News & Events

Good morning. It is a great pleasure to be back here in Kyoto for three reasons. First, because it is a delightful city. Second, because I have the opportunity to discuss an important topic with a distinguished and knowledgeable audience. Third – and certainly most significant to the topic of my presentation – because Kyoto is where the international nuclear industry first came together proactively to make the case for nuclear energy as a vital element of future environmental quality worldwide.

My topic today is the environment, and more specifically the contribution advanced nuclear reactors may make to the environment. In one sense – reactor for reactor — advanced reactors can’t make any greater contribution than today’s operating reactors because today’s reactors because they do not emit greenhouse gases during production of electricity.

But in another sense, advanced reactor technologies promise to be even safer and more efficient than today’s reactors. These qualities – coupled with clean air benefits — should raise public approval for nuclear energy even higher than it is today. Public approval has played a significant role in the current renaissance of nuclear energy, and increases the likelihood of more nuclear plants being built.

And the expansion of nuclear energy will, over the next few decades, benefit the world’s environmental future.

Some of the brightest and best-informed scientists in the U.S. agree. A recent study by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that “…the nuclear option should be retained, precisely because it is an important carbon-free source of power that can potentially make a significant contribution to future electricity supply.”