Paris, France – March 30, 2010

Addressing key Congressional staff at the American Manufacturing and Nuclear Energy forum hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and Nuclear Energy Workforce (NEW), ESI North America Chief Operating Officer Michael Bloor spoke of the company’s support of continued development and operation of nuclear energy consistent with the protection of public health and safety.

Nuclear power is a safe and vital source of cost-effective electricity that does not emit Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criteria pollutants or greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is the largest source of clean-air, carbon free power in the United States and the second largest source of electricity, supplying approximately 20 percent of the nation's power.

“With the rise in energy requirements and fossil fuel price increases, the demand for nuclear power is greater than ever.  Computer-Aided Engineering is poised to help meet this growing demand quickly and cost-effectively”, said Michael Bloor. “Today, the scope of Computer-Aided Engineering is broad and covers all aspects of nuclear engineering, including product design verification and manufacturing.  It works to guarantee the conformity of nuclear power plants with safety and performance standards and regulations, while replacing the need for expensive and time-consuming field testing with physics-based analysis software.”

Keith McCoy, NAM Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy at the NAM, thanked Bloor for his presentation to the forum. “ESI is a pioneer in this field and is highly recognized for their expertise in Virtual Prototyping and validation processes executed during the product development cycle,” said Keith McCoy. “This provides companies the ability to design superior, safer products in less time and at lower costs, using less raw material.  Promoting safe and secure development of nuclear power is a critical priority as we continue to advance what is already America’s largest carbon free source of electricity.”

Because it reduces the number of, or completely eliminates, hardware prototypes typically required during the development cycles, and allows for optimization of the manufacturing processes, Virtual Prototyping also contributes to lower scrap material and energy usage, thus lessening the environmental impact of manufacturing.

“Nuclear energy helps stabilize the price of electricity while maintaining a diversity of domestic fuel sources. As the demand for electricity in the U.S. continues to grow, ESI North America supports the construction of additional Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved nuclear power plants to maintain a diverse portfolio of power generation sources”, added Michael Bloor.

For more information on ESI’s applications for the Energy and Power Generation industry, visit: http://www.esi-group.com/industries/energy-power

About ESI Group
ESI is a pioneer and world-leading solution provider in virtual prototyping that takes into account the physics of materials. ESI has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on performance. ESI’s solutions fit into a single collaborative and open environment for End-to-End Virtual Prototyping, thus eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company employs over 750 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in compartment C of NYSE Euronext Paris. For further information, visit www.esi-group.com.

ESI Group – Media Relations   
Elise Lavoue
T: +44 (0) 1865 784 833   
 Elise.Lavoue@esi-group.com