Remarks by John B Ritch Director General, World Nuclear Association
Indian Nuclear Society 12th Annual Conference Indore 10 October 2001
Dr. Ramanna, Dr. Chidambaram, Dr. Kakodkar, Dr. Bhawalkar, members of the Indian Nuclear Society, dear friends, thank you for honouring me with your invitation to join you here today.
For me, this occasion is a delight for two reasons.
The first is personal. During my 7 years as American representative to the UN agencies in Vienna, I came to know and admire Dr. Chidambaram when he served, with great distinction, as chairman of the IAEA board. Since then, our cordial acquaintance has grown into something of a friendship, but only in a Vienna context. This visit enables me to fulfil my long-standing curiosity ? you might call it a zoological curiosity , to see Chid at home in his natural habitat. This alone was worth the trip.
The larger reason extends well beyond the personal , to matters of policy with global implications.
I believe that India's nuclear scientists stand on the threshold of a new era in which they will become full partners in a global nuclear community and in which they will be instrumental in building a more prosperous Indian future. All of us here know that we have reached a point in history where prosperity, here and elsewhere, can be sustained only in careful harmony with our biosphere. In achieving that balance of man and environment , while meeting the vast unmet needs of today and the needs of billions of people soon to be born , nuclear energy will be indispensable.
Indian scientists, in developing peaceful nuclear technology, have attained a remarkable record of independent achievement. Yet, needless to say, the extent of this independence was more than Indians might have wished.
Tomorrow, at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, I will recommend steps that could be taken to remove the barriers that now separate India from the global nuclear community. I will discuss India's institutional status vis-à-vis the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and offer some reflections as to how those adverse relationships might be constructively reconciled with modern realities.
This reconciliation must balance India's strategic interests with the preservation of a global non-proliferation regime that represents one of the great achievements in diplomatic history. No reconciliation is possible if either interest , India's or the integrity of this essential institution of international security , is compromised.
Accomplishing these changes will present a political challenge because many policymakers in the West believe so deeply in the non-proliferation regime that they are unwilling to countenance adaptations. Just as Indians have hardened themselves against all talk of signing the NPT, many on the other side are equally adamant in demanding India's signature as a precondition of peaceful nuclear commerce.
The problem is compounded because many of those same people are also disbelievers in the value of nuclear energy. The only nuclear activity they deem worthwhile is nuclear disarmament. Thus, in their determination to uphold the non-proliferation regime, they do not perceive that maintaining India's isolated status jeopardizes any significant global interest.
As I will focus on this issue tomorrow, let me suffice it today to say that I believe a way can be found to end India's isolation and open peaceful nuclear commerce with the West. This will be done because it is just, because adroit diplomacy can accomplish this adaptation without weakening the non-proliferation regime, and because removing existing barriers will open the way to a technological cooperation that promises enormous economic and environmental benefit to all parties concerned.
I noticed in your conference brochure that your agenda envisaged talks by 'eminent personalities who have vast experience in the field and a vision for the future'. Out of these three characteristics, I lay claim only to the latter. I do have a vision for the future.
That is why I am eager to tell you about the World Nuclear Association, our aims, and our intent to be a valuable partner to all of you in this new century where the guiding global imperative must be strong and sustainable development.
Our predecessor organisation was the Uranium Institute. In its subtitle, the UI was called the International Association for Nuclear Energy. Last January, when I became head of this organisation, I took it as my primary task to give that subtitle fuller meaning.
The first step was to change our name to state even more explicitly the role we seek to perform. Our aim now is to fulfil the meaning of our simple but ambitious name , World Nuclear Association. That is my vision , and one that is shared by our honorary chairman, Hans Blix.
Today there are two great world organisations in the nuclear field.
The first is the International Atomic Energy Agency, the inter-governmental organisation that sets the rules of the game for nuclear commerce , by promulgating safety standards and by operating the global safeguards system. Acting in support of that system is the inter-governmental Nuclear Suppliers Group, which establishes guidelines governing trade in nuclear technology and material. Although the IAEA disseminates various nuclear technologies and investigates new possibilities in nuclear power production, the Agency does not have a major commercial or promotional role.
