02-31R
September 20, 2002
(as delivered)

September 20, 2002
ANA Hotel
Tokyo, Japan

12:00 noon local time.

SECRETARY ABRAHAM: Thank you very much. Let me begin by congratulating everybody here for the success of this program and of the efforts that have been made to date. The Generation IV International Forum has already proven to be a terrific success. I think all of you here, as I said earlier, the people that you represent who have been working on this program, have played critical roles in the impressive progress which has been made.

The report that comes out of this meeting is the product of nearly two years of hard work and very visionary thinking. And there is no doubt, at least in my mind, that the efforts made by all of you will bear fruit in the coming years.

It now seems like a long time ago when the major nuclear research centers of the world were moving on independent and very diverse and, frankly, not very coordinated paths. Take a moment, if you would, to consider what we've accomplished with this new route. Ten countries key to the future of nuclear power have now selected six technologies that they believe represent the future shape of nuclear energy and are now in the process of partnering to bring these technologies to reality. This unprecedented accomplishment points not only to a future when the original promise of nuclear energy will be fulfilled, but to one that shows that the future of nuclear is an international one, involving the skills and the expertise of many countries.

I'm particularly pleased to represent the United States at a forum on nuclear energy because I believe nuclear power will be an important component of the world's energy picture in the 21st century. In my job as the United States Secretary of Energy, I find myself each day dealing-no doubt some of you do as well-with vexing questions regarding other sources of energy.

With coal or petroleum products, the major concerns have to do with ever-shrinking resources and environmental problems. With renewable energies there are concerns about economic efficiency and reliability-as well as the aesthetic and environmental concerns about many other options, whether it's windmills or hydropower.

But these questions are largely absent when we talk about nuclear power. Indeed, nuclear power is thought of not in terms of questions, but of answers-helping to answer those very questions about dwindling resources and environmental security that have dominated the energy debate in recent years.

The old line about being part of the solution, not part of the problem, is best illustrated by the presence of those in this room. The technology we're here to discuss and to plan and to shepherd represents a future of energy that is safe, abundant, reliable, inexpensive, and proliferation resistant.
So what I'd like to do today is to talk for a few minutes about that future, and how our Administration views nuclear power-not just as part of our energy mix, but as a key component in the energy mix for all nations.

When we took office in January of last year, one of our first jobsc In fact, the President in the very first week we were in office directed the Vice President to chair a taskforce made up of a number of Cabinet members to put together a national energy policy addressing the long-term issues related to ensuring energy security deep into the 21st century.

One of the central elements of that policy was our plan for a diverse mix of fuels for the 21st century economy, including oil, natural gas, hydropower and other renewables, coal-and nuclear power.
Forcefully declaring that nuclear power should be part of the world's energy mix took some people by surprise, but to us it was just common sense. After all, nuclear power provides a fifth of all electric power in the United States and considerably higher proportions in France, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland. In fact, as a group, the countries of Generation IV rely on nuclear power for an average of 26 percent of their electricity, as you know.

We studied the issue of nuclear energy carefully. We studied the industry, its history, its recent progress, its ongoing research, and its future promise. And we came to the undeniable conclusion that there are compelling arguments in favor of nuclear power.

We also concluded that to promote the role of nuclear power, several things had to happen. First, we would have to make the case for nuclear power in 21st century terms. And second, we would need to address a number of challenges that must be addressed forthrightly. Let me begin by talking about the 21st century rationale for nuclear energy.

Nuclear power is not that young a technology any more. It dates back nearly seventy years, to a time when men like Einstein and Fermi first contemplated the awesome power of the atom. Sixty years ago that power was obviously employed in a national security sense and thereafter to keep the Cold War adversaries in check. And fifty years ago, in the aftermath of World War II, engineers, scientists, and others began considering civilian uses of nuclear power.

It is safe to say that when nuclear energy was considered for civilian uses, the arguments recommending nuclear power were very different from the arguments recommending it today. Back then the idea was to move from the destructive to the constructive power of nuclear fission. As President Eisenhower said, "to move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light."

In the first years of the "Atoms to Peace" program, arguments were put forth explaining how nuclear power could be mobilized to apply to the fields of agriculture, medicine, and who knew what else the future might hold. Moreover atomic energy might be employed to generate electricity. At the time, not so much for the United States and other developed nations, it was argued, but for the "power-starved areas of the world."

These were compelling arguments then, and they successfully bolstered the civilian application of nuclear energy. But what I'd like to suggest here today is that there are additional arguments for nuclear power that are relevant to today's realities. And they are arguments that reflect the same optimism and hope that our parents and grandparents showed a half-century ago and which reflect policy imperatives that were either unknown or not well understood at the dawn of the atomic age.

