Sometimes I collect documents and brochures at conferences and gatherings and never get around to reading them. Other times, it just takes me a couple of days before I get “a round tuit”.
Last Friday I attended “Beyond Electricity” a talk sponsored by The Heritage Foundation and Third Way on the subject of the high temperature gas reactors. A particular focus was on the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project. I finally made it to the last slide in the presentation hand out and found the list of the NGNP Alliance members. Most were not any surprise to me – I have been following the project for quite some time, so I knew about Westinghouse, Shaw, Babcock and Wilcox, General Atomics, Entergy, PBMR and Areva and I found out about Dow during the presentations.
However, I am impressed to know that Chevron and ConocoPhillips, both major oil producers, have joined the alliance. If only they will both start adding nuclear or atomic power to their advertisements about their interests in alternative energy, I would be very happy. What could be better than getting companies with major capital resources, ad budgets that dwarf those of all NEI members put together, and strong engineering focus interested in the atomic alternative?
Perhaps some energy companies really do want to make the world a better place and maintain their growth as we move towards an economy based on abundance rather than restricted access to energy.
