Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2015 NuclearPlantJournal.com
25
Public
Confidence
is the Key
By William Magwood, OECD Nuclear
Energy Agency.
William Magwood
Mr. William D. Magwood, IV is the
Director-General of the OECD Nuclear
Energy Agency (NEA) since September
2014. Prior to this position, he served
from 2010 to 2014 as one of the five
Commissioners
appointed by the
US President and
confirmed by the
US Senate to the US
Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
(NRC). Prior to his
appointment at the
NRC, from 2005 to
2010, he provided
independent
strategic and policy
advice on energy,
environmental
and technology
policy issues. From
1998 to 2005, Mr.
Magwood was
Director of Nuclear Energy at the
US Department of Energy (DOE).
During his tenure, he launched several
important initiatives including the
Generation IV International Forum
(GIF). He began his career working
as a scientist for Westinghouse and
managing electric utility research and
nuclear policy programmes at the
Edison Electric Institute in Washington,
DC. Mr. Magwood, a US national,
holds Bachelor’s degrees in Physics
and English from Carnegie Mellon
University and a Master of Fine Arts
from the University of Pittsburgh.
An interview by Newal Agnihotri, Editor
of Nuclear Plant Journal, at the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission’s Regulatory
Information Conference in North
Bethesda, Maryland on March 11, 2015.
1.
What is going on with Gen IV
activities?
There’s a great deal of work going on
and a lot of discussion is happening. I
think the primary issues we see, however,
are that the funding and the pace of
research have been declining over the
years and not just in Gen IV activities
but in a lot of the advanced nuclear areas,
and that’s partially because of financial
constraints in many governments. It’s
also because some governments have
started to move away a bit from looking
at advanced nuclear long-term R&D.
They’re looking at more short-term
R&D. So, that’s something we’ve seen
happening. Gen IV is one of the few
areas that is still looking at the long-term
future, and we think
that there needs to be
a greater emphasis
on looking a little
bit over the horizon.
So, part of the Nuclear
Energy Agency (NEA’s)
work over the coming
year will be to
focus on developing
an
international
innovation strategy to
encourage a greater
focus on advanced
Gen IV technologies
and other long-term
technologies to try
to bolster what’s
happening. Of course,
clearly there are many countries that still
look at the future. France and Russia are
certainly both building advanced Gen IV
systems. India, China, and Korea are
talking about advanced systems as well.
So, still a lot of interest out there, but the
international coordination is something, I
think we can improve, and I’m looking
forward to doing that.
2.
Can you provide an update on
the global nuclear liability regime for
compensation to the public?
It’s very clear that with so many
countries aspiring to build new nuclear
power plants that the international
regimes that cover liability compensation
have to form somewhat of an integrated
framework so that we don’t have any
situation where there are questions that
there’s clear coverage on the liability.
Otherwise, it’s impossible for industry
from the US or France or other countries
to participate in the projects. It’s just
not practical. There are many regimes.
The NEA is very much involved in
implementing the Paris Convention, but
there are other countries that are looking
at the Convention on Supplementary
Compensation for Nuclear damage (CSC)
as an alternative. Japan, for example, just
recently ratified the CSC.
I think that what we can do from
an NEA standpoint is to provide
information to countries that are
interested and assistance where we
can to help them develop the right kind
of legal frameworks, but we try not to
pick winners and losers as far as which
convention you’re in. My view is as long
as you’re in a convention and there is a
clear situation, that’s the important aspect
of it. Countries are hearing that message.
The developing countries, the countries
that are deploying their first new plants,
they understand that they have to find
a way to be part of the international
framework if they want to participate in
the international global nuclear industry.
3.
What efforts is the NEA making to
help other countries develop adequate
sources of energy?
I think even in the aftermath of
Fukushima, the number of countries
that have indicated significant interest
and serious intent regarding building
commercial nuclear power plants has
actually increased. It has not decreased.
There are actually more countries that are
having that conversation. Clearly some
countries have made another decision,
namely to forgo it, and they will have to
find other ways of producing their energy,
but for the countries that have decided
to push forward, the benefits of nuclear
are well understood. The lack of CO
2
emissions from large-scale electricity
production, the stability in terms of price,
the long-term security of supply, these are
all things that make nuclear desirable to
many countries.
And from the countries in our
membership, we are working to provide
basically three types of support, and one
is of course that we provide a significant
amount of economic and financial
