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 <strong>Oyster</strong>. ” 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 <strong>Oyster</strong>." When Unit #3 becomes a done deal, you can bet Mike and Vicki Wallace will go sailing. He’s optimistic about it.
HEADING www.oystermarine.com 63
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