if you read this from steve. starts on t.v. dot com. welcome back here with r.t. live from moscow where it's now are five thirty pm on tuesday a reminder now our top stories the i.m.f. is handing out billions of dollars to egypt's temporary government just months after praising the financial growth under the previous regime the loan is meant to revive the country's economy but people say it's unlikely to end up where it's needed. on a mediating mission it's a libya russia's envoy meets the opposition in a bid to put an end to the ongoing civil war because it comes as nato intensifies at sapps on the capital tripoli to step up pressure on colonel gadhafi to step down

. and it's the final countdown for an international trio of astronauts before their trip to the stars in less than seven hours now the russian soyuz rocket will propel them into orbit from the remote baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan. and those are the headlines here on our t.v. do stay with us because next going off sits down with the head of the world nuclear association they're going to be discussing whether fears are legitimate about atomic power this is r.t. . well let me. remind you the latest in science and technology from around the world . we've got the future covered.

hello yellow welcome to spotlight the interview shout on top see behind alderney amen today my guest on the show is john rich. the g. twenty ministers are gathering of congress to dispose of global threats neufeld you made today the news has been instigated by the disaster as the for the ship with nuclear power plants and the tragedy makes several european countries think entirely giving up new technology but is the devil really so black as these paintings gives the take to just how the world nuclear association mr john rich. the earthquake and tsunami that he did japanese coast damaged nuclear power plants the disaster happened four months ago but the echo is only

getting louder with time germany says it will give up nuclear energy in ten years switzerland among some other countries are full of it but the majority is not ready to say farewell to cheap energy generated by nuclear power plants they say nuclear fears do not hold water and careful and pragmatic planning could bring more benefits than a policy of denial. oh mr mitchell welcome to the show thank you very much for being with us it's a pleasure to be alexander it's a pleasure to be here first of all as. the forum that we talk about what's that motto any idea behind them this forum is it is if you say to parents as i would guess it should be this year the form that's being held in moscow now is an extension of previous events and it basically is an opportunity to showcase the expanding capabilities of the russian nuclear industry which are indeed very proud

impressive. those of us who watch nuclear affairs around the world. are deeply impressed by the commitment of the russian government backed by the the opinion of this country to chart a whole new era of advanced nuclear power for russia and also to step out on the world stage and lead the world help lead the world in the expanding use of this technology around the world and there are many countries with or without the advance fukushima who are intent upon exporting this technology to produce clean energy in the twenty first century expects any any practical outcome in any practical results were just declaration intentions or whatever the list is the purpose of this conference is to exchange views and to develop business contacts we're not here to legislate policy this is this is essentially an opportunity for

the people of the global nuclear industry to get to know each other better and for companies to showcase their capabilities. well another question the atom expert to twenty eleven is where. competitors in the world nuclear much if they get together they discuss discuss issues that are of common interest so all of them does not mean that that fukushima and the situation. is a challenge to the future of the industry. so. the. the nuclear industry is constantly challenged to demonstrate that it represents a safe and responsible means to meet the clean energy needs of society. and what happened in fukushima is a very sad event indeed because the nuclear industry had compiled a twenty five year record of almost impeccable performance in the thirty countries around the world that make nuclear power and it was truly

a sad day march eleventh of this year when the worst earthquake in japanese history combined with an incredibly large tsunami. to disable unfortunately and ironically to disable a non nuclear part of the fukushima plant the plant the nuclear power reactors there had shut down successfully in the face of the reactor of the earthquake. but they needed as all nuclear reactors needed they needed some extra assistance some extra no power to assist them in cooling down to normal atmospheric ambient temperatures and this was lost due to poor planning that allowed the the backup diesel generators to be flooded by a tsunami that exceeded our expectations and so we have this irony that. the loss of a simple set of diesel generators such as night be found on a russian farm even. caused this highly publicized

