Back to the Inaugural Ceremony of the World Nuclear University Part Two
REMARKS BY BILL TIMBERS
Inaugural Ceremony of the World Nuclear University
4 September 2003
It doesn’t take a visionary to see we’re rapidly approaching the nuclear revival that so many of us have been predicting. Our continued excellence in performance and safety record have convinced many people to see the benefits of nuclear power. But there still are others who ask: do we need more nuclear power plants?
A number of recent and dramatic events may provide the most convincing argument yet offered to the public. In that regard, I’m reminded of a 1950s movie (we’re going a bit 1950s retro today) called “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. The plot is simple: an envoy from outer space visits Earth accompanied by a huge robot and they show up in my hometown, Washington, DC. The envoy’s mission is to warn the Earth’s leaders: they had better change their destructive ways or else the Earth will be eradicated. This warning message was met with a predictable Washington response of differences between the usual interest groups. Those of you who have seen the movie will never forget the next scene. To demonstrate the real danger to Earth and speed up the political process, the envoy from outer space suspended all electric power around the world for 30 minutes.
Those of you who didn’t see the movie may have had the recent opportunity to experience similar demonstrations. It happened in London last week. It happened on August 14th in the United States and Canada. And a deadly episode of heat took place during the same period through Europe. Some will be tempted to consider that UFO’s may have been behind all these power failures and heat waves. But there’s nothing amusing about what really happens when electric power fails or is not available. The recent heat wave in Europe killed more than 12,000 people and most reports say that air conditioning could have avoided many of these deaths. We can predict one thing about the outcome of this terrible summer - that hundreds of thousands of people and businesses in Europe and elsewhere are going to install new air conditioning before the next summer season. When they push the “on” button, the increased electric power demand could perhaps overload the system and result in even more blackouts. Only last week a quarter-million Londoners were stranded for some 30 minutes when a massive power failure hit this city. Fifty million North Americans affected by their recent black-out can’t be wrong for asking, how can this happen to us? The fallout from the biggest blackout in US history is fast descending on the American public and their political leaders. A number of investigations are under way.
What will we learn from these lessons? Regardless of who or what is found to be at blame, I believe that the following conclusions are going to be reached. First, we must take measures to ensure that the supply of electricity is sufficient and dependable. Second, we must substantially increase the number of baseload power plants to meet growing demand. Third, we must ensure that the transmission and distribution infrastructure can and will deliver sufficient electricity when and where it is needed.
We, as an industry, have faced these challenges before; we have come forward with the innovations and the capital needed to transform the energy industry. Fifty years ago the electric power industry ushered in a new era when it began using commercial nuclear power stations to generate electricity. Since then, a lot has happened, but a lot has not happened. And some things that have happened, we did not anticipate. Let’s look at some of the positive things that have occurred. Today there are 440 nuclear power reactors in 31 countries generating nearly one-fifth of all the world’s electricity. Now that’s quite an accomplishment. But our industry had planned to have more than 1000 nuclear plants in operation by now. That didn’t happen. Not because of our safety record: we have a superb safety record with only a few major accidents in 50 years. And even though scores of nuclear power plants were affected by the blackout, all shut down safely and came back safely - just as they were designed to do.
It can’t be our environmental record. Nuclear energy has proven itself to be the cleanest fuel used to produce electricity. In fact, our industry has achieved a tremendous track record of what has not happened. Nuclear has not released dangerous pollutants into the atmosphere. We are not producing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. And after this summer it should be easier for us to make the point that nuclear power is needed to reduce the dangers of global warming.
Now there’s another thing that we are not doing that I want to emphasize. With proper safeguards, commercial nuclear power plants need not contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. To the contrary, it may surprise many of those who express such concerns, that commercial nuclear power plants are actually providing the most effective way of eliminating nuclear warheads. During the past 10 years, substantial amounts of US and Russian nuclear warhead material has been recycled into nuclear fuel that is being used to produce electricity. In fact, highly enriched uranium, equivalent to over 7500 nuclear warheads, have been eliminated by this US-Russian megatons-to-megawatts program. By the completion of this program in 2013, HEU from 20,000 nuclear warheads will have been recycled into fuel for nuclear power plants, and this program is paid for entirely by the private sector with no government funding.
We just seen pictures here from the 1950s of children diving under desks. I was one of those children and one of those participating in changing this world - showing how much this world has really changed. It is a personal commitment by me and my company to be successful in this effort.
For all these reasons, nuclear power has become an outstanding example of the achievements of Atoms for Peace. If you want to see the enormous broad achievements of this initiative, just look around you: every day on every continent, nuclear energy is helping improve the quality of life for billions of people. The atom is used in medical diagnosis and treatment, for preserving foods, to advance research, to help industry produce better products, to make instant global communications possible and affordable, to destroy nuclear warhead material. And nuclear’s greatest contribution is in generating electricity. Yet one-third of the world’s population has no electricity and even more people have no easy access to it. Most of these billions of people are still struggling to gain the basics of life such as clean water for drinking and irrigation, food, medicine, housing - and electricity. As I look at the future of Atoms-for-Peace, I see nuclear energy and our industry playing a formidable role in meeting these global challenges.
One challenge I’m often asked about is this one: Can commercial fuel markets accommodate additional fuel derived from nuclear warheads? Today the nuclear fuel market is in balance, supply is matching demand. However, a rapid increase in the number of nuclear power plants would increase the demand for nuclear fuel. We will primarily meet this long-term demand with expanded enrichment capacity. Increased demand would also present the opportunity to use more recycled fuel derived from nuclear warhead material. The benefit is clear. We can eliminate more and more nuclear warhead material by substantially increasing the number of commercial nuclear power facilities. I believe that this is a persuasive reason for those who advocate the reduction of nuclear weapons to also advocate the increased commercial use of nuclear power stations using all the appropriate safeguards.
The nuclear industry has undergone many changes over the years and these changes will continue. I believe this is the right and necessary time for us to explore and achieve new alliances rather than continue discord and distancing within our own industry. By all means let us compete. But by all means let us work together.
Our industry is now approaching a new era of the nuclear power expansion in my country and around the world. A confluence of events is taking place that will accelerate this transition, especially in the United States. Events like energy shortages and blackouts prove that there is a need for dependable baseload power -- events that also remind us that the risk of depending on fragile lifelines of energy is dangerous. And events demonstrate that air pollution, climate change and global warming are real threats: even envoys from outer space would recognize this. These and other events are resulting in increasing recognition by governments and in the media that nuclear energy must be used to meet the growing demand for dependable and cleanly-produced electricity. In the most recent issue of Business Week produced by McGraw-Hill, this thesis was presented clearly, and when the media pick it up, I believe we are making progress.
I also believe that the confluence of these events will lead to the announcement of a new nuclear power facility coming sooner rather than later, particularly in the United States. This will introduce a new generation of nuclear power plants and will also facilitate the construction of new fuel facilities. As new nuclear facility construction gathers momentum, the combined efforts will open new markets and help attract a new generation of talents into the nuclear industry. I’m committed to this vision of our future.
Like many of you, I’m not looking back. I’m preparing for the future because that is where we will live and where we will do our business. President Eisenhower was right 50 years ago when he said in his Atoms-for-Peace speech that the great tests and the great accomplishments lie ahead. I’m eager for all of us in this great industry to put our differences aside and to work together to successfully meet those tests and those challenges, to expand and grow our industry. We must do so in order to achieve our vision of what our industry is capable of being in the years that lie ahead.