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It is a pleasure to be here today, to welcome the representatives of the Generation IV International Forum to their first Washington, D.C., meeting. Very early in my tenure as U.S. Secretary of Energy, I took part in the formation of the Generation IV initiative, and the signing of the organization’s charter—which provided the framework for international cooperative research on advanced nuclear energy systems that are safe, reliable, economical and proliferation resistant—to help ensure that nuclear power has a vital and viable role in the world’s energy future.

I last met with the Generation IV International Forum two years ago in Tokyo, Japan, and since that time, it has made tremendous progress. In fact, in its meeting this week, the Generation IV delegates completed negotiations on the world’s first legally binding multilateral agreement for the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies. I look forward to seeing this groundbreaking agreement signed in the next few weeks. Congratulations to everyone who has helped make this historic achievement possible.

These early years of the 21st century mark a pivotal time for our world in terms of peace and security, economic growth, and protection of the environment for future generations. And at the center of each of these important issues is energy.

Energy is the lifeblood of our modern society. It drives the technologies that lift people out of poverty and enhance our quality of life—technologies that have led our progress through the industrial age and into the era of global telecommunications, medical marvels, instant information processing and the exploration of space.

As technology advances and populations grow, the worldwide demand for energy increases at the same rapid pace. The International Energy Agency predicts that global demand for energy will rise by about 60 percent over the next 25 years, and that two-thirds of the increase will come from developing countries such as China and India. Economic expansion in these developing nations is already accelerating the need for additional energy to fuel their booming industrial and transportation sectors, and to electrify vast rural regions.