Inaugural Ceremony of the World Nuclear University - Part Two

John Ritch, Director General, World Nuclear Association (host)

Fifty years later, we stand on the foundations that Eisenhower laid.

Born of Eisenhower's initiative, the International Atomic Energy Agency has established itself within the UN system as a widely valued custodian - and practitioner - of his vision. And today we inaugurate a partner institution to give new vigour to the Eisenhower vision in the century just begun.

This evening, those directly involved in the organisation of the World Nuclear University will join at the Reform Club for a celebratory dinner.

Some of you will recall the Reform Club's role in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in 80 Days. It was there that Phileas Fogg placed his wager and began his great global adventure to win the bet.

This is an appealing analogy for our new adventure. But the Reform Club also offers us a more serious metaphor.

In the early 19th century, the men who founded the Reform Club recognised the paradox that society could remain stable only through change.

To avoid the evils of revolution and of repression, leaders must chart a course in between, using political reform to reconcile the need for order with the need for change.

In today's world, we face a similar challenge of navigation.

We too see twin evils. One is massive, unmet human need - profound and widespread need - that afflicts half the world's population and could become still more severe as humanity expands from 6 billion to 9 billion over the next 50 years.

The other is steady environmental degradation. Already, the waste emanating from the world's economies is straining the limits of a fragile biosphere. Indeed, serious analysts see the accumulation of greenhouse gases - at a global rate of 800 tonnes a second - as a crisis unprecedented in human affairs.

Looming before us is radical climate change, and consequences of famine, disease and social dislocation on a global scale we cannot predict. To mitigate this risk, our best scientists warn that we must reduce carbon emmissions by more than half over the next fifty years. And we must accomplish this Herculean task even as developing nations continue to expand energy consumption as they strive to rise from poverty.

As we face this dilemma, we have one possible means of reconciling human need and environmental preservation. To navigate between the evils of massive human misery and environmental destruction, we must achieve a worldwide transformation to clean energy.

This transformation is a matter of economics and of technology - and of politics. We will not achieve a global clean-energy transformation - and thus the reconciliation of man and environment of this planet - without the political will to do so.

As nations struggle to find that will, our role in the nuclear industry must be two-fold:

• First, we must prepare substantively - with skilled people and advanced technology.
• Second, through our performance - and strong efforts in public persuasion - we must do all possible to build the political will needed for a clean-energy transformation.

 

The World Nuclear University can help on both counts:

• First, as its primary role, it can strengthen our industry technically and with the trained professionals it will need.
• But the World Nuclear University can also, by its very nature and purpose, send a powerful message of political consequence:
  
  • If we can build a cooperative global institution dedicated to preparing young people for professions of nuclear science and engineering,
  • If the world's wealthiest and the world's most populous nations can join - and be seen to join - in an educational partnership premised on the world's urgent need for nuclear technology,
  • And if, through this partnership, we can begin to inspire a young generation of nuclear students in countries around the world,
  • Then we will send a message that will resonate among citizens and policymakers everywhere.

With a modest investment, we can build the World Nuclear University into an institution to which the entire nuclear industry can look - and point - with confidence and pride.

This new institution will speak powerfully - and in many languages - that nuclear technology has a large, promising future as an essential tool of sustainable development for all humankind.

To send this message is the opportunity we offer ourselves with the institution we inaugurate today.

When Eisenhower spoke, the dominant issue of the atomic age was whether we could contain this force and guide it to constructive use.

Fifty years later, having built strong institutions and an advanced atomic technology, we are confronted by urgent human and environmental need that challenges us to use these tools to full effect.

The institution we create today will help us to meet that challenge.

I am delighted now to introduce Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower, and head of the Eisenhower Institute. Susan is both an author and an effective activist in international affairs. But, most importantly, she has demonstrated her utter and absolute dedication to "Atoms for Peace" by marrying a Russian physicist.

[Click here to read remarks by Susan Eisenhower]

 

I am honoured now to welcome to the podium James Lovelock. Professor Lovelock requires no introduction from me. He is esteemed around the world.