The first imperative reflects our commitment to a clean environment. Nuclear power plants emit none of the pollutants associated with the burning of fossil fuels. Nuclear powered plants in the eastern part of the United States, for example, have made it possible for many states to meet the requirements of our federal Clean Air Act. Since the mid-1970s, in fact, nuclear energy has enabled the United States to avoid emitting over 80 million tons of sulfur dioxide and about 40 million tons of NOx (nitrogen oxides).

The second imperative is to supply energy that is both abundant and affordable. As many of you know, our Administration has identified hydrogen as being a potential source of unlimited and clean energy. We envision a day when hydrogen powers a variety of stationary and moving users of power, from cars, light trucks, and 18-wheelers to office parks, factories, and shopping malls.

But this is a vision that will take several decades to implement. And one of the challenges will be to cleanly and efficiently produce hydrogen. What is exciting about nuclear energy is that, as all of you know, it promises to do exactly that. In fact, the work that you have begun under Gen IV represents some of the world's very best thinking about the potential and the research we will do together to make that vision a reality.

Finally, there is the policy debate which surrounds the issue of climate change. It's obvious to me that an energy source capable of supplying a significant proportion of the world's power with no greenhouse gas emissions should be at the center of that debate. Yet many of the fiercest enthusiasts for the Kyoto Protocol are the most ferocious opponents of nuclear power. To put it bluntly, the opponents of nuclear power offer what I think is an illogical and inherently inconsistent argument. These are folks who happily embrace the virtues of solar power, wind power, and biomass, but somehow miss the reality that nuclear power has the same type of benefits touted for renewable energy sources, along with the added virtue of being extraordinarily economical.

Now, my point here is not to criticize renewable energy. In fact, our Administration is aggressively pursuing a variety of renewable energy technologies. Rather, my point is simply that the arguments for clean power ought to be applied fairly. But it's not enough for us to criticize others' arguments. To be honest, we need to do a better job of clarifying the true arguments for nuclear power. Think about it: the greenhouse gas question, concerns about the cleanliness of our skies and waterways, dependable supplies of energyc Nuclear energy has something relevant to say about each of these issues. Therefore I think it's incumbent upon those of us in the public policy arena to articulate this case for nuclear power.

Each of us must take on the challenge of educating a public that in some instances might not have considered certain benefits of nuclear energy, or in other instances might be laboring under previous misperceptions.

All of us in this room are aware of the tremendous progress made by the nuclear industry in the last several decades. In fact, many people here helped lead that effort. Plants are vastly more efficient than before. They are better run and better managed than in the past. And the improved management practices standard at today's nuclear plants, not surprisingly, have been accompanied by huge improvements in safety.

There are those who aren't as intimately acquainted with nuclear energy's success story. They may be unaware of these technological and safety developments. And therefore it's our challenge to educate the broader public. Through efforts such as the Gen IV International Forum, more and more people are going to come to understand that nuclear power today is safer than ever, more reliable than ever, less expensive than ever, and it is absolutely vital for our future.

And I might say, I was very interested in the portion of the presentations today on communications, which was offered by a representative from the UK, because I think it is important that we include as a very significant part of what we do here the communications component-and the educational component. Not just explaining the promise of Gen IV, but also talking in a very strong sense as advocates for the concept of nuclear energy in the 21st century.

Besides making a better case for nuclear power, we must also recognize there are several direct obstacles that have to be surmounted. And we have to address the practical considerations that, if left unaddressed, would prevent nuclear energy from continuing to play a significant role in our energy mix.

In the United States, one thing that's become clear over the last several decades is that significant barriers make it extremely hard for a utility to make the business decision to order a new nuclear power plant. So the question before us is, how do we remove the impediments that increase financial risk and create uncertainty?

And what I'd like to do now is just spend a minute or two talking about some of the actions our Administration has taken recently to foster the sort of environment necessary for nuclear power's success.

First is the issue of liability. A system must be in place that guarantees compensation for victims of nuclear accidents, and it must be clear to all parties what the parameters of that liability are.

Today we are working with Congress on extending our Price Anderson Act, which guarantees compensation in the event of a catastrophic event. I'm happy to say that just last week, the House and Senate conferees, who were working on America's energy legislation, came to an agreement to include the reauthorization of Price Anderson in that legislation.

The second issue deals with the question of nuclear waste. And as you all know, I think, earlier this year President Bush recommended Yucca Mountain, located in Nevada in the western United States, to be the nation's permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste. And I'm very pleased that Congress recently approved that recommendation with large bipartisan majorities in both houses, which represented a crucial victory for nuclear power.

