Reference Docs

The Role of the World Nuclear Association

Remarks by John Ritch
Director General, World Nuclear Association

IAEA-WNA Seminar on Nuclear NGO's:
Their Role and Contribution to the Safe & Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Technology

Ladies and gentlemen:

This afternoon's program has showcased a wide variety of nuclear NGO's, which together comprise a full mosaic of functions that are integral to the safe, peaceful and expanding worldwide use of nuclear technology.

The World Nuclear Association appropriately appears last in this event, both because our organisation - in its membership, objectives and activities - is broader and more diverse than other nuclear NGOs and because our role is shaped, in large measure, by what other organisations do and do not do.

Our aim is to identify and perform functions of value to the nuclear industry that are not performed at the national or regional level - or by global organisations, such as WANO and WNTI, that are focused on a specific subject of key importance.

Our WNA membership consists of companies and other organisations engaged in all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle worldwide. In the past 18 months, since we began building the WNA on the foundation of the previous Uranium Institute, we have grown rapidly and now have over 100 member organisations from 30 countries. Among our members are:

We also have research institutes, legal and insurance firms, equipment makers, national agencies from countries where the nuclear industry is government-run, small nuclear utilities, and a variety of mining interests, energy brokers and consultancies.

Together, our members represent over 90% of the non-generation side of the nuclear industry worldwide and just under 80% of nuclear power generation outside the United States.

Our ultimate membership goal is ambitious. Eventually, we hope, the WNA will comprise the entire nuclear industry worldwide.

As we grow, we are keenly interested in nuclear agencies, companies, and societies in countries that are not now producing nuclear power but are considering this option as they develop a 21st century strategy for sustainable development. We hope to be helpful to them as they develop the necessary technical skills and public acceptance.

Overall, the functions we seek to perform derive from a simple syllogism:

In pursuing this vision, our organisational functions are two-fold:

In the first area - facilitating interaction within the industry - we are pursuing a long-term, idealistic goal through practical means.

Our goal is to promote the development of a global nuclear professional community. We do so by operating a variety of working groups - relating to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle - on subjects that have direct bearing on the commercial and policy interests of our members.

We also have twice-yearly meetings of our membership - a spring meeting in an ever-changing locale and a fall meeting, the Annual WNA Symposium, in London. In performing our second function - the promotion of public understanding and public policies favourable to nuclear power - we are keenly aware that the great burden of such effort must be performed at the national level and also, in the European realm, at the regional level.

However, we believe important niches remain to be filled at the transnational level by an organisation with a global membership.

I will touch upon 4 areas where we are seeking to make a contribution. These 4 areas of industry promotion fall under the headings of information, coordination, institution building and influence.

Information

On the information front, we adopted as a starting point the goal of constructing and operating a WNA website that constitutes the best available source of information on nuclear energy and the world industry that provides it. We recognize that the internet is a vast world. But with 4,000 hits a day on our information and educational papers, we believe we are injecting much-needed facts and valuable perspective into the arteries of world journalism and policymaking. We see our website as a foundation and tool for other promotional activity.

Coordination

Second, we are trying to play a useful role in coordinating our industry's efforts on the transnational level. To help galvanize and guide the industry, we have created the WNA Council of Advisers, comprised of many of the most senior people in the world of nuclear energy. The Council is co-chaired by IAEA DG-emeritus Hans Blix and WANO Chairman-emeritus Zack Pate and includes leaders from most of the major nuclear companies I mentioned earlier. When these leaders meet, it is the equivalent of an industry summit.

One area where we are working at coordination is the industry's effort vis-?is the UN negotiations on climate change and sustainable development. These are forums where the need for clean energy is a central theme but in which the indispensable role of nuclear power, rather than being a fundamental tenet of the negotiation, remains a matter of fundamental dispute. Having witnessed this perverse phenomenon for several years, we are working with member companies and certain key governments on a strategy to achieve, once and for all, a clear-cut recognition that nuclear power is essential in any realistic strategy for global sustainable development.

Institution Building

Third, we are seeking to build relationships with transnational institutions - such as the IAEA, WANO and the ICRP - that are directly engaged in the nuclear realm. With WANO we have identified several joint projects, and with the IAEA and the ICRP we are seeking to foster an interaction that respects our separate functions while maximizing constructive cooperation. One area, for example, in which we are engaged with the IAEA is an exploration of how governments and industry can best cooperate to preserve this generation's nuclear knowledge and promote the next generation's nuclear skills.

Influence

Finally, under the heading of influence, we are seeking to develop personal and institutional relationships with transnational media organisations, multinational parliamentary organisations, and international development agencies - three domains where ignorance and even abhorrence of nuclear power is often a common motif. Our work here has just begun, and we recognize how much diligence and patience will be required. But we believe that overcoming these attitudinal barriers is essential if the world is to come to grips - through rational debate and sound policymaking - with the overwhelming human and environmental challenges this century will present.

In your packets is a mini-CD, which reflects in microcosm the WNA's efforts to help build and coalesce the global nuclear industry and to champion its cause.

On the CD in 20 languages is the WNA Charter of Ethics, a statement of tenets and principles that our global membership has embraced as a common commitment. As a subtext, this Charter also expresses the enormous strides our world has taken in the last half-century to build a strong institutional edifice to govern and guide this crucial industry.

Also on the CD - as its main feature - is what we call the "AutoEssay" on nuclear power. This 14-minute automated presentation - which can be viewed on a computer screen or projected for an audience - makes the case for nuclear energy in any of 20 languages. It constitutes a nuclear tutorial usable throughout the world.

In our efforts to build the nuclear industry and to promote the marvellous technology it represents, we are working in parallel - and, as often as possible, in cooperation - with many of you in this room today.

We regard all of you as partners, and we are proud to be engaged with you in a common effort to advance nuclear technology in a world desperately in need of the vast benefits it can offer to our fellow citizens everywhere.

I thank all of you - speakers and audience alike - for participating is this session, which we hope has proved to be of value.