Dan Turton, White House Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. House, is leaving the plush confines of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the nuclear industry:

White House lobbyist Dan Turton is leaving his administration post to work for the energy company Entergy, which is the second largest generator of nuclear power in the country.
Turton will leave the administration, where he runs point for President Barack Obama in the House of Representatives, and head Entergy’s Washington office. His last day at the White House is Thursday and he starts Friday at Entergy.
“I’ve made a career out of building relationships and doing government affairs and I think I’ve done it successfully. And they need someone to run their government affairs office,” Turton said. “The interesting thing about being here in the White House is not only the ability to build Democratic relationships, but Republican relationships. Because in the White House, you’re the president’s representative to both sides of the aisle.”
And Turton’s experience working at the White House and on Capitol Hill was a selling point.

Imagine if a Bush staffer had left to join a nuclear-power operator literally days after one of the worst nuclear disasters in the planet’s history? There’d be calls for an investigation, and probably impeachment from some of the more unhinged members of the Left.

On the plus side, maybe Turton can help save nuclear power in America. What Fukushima should show us is a) we need to reassess the risk of all of our nuclear power plants to find ones that are in places that make no sense from a safety standpoint; b) storing spent-fuel on site is not a good idea; and c) for those plants that are deemed to be in safe areas, it’s criminal that the regulations do not allow for more modern, and safer, reactors to be swapped in for older models.