The second great world organisation is WANO, the World Association of Nuclear Operators, which is only 12 years old but has become a major global instrument in promoting operational safety at all of the world's nuclear power reactors. WANO does this through a global system of technical exchange and operational peer review. Unlike the IAEA, WANO exists in the private sector. But like the IAEA, WANO is not a commercial or promotional organisation. Rather, it conducts its affairs quietly and confidentially with the single overarching objective of maximizing nuclear safety.
Both of these organizations are indispensable. We are building the World Nuclear Association with the aim of taking a place along side the IAEA and WANO by performing a third valuable role on a world scale , a private sector role of commercial facilitation and strong advocacy.
We are the world association of the private sector companies that actually perform the various roles that comprise the whole nuclear fuel cycle , including not only nuclear power generation but also mining, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, plant manufacture, transport and the safe disposition of spent fuel. Our membership also includes government agencies , from those countries where such functions are performed by government rather than by the private sector.
The WNA's dual roles can be stated as follows:
Our goal today is to perform both jobs with ever growing effectiveness and on a full global plane.
Our premises are straightforward:
As to where these premises lead, we believe that , to reconcile human need and biospheric stability , national and international policymakers and leaders of this industry must begin to envisage the construction of not just hundreds of new reactors in the decades ahead, but literally thousands.
We believe that this vision, while grand, is also realistic.
We are keenly aware that many people hold a more pessimistic view of nuclear energy's future. Some are proponents of nuclear energy, frustrated by the walls of misunderstanding that surround it. Some are enemies of nuclear energy who remain diligent in their efforts to fortify those walls.
Evidence for the pessimistic view lies in the prolonged absence of new nuclear construction in the regions where nuclear power originated. In America, the main explanation is economic , a combination of adequate capacity and the extended availability of cheap alternatives. But in Europe, even though nuclear power's 35% share continues to make it the largest single source of electricity, political opposition has affected government policy.
Anti-nuclear forces have been particularly active in such key nuclear countries as Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Britain and even France. It was their influence that lay behind the European Union's zealous efforts to stigmatise nuclear power in the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol.
Further evidence for pessimism can be found in wide-ranging experiments with deregulation, which in some countries have made electricity prices so low as to deter investment in new capacity of any kind, especially nuclear with its larger initial capital costs.
By looking closer, however, an optimist can find powerful reason for encouragement.
A strong source of optimism is America, where nuclear power has maintained a 20% share of electricity generation and where a nuclear renaissance is gaining momentum from a combination of factors. These include: more favourable public opinion, a pro-nuclear administration, increased operating efficiency resulting in greater output and lower costs, an improved regulatory climate for nuclear power, worry over future price and availability of natural gas, expanding confidence in the affordability of new reactor construction, a widening recognition that deregulation schemes must provide for long-term base-load planning, and a genuine and growing concern about the environment , despite the impression created by President Bush's stance on Kyoto.
In the optimistic view, an American nuclear resurgence will only help to accelerate a nuclear advance that is already broad-based , indeed global , for several reasons:
First, new construction is alive and well not only in much of Asia and Eastern Europe but also in Latin America and South Africa. In the last five years, 24 reactors with 12,000 MWe have been commissioned, and 36 new reactors totalling over 30,000 MWe are now under construction.
If, as we may reasonably expect in the not too distant future, 'new build' is approved in Britain as well as America, advanced nuclear power reactors will be under construction in every region of the world. Such widespread construction of new reactors will break a barrier of perception, shifting the question , everywhere , from 'whether' to 'how many'?
Second, on the chronic issue of waste disposition, historic progress on repositories is occurring simultaneously on a broad front that extends from America, to Sweden and Finland, to Russia. This too will break a barrier of perception, ending forever the common allegation that the nuclear waste problem is 'unsolvable'.
Third, the battle with green ideology has not in fact gone badly. In Sweden and Germany, for example, the entry of greens into government has produced something like an inoculation effect, generating a healthy public debate through which citizens have come to recognise the negative long-term consequences, both economic and environmental, when green dogma is converted into public policy.
Fourth, the limits of deregulation are being recognized. It has become clear from painful experience that policies that satisfy consumer populism in the short term can jeopardise consumer interests over the longer term, bringing sudden shortages and price spikes. Increasingly, governments understand that long-range supply and purchase arrangements represent prudent planning and yield needed investments.