 

Remarks by James Lovelock 

 

 

I now welcome my friend Hans Blix, an international public servant of enormous intelligence, vision and achievement. I don't know if he would be proud of it, but I claim Hans as my tutor in understanding the value of nuclear energy.

 

Remarks by Hans Blix 

 

I am now pleased to introduce my friend Mohamed Elbaradei, who heads one of the world's great institutions of international cooperation. Mohamed combines the wisdom and experience to do so brilliantly, and the world community is fortunate indeed to have the benefits of his leadership.

 Remarks by Mohamed Elbaradei 

 

 

 

I am particularly happy this morning to welcome Sir David King, the Chief Science Adviser of Her Majesty's Government. Sir David is not a nuclear expert but he is an eminently clear thinker. He has provided sound advice to his government on energy and the environment, and Britain's interests will be well served when his government listens.

Remarks by Sir David King 

 

I welcome now to the podium my colleague Luis Echavarri, head of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency. Luis has been a good partner as a Founding Supporter of the WNU, and the NEA stands to be a major contributor to WNU activities in the realms of both nuclear law and advanced nuclear technology.

 

Remarks by Luis Echavarri 

 

I am pleased to welcome my friend Zack Pate, Co-Chairman of the WNA Council of Advisors, Chairman-emeritus of WANO, and now Chairman of the Board of the new World Nuclear University. It takes a big man to carry all those titles.

 

Remarks by Zack Pate 

 

 

I now happily welcome my colleague Sig Berg, who manages an organisation of fundamental importance not just to the nuclear industry but to the world. All factors now point to nuclear as the energy of the future, and Sig's job is to keep it that way.

 Remarks by Sig Berg 

 

 

 

I am now delighted to introduce William Timbers, head of the U.S. Enrichment Corporation. USEC is the world's leading uranium enricher and a key participant in America's nuclear resurgence.

 Remarks by William Timbers 

 

 

 

I now invite to the podium my London colleague Hugh Collum. BNFL has an active programme of support for Britain's institutions of nuclear learning, and we hope that the WNU can draw on this experience as we build a transnational partnership.

Remarks by Hugh Collum 

 

Remarks by Gerald Grandey 

 

 

 

 
We have saved until late in our programme a terrific man of vision and entrepreneurship. Geoffrey Ballard has made wonderful contributions to the development of the hydrogen fuel cell. But his great unsung contribution is his effort to educate the world about where this hydrogen is going to come from.

Remarks by Geoffrey Ballard 

 

 

I am pleased now to show you an encouraging, highly positive video message from Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva Group, who could not be here for reasons of giving birth to a new creation of her own. Areva Group is the world's largest nuclear company, and Anne's enthusiastic support for the World Nuclear University is a tremendous asset as we begin this journey.

Remarks by Anne Lauvergeon 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we now turn to the inaugural formalities.

Our main participants are representatives of the institutions of nuclear learning that comprise the WNU network.

These representatives will form the WNU's Academic Council, which will oversee an array of Working Groups focused on a wide variety of tasks and challenges.

The WNU is an ongoing search for constructive cooperation, and these Working Groups will be the explorers. Their work will comprise the WNU agenda.

After this ceremony, the Academic Council will convene to consider that agenda, which will include:

• Sharing faculty and facilities;
• Preserving and managing nuclear knowledge;
• Exchanging students;
• Strengthening course content;
• Harmonising standards and credentials; and
• Eventually, establishing a recognized WNU diploma or degree.

 

A central goal will be to incorporate links between participating insitutions of nuclear learning and the four organisations that are the network's Founding Supporters.

We expect the WNU network to be coordinated from a London headquarters that will be staffed by a small cadre of experienced nuclear professionals. This "Core Faculty" will be the hub - providing both secretariat services and substantive leadership in promoting cooperation within the network and working to strengthen course content.

At the outset, the WNU will be little more than a framework. Because no organised opportunity has previously existed for global cooperation among such institutions, assembling the WNU partnership represents an important step. But it is only a first step.

Realising the WNU's potential will depend on investments of resources - and personal and institutional commitment - by the participants, by the Founding Supporters and by the companies and governments they represent.

The WNU project will rise or fall on the basis of those investments.