A third challenge is to actively push forward on nuclear research and development, while at the same time trying to overcome senseless regulatory hurdles. One of these efforts is an ambitious initiative which we announced this past February called Nuclear Power 2010, which aims at getting a new nuclear power plant built and brought online by the end of this decade.

Nuclear Power 2010 involves the government and the private sector working closely together: to explore sites that could host new nuclear plants, to demonstrate the effectiveness of key Nuclear Regulatory Commission processes designed to make licensing of new plants more efficient and predictable, and to conduct research needed to make the safest and most advanced nuclear plant technologies available in the United States.

It's our intent to establish a competitive process that encourages utilities to coalesce around the most promising nuclear plant technologies. We believe that one or two nuclear plant designs are already close to meeting the economic requirement of the market and we will consider supporting the certification of these designs and their application in a "one-step" licensing process. Proving that this "one-step" licensing process works will be crucial to removing a major risk of investing in new power plants.

There are a number of other actions the United States government can take to help the development of advanced nuclear technologies, both near and long term. In the short run, we plan to work with both industry and our international partners to conduct the research needed to ensure that advanced gas reactor technology can be considered a real option in the United States. We're already working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and industry to pave the way for such novel technologies, which as I alluded to before, may open the way for the economic, commercial-scale production of hydrogen to power the world of the future.

But we also have our eyes on the longer term. That's why we expect to invest so heavily-through this forum-in advanced nuclear technology to power the future beyond just the next few years.

While the second and third generation reactors we've relied on for several decades are adequate for today's purposes, we believe a new era awaits. It's an era of nuclear energy marked by enhanced safety, improved waste reduction, better economic performance, and, perhaps most importantly, improved physical security and proliferation resistance.

Meeting this last challenge won't just have the beneficial effects we would expect, of course, for electricity generation. Meeting it will go a long way toward safeguarding each of our nations from the perils posed by those seeking to acquire dangerous nuclear materials.

The need to develop the next generation of nuclear reactors has been known for several years. It was made chillingly clear on the morning of September 11, 2001. So Gen IV isn't just about finding a way to generate electricity even cheaper than we already do. It's about discovering new avenues to energy in the 21st century while shutting down the avenues traveled by terrorists.

Generation IV nuclear energy systems will be able to recycle the most troublesome constituents of spent nuclear fuel, thereby vastly reducing the quantity of highly radioactive waste to be disposed of. In time, Gen IV systems will also be able to extend the fuel resource base by several orders of magnitude. That's why the United States takes Gen IV very seriously for energy security reasons, national security reasons, and homeland security reasons as well.

Two months ago I officially designated one of the Department's leading facilities-the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, or INEEL as we call it-as the command center for the U.S. nuclear research program. American Gen IV research activities will be conducted at INEEL from here on out. I'm very proud for the opportunity to work with each of you on this effort, and on an effort that has as its aim ensuring a safer and healthier planet.

Our Department and I are committed to working with you and your scientists, engineers, and governments to make the next generation of nuclear technology available as quickly as possible. Since signing the Gen IV charter 14 months ago, we pooled expertise and resources to begin the process to develop the most promising nuclear technologies. We've done it together. And we have laid the institutional groundwork for further beneficial cooperation.

I think everybody in this room understands that nuclear power offers great benefits, but that it also poses tremendous challenges. I think the American government has a clear role to play to help remove those barriers to an expanded role for nuclear power. And I think we've made clear our willingness to embrace this role this year.

Through Nuclear Power 2010, expanded Generation IV advanced research, Yucca Mountain, increased cooperation with our counterparts in the various world capitals. Those are the steps which we are taking. They're taken by an Administration confident of nuclear power's promise, and cognizant of what needs to be done to guarantee it.

I want to close by just reiterating comments I made a little earlier at the presentations. We very much appreciate the collaborative effort that's taken place under Generation IV, and I want to thank my counterparts who I've gotten to know over the last year and a half during my tenure in this job and to thank you for your commitment to this process.

As I said this morning, there is no doubt in my mind that our ability to move forward in this area is enhanced tremendously by the work we do on an international basis, together. That must embrace everything from the research and design work, and the kind of fundamental frontline technology development to the communications and advocacy of nuclear energy in the 21st century. We must share those responsibilities as well.

And we must call upon the private sector throughout the various countries which are represented in the Forum and beyond to do their part as well. This can't just be a government project. It has also to be one where investors and private concerns take the responsibility seriously, too. Together, I think we can bring about that kind of result and together I think we can be very successful. And we're very anxious to move from where we are today into the future working with all of you to make that happen.

Thank you very much for having me here today.