Conference Program & Papers - Monday, April 9, 2001
(print version)

8:30AM 

Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM


  overview

Welcome & Overview: Can we have nuclear power without nuclear proliferation?

Is there an irreducible proliferation risk posed by plutonium production in reactors and by
the prospect of cheap, efficient enrichment technology with virtually limitless sources of
 uranium? Can this risk be overcome even if industry forswears recovery and use of
plutonium from spent fuel?  Is the world better off without nuclear power?
Can the world get along without nuclear power? 

Paul Leventhal, President, Nuclear Control Institute 

9:20 AM

How essential is nuclear power?

To a secure energy future? To combating the greenhouse effect?  How viable are the advanced, non-nuclear alternatives? Are renewable sources of energy and hydrogen-fuel technologies realistic and dependable?  Can these, in combination with conservation and efficient use of energy, displace nuclear power?

9:30

  paper

The case for nuclear power:

Richard Rhodes, author of "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and "Nuclear Renewal: Common Sense About Energy"

9:50
  paper

Demand-side alternatives:

Amory Lovins, CEO/Research, Rocky Mountain Institute.

10:10

Discussion

10:30

Break

10:45
  paper (PDF)

Supply-side alternatives:

Robert Williams, Senior Research Scientist, Princeton University.

11:05
  paper

Nuclear power and the alternatives:

Richard Garwin, IBM Fellow Emeritus.

11:25

Discussion

12:00-1:30
  remarks (1)
  speech (2)

Luncheon

Remarks by Rep. Ed Markey (1)

Speaker: Robert Gallucci (2), Dean, Georgetown School of Foreign Service.

The Continuing Relevance of Nuclear Power to the Problem of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation

1:45

  paper

How realistic are the technical fixes for making nuclear power
proliferation-resistant and free of long-lived wastes? 

Is it possible to transmute plutonium, or to make recovery and use of plutonium proliferation-resistant, or to render nuclear wastes free of weapons-usable material?

Overview: Marvin Miller, Senior Research Scientist, MIT.

2:00
  paper
(powerpoint)

The promise of the technical fixes:  

James Hassberger, Senior Nuclear Scientist, Energy & Environment Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

2:20
  paper

The limits of the technical fixes:

Edwin Lyman, Scientific Director, Nuclear Control Institute.

2:40

Discussion

3:00

Break

3:15

  paper

Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons. 

What role did civilian nuclear power play in the acquisition of nuclear weapons by India,
and what role is it now playing in Iran?  Is the non-proliferation regime an effective
barrier against misuse of civilian fissile materials for nuclear weapons? 

Overview: Zachary  Davis, analyst, Z Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; former senior specialist, Congressional Research Service.

3:30

Nuclear power & nuclear weapons in India and Iran:

George Perkovich, author of Indias Nuclear Bomb.

3:50
  paper

The non-proliferation regime and fissile materials: Former ACDA Assistant
Director Lawrence Scheinman, distinguished professor, Monterey Institute.

4:10

  paper

Response: Paul Leventhal.

4:25

  paper

Roundtable discussion:

Bertram Wolfe, past Vice-President/Nuclear, General Electric Co.; past president, American Nuclear Society

Harold Feiveson, Senior Research Policy Scientist, Princeton University

William Lanouette, U.S. General Accounting Office; author, "Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, The Man Behind the Bomb"

4:45

Discussion and Closing Remarks

5:15

Adjourn

5:30-7:30

Reception