In this inauguration, it is fitting that we lay a conceptual foundation-stone for the new institution. The Board of Management of the World Nuclear Association has achieved this by its selection of recipient for a special WNA Award for "Distinguished Contribution to the Peaceful Worldwide Use of Nuclear Energy".

Normally the WNA Award is given to a person, and sometimes to an institution. This year, our honouree is an idea: President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" vision.

We present the Award today, in the form of three plaques, to institutions that are custodians of that vision: the Eisenhower Institute, the IAEA, and the new World Nuclear University.

I ask the leaders of those institutions to join me and Jerry Grandey on stage to accept the WNA Award.

As the plaque reads, the Award is made to President Eisenhower's vision:

• To commemorate the vision's 50th anniversary as an inspiration to those men and women in many nations who have dedicated themselves in science and public policy to achieving its fulfilment.
• To recognize the vision's living legacy within the United Nations System in the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in building an ever stronger foundation for the beneficial use of nuclear technology.
• And to celebrate the expansion of this legacy by the founding on this date of the World Nuclear University, dedicated to fulfilling the "Atoms for Peace" vision in the 21st century and to meeting the global imperatives of sustainable development and environmental preservation.

 

Susan, if you have any powers of communication with your grandfather, I hope you will convey our appreciation to the author of this vision. But I believe we can also offer thanks more generally.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join in reaffirming our common commitment to the Eisenhower vision and our appreciation to those many men and women - a number of them here today - who have done so much to bring this vision to reality.

Let us now bring forward those who will help to carry this torch in the 21st century. To record our unity of purpose, the participants will sign a "Declaration of Commitment", which reads as follows:

• Upon this inauguration of the World Nuclear University as a worldwide network of distinguished educational and research institutions engaged in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,
• We, as representatives of the academic and research institutions that are the initial participants in this undertaking and of the international institutions that are its founding supporters, pledge our best efforts, consistent with the statutes of our respective organisations:
• To assist this new endeavour in pursuing its essential aim of fostering international cooperation to advance the safe and expanded application of all aspects of nuclear technology in support of the goal of global sustainable development.

 

I ask our Country Representatives to proceed to the stage, in sequence, to sign the Declaration:

 

From Argentina, representing the Balseiro Institute and the Argentinean Atomic Energy Commission, we are honoured to have the head of both organisations: Professor José Abriata. We are impressed that Argentina has chosen to be represented at the ministerial level.

 

 

From Australia, representing the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is its Counsellor, Dr. Wayne Garrett.

 

 

 

 From Austria, representing the Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities, we welcome its Director, Helmuth Boeck.

I note the presence in our audience of a long-time champion of nuclear energy in Austria - an ageing nuclear veteran who has by no means conceded defeat: the former head of the Atomic Institute and current head of the Austrian Nuclear Society, Dr Walter Binner.

From Belgium, representing the Belgian Nuclear Higher Education Network, is William D'haeseleer. In a few moments, William will sign the Declaration a second time, in his capacity

as representative of the European Nuclear Engineering Network.

 

Brazil, like Argentina, has identified as its Country Representative the head of the national atomic energy commission, Odair Dias Goncalves. Unfortunately, one liability of ministerial rank is that he was unable to be here today. Brazil has expressed a strong commitment to the WNU. We look forward to working with Mr. Goncalves, who is represented here today by a key science adviser of the Brazilian government, Dr. Paulo Wrobel.

 

From Bulgaria, we are pleased to have, representing the University of Sofia and the Technical University of Sofia, Slavtcho Neykov, secretary general of Bulgaria's ministry of energy.

 

 

From Canada, we welcome Dr. Mohan Mathur, who heads Canada's University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering. We anticipate that UNENE will offer both lessons and leadership as the WNU begins shaping its global network of cooperation.

 

 

 

From China, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Zuoyi Zhang, who heads the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology at Tsinghua University. Tsinghua stands at the centre of nuclear learning in China, and Dr. Zhang's participation will be immensely valuable as we develop educational linkages on nuclear technology with a nation representing 20% of humankind.

 

 

 

 

From the Czech Republic, we have two excellent representatiaves. Karel Matejka represents the Czech Technical University in Prague, and Zdenek Kriz represents the Nuclear Research Institute REZ. We welcome both to the WNU network.

