it reflects on the rest of the industry.

I commend Entergy for the outstanding job the company is doing to communicate the safety of the Indian Point plant … in the face of relentless outcries from a few vocal and well-funded critics.  And let us all remember—although Indian Point has been the bulls-eye on the critics’ target … many of the issues raised there could apply to other nuclear plants around the nation.

Entergy did an excellent job with its recent force-on-force exercise—and we should all be glad they did, because every nuclear power plant is judged to some extent by how other plants in the industry are performing. And in this case, if the company had performed poorly, we all would have been in trouble.

The South Texas Project has faced its own set of communication challenges. Early this year, boric acid residue was found on the bottom of the reactor vessel. Serious boric acid corrosion had been found on the reactor vessel head of another U.S. plant, but none had ever been found on the bottom of a reactor vessel. Therefore, the residue at the STP plant might be viewed as an indication of a serious new safety-related problem.

STP Nuclear Operating Company moved quickly to dispel any such conjecture by developing and executing an excellent strategic plan aimed at delivering complete and timely information to all stakeholders—the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plant owners, employees, the public—directly and through the media—and public officials.

The public, especially the residents in the area of the plant, remained unconcerned because they could follow, day by day, the progress of the event and its resolution and were reassured that there was no danger. STP 1 is now back on line and operating, and if anything, the company’s reputation has been enhanced by the experience. Mike Meier from STP will share the details of that communications success with you tomorrow as part of our conference.

As with Indian Point, the whole industry had a lot riding on how STP handled this crisis … and they were very successful.

Open communications are extremely effective in dispelling myths about nuclear energy and conveying the extent of our security programs. And there is no better tool to accomplish this than a nuclear plant tour.

Unfortunately, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, few public tours have been held and many plant visitors’ centers have been closed for security reasons.

The positive impact of public access to nuclear plants through tours and visitors’ centers has been clearly demonstrated by the tours of nuclear facilities provided to government officials, journalists and other key opinion leaders since the terrorist attacks of two years ago.

The officials came away uniformly impressed, expressing sentiments similar to those of Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, who said after touring the Perry nuclear plant last year … and I quote:

This area cannot be penetrated. We are increasing our security in Washington, but we could never touch this.  I am absolutely overwhelmed by the security they have at this facility. I believe that these people [the Perry plant security force] are better trained than almost all law enforcement in this country.

That tour made a huge impression on Senator Voinovich—and he told the press about it. Senator Voinovich chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Generally, the media also is impressed. Take, for example, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gazette columnist Dave Rasdal … who toured the Duane Arnold plant and shared his experience in a column with a headline reading, “Nuke plant is awesome!”

I certainly hope visitors’ centers will reopen and plant tours can be resumed again, when security conditions permit. NEI has communicated with member company chief nuclear officers, security managers and communications executives expressing this hope. After all, even the White House is resuming public tours, so the time may be right to reexamine what we’re doing as an industry to reach out to the public.

Conclusion
In closing, I want to leave three messages with you today:

• First, be proactive in communicating the benefits and features of nuclear energy, using your visitors’ centers and plant tours if security conditions permit. We have tremendous opportunities in the industry over the next several years, but only if we can build on the public support we have today.
• Second, focus your communications programs—advertising, Web sites, brochures and so on—on branding nuclear energy … the emission-free source of electricity for one in five homes and businesses in the United States.
• And third, never underestimate the national importance of your company’s or plant’s performance. Despite the move toward competition in the electricity market, the nuclear energy industry is often viewed as a monolith.

The nuclear energy has an outstanding future … and many positive messages to share with the public, policymakers and the media.  Let’s get out there and share those messages!
 
Thank you.