“Let’s make a dent in the universe.” That is what NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick said to end her State of the Industry Address before a round of applause carried her off the stage. The first-ever Nuclear Energy Policy Forum (NEPF), a gathering of executives, government affairs staff, and policy leaders, had started off with a bang.
As attendees filtered in throughout the morning, many went over to check out the social media corner, get some stickers, and pick up some postcards.
Day 1
As NEPF formally started, folks flocked to the State of the Industry Address. Maria’s speech was filled with the latest news, trends in the industry, props to many of the great people doing great work, and some predictions for the future. After her speech, Senator Joe Manchin was awarded the William S. Lee award for his contributions to technical development.
We were off and running on an incredibly thoughtful and informative forum. John Marshall of the Potential Energy Coalition took the stage to discuss how we market nuclear energy. He immediately got into the reason he was working in nuclear, his son, who urged him to use his skills and expertise to improve the world by fighting climate change. This set the scene for his speech, as he discussed the need to focus on humans over concept. When it comes to marketing nuclear and winning folks over, it’s incredibly important to show the human effects of climate change and pollution as opposed to just talking about big numbers.
Panels covered the value of the Inflation Reduction Act, the future of the nuclear fleet, and nuclear's role to play in clean energy plans on the state level.
To end the day, Admiral Richard Mies talked about the national security angle of nuclear energy. In his speech, he announced the relaunch of the Nuclear Energy and National Security Coalition (NENSC). The former naval officer and SVP of the Science Applications International Corporation gave a brilliant speech on how important nuclear energy is to our national security—an issue more urgent than ever. Mies said, “Both decarbonization and national security imperatives have driven more than two dozen nations to pledge to triple nuclear energy generation by 2050, and this pledge will create an export market that will be measured in the trillions of dollars.”
And just like that, Day 1 was over.
Day 2
Day 2 started a little earlier, so there was more caffeine being consumed all around. We were fortunate to have two members of Congress starting the day: Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado spoke on the current energy landscape, and Representative Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee spoke on our energy priorities. Both speeches showed how urgent nuclear is to fight climate change, and how this sentiment is shared on both sides of the aisle.
Then came more great panels, with topics ranging from clean energy consensus and cooperation, financing nuclear energy, international perspectives on new nuclear, and customer interest in nuclear technology.
The forum ended with a live episode of Fissionary! Mary Carpenter and Jordan Houghton welcomed Kaylee Cunningham (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Dr. J'Tia Hart (Idaho National Laboratory), and Ryan Pickering (Energy Policy Researcher) to discuss their journeys and how we can get more young people to care about nuclear.
NEPF was exhilarating, informative, fun, tiring, and everything else under the sun. Don’t miss out on next year’s!
