Danile B. Poneman, US deputy secretary of energy, reiterated once again that the US was not keen to sign the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change and global warming. “We need to find some alternative mechanism to move forward,” he emphasised in the follow-up of a talk he gave at the Teri University. His remarks are significant given that the Kyoto Protocol is soon coming to an end in 2012 and no agreement has yet been arrived at what the new roadmap will be.
During the course of his talk which attempted to lay a roadmap for energy sharing mechanisms that could be developed between the US and India, Mr Poneman briefly outlined America’s keenness to restart its domestic nuclear industry with new generation power plants that can generate electricity without increasing carbon emissions.
It is to carry out this objective that US has given $8 billion in loans for the first nuclear power plant being set up in the US after 30 years, he added. Mr Poneman did not spell out details of the plant which is coming up in an existing nuclear facility in Burke, Georgia.
Concerns about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident has resulted in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducting a safety review of all 104 nuclear power reactors in the US.
He also expressed concerns about “the real threat posed by nuclear terrorism”, and expressed gratification at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh commitment to launch a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership.
Mr Poneman believed that tackling nuclear terrorism required a wide variety of strategies to be put in place, including the sharing of information on political terrorists.
What was of prime importance was to ensure that there should be no potential leakage of a civilian nuclear site, he said.
He pointed to how India planned to significantly increase its own nuclear energy share within its overall energy portfolio.