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OWNER PROFILE
“To sail with our adult kids,
who learned on a Sunfish
and chartered with us all
over the Caribbean, was
priceless," Mike says.
"It was a life bonding
experience for all of us.
For those six days the world
really was our Oyster.
”
62 www.oystermarine.com
Mike Wallace is Optimistic continued
faith, leadership, and service. They are
both strong believers in a Jesuit education.
"There’s an old saying, to whom much is
given, much is expected," Wallace says.
"Vicki and I are so blessed. Life has been
good. I feel obligated to use whatever I
have that is helpful."
Wallace signed a three year contract with
Constellation and became responsible for
78 electric generating units (three of
them nuclear) and 4000 employees
stretching from California to Pennsylvania.
He bought additional units, finished others
under construction, and that three-year
contract is now in its seventh year. His
participation in the network of national
nuclear security organizations began about
the same time. He has no regrets. "I love
what I’m doing," he says. "But `satisfaction’
doesn’t describe it. I’m caught by a sense
of responsibility to make a difference if I
can. Not to be soapy, but it’s for the good
of the country. If I can help make nuclear
power a reality, I don’t want to leave the
business sooner than I have confidence
that’s happened."
Wallace’s, and Constellation’s, most
significant project is the plan for Unit #3,
a brand new, 1600-megawatt reactor at
Maryland’s nuclear plant at Calvert Cliffs,
on Chesapeake Bay. It would be one of
the biggest reactors in the world. Wallace
predicts they will break ground for Unit #3
in the first quarter of 2009, and have the
plant operational in 2016. If he’s right,
it will be the first new nuclear plant built
in America in 30 years.
Thanks in part to global warming, and the
urgent need to control carbon emissions,
several leading environmentalists have
come over to nuclear power.
Former critic, Dr. Patrick Moore, a founder
of Green Peace, is now a nuclear
proponent, and friend of Wallace’s.
James Lovelock, the British biologist who
is considered a world leader in
environmental consciousness, has stated:
"There is no sensible alternative to nuclear
power if we are to sustain civilization."
Public perception about the horrors of
radioactivity has been tempered by
statements like Lovelock’s, and calmed
by millions of accident-free hours of
104 U.S. plants, and many more abroad.
Mayo Shattuck, CEO, President, and
Chairman of Constellation Energy, says
nuclear energy is about anticipating what
can go wrong. "This is an industry where
most of the focus is inside the box,
literally and figuratively," Shattuck says.
"And Mike Wallace is one of the most
prominent managers and leaders in this
world. He’s one of the last people in the
business who built plants 30 years ago.
Mike is a crusader in the development of
new nuclear options. If we are successful
building a new nuclear plant in the United
States, that will be an incredible legacy for
Mike Wallace."
In 2006, all the Wallaces – Mike, Vicki,
son Shawn (32), and daughter Amy (30)
– made a six-day passage on Arbella from
the Abacos to Annapolis. "To sail with our
adult kids, who learned on a Sunfish and
chartered with us all over the Caribbean,
was priceless," Mike says. "It was a life
bonding experience for all of us. For those
six days the world really was our Oyster."
When Unit #3 becomes a done deal, you
can bet Mike and Vicki Wallace will go
sailing. He’s optimistic about it.