Skip Bowman at ENC 2005

NEI's CEO, Skip Bowman, delivered a speech earlier today at the European Nuclear Conference in Versailles on building public confidence in the nuclear industry.

Here's an excerpt:

Item No. 1 on our agenda: We can never, ever lose sight of our responsibility to operate our nuclear power plants at the highest possible levels of safety and reliability.

As electricity markets become increasingly competitive, we must resist pressures to shave investment in staff, in training, in equipment, in maintenance. As our operating plants age, we must devote more attention to materials issues, and anticipate potential degradation long before it can have an impact on plant performance or regulatory and public confidence. In the United States, we have had a few surprises in this area, and our industry cannot tolerate surprises.

To ensure sustained safety performance, we must maintain and cultivate channels of communications across the global nuclear enterprise. Using established institutions like the World Association of Nuclear Operators, we must share experiences, good and bad, and learn from them and from each other.

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