Asian Development Bank May End Nuclear Opposition

From the AP:

The Asian Development Bank may end its long-standing rejection of nuclear energy and embrace it as a green power source for rapidly expanding Asia, the bank's energy chief said Friday.

The ADB, which was founded four decades ago to fight poverty through economic growth, has a standing policy of not advocating atomic power out of concerns of safety and possible conversion to weapons use.

But under increased pressure to promote alternatives to the fossil fuels that fan global warming, the ADB is considering the use of nuclear power under a new energy policy to be adopted in three months, WooChong Um, ADB director of energy, told The Associated Press in an interview at the ADB's annual meeting.

"Now we have an environment were a lot of climate change issues are becoming a significant and nuclear power is quite positive in that context," Um said. "So we are actually debating it internally."

Interesting, especially as much of the world's most recent experience in building new plants has been in Asia.