ON NUCLEAR POWER AND THE SPREAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2001 -- A dozen top international experts on nuclear power, energy alternatives, and the spread of nuclear weapons will speak at an April 9 conference in Washington sponsored by the Nuclear Control Institute. The conference marks NCI's 20th anniversary and will take place at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.).

In the wake of the California energy crisis, there is renewed interest in nuclear power as the solution to national and global electricity needs. But a connection between national nuclear power programs and nuclear proliferation can be found in North Korea's nuclear missile capability, in Iraqi and Iranian nuclear-weapons potential, and in nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Headline speakers include:

-- Ambassador Robert Gallucci, Dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and diplomatic troubleshooter on North Korean, Iraqi and Iranian nuclear weapons issues, will give the luncheon address: "The Continuing Relevance of Nuclear Power to the Problem of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation."

-- Former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary will discuss the Clinton and Bush Administrations' nuclear and alternative energy policies.

-- Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," will make the case for nuclear power.

-- Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, will make the case for the "soft-energy" path: energy conservation and efficiency instead of nuclear power.

For two decades, the Nuclear Control Institute has worked to de-link nuclear power and nuclear weapons by addressing the plutonium produced in power reactors and seeking a halt in commerce in plutonium as well as bomb-grade uranium. NCI is hosting the April 9 conference to raise such questions as:

-- Can we have nuclear power without nuclear weapons? Are there good technical fixes?

-- How essential is nuclear power? How viable are advanced, non-nuclear alternatives?

-- Are nuclear power plants vulnerable to attack and sabotage?

--What role has nuclear power played in the acquisition of nuclear weapons? Are current non-proliferation agreements effective?

Other conference participants include:

Richard Garwin, IBM Fellow Emeritus; James Hassberger, Senior Nuclear Scientist, Energy & Environment Directorate, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Robert Williams and Harold Feiveson, Princeton University; Marvin Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lawrence Scheinman, former Assistant Director, U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency; George Perkovich, author of "India's Nuclear Bomb"; Bertram Wolfe, past Vice-President/Nuclear, General Electric Co.; and Zachary Davis, Livermore National Laboratory.

Return to Conference Page