Task Force:

Asia's Emerging Nuclear Era: Climate Strategies & Implications for U.S. Policy

Task Force Report
Expert Evaluation Presentation
Task Force Poster

Lowering carbon emissions has proved far more politically challenging than anticipated, even as scientific evidence for serious climate impacts has grown. Renewable energy, despite favorable press, is unlikely to provide electricity on a major scale for decades. As a result, nuclear power emerges as a primary option for addressing climate change. Contested in the West, this energy source is expanding rapidly in the rest of the world. At least 30 nations now have plans to begin nuclear power programs soon, a number likely to grow. Meanwhile, new types of reactor designs with greatly reduced proliferation risk are being explored. Leaders of major nations therefore face a profound dilemma: are the risks associated with climate change worth trading for those—physical, technological, and political—related to a global expansion in nuclear power, and, if so, what measures must be taken to contain, indeed eliminate, any further opportunities for weapons proliferation? This Task Force will take up the question by examining its principle elements (e.g. current understanding of climate risks; carbon savings from nuclear; the status of global nuclear power; current negotiations to amend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; policies regarding nuclear arsenals and their continued reduction; challenges related to Iran, North Korea, and the U.S.-India nuclear deal) in order to forge a set of recommendations that would give the U.S. an active leadership role in resolving this issue for the long-term.
 

Task Force Instructor

Scott L. Montgomery Scott L. Montgomery (scottllm1@comcast.net) is a geologist, independent scholar and adjunct faculty member in the Jackson School of International Studies and Honors Program, University of Washington. He has written widely on topics in scientific communication, the history of science, science and art, contemporary culture and translation. His books include: The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science (University of Chicago, 2003); Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge Through Cultures and Time (University of Chicago, 2000) and The Scientific Voice (Guilford, 1996), among others. Two new works, both forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press are Powers Rich and Afflicted: Energy in the 21st Century—Resources, Issues, Geopolitics and also The Eye of Nature: Studies on Science and Art. He holds a BA in English from Knox College and an MS in geological sciences from Cornell University.

Expert Evaluator

Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. is President of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security (LAWS). He served as Special Representative of the President for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament from 1994-1997. He led U.S. Government efforts to achieve a permanent Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) leading up to and during the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the NPT. Graham headed the U.S. Delegation to the 1996 Review Conference of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and the U.S. Delegation to the 1993 ABM Treaty Review Conference. In addition, he led a number of delegations to foreign capitals in the period 1994-1996, first to persuade countries to support indefinite extension of the NPT and in 1996 to urge conclusion of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland (the CTBT was signed in September 1996). In November 1995 and June 1996, Ambassador Graham led a U.S. Delegation to Indonesia to discuss with ASEAN nations the emerging Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty.

 Editors

 Coordinator

Task Force Members