event and event that hasn't yet been responsible for a radiation fatality but which has cast into doubt the safety of the nuclear industry well you said you said that the scale of the. tsunami it was beyond expectations well. listen it's then. then you can just see has to live from the fukushima because honestly now one of the things to remember about the nuclear industry is that in every country where the nuclear power of that operates there is a national governmental regulatory authority now all of those regulatory authorities have gone back to the drawing boards now and in every country around the world they are reexamining the question of are the reactors in our country prepared to. operate their post shutdown cooling systems even under

extraordinary international natural disaster situations and the tsunami that hit japan is a rare event indeed but i think in every country around the world there are are there. we thinking what a natural disaster might cause a reactor we already believe that we've got the world reactor fleet fairly well protected against earthquakes because of the reactors in almost every locale. that might have an earthquake have already been such an waited and designed to withstand that or as worthy of the reactors in japan it was the loss of posted on cooling that brought the japanese reactors into into their troubled area and that's being examined everywhere as we speak so it's not only a lesson for the nuclear industry it's a lesson for nuclear regulators and the industry and regulators everywhere are now cooperating to me to ensure that this won't happen again well i want to get back to it it is beyond the expectations of all you said that people are back to the

drawing boards but there's a focus shima show there that our expectations can always be exceeded something may happen unexpected still out whatever our knowledge is well i mean for example like . an asteroid hits a satellite and sad like those down the g.p.s. is not working somebody happens because of that satellite thing look at any and we go well isn't there a lesson is that no it is one hundred percent safe and if so it should become more and more expensive every it will be because the requirements go higher who is a. no i would disagree with that basic philosophy i think it is possible to imagine the events that could happen in a nuclear power plant. there and we have to just look back i think the the history of human kind for the last thousand years or so as we can best comprehend it and

imagine all of the different things that might happen earthquakes floods tsunamis airplanes could hit reactors meteors could hit reactors we can imagine that the reactor. it could either be the victims of earth movement or of water or of high impact really that's the that defines the full range of possibilities and if we can protect the reactors against the earth movement against water and against impact then i think we can be confident that we're safe now. we're already very very far along on this path the japanese made a simple but very very unfortunate design error in not waterproofing their diesel generators because they thought the water could never reach them so it's waterproof which is which if he were to see it and because of that they have suffered a horrible calamity that has brought the reputation of nuclear power everywhere

into question but i think as the as authorities around the world reexamine the safety of the nuclear power plants in their a sovereign domain they are coming largely to the conclusion that they are already fairly well protected against earth movement against water and against impasse and where they have new questions as arising from this fresh reexamination they are taking actions with regard to that but i don't think we can we can worry that we just haven't were unable to imagine all the things that could happen if we guard against those basic concepts and we've got safe reactors well if we continue do we actually are safe and safe new regulations imposed to make them safe. that still will mean that there were they will be becoming were looks those if there is that we nuclear energy will still continue to be as cheap as its supporters say well that's a good question but i think that the changes that will be made as

a consequence of the global rethink after fukushima are not going to be very expensive but you have to remember that reactors are already. extremely expensive to build cheap to operate and expensive to build so this fresh rethink is not going to cause a fundamental redesign of nuclear power plants it's going to cause some some questions on the margin do we really have complete waterproofing for our diesel generators or do we really have the best possible current backup systems available these are these are relatively simple questions to answer that are very important as the japanese have demonstrated but they're not costly questions to answer even if you get killed in more defense and depth as if it were you happy with the japanese are they telling us they tell you all the truth well i think you don't have to take my word for it you can take the word of the international atomic energy agency an investigative team an inspection team that just came back from

japan there's more inspection to be done there's more analysis to be done but these people who are representative of a variety of countries nuclear experts have gone to japan and they have given a an extremely positive report on the performance with the japanese government and the performance of the japanese nuclear operator in responding to this very very difficult circumstance where four reactors were suddenly in great jeopardy their cooling systems were absent and emergency measures had to be prepared on the on the on the spot and spontaneously this was an unprecedented situation and that and the japanese government for its honesty and the and the japanese operator for their proficiency have gotten from very very high marks now this does not absolve the japanese of having made the fundamental design mistake and they are ashamed of that they are embarrassed by it and they and they reasonably should be says john rich

the general of the world he said seeing the spotlight will do that shortly we'll continue this interview in less than. for the full story we've got it's. the biggest issues get the invoice face to face with the news makers.

