Nuclear industry to stress jobs in new ad campaign

After a shout-out in the State of the Union Address, nuclear energy companies are hoping to keep political momentum going with a seven-month long advertising campaign that stresses the economic potential of an industry revival.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear industry’s main trade group in Washington, said six advertisements would appear in The Hill and other newspapers to educate policymakers about nukes.

NEI spokesman Scott Peterson declined to say how much the campaign would cost, or even if it represented an increase in its annual ad budget. But one difference is it will be more targeted at Washington lawmakers than previous campaigns have been. In addition to the print ads, NEI is buying radio advertising on WTOP and Web-based ads in Politico.

President Barack Obama called for more support for nuclear power in his SOTU, and then followed that up by asking Congress to add another $36 billion in loan guarantees to help the industry reboot in his recent budget proposal.