Remarks by John RitchDirector General, World Nuclear Association
WANO Governing Board MeetingLondon29 October 2001
Mr. Chairman and distinguished colleagues, I appreciate Zack Pate's kind offer to grant me a few minutes of your valuable time to explain the emerging role of the World Nuclear Association.
For many years, our predecessor organisation ' the Uranium Institute' had, as its subtitle, "the International Association for Nuclear Energy". Last January, when I left my ambassadorial post in Vienna to head this organisation, I took it as my goal to take that subtitle and give it broader meaning.
A New Vision and a New Name
This vision originated in two premises:
The first step was a vote by our members last May to change our name ? so as to state more explicitly the role we seek to perform. Our mission now is to give vitality to that new name.
In pursuing this mission, we were proud to be joined by a new honorary chairman, former IAEA head Hans Blix, a man I regard as the world's senior nuclear statesman. If, as we expect, Hans leaves his special assignment at the UN next year, he will become our global ambassador.
I have asked Zack to forgive that our new name bears some similarity to WANO. Given the limited alternatives, we saw that almost any choice would overlap the name of some other organisation. We therefore focussed on adopting a name that would serve us well in the domain of public advocacy, where we intend to be increasingly active. That standard led us to the simple, strong, and self-explanatory title we now have.
In practice, we believe that the dangers of confusion are small and transitory - all the more because we spend so much time talking about the distinct virtues of WANO as a separate and invaluable institution.
For example, one of our first actions was to establish a WNA Charter of Ethics, enunciating the moral and legal commitments that have emerged in the nuclear industry through a half-century of practical experience, scientific advance and diplomatic institution-building. A central tenet of the Charter is that the IAEA and WANO stand as twin pillars of the nuclear industry worldwide. As Zack knows, we consulted extensively with both organisations in shaping the Ethical Charter's text.
Now, the very good question is: In a world already teeming with nuclear organisations, where does ours fit in? I believe the answer derives from the old phrase, "if it didn't exist, we'd need to create it".
The IAEA, WANO and the WNA
I find that the easiest way to explain the WNA's "need to exist" is by triangulating on the two great nuclear organisations to which our Charter refers: the IAEA and WANO.
The IAEA is, of course, inter-governmental. It shapes the rules of the game for worldwide nuclear commerce and operations by setting safety standards and by operating the global safeguards system. The Agency also disseminates nuclear technologies and investigates new possibilities in reactor design. But in all its work, the IAEA carefully avoids either a commercial or promotional role.
The need for WANO's role became all too clear in 1986 as the world contemplated the catastrophe at Chernobyl. WANO didn't exist, and there was a desperate need to create it - in the interest of the industry everywhere. Those of you involved in conceiving and building WANO have made an historic contribution in human affairs that is not yet fully appreciated. Through your vision and diligence in establishing a global instrument to promote the highest possible operational safety at every nuclear power reactor in every nation, you have helped to ready the nuclear industry to meet mankind's urgent need for clean energy in the 21 st century.
WANO is not an inter-governmental agency. But it shares with the IAEA the trait of being neither commercial nor promotional. Your business is safety a business necessarily conducted quietly, indeed confidentially.
This truth, by the way, is carefully incorporated in the WNA Charter of Ethics, which affirms the principle of transparency while recognising that a safety system based on peer review depends on the frank exchange that can only occur when confidentiality is assured. Transparency within WANO is crucial. But it would be pointless to pursue transparency in any way that weakened the safety regime you are working so hard to build.
Both the IAEA and WANO have distinct and indispensable roles. 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. In an age of globalised commerce and globalised media, our role is to facilitate commerce and promote the industry in both cases, on a global scale.
We are the world association of industrial companies that actually perform the full range of activities that comprise the nuclear fuel cycle, including nuclear power generation. Our membership also includes government agencies from those countries where such functions are performed by government rather than the private sector.
In formal words, the WNA's dual roles can be stated as follows:
Our goal today is to do these two jobs with ever growing effectiveness and on a global plane.
Battles Worth Fighting
The nuclear industry has many battles to fight. Some are economic and relate to achieving ever-greater efficiency in reactor construction and nuclear industry operations. To support these struggles for improvement within the industry, the WNA operates working groups on such subjects as nuclear fuel, industry economics, trade, transport, waste management and decommissioning. New working groups will be formed as our members wish.
Some battles are political and arise in the struggle to overcome forces that see themselves as wise and progressive but that are in fact ill-informed and reactionary. Whether these political fights are national or international, we are looking for ways to be helpful.
National and Regional Issues
For example, this summer we spoke out against the efforts of Germany's Green energy minister to undermine the Czech Republic's responsible efforts to produce nuclear power at Temelin. We have contributed analytic papers to the British government's decision-making on Sellafield and to its broader energy review. We commented formally on the European Commission Green Paper on the security of energy supply.
