by Mia DeMezza, Executive Vice President, EarthEcho International

Everyone agrees that our country needs energy to survive. What we seem to disagree about is where that energy will come from and how we will produce it. At EarthEcho International, our goal is to provide young people, mainly middle and high school students, with the knowledge and skills to ensure the success of conservation efforts far into the future. On a recent fieldtrip with our friends at AREVA, I was offered an opportunity to learn more about those options.

A group of AREVA Community Advisory Council members spent the day at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with Susan Hess—AREVA’s Director, Public Relations and External Communications—and David Conrad—DOE’s Director for Tribal and Intergovernmental Affairs. The full day of briefings with staff members from the offices of Environmental Management, Legacy Management, Nuclear Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration gave us new-found understanding of the investments this country is making in nuclear energy—and why. In addition to learning more about what is being done today, we also received a short briefing on the findings from the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. Fascinating. Truly.

From EarthEcho’s position, the more information and resources we can share with our young audience and their educators about all energy options—including nuclear and renewables — the better informed they will be in making decisions to create change one family, one classroom, and one community at a time. Serving as a member of AREVA’s Corporate Advisory Council helps EarthEcho to do just that.