welcome back to spotlight i'm al green of in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is john rich sector general of the world nuclear association which are in about nuclear safety you mentioned that for twenty five years nuclear power plants have been absolutely safe in their major problems well i actually thought she might happen well on the eve of the twenty fifth anniversary of chernobyl these two disasters can they be i know they were different but can they be compared i mean in the in the in terms of the consequences for your industry. the damage they made to business to continue to. i think that the focus will be less severe and it's health consequences and i think it will be rough severe and its consequences for the nuclear industry one. chair noble

reasonably raise the question about whether or not nuclear power plants were doomsday machines. this reactor seemed to go completely out of control under the supervision and management of its operators you know what we know about life that has occurred in the history of nuclear energy either before or after fukushima. as i didn't have an entirely different character the reactors had been properly shut down they simply needed to receive outside cooling assistance while they moved down to ambient temperature and they lost it because of the force of the tsunami. and this was a very very severe lapse in design but not in operational terms and i think that we are going to be able to go back through the new nuclear regulatory authorities all over the world and make sure that this is not liable to happen again the mailed out of three reactors at fukushima will lead to opinions

split over nuclear energy spotlights ability neither i nor. the first nuclear power plant in the world was created by the scientists of the portrait of the institute here in moscow being the pioneer in the field russia has the feasible to nuclear energy even after the truly noble disaster and also after what happened at fukushima the philosophical attitude is not shared everywhere in the world the reaction to the news of the fukushima accident was immediately new or if you were out on the streets protesting against the use of nuclear energy then to nuclear feeling has grown so strong in germany it has a ring shoot choose to use to public opinion. since both of them will abandon nuclear power completely by stamp until the end of transatlantic two and this path is a big challenge for germany but above all it means huge chances for the future generations

as a country we think we can we can become pioneers on the way to create energy renewable and. the decision has already created the shortfall you know the true city to many energy prices went up from the very start it became this germany's revolution will deal long and winding road the international atomic energy june. c. has acknowledged confidence in nuclear energy has been damaged but it is sure the situation can be reversed there is a need to rebuild the confidence of the public towards the government when governments have decided to use nuclear energy but also in between governments those who use the clerk of long energy and their neighbors whether they use or they do not use nuclear energy. not countries are ready for a tickle measures ransomware rantin you could also gain momentum as a result of what happened at the fukushima plant isn't given up on nuclear power

just like many other countries including britain sweden spain and belgium despite family caused by be accident nuclear energy still considered a mountain blue green and cheap all of that does not prevent germany's green party from maine in high gear getting ready for a complaint to make the whole of europe new free. world with the edge do you believe the whole of europe can ever become nuclear free world well we know that germany has has decided to to phase out nuclear issue by the year twenty twenty two switzerland's there is some of this with the french despite the position of the government are very anti-nuclear as we just saw this trend spread do you think this is serious or is just just the first reaction we did not see unless the french were. lets out a potion of public france has the most advanced and constructive management policy

of many nations in the world precisely because they have chosen to make even a percent of their all atrocities with nuclear power they still that they say they export nuclear. trustfully across borders and the consequence of germany is a rather strange and you're responsible decision will probably be the. ironically some french nuclear electricity going across the border to germany it is as well as russian natural gas being imported as well as more german coal being burnt. i think it's important to look at the major countries of the world and if you do that i think you see that germany is an exception that almost proves the rule let's take the world's two largest countries. india and china both of those countries are set up on the path of very very large scale nuclear building programs for the

