Speech at Beijing International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century - 0 views
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Energy Net on 27 Apr 09Speech at Beijing International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century In the four years since the last Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy, both global energy demand and interest in nuclear power have continued to grow. Most of the 30 countries already using nuclear energy plan to expand their output. More than 60 countries - mostly in the developing world - have informed the IAEA that they might be interested in launching nuclear power programmes. Of these, 12 countries are actively considering nuclear power. The biggest change since the March 2005 Paris conference - one which none of us could have foreseen then - has been the global economic crisis. There is much discussion about what effect this unprecedented crisis will have on plans for nuclear energy. I have no doubt that this will play an important part in your deliberations in the next three days. It seems likely that the crisis could delay the implementation or expansion of nuclear power programmes in some countries for a limited period. But it is clear that, in the medium and long term, global demand for energy will continue to increase significantly as countries everywhere seek to improve living standards. Although nuclear power is not a panacea for all the world's energy problems, it will continue to play an important role in the global energy mix. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's high projection is for global nuclear power capacity to grow by around 66 percent by 2030.