US, Russia press for N-regime under UN: Proliferation threat
MOSCOW, March 15: The United States pressed on Wednesday for a new UN-supervised regime to allow the spread of atomic power while impeding nuclear weapons proliferation, joining Russian calls for an international atomic network.
“We have a choice: we can play a risky game of catch-up in the coming decades or we can engage the world with a new, safer and more secure approach to nuclear energy,” US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said ahead of a G8 energy meeting in Moscow.
The United States launched the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) last month as part of President George W. Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative while the international community struggles to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We envision the GNEP as an international collaboration that seeks to increase the availability of clean emissions- free power for the world, reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation and decrease the volume and radio toxicity of nuclear waste,” Mr Bodman said.
“We will work with our international partners to develop a fuel services programme to supply developing nations with reliable access to nuclear fuel in exchange for a commitment to forego the development of enrichment and recycling technology,” he added.
Initial consultations on the programme with British, Chinese, French, Japanese and Russian partners had been encouraging, Mr Bodman said, adding that 250 million dollars had already been allocated by the United States for the initiative.
In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a global nuclear fuel network under United Nations control that would consist of sites for processing uranium to give all countries equal access to nuclear energy and offered to create such a centre in Russia.
Russia currently operates 10 nuclear powers stations comprising 31 blocks with an overall output capacity of 23,242 megawatts.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has a mandate of encouraging nuclear energy but also stopping arms proliferation.
But those twin aims can clash in the case of a country such as Iran, which insists it has a right to enrich uranium for a nuclear energy programme, even though the United States and European powers suspect its real aim is to develop an atomic bomb.
Russia, currently chairing the G8 group of the world’s leading industrialised nations, was playing host Wednesday and Thursday to a meeting of energy ministers amid global concern over soaring fuel costs, security of supplies and environmental pollution from hydrocarbon fuels.
Ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States are expected to attend the G8 meeting in Moscow, along with officials from Brazil, China, India and South Africa.
In Europe, only Finland and France have started building new nuclear power stations but several countries, including Britain and Germany, have re-opened a debate on the viability and safety of nuclear energy.
China has initiated a vast programme to build 40 nuclear reactors by 2020 and India has recently signed nuclear cooperation agreements with France and the United States. Mr Putin has said he wants to expand nuclear power in Russia.—AFP
