Statement of Principles Signed over Nuclear Power

16 countries have signed an agreement for the global expansion of nuclear energy while avoiding nuclear proliferation.

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) members China, France, Japan, Russia and the United States signed a Statement of Principles with countries including Australia, Bulgaria, Ghana and Jordan which addresses the prospects of expanding the peaceful uses of nuclear energy including enhanced safeguards, international fuel service frameworks and advanced technologies.

"We must face the central fact that nuclear power is the only mature technology able today to supply sufficiently large amounts of emissions-free base load power to the world", says the US Secretary of Energy Samuel W Bodman.

"Through GNEP we can pursue advanced technologies for recycling spent nuclear fuel that meet our energy and nonproliferation goals", he adds.

Speaking in Vienna, Bodman went on to explain that through GNEP the 16 countries will be able to work together to support the expansion of nuclear power while encouraging a closed fuel cycle to minimize waste and radioactivity as well as effectively manage global nuclear resources.

By Ozge Ibrahim