The third phenomenon, emanating from the California energy crisis, is a heightened public awareness a therapeutic reminder that reliable and economical energy supplies cannot derive from regulatory and environmental policies that are ill considered if not irresponsible. The fourth phenomenon is a political realignment that is more conducive to support for nuclear power. This makes it more likely that DOE will support nuclear research and, more important, that a positive decision will be made to move ahead this year on a geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The new constellation of forces in Washington also makes it far less likely that the United States will be a party to any Kyoto arrangement that might aim to negate a role for nuclear power. Events in The Hague last fall represented an atrocious departure from the positions held by many major governments that sent delegations there.
Governments favouring the nuclear option represent most of the world s population and wealth.
Yet in The Hague delegations dominated by environmentalist ministries and NGO s showed an eagerness to 'sell out' these national positions at the earliest opportunity. I cannot imagine the Bush Administration permitting an American delegation to behave that way in the future, and I must hope and expect that nuclear industry supporters in several other countries will be remonstrating with their governments about the near-catastrophe in Holland. I have dwelled on the American dimension because it helps to define what we at the Uranium Institute will be seeking to accomplish in the months ahead. The American nuclear industry, with the effective support of the NEI, is making a comeback that will send strong signals throughout the world. These signals will serve, in some considerable measure, to re-educate a global population and media that have, in recent years, been confused and misled by the inordinate attention given to the green organizations and the inordinate political strength wielded by a few green parties, which at least temporarily have held the whip hand in coalition governments such as that in Germany.