"I think it's extraordinary what happened here at Penn State. To be the first University reactor and to be part of the Atoms for Peace Program was a brave, bold move.
"It’s easy enough to come along later after the road has been cleared and everyone is on the same path. But imagine what it would have been like in 1953 to give an Atoms for Peace speech, just after the Soviet Union broke the U.S. monopoly on the hydrogen bomb. [Dwight D.] Eisenhower was determined that nuclear matters not be consigned to this fearful narrative that had overcome the world.
"So I came here today to honor Penn State. To say, what a brave thing for your board of trustees to stand right up here next to this initiative and to show the world that there was a different way."
-- Susan Eisenhower is CEO of the Eisenhower Group Inc. and granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. On Aug. 18 she spoke at the 60th anniversary program for the Penn State Breazeale Nuclear Reactor. She is a consultant and author, and for more than 25 years, has provided strategic counsel on business development, public affairs and communications projects for Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and abroad. Eisenhower is an expert in energy policy and has served as a member of three blue ribbon commissions for the Department of Energy: The Baker-Cutler Commission on U.S. Funded Non-Proliferation Programs in Russia; The Sununu-Meserve Commission on Nuclear Energy; and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. Her grandfather, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, attended the dedication of the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor in 1955. For more on the 60th anniversary celebration and the reactor's history, click here.