Think-Tank Warns Trump On Future Of US Nuclear Industry

11 Aug (NucNet): The Trump administration must urgently begin a conversation with energy experts and industry on steps to restore and expand the US commercial nuclear energy sector, an essay published by a Washington think-tank says. The essay, by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Mark Hibbs, highlights the US strategic interests at stake in US nuclear energy supply to overseas markets and identifies the factors that are increasingly leading to a decline in US nuclear leadership. Among these factors are the rise of Russian and Chinese state-owned nuclear enterprises – and aggressive moves on their part to export their reactors – especially to countries just beginning to enter the nuclear marketplace, Mr Hibbs says. One of the more pernicious aspects contributing to the rise of these countries’ nuclear ambitions is their state-backed financing and political dealmaking – a strategy clearly calculated to do more than merely export technology, but to also expand their influence overseas at the expense of the US and its allies. “Rosatom, the flagship of Russia’s nuclear power industry, as of 2015 claimed to have agreements in hand to build 34 nuclear power plants in 13 countries, including firm contracts worth $110bn [€93bn] … Beijing’s leading champion, the China National Nuclear Corporation, predicts that by 2030 China will build nearly one-third of the 100 power reactors that will be exported in the world,” Mr Hibbs says. The essay, ‘Does The US Nuclear Industry Have A Future?’ is online: http://ceip.org/2uwW3aa