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International nuclear conference in Paris March 21.22
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    • PARIS (AFP) Mar 10, 2005
     The UN nuclear agency and the OECD will sponsor an international conference in Paris this month to try to chart out how nuclear energy, after a half-century in use, can respond in future to the world's growing energy needs, organizers said Thursday.

    Sixty-five countries, including 34 at ministerial level, will take part in discussions March 21 and 22 on energy needs in the 21st century, the role of nuclear energy -- considered a clean fuel -- in helping to limit global warming, dealing with radioactive waste and non-proliferation, said Yuri Sokolov, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    "After a prolonged period of slow development of nuclear power, confined to some countries in the world, it is now being recognized that nuclear energy has a potentially significant role to play in meeting the energy needs of the planet without damaging the environment," he said.

    "Nuclear power plants have been operated for over 50 years with growing profitability, safety and efficiency.

    "They provide currently 16 percent of the world's electricity, even though nuclear power production is currently limited to 30 countries," the IAEA number two said.

    The conference comes amid Western pressure notably on Iran to abandon uranium enrichment, which makes nuclear fuel but can also be the explosive core of atomic bombs. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful means but Washington disputes this.

    The Kyoto protocol aimed at limiting greenhouse gasses that cause dangerous global warming, "if applied, will not stop climate change," said Daniel Johnston, the secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

    He insisted that nuclear energy can play what he called a critical part in reversing the trend towards global warming, but conceded that there was no consensus on this within the OECD.




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