President Bush Addresses NEA 2006

Click here for the video. Here's the transcript:

I am grateful to Tony Earley [chairman and CEO, DTE Energy and chairman of the board, Nuclear Energy Institute] and Admiral Skip Bowman [president and CEO] of the Nuclear Energy Institute for hosting this annual assembly. I appreciate the opportunity to address so many leaders in the field of nuclear energy.

We are entering a time of great promise. Our economy is creating new jobs. It is also creating new demands for energy. Our electricity demand is projected to increase nearly 50 percent over the next 25 years.

America needs domestic sources of clean, affordable electricity, and that is why I strongly support nuclear power.

America’s 103 nuclear power plants now account for about 20 percent of our nation’s electricity, more than any other source except for coal. And those plants generate safe, reliable power without producing any air pollution or greenhouse gases.

There is a growing consensus that nuclear power is a key part of a clean, secure energy future.

America has not ordered a nuclear power plant in decades. France by contrast has built 58 plants since the 1970s and now gets 78 percent of its electricity from nuclear power.

To maintain our economic leadership and strengthen our energy security, America must start building nuclear power plants.

My Administration has taken action to encourage greater use of nuclear energy:
• We launched the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative – a partnership between government and industry to facilitate new plant orders.
• I directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline licensing for new plant construction.
• I proposed legislation to move forward with licensing, construction and operation of a nuclear storage site at Yucca Mountain [Nevada].
• And I signed an energy bill that provides loan guarantees, production tax credits and federal risk insurance for the builders of new nuclear plants.

All of these steps are aimed at an important goal – America will start building nuclear power plants again by the end of this decade

In my State of the Union address this year, I laid out an Advanced Energy Initiative. It will expand the use of clean alternatives to fossil fuels, including nuclear power.

One of the most innovative parts of this initiative is the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. Through this partnership, America and other nations with civilian nuclear programs will help developing countries meet their energy needs with nuclear power.

We’ll collect spent nuclear fuel from these developing countries, which will greatly reduce the risk of proliferation. And we’ll create new methods to reprocess spent nuclear material into a fuel for advanced reactors here at home.

This will allow America and the world to produce more electricity from nuclear power, to rely less on fossil fuels and reduce the amount of nuclear waste that needs to be stored.

I’m optimistic about the future of nuclear energy. Your industry has come a long way in recent decades, and I’m confident that even greater progress lies ahead.

By expanding our use of nuclear power, we can make our energy supply more reliable, our environment cleaner and our nation more secure for future generations.

Thank you for the chance to speak to you today and enjoy the rest of your assembly. May God bless you all.

More later, including embedded video.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Electricity, Environment, Energy