Statements by U.S. Officials

Background Briefing With Senior USG Official

Global Nuclear Energy Partnerships and the Development of Nuclear Energy in a Secure and Safe Manner

Ankara, January 17, 2008

OFFICIAL: In addition to my position with the US Government, I also serve on the GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) Steering Group, which is comprised of 19 full partner countries who have endorsed and formally signed a set of principles that describes a set of goals for a future global nuclear fuel cycle that would support the safe and secure development of nuclear energy. In this partnership, we also have approximately 19 countries that serve as observers. Turkey is a valued observer, in fact, they are an active observer in GNEP, and we greatly appreciate that.

At the request of the Turkish Government, I was invited to come here and speak further on GNEP as a follow up to the meeting Secretary of Energy Bodman had with Turkish Officials. I’ve also come here to talk about GNEP. We have a public document that we can provide; I say “we” meaning we: the 19 countries that make up the partnership, agreed to make them publicly available. What you will find is GNEP is a partnership based on coequal membership, meaning every single country is coequal in this partnership and no decisions, certainly no major decisions, are made without the consensus of the partners. The goal is to develop consensus for what would be the next generation of the global nuclear fuel cycle. One of the intents of GNEP is to provide a broad set of objectives that would allow each country to continue with their own specific needs that would allow for a diversity of technologies that may be needed for a particular country. As I have said in the past, each country is unique in the energy mix, like a fingerprint, each country has a specific energy mix and specific needs. GNEP recognizes that, which is why GNEP attempts to be sufficiently broad as to allow for members to have significant latitude while adhering to the goals.

GNEP is predicated on a number of goals, in fact we like to describe GNEP as unique in the world regarding nuclear initiatives because it offers a comprehensive vision for realizing the safe and secure development of nuclear energy - from the front end of the fuel cycle to supporting an effective commercially viable reliable fuel supply and an effective process for managing spent fuel in an efficient way and in a way that will result in a significantly less amount of spent fuel that would need to be stored permanently. So there are multiple goals of GNEP laid out in the statement of principals. It is a comprehensive vision, which we believe is important. GNEP is intended to complement other efforts that are ongoing. We very much compliment the IAEA’s efforts; in fact, the IAEA is a permanent observer, as is EURADAM and the Generation for International Forum.

I would remind you that the US - while we initially proposed this concept - the intent all along was to support this initiative where every partner would co-own the initiative equally. At the same time, each country will be supported in pursuing its specific nuclear energy path forward. So, the information that you will find on the DOE website is two-fold. You will find documents that represent the 19 countries which developed and signed the statement of principles. At the same time, you will see documents that describe how the US is choosing to develop its own technologies and its own infrastructure, consistent with GNEP, within the US to reconstitute our own civil nuclear fuel cycle. Each country will need to decide how it will develop its own technical path forward, recognizing important elements, including next generation reactors that are certainly commercially available now, and the source of fuel through the fuel supply in the market that exists today. GNEP is a broad tent intended to act as a cohesive agent so that we can avoid having an ad hoc process of countries around the world developing nuclear energy, as opposed to having a commonly agreed upon higher set of principles by which to carry on our work

Question: – you said Turkey is an active observer country. What does that mean? OFFICIAL: The US supports Turkey to safely and securely develop nuclear energy. I came to discuss nuclear energy, which I did. Turkey has been well represented in GNEP meetings, including the Sept 16 meeting in Vienna and a steering group meeting. By active participation I mean Turkey has engaged in active, constructive comments and participation. In December, Turkey participated in the three-day meeting and made very constructive comments throughout the process.
Question – What were your messages to Turkish officials?
OFFICIAL: Well, I was invited to come to talk about GNEP and explain the implications of joining as a full partner. We discussed in detail GNEP, the aspects of partnership, the status of GNEP, the next steps and the opportunities Turkey would have if it joined as a full partner. As an active observer, we appreciate Turkey’s role in GNEP.
Question - How was Turkey invited to join GNEP?
OFFICIAL: GNEP is new, only established September 16, 2007. We have added three countries since then – Italy, Canada, and South Korea. The benefits are multiple, from a tangible standpoint, this partnership is unique because we have a coming together of countries of all degrees of experience and resources. This is a unique partnership. The partnership consists of all the advanced fuel cycle countries and their knowledge and know-how being brought to the table. It consists of countries that are the largest suppliers of uranium in the world: Canada, Australia, and Kazakhstan. We have many reactor countries and we have a number of countries that are considering nuclear power as full partners: Poland, Jordon, and other countries are considering nuclear power.
From a tangible stand point, we’re in the process of establishing expert level working groups to examine specific areas of challenges for countries considering nuclear power. So, we have two expert-based working groups that we have established. One will focus on the path to nuclear development. Precisely, this group will examine ways in which the partners can offer support on various levels. The other is political and will give support to those countries that are seriously considering establishing nuclear power for the first time. There’s a tremendous amount of experience that can be had from those countries that have gone through that experience. There’s a strong desire by the U.S. and other partners to share their experience with those countries considering nuclear power that are committed to developing nuclear energy in a safe and secure way. This way, they can have a high degree of confidence that that the source of fuel for their reactors is going to be available. So these two working groups will meet very shortly to identify specific areas that the partners can look at.
We may see a need for a feasibility study capability. For example, the U.S. and the IAEA have extensive expertise in performing feasibility studies. We offered and we’ve actually performed a feasibility study for Poland. They were quite grateful for that. So, there are significant resources that could be identified and made available to partners. But the resources will be available to the partners to realize. Also, there are certainly many other benefits to joining GNEP. It is an opportunity for countries to take a leadership role by showing that they’re committed