We stand ready to make similar contributions wherever our members can find value in bringing a strong transnational voice to bear on a national or regional issue.
The Search for a Rational Climate Regime
On the major global issue of climate change, we are increasingly engaged on the Kyoto Protocol. Last month, a large group of industry CEO's, meeting in conjunction with the WNA's Annual Symposium, asked us to form a special WNA working group to orchestrate their efforts to advance the case of nuclear power as an indispensable component of any rational climate change regime.
These CEO's recognized that this battle right now is being lost primarily in national capitals, where delegations and negotiating positions are being shaped by the excessive influence of anti-nuclear ideologues based in environment ministries. Accordingly, the CEO's recognized that they must make their own influence felt in capitals. But they also saw a need for coordinated effort across national boundaries.
What they asked us to do is to monitor the negotiations, discover facts, share information, develop arguments and make recommendations for their individual and collective action. This is one example of the WNA's aim and availability to help the nuclear industry develop a stronger transnational unity of thought and action.
Expanding Well-Safeguarded Nuclear Trade
A significant international issue relates to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the inter-governmental body that supports the global non-proliferation regime by coordinating export policies on nuclear material and technology.
A strong non-proliferation regime is critical to the future of the industry. But the NSG rules now have an important flaw. They needlessly hinder nuclear trade with India ? and thus impede the expansion of clean power production in a great nation, encompassing 20% of humankind, whose energy strategy will have enormous environmental repercussions far beyond its own borders. In the world?s interest ? not just India'sthis anomaly must be corrected.
As a spokesman for the world industry, the WNA can champion a reconsideration of NSG policy. For example, if invited by an NSG member such as Russia, the WNA could offer recommendations for opening nuclear trade with India under a formula carefully designed to uphold, and even strengthen, the non-proliferation regime.
Options like this are available but now lie passive in the absence of coordinated effort. Such initiatives are possible once the industry begins to coalesce, identify goals, and pursue them with cooperative action.
Winning Support from Multilateral Development Institutions
Still another transnational issue relates to the world institutions for economic development, such as the UN Development Programme and the global and regional development banks.
Today no single step could better support sustainable global development than a sharp expansion of nuclear electricity generation around the world. And yet, with the sole exception of the EBRD?s work in Eastern Europe, our development institutions are shunning nuclear power for reasons relating to bureaucratic timidity, political correctness, and sheer political inertia. If these institutions are to meet genuine global need, a sounder approach to nuclear power will be required, and the WNA is prepared to fight for it.
The policies of the multilateral development institutions are governed by boards that consist of national representatives. This means, as with the Kyoto talks, that the work of changing multinational policy must begin in capitals. But to produce results, such efforts must be coordinated transnationally precisely the function that an organisation like the WNA can provide and that will not occur without it.
You will note in this discussion a common thread. If the nuclear industry wants to escape a status quo in which it is misrepresented in the global press and maligned and short-changed in the institutions of global government it can no longer acquiesce. It must organise, speak with confident pride and act with strategic purpose.
Where Victories Can Lead
Our efforts to support the nuclear industry's battles are motivated by an optimistic belief that operational advances within the industry in combination with larger political victories affecting the industry can propel us into an entirely new era for nuclear energy that will benefit not just the industry but the world.
We believe that this vision is more realistic than grandiose. It is the goal of the World Nuclear Association both to hasten the arrival of that world and to begin to prepare for its arrival.
Laying the Foundations for Transnational Action
As an organisation, our practical goals are not as grand as our vision of this industry?s future.
Gathering Membership and Affiliation
First, we are trying to build membership. When I arrived in January, my organisation 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 the U.S. and Russia, we have new members from countries not before represented Bulgaria, India, Ukraine, Iran, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. In the coming months, we are expecting applications from organisations in such countries as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania and Pakistan.
Among our new members, we even have the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which does staff work for parliamentarians in 36 European countries and is now drawing on WNA expertise in serving this important clientele.
We are focusing particular effort on achieving the participation of a full range of organisations from Russia, China and India as Chairman Chaturvedi knows from my visit earlier this month. We aim to establish regional offices in all three countries. We strongly hope that Rosenergoatom and Nuclear Power Corporation of India will soon become members, and will assist us with those offices.
We are also keenly interested in acquiring new members from smaller countries, in particular the two organisations from the Czech Republic and Slovenia represented here today.
Within a year or 18 months, we want to draw close to our goal of having a WNA membership that includes key companies and government agencies from every country in the world that is either producing nuclear power or considering do so.
