WANO BIENNIAL GENERAL MEETING 2007
Closing the Gap – turning today’s promise into tomorrow’s reality

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

Chicago, United States, 25 September 2007

Nuclear safety never better – but still more to do

Record levels of co-operation in the field of nuclear safety are being achieved among the world’s nuclear power stations, but cooperation will have to grow even further to meet the unprecedented challenges of the nuclear renaissance, nuclear energy industry leaders were told today (((25 September 2007))).

The message from William Cavanaugh III, Chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), to an audience of about 400 international nuclear executives at the organisation’s ninth Biennial General Meeting this week was, ‘Worldwide co-operation among stations is better than ever, and this is also true for safety performance.’

The good results shown by WANO’s safety performance indicators are backed by increasing numbers of WANO peer reviews and support missions to nuclear power stations worldwide.

Yet with global energy demands growing and concerns mounting over climate change, Mr Cavanaugh said, ‘we are in a new paradigm.’ Existing fleets are expanding and new countries will join the nuclear family, he added.

‘Nuclear power has a special place in this paradigm, and the need for a nuclear renaissance grows more urgent by the day.’

‘Meeting the unprecedented demands of the nuclear renaissance’, he said, ‘will require operators not only to take on their individual responsibility to guarantee the safety of their own fleet, but also to assume a collective responsibility to work together to continually upgrade the safety of operating nuclear power stations worldwide. The public demands no less from us’.

Within this context he stressed to the meeting at the Fairmont hotel in Chicago, ‘we have not gathered here to pat one another on the back’

‘The test of public confidence is like a rigorous exam on the subject of safety that all of us in the nuclear field must take every day,’ he said. ‘There will never be a time when we no longer have to take the test.’

Mr Cavanaugh concluded by reminding nuclear operators that a strong commitment to strengthen WANO worldwide would ‘put beyond doubt or reproach your dedication to the importance of safety in nuclear power. And by doing that, you signal the importance of nuclear power for generations to come.’

During the WANO Biennial General Meeting US Secretary of Energy Samuel W Bodman delivered a much appreciated speech about the key role of nuclear power has to play in serving the world’s energy needs.

Notes for editors

WANO Biennial General Meeting

The WANO Biennial General Meeting (BGM) is attended by senior nuclear executives and decision-makers from across the world. The meeting adopts a different theme for discussion each time. The theme of the 2007 BGM was ‘Closing the Gap – turning today’s promise into tomorrow’s reality’.

The BGM also acts as WANO’s general assembly. At the meeting a new president is elected, an honorary position with a two-year term. Dr Shreyans K Jain, who as Chairman and Managing Director of both NPCIL and BHAVINI has been the architect of India’s nuclear power programme, was voted to succeed Oliver D Kingsley Jr as president of WANO.

This is the ninth BGM. The first one was held in Atlanta in 1991.

About WANO

The World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) was formed in 1989, in the aftermath of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, to improve safety at every nuclear power plant in the world.

WANO’s mission is to maximise the safety and reliability of nuclear power plant operations by exchanging information and encouraging communication, comparison and emulation among its members.