Finally, nuclear is slowly but inexorably benefiting from a mounting recognition everywhere of the enormous stakes embodied in the question of how humanity produces energy in the 21 st century. Having dabbled in environmental regulation heretofore, governments around the world are coming to recognize that there is only one way to save the environment, and that is to infuse economies with incentive systems that motivate environmentally benign behaviour and deter activities that are damaging to the local environment and the biosphere.
The principal market-based tools will be 'green taxes' on emissions and tradable permits to pollute. But whatever the policy technique, the goal will be to harness the power of the market for the sake of the planet's health. As this transformation occurs , as environmental policy is assimilated into the very bloodstream of the international economy , it will constitute nothing short of a revolution.
Inevitably, that revolution will benefit nuclear energy , not by subsidising it, but by attaching to the use of fossil fuel a cost increment that reflects the true burden of that energy source on man and environment. Even without taking climate effects into account, the EU's recent 'ExternE' study showed just how great that burden is.
It is the mission of the World Nuclear Association to hasten that revolution and to prepare for its arrival.
As a first priority, we are trying to build membership. When I arrived in January, my organization had no members outside the OECD world and was even shrinking slightly due to consolidation in the industry. Now we are growing.
In recent months, in addition to new members from within the OECD world, we have new members and affiliates from countries not before represented. These include Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine, Iran, South Africa, Morocco and your own Atomic Minerals Directorate , the first of what I hope will soon be a strong contingent of new members from India.
In the months ahead, we are expecting applications from organizations in such countries as Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Pakistan. We are particularly interested in achieving the participation of a full range of organizations in Russia, China and India , because of their enormous environmental significance and their vast potential for nuclear power expansion.
Our aim is ambitious. Within the next 18 months, we want our membership to include companies and government agencies from every country in the world that is either producing nuclear power or considering do so. We not only want Indian membership; we want you to use India's great influence to help build our membership.
Our membership fees are relatively modest, and to make matters even easier the WNA Board has just approved a revised fee structure that provides substantial discounts for organisations in countries outside the OECD. We believe that the benefits of WNA membership easily warrant the minor costs.
In addition to membership, we now offer a relationship called 'affiliation' for which there is no fee. Affiliation is for certain kinds of professional organisations, including national nuclear societies, that are not themselves directly engaged in nuclear fuel cycle activities. Affiliation with the WNA is a symbolic act of partnership , a declaration of intent to work together wherever possible. I hereby officially invite the Indian Nuclear Society to be among the first national nuclear societies to become a WNA affiliate.
Our goal in this membership drive is to build a global nuclear community , or, more accurately, to consolidate a potential community that exists already in a greatly disaggregated form. Our purpose in trying to consolidate this community is two-fold:
In the case of India, there is a special task, which is to overcome existing barriers to peaceful nuclear commerce. To those in this room and throughout your nuclear establishment, we offer our partnership in helping to achieve that goal.
Unlike the IAEA and WANO, the World Nuclear Association is, inter alia, an advocacy organization. Far from being constrained like the IAEA to conduct our affairs according to the principle of a lowest common denominator that includes anti-nuclear members , or from adopting an intentionally low silhouette like WANO , we are for nuclear energy and we are proud of it.
We are ready, indeed eager, to challenge the silly dogmas of anti-nuclear environmentalists and the sheer hypocrisy of certain governments that refuse to see the indispensable value of nuclear energy. We are quite uninhibited in taking them to task for espousing positions that represent a dangerous combination of ignorance, psychological denial, and moral exhibitionism.
Our philosophy is quite simple. We want to spread the truth about nuclear technology, and we aim to do so with a confidence that the battle for understanding , among citizens, journalists and policymakers , can be won.
It is for this reason that we placed high priority on quickly establishing a website that we believe is now the world's best source of comprehensive, reliable, and accessible information on the global nuclear industry. I want to take a few moments to show it to you.
Here you see what we call our 'traditional' home page. It has a typical format, which is useful for attracting search engines and convenient for the no-nonsense user who's looking for quick access to data. The site provides information on who we are, news of recent developments in the industry, and a wealth of in-depth information and educational papers covering every facet of nuclear power.
