Foreign Policy Blogs

Carnegie Endowment's Nuclear Conference 2011

Last week, the Carnegie Endowment held its yearly Nuclear Power Conference. As happens annually, the conference brought together hundreds of experts to discuss both civilian nuclear power and nuclear security concerns. Naturally, this year was a bit different due to the Fukushima affair. Despite the news from Japan, the consensus among the conference panelists appeared to be that the nuclear power industry is going to move ahead after a brief pause.

Of particular interest to those concerned with civilian power were the panels on the “Implications of Japan’s Nuclear Disaster,” “Atoms for Peace,” and “Safeguarding the Nuclear Renaissance” held on the first day of the conference, and the second day’s “Future of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.”

However, the single most important was the panel called “Destination Unknown: Where is the Global Nuclear Fuel Cycle Heading?” Emerging from this were the realizations that fuel banks are short-term solutions at best, that cooperation between US and Russian entities (public and private) have built relationships that can allow for expanded cooperation, and that it is possible to manage the entire fuel cycle. The great unknown is what to do with used fuel – long-term storage versus greater recycling.

 

Author

Jeff Myhre

Jeff Myhre is a graduate of the University of Colorado where he double majored in history and international affairs. He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics in international relations, and his dissertation was published by Westview Press under the title The Antarctic Treaty System: Politics, Law and Diplomacy. He is the founder of The Kensington Review, an online journal of commentary launched in 2002 which discusses politics, economics and social developments. He has written on European politics, international finance, and energy and resource issues in numerous publications and for such private entities as Lloyd's of London Press and Moody's Investors Service. He is a member of both the Foreign Policy Association and the World Policy Institute.