Industry body discusses nuclear energy and the countries leading the way
we have right now uh 18 countries in
Europe the European nuclear Alliance
that are seriously committed to nuclear
energy Japan is seriously committed to
nuclear energy so I don’t know what that
tells you because Japan actually did
understand very clearly the consequences
of the events at Fukushima so I think
that uh obviously uh nuclear energy is
not for everyone but right now we have
25 countries in the world that are
committed to tripling Global nuclear
capacity and just a few weeks ago in
Brussels the International Energy agency
nuclear energy Summit brought together
35 Plus countries that also were very uh
forward looking and very bold in their
assessments of nuclear let me just have
one more crack of this before we move on
and just to say yes Fukushima was the
exception rather than rule but it only
takes one exception to to have
devastating effects as well and there
are still concerns to this day about
what it means for marine life that water
goes back into the system marine life
across the whole of the Pacific um the
radioactive waste we still don’t have
ways of safely soaring or or or treating
radioactive waste do we so there are
still some very big concerns from those
exceptions I would push back on that I
mean I would say that the nuclear waste
which is used nuclear Fuel and
radioactive waste uh to me is one of the
best news about nuclear energy tell me
which other energy source has a teeny
teeny tiny amount of waste and so if you
consider all the used nuclear fuel that
all nuclear power plants in the world
have been have uh created in the last 50
years of operation this is less of a
football field this is very little and
let me which other industry knows what
all their uh use fuel is and has managed
it throughout the entire history of the
of the of the of the industry and I I
think that with do have Technical
Solutions I mean just this year we will
see Finland stacked in their deep
geological repository Sweden is
following uh shortly after and France
has for example a quite different
approach they are doing recycling so for
for France uh they are not really going
to to Simply store the use this used
nuclear fuel they are going to use it
and recycle it so I I think that to me
the the use nuclear Fuel and nuclear
waste are among the best stories of why
nuclear energy is is sustainable let me
move on um where Europe is mixed and
some countries resent as you say 18 of
them are moving ahead as well China is
not reticent China I’m going to say a
statement you’re going to tell me if
it’s true or not China is just leading
the way and with a huge huge expansion I
think it’s 26 new nuclear units combin
capacity 30 gaw plus as well is China
showing the way forward well China has a
very very clear are long-term vision for
nuclear and as you said I mean they are
building uh or they are starting every
year between 6 to 10 new nuclear
reactors of many different Technologies
so so I don’t know whether they are
leading the way but certainly they are
they are uh walking the talk which
perhaps in other parts of the world we
are still talking not doing as much as
we want about the
Sama Bilbao y León, director general of World Nuclear Association, discusses the nuclear energy industry, its safety record and the countries leading the way.