But we aim to convey more than mere information. We also want to project, by style and graphics, the aura we believe should surround nuclear energy , a sense of the modern, of the magic of this technology, of the future, of the fact that this industry is prepared to take the world into that future.
That is why we have established a second home page we call our 'cosmic' home page. It leads to the same information but with a multimedia format that offers a little more pizzazz.
On both homepages, we have a new feature called the AutoEssay, which I showed last month in Vienna during the IAEA General Conference. Like much that we do, the AutoEssay is based on a belief that most people can be educated and are willing to be.
The AutoEssay is designed to provide, in distilled form, the essential argument for nuclear energy , a brief, logically persuasive sequence of facts that might make an impression on an intelligent person with an open mind who wants to know more.
As you view this, please imagine that you are such a non-expert sitting at your computer. The AutoEssay lasts about 12 minutes and can be played automatically or manually. (View AutoEssay.)
This is a work in progress, and we hold no illusion that any such presentation can work wonders. But we do think it can be a valuable educational tool. It's relatively brief. It's tireless , available 24 hours a day anywhere in the world. It can be a point of referral or used as a presentation. And it's adaptable linguistically. Our goal now is to offer the Auto-Essay in 10 or more languages so that it can be available for educational use with journalists, policymakers, and audiences everywhere.
This is just an example of our efforts to spread truth on behalf of the industry. Our other function is to facilitate interaction within the industry.
Last month, during the WNA's Inaugural Symposium in London, a group of industry CEO's met to focus on the current state of play in the Kyoto process. Their decision was to ask the WNA Secretariat to help organize their efforts to make an impact on future negotiations.
Their premise was not that the WNA itself could influence the Kyoto process. Quite the contrary, these talks are being shaped primarily in the capitals of the key parties, where national positions are developed and national delegations are appointed. Heretofore, these delegations , even from many pro-nuclear countries , have been so overloaded with anti-nuclear voices that, by the time the negotiations actually convened, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
What our CEO's recognized is that they must make their voices heard in capitals. Their mandate to us was to monitor the negotiations, discover facts, share information, develop arguments and make recommendations for their individual and collective action. The aim ultimately is to prompt governments to understand that the Kyoto negotiation is not just about environmental regulation. It is about redirecting the entire global economy, and thus is a matter far too serious to be left to environmental ministries alone, and certainly not to the dictates and vagaries of green ideologues.
Our effort to coordinate the work of industry CEO's is one example of the WNA's aim , and availability , to help the nuclear industry develop a stronger transnational unity of thought and action.
In the future , the near future , I hope to see key Indian nuclear leaders in the room when such discussions occur.
Today, under the Kyoto Protocol, India has no emissions reduction commitments. But any effective climate protection regime must eventually involve India's full participation. India's voice could already carry enormous weight in the Kyoto process , if used. I know that many of our CEO's would welcome an early opportunity to begin working with Indian nuclear leaders with the aim of promoting a central role for nuclear power as a long-term climate regime emerges.
Once under way, such collaboration could also be directed at the task of overcoming barriers that now block peaceful nuclear commerce with India. The aim would not be to circumvent any existing law, but rather to work transnationally to promote a needed revision of current policies.
The necessary step toward this collaboration is strong Indian representation in the World Nuclear Association. We want your participation as we work to build and promote an industry that our 21 st century world must soon come to see quite differently , not as an outcast, but as an indispensable source of clean, reliable, and affordable energy for a modern society.
I close by referring to one of our great American presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who told his generation of Americans that they had 'a rendezvous with destiny'. Under very different circumstances, I believe the same can be said of India's nuclear scientists today. The days when nuclear weapons had geopolitical currency are blessedly behind us. But a global era when civil nuclear power will carry immense economic and environmental value has only just begun.
Through your technological prowess , and with the support of scientific, commercial, and financial partners abroad , you are in a position to energize , quite literally, to energize , a new age of strong and sustainable development throughout the world's largest democracy.
In a time of urgent human need and looming environmental crisis, your nation desperately needs the technology of which you are the custodians. In that sense, you too have a rendezvous with destiny, and the World Nuclear Association stands ready to help you keep the appointment.