You will notice that I did not emphasise recruiting in the U.S. We would cordially welcome all possible U.S. members, particularly utilities. But we recognize that today the American industry channels an enormous amount of money and attention into the NEI's diverse efforts within the United States. At some point, as our world membership grows, we hope that U.S. companies will focus on a broader global scene, and will find value in supporting our work for the global industry as a whole.
In addition to building membership, we have created a new relationship called "affiliation", which is relevant to various associations, professional societies, and transnational organisations. Affiliation with the WNA has no implication for any organisation?s independence or unique purpose. Rather, it is simply a symbolic statement of partnership and a declaration of intent to cooperate wherever possible.
If this Board so decided, we would welcome WANO?s affiliation with the WNA in the belief that such symbolism strengthens our voice as we seek to speak with accuracy and integrity on the industry's behalf.
Building Core Capabilities
As we gather membership and affiliations, we want to develop additional in-house capabilities. We are not engaged in empire building, nor do we wish to compete with other organisations that have national or regional responsibilities. But see a valuable role for a small core staff of top-flight professionals servicing a global membership. For example, I would like us to be able to support our members with world-class expertise on such subjects as waste disposal and emissions trading.
Similarly, on the promotional side, I would like to see our core staff strong enough to monitor closely all the major international media electronic and print. I want the WNA to engage both pro-actively by articulating the industry's broader vision and also correctively, so that no journalistic mistake on nuclear energy goes without a response, either an educational phone call or a public rebuttal.
We have already had some modest success, as in an interview I did on BBC World TV and another, this month, on Indian national TV. We have also begun to engage the print media, performing damage control and generating positive treatment. But these are limited steps. Far, far too much misinformation continues to flow through the major news arteries of the world unchallenged. In the realm of public advocacy, I believe a fully activated WNA can fill a great void and help speed a transformation of the industry's global image.
While we seek to build core staff capabilities, we also intend to remain small and cost-effective. To use a term from the sport of boxing, we will continue to "fight above our weight". By way of comparison, our budget is only 5% of the NEI's. We believe that doubling our resources to 10% of the NEI's would enable us to assemble the crack team of world-class professionals we want in order to be a truly potent tool of the world industry.
In this advocacy, our Charter of Ethics is a practical asset. Already, we are using it to good effect in challenging some of the so-called Ethical Investment categorizations propounded by the financial community lists that have heretofore taken it as a "given" that nuclear investments should be deemed unethical.
Overall, our philosophy is quite simple. We want to spread the truth about nuclear technology with a confidence that the battle for understanding among citizens, journalists and policymakers can gradually be won.
It is for this reason that we have placed priority on building a website to serve as the world?s best source of comprehensive, reliable, and accessible information on the global nuclear industry. I urge you to take a look and, in the process, to view what we call our AutoEssay, which makes the case for nuclear energy in 12 brisk minutes. In the months ahead, we aim to make this educational tool universally available by translating it into multiple languages.
WNA Success: Only with Strong Industry Support
In summarising our role and how I hope the industry will see us let me again refer to the IAEA and WANO. Both organisations are built on the principle of common purpose and shared responsibility. Among nations, the work of the IAEA produces a generalised benefit from which any individual country could benefit even without participating or paying. The same holds true with WANO and its member utilities; WANO would serve to strengthen nuclear safety globally even if certain utilities choose not to join. Fortunately, in both cases, a broad recognition of interdependence has fostered a sense of common responsibility. Rather than opting out, countries and utilities have opted in.
My hope is that this same sensibility will come to surround our efforts in the World Nuclear Association. Any individual company in the nuclear industry can derive indirect benefit from our efforts even without joining. But ? as with the IAEA and WANO if carried to the extreme, this perspective would preclude all activity on behalf of the global industry. Conversely, the broader the participation, the more substantial the collective benefits and the lighter the individual burdens.
I solicit your support in encouraging the industry's companies to view us with this philosophy. We will strive to offer companies as many direct benefits as possible through commercial facilitation and substantive working groups. But our overall value must be gauged more broadly and with a strong sense of this industry's interdependence and common purpose. I am asking our industry's leaders to share and act on this vision for the WNA can support the industry strongly only with the industry's strong support.
The essential aim of the World Nuclear Association is to build a global nuclear community. More precisely, we want to consolidate a potential community that exists already in a greatly disaggregated form and that has suffered to its own detriment and that of the world it could so well serve because it has lacked the strength and cohesion to ensure that its merits are adequately understood. With common purpose and organised effort, this can change.
The WNA need never become a big-budget enterprise. But it can fulfil a big ambition: to serve this industry on a transnational level and to hasten the day when the world no longer sees nuclear energy as a mysterious and mortal danger but has instead embraced this marvellous technology and learned to rely on it as an indispensable source of clean, reliable, and affordable energy for nations everywhere.
As we at the WNA work to achieve this goal, we offer our support to WANO and our partnership.