PR Meltdown

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As part of its restructuring, the debt-laden nuclear power generator British Energy hired American Roy Anderson as its chief nuclear officer, created a new technical director position, and switched PR firms. Anderson, who's currently president of New Jersey-based PSEG Nuclear, was welcomed by British Energy as someone with "significant experience of nuclear turnarounds." In April, British Energy ended its 14-year contract with PR giant Hill & Knowlton and began discussions with Bell Pottinger Public Affairs. However, upon discovering that Bell Pottinger director Neil Stockley had signed "anti-nuclear policy papers when he was director of policy for the Liberal Democrats in the 1990s," British Energy ended talks with the firm at the "eleventh hour" and started looking for alternatives, to "promote nuclear energy's green credentials."