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United States Advocates Major Expansion of Nuclear Energy

16 March 2006

Energy Secretary Bodman touts Bush's global nuclear partnership

By Bruce Odessey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The world's need for reliable, clean energy requires broadly expanded use of nuclear power, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman says.

In March 16 remarks at the Moscow center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Bodman advocated the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), the Bush administration initiative aimed at increasing emissions-free nuclear energy and reducing nuclear waste while reducing the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation.

Bodman was in Moscow attending a meeting of energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8 countries) -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.  The July G8 leaders' summit hosted by Russia is expected to focus on global energy security.

U.S. government projections show global demand for energy increasing 50 percent over current levels by 2025, with more than half the new demand coming from emerging economies.

"It is our hope and expectation that GNEP will expand the use of nuclear power in the U.S. and around the world by developing new proliferation-resistant technologies to recycle spent nuclear fuel," Bodman said.

For the United States, he said, reducing dependence on oil imports requires expanded use of nuclear power.

Under GNEP, the United States and willing international partners aim to develop technologies that repeatedly recycle spent nuclear fuel, including the plutonium waste product that might otherwise be used for nuclear weapons. (See related article.)

"In addition to generating less nuclear waste in the future, these technologies could enable us to start reusing the considerable amount of separated plutonium already being stored around the world ... further reducing the risk that it will be used as weapons material," Bodman said.

"Regardless of whether one believes that reprocessing has worked well in those nations where it is currently practiced," he said, "I think we all would agree that the stores of plutonium that have built up as a consequence of conventional reprocessing technologies pose a growing proliferation risk that requires vigilant attention."

Another goal of GNEP is to develop a program for giving developing countries a dependable supply of nuclear energy in exchange for a commitment to forego development of capabilities for enriching and reprocessing nuclear fuel.

"Let me be clear that we do not propose to develop this recycling technology and then share it with countries that do not have existing reprocessing or enrichment capabilities," Bodman said.

The dependable supply of nuclear energy would let poorer developing countries avoid the environmental problems associated with burning fossil fuel such as oil and coal, he said.

The full text of Bodman's prepared remarks, a fact sheet on the G8 energy ministerial and additional information on the GNEP are available on the Energy Department’s Web site.

For additional information, see Energy Policy.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)