ABSTRACT
Submitted by Les. E. Shephard
Sandia National Laboratories
for
International Workshop on
Radiological Sciences and Applications
ěPeaceful Users of Nuclear
Technologiesî
March 16-18, 2005
Vienna, AUSTRIA
Power for Peace and
Prosperity in the 21st Century
A
half-century ago, President Eisenhower in his 1953 "Atoms for Peace"
speech, offered nuclear technology to other nations as part of a broad nuclear
arms control initiative. In the
years that followed, the nuclear power generation capabilities of many nations
have helped economic development and contributed to the prosperity of the
modern world. The continued
expansion of nuclear power, while providing many benefits, has also contributed
to an increasing global challenge over safe and secure management of nuclear
materials and management of spent fuel.
Over
40 countries have invested in nuclear energy, operating over 440 nuclear power
reactors worldwide. Nuclear power
supplies approximately 16% of the global electricity needs. Continued demands for energy to drive
world economic growth and prosperity will likely contribute to increasing
global conflict and place increasing demand on all energy sources. Growing concerns about the
environmental impacts of fossil energy and diminishing global reserves will
place increased pressure on alternative energy sources. Many national energy strategies will
adopt a posture that relies more heavily on nuclear power and that assumes the
attendant responsibilities associated with the issues of safety, security and
environmental stewardship. Technologies
for the next nuclear era must enable optimization of the fuel cycle to assure
greater efficiency, safety, proliferation resistance and waste minimization. We
must be prepared to implement new paradigms for managing a global nuclear
future that positively contributes to peace and prosperity throughout the 21st
century.