twenty first century and they are not wavering on their commitments about objectives russia is not wavering britain is not wavering the united states is not wavering brazil is still committed to nuclear energy so too is france so too with south africa the major the major and even even japan has announced its renewed commitment to nuclear power along with a new interest in renewables but the fundamental support for nuclear power is there everywhere in the world except for this strange lot in the center of europe where the swiss are continuing to wonder whether they should continue with it or the germans have missed educated themselves out of any rational approach to nuclear energy and where. prime minister berlusconi is after it's to bring italy back into the nuclear round and i believe being the only country in the world that ever had nuclear power and abandon it have now been put on the shelf by italian reaction to fukushima but in except in that strange locale in the center of europe i think we

have a continued commitment worldwide to nuclear power you called the german decision responsible do you think this is what makes you think so do you think that germans will not be able to make it live b.m.w.'s to pay for speed for additional electricity but i i don't think they're going to be able to make enough for a new a boy energy. for fill their fantasy is. it is not possible in the twenty first century for a major industrial economy to power itself with clean energy without considerable reliance upon nuclear power and any belief with that is part of all is based upon a fantasy the germans are already recognize that they're going to be burning more coal importing more gas importing some nuclear from france and there are some players operating on a on a on a blind faith that somehow this new decision will open the way to or a few future of renewables they have they have even after extraneous sufferance

they get seven percent of their electricity from when they get one percent from solar can you possibly imagine that those numbers are going to go way way up and suddenly we're going to have in germany powered by wind mills he was really have major opposition forces growing in germany two to seven percent of their electricity being generated by wind because it already is marring the look of the german countryside imagine trying to double or triple but you're going to you're going to get an environmentalist trying to protect the countryside against renewables and by the way that the these windows they're very expensive this is their world and they're and what do you do with the with the with the batteries. you have to dispose of the batteries and these are also a problem just as the nuclear waste experts from the international energy agency predicted a quote that throwing the fukushima disaster the share of nuclear plants in the production of electricity would be diminishing by twenty thirty five it would be

only ten percent is it is fourteen percent predicted before fukushima and quote do these stages coincide with your estimation no no i don't think there will be a bump in the road on splits describe the former head of the year but precisely because we have a renewed commitment. and all of the major nations of the world except germany and italy i think that you're going to see that the path unfolds much as it would have before for katrina a number of analysts say that the fukushima disaster monthly and you can you clearly innocence what can the world group place nuclear energy with is there a replacement for nuclear energy today and we are progressing developing we're not there we we have an urgent environmental and human need let's just look at the this is the context in which we're talking. when i was

a young student in one nine hundred sixty there were three billion people in the world today there are nearly seven billion and we're moving rapidly toward nine billion by the middle of this century as we make that continued growth and population world economies like those of japan and india are catching up and we're going to see me seeing a tripling in world energy consumption over the next forty or fifty years at the very time when our climate scientists are telling us that we must curtail carbon emissions by eighty percent triple energy consumption reduce carbon by eighty percent how do you do that there's only one major expandable clean energy technology now available to countries and that's nuclear power and this is precisely the reasoning that has is maintaining the commitment to nuclear power and all nations that are engaged in responsible rational debate about it germany is the exception and one more question is really serious critics of climate change have

changed their minds after fukushima and they're now supporting nuclear power well well this sounds as if to me can you explain it well it is a bit of an irony but i would say that fukushima helps to underscore the essential safety of nuclear energy imagine that we've had in the year twenty of eleven a worst case nuclear event. nature of salted those reactors were the worst earthquake in japanese history and assaulted those reactors one hour later with an enormous tsunami that flooded the post shutdown cooling systems and yet despite all of this highly part public publicized work and effort that's gone into bringing those reactors under control we still have every reason to expect that there will not be a single radiation fatality from fukushima at the very same time that we've had twenty four thousand japanese citizens killed by the natural disaster it's it's

unreasonable to talk about fukushima as a disaster when not a single fatality has resulted i'm going to thank you thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest on the show today was john reach sixty general of the world need to say something and that's it for down from all of us if you want to have yourself god lied or have someone in the world from you take that to mean it's time just to be alone i'll get out and party see dr puryear let's keep wildlife interact. with me until then they aren't seen take care of. it.

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