Poor countries need nuclear energy too, France says, but not nuclear cheaters

Nuclear energy gets new French-driven boost

PARIS — Poor countries need nuclear power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday, urging rich lenders to help pay for a global nuclear expansion in the interests of fighting climate change and feeding the growing world hunger for energy.

Sarkozy recognized the danger of meltdowns or proliferation — and international worries about Iran’s nuclear program. He stood firmly against those who “cheat” and use nuclear technology to make weapons.

His tantalizing vision of nuclear reactors dotting the horizon won over international energy officials from India to Brussels and French executives eager to market their expertise abroad, all present at a Paris conference Monday.

Some experts, however, say Sarkozy’s push is opening the door to risks that deadly nuclear technology gets into the wrong hands, and warn consumers to pay attention to the staggering price tag of potential nuclear energy growth — up to $3.9 trillion worldwide by 2050.

“We need nuclear energy” to meet international goals set for slowing global warming, Sarkozy said. Nuclear reactors do not produce the carbon emissions that scientists blame in part for climate change.

His recommendations come at a time when the Obama administration has called nuclear power a key part of comprehensive energy legislation in the United States, where nuclear reactor orders have been halted since the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.

Sarkozy wants France, which is reliant on atomic reactors for a large majority of its electricity, to lead the way.

France has long marketed itself as a nuclear pioneer globally. But it hit a recent setback — the loss of a lucrative deal to build reactors in the United Arab Emirates to a South Korean consortium — that has raised questions about the French industry’s prospects in a nuclear renaissance.

The international Nuclear Energy Agency estimates that global electricity demand will increase 2.5 times by 2050. It forecasts that between 2030 and 2050, the world will need between 23 and 54 new reactors per year both to replace plants to be decommissioned and to increase nuclear power production.

Overall, the NEA forecasts the number of reactors worldwide to grow to between 600 and 1,400 by 2050, from 430 today, NEA chief Luis Echavarri said. That represents necessary investment of between $680 billion to $3.9 trillion, at roughly $4 billion per reactor, Echavarri said.

Mycle Schneider, an independent researcher on France’s nuclear industry, warned that costs of nuclear plants have been “systematically underestimated” by governments worldwide for decades.

He warned that the nuclear push was premature, since many small countries where France is marketing technology don’t even have large enough electricity grids to support a nuclear reactor.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, also at the Paris conference, said, “Nuclear reactors should not only be reserved for developed countries but should be accessible to all.”

Sarkozy dismissed the “egotistic” rich-country perception that poor countries don’t have the right to nuclear technology because they can’t be trusted to keep it safe.

“That is closing the door to progress and a better life to those who have nothing,” he said. He said nuclear energy should be “the cement of a new international solidarity.”

Sarkozy said international financial institutions should play a key role in financing nuclear projects.

“I do not understand and I do not accept the ostracism of nuclear energy by international financing,” he said, urging the World Bank and other global lenders to help fund nuclear investments in developing countries.

Bulgaria’s energy minister, Traitcho Traikov, welcomed that idea.

“Multilaterals’ involvement in financing nuclear would have a wider effect, influencing the perception of such projects by other lenders — commercial banks that are abstaining precisely for reasons of perception,” Traikov said.

World worries about Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs hung heavy over Monday’s conference, though most speakers avoided addressing them directly.

Sarkozy said the international community should be “steadfast in its opposition to those countries that violate the standards for collective security.”

The United States and allies including France suspect Iran’s uranium enrichment activities are aimed at building weapons, while Tehran says they are only for peaceful nuclear energy. Iran has defied U.N. calls to halt enrichment and faced three rounds of international sanctions.

Schneider called Sarkozy’s push for nuclear expansion Monday “a phenomenal boost toward technology proliferation.”

“Even if you don’t start building a nuclear plant tomorrow, or in 10 years or 20 years, as soon as you sign a nuclear cooperation agreement, the know-how can flow,” he said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso singled out Iran and North Korea, warning that their nuclear activities “present security risks for the global community.” Barroso urged the rest of the world to join new EU nuclear security rules that make violations punishable by law.

Sarkozy called for an “enhanced” IAEA with broader powers and with a kind of scoreboard to rate international reactors on safety. Sarkozy also proposed creating an elite training school in France for the next generation of international nuclear scientists.