 

 

From Finland, land of enlightened nuclear policy, we welcome Professor Rainer Salomaa. Rainer represents the participation both of his own Helsinki University of Technology and also of the Lappeenranta University of Technology

 

 

 

From France, we have two representatives from the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, France's leading institution of nuclear learning. Representing a nation with the world's most pervasive nuclear programme, and arguably the world's most enlightened energy policy, INSTN will be centrally important to the workings of the WNU network. We welcome Dominique Gentile's strong commitment as INSTN's Director.

 

 

We look forward also to working with Christine Feltin, INSTN's head of international relations.

 

 

In connection with France’s participation, we have also valued the constructive role of Bertrand Barre, the Areva Group’s Vice-President for Scientific Communication, who has provided strong support for the WNU vision.

Germany is represented today by Professor Reinhard Odoj. Reinhard's Institute of Safety Research and Reactor Technology is an active participant in Germany's Network of Competence in Nuclear Technology.

From India, we welcome our friend Ravi Grover, a senior official in the Department of Atomic Energy and in the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre. BARC's Training School is the Indian participant in the WNU network. India's impressive programme of independent research means that BARC will have much to offer the WNU network.

India brings still more value to the WNU because of its strong and explicit national commitment to nuclear energy as a central instrument of sustainable development. This commitment represents a model that is an asset to nuclear enlightenment everywhere.

When the Indian government affirms this principle in international forums - as it did at the World Summit on Sustainable Development - that affirmation simply cannot be rebutted by a small political party or country, or an EU official, purporting to speak on behalf of the developing world.

From Italy, we have two fine representatives. Professor Antonio Faucitano represents the European School of Advanced Nuclear Studies at Pavia University. Professor Giuseppe Forasassi, based at the University of Pisa, represents the network called the CIRTEN Consortium.

Someday we will reach the landmark when Italy ceases to be the world's largest importer of electricity and returns to the sensible practice of producing its own nuclear power. On that day we will celebrate in Pavia or Pisa or both.

 

 

 

From Japan, we have two distinguished institutional participants and two distinguished representatives: Professor Yoshiaki Oka of Tokyo University is Japan's Country Representative.

 

 

In addition, representing Japan's other participating institution, we welcome Professor Masaki Saito of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

We look forward, in addition, to the participation of Japan's Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) and the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI).

Another key player will be the Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia, headed by an old friend from Vienna, former IAEA official Sueo Machi.

I should emphasise that Japan's active participation will be crucial to the success of the WNU enterprise.

From Korea, we are delighted to have the participation of both KAERI and KAIST. We are very pleased that Korea's Country Representative is Dr. Kyung Won Han of KAERI.

It was Korea, some years ago, that began the push to create a World Nuclear University, and Korea's role in it will be of central importance now that it has been created.

We hope and expect that KAERI and its Korean partners will be prominent in the leadership of WNU activities.

 

 

From Mexico, our Country Representative is Dr. Carlos Chavez Mercado of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. We look forward to working with Carlos to strengthen the role of nuclear technology in a country that desperately needs its clean-energy benefits.

 

 

From Russia, our participants are two highly regarded institutions: the Kurchatov Institute and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. Russia's participation will be critical to WNU success, and we are pleased that MEPhI is represented today by its Vice-Rector, Professor Vladimir Kharitonov.

 

 

From South Africa, our Country Representative is the just-retired Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Potchefstroom, Professor Gideon Greyvenstein. Gideon and his colleagues have been deeply involved with South Africa's Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor project and will have much to offer the WNU network.

 

 

From Spain, our participating institution is the Polytechnical University of Madrid, and we are pleased to have here Professor Oscar Cabellos, a young leader in the Department of Nuclear Engineering.

 

 

 

From Sweden, Tomas Lefvert directs the Swedish Centre for Nuclear Technology. The Centre melds the participation of Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology and Chalmers and Uppsala Universities. Sweden has an active program of educating foreign students in nuclear technology, and can bring great experience and leadership to the WNU enterprise.

 

 

From the United Kingdom, we welcome Professor Philip Thomas, chairman of the broad-based Nuclear Academics Industry Liasion Seminar - NAILS - which is the broad umbrella group for British universities.

 

 

In addition, the newly integrated University of Manchester - and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology - will participate in its own right under the leadership of Professor Paul O'Brien. Manchester has a close working relationship with BNFL.

In this connection, I note the important coordinating and leadership role we anticipate from Professor Richard Clegg, Director of Science at BNFL.

I want also to applaud the valuable role played by John Haddon of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association. John acts as the de facto secretariat and coordinator for the NAILS group of universities.

We welcome also Professor Russell Hand of Sheffield University, which has expressed enthusiastic interest in WNU participation.

From the United States, we are delighted to welcome Bill Burchill, head of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Texas A&M. Bill leads a department that today has America's most robust programme of nuclear engineering, and Texas A&M is leader of a group of universities called the Southwest Consortium, which includes the University of Texas and the University of New Mexico.

As U.S. Country Representative, Bill also represents the WNU interest of the Western Nuclear Science Alliance, which is led by Oregon State and includes four other universities, among them Cal-Davis and Cal-Berkeley.

American participation in the WNU has also attracted the strong interest of Argonne National Laboratory, which will work to coordinate the involvement of several U.S. national labs. Representing Argonne here today is Dr Leo LeSage, whom we hope will be play an extensive role in WNU affairs.

A U.S. umbrella group of great importance is the Nuclear Energy Department Heads Organisation, which has a keen interest in the WNU but has not yet established a formal role. We are delighted that NEDHO is represented here today by its Vice-Chairman, Professor Gil Brown of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. We look forward to developing the NEDHO-WNU relationship.

With us too is Carl Stoiber, a former top NRC official known to many in Vienna. We anticipate that Carl can assist WNU activity in the areas of both safety and nuclear law, as he is a world-class expert in both.

Finally, representing the European Nuclear Engineering Network, I ask William D'haeseleer to step forward wearing his second hat to sign for ENEN.

Of ENEN's 17 countries, 10 are represented directly in the WNU network. ENEN's involvement will provide a linkage to the other seven and will also provide a valuable connection to the work ENEN already has under way to pioneer the inter-university networking process.

I now ask the leaders of the four organisations that the WNU's Founding Supporters - IAEA, NEA, WANO, and WNA - to sign the Declaration of Commitment.

As this occurs, I want to express our appreciation for the key role played all year by an IAEA team that focused on this project under the leadership of Holger Rogner. Holger, who is here along with Yanko Yanev and Piero Danesi, has the honour of signing the Declaration on behalf of the IAEA.

Other IAEA officials who deserve explicit thanks include Peter Gowin, Ramachandran Swaminathan, Massoud Samiei, Poong Eil Juhn and Abel Gonzalez.

Poong Eil Juhn from Korea and Abel Gonzalez from Argentina will soon complete their service at the Agency, and we hope to shape active roles for them in the WNU system.

 

Signing for the Nuclear Energy Agency is its Director General.

 

 

 

 

 

Managing Director Sig Berg will sign for WANO.

 

 

 

 

WNA Board Chairman Jerry Grandey will sign for the World Nuclear Association.

 

 

 

Finally, I would ask Hans and Zack - as Chancellor and Chairman - to sign for the WNU, acknowledging and welcoming receipt of this Declaration of Commitment. The first signature will come from Hans Blix as WNU Chancellor.

 

 

 

The signature of Zack Pate, as WNU Board Chairman, completes the WNU Declaration of Commitment.

 

I now ask those who have signed to gather in centre-stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in expressing an enthusiastic welcome for the inauguration of the World Nuclear University.

[Click here to view the signed Declaration of Commitment]

Closing Comments by Chancellor Hans Blix 

It now falls upon me, as my first official act as Chancellor, to declare this ceremony concluded.

I hereby exercise my new powers by instructing our loyal Country Representatives to report for duty on the fifth floor, in the Elizabeth Windsor Room, where they can begin to shape the WNU agenda.

I wish us all great success in this endeavour.

I now call upon Jerry Grandey, who addressed us earlier as WNA Chairman and who will speak now in his capacity as CEO of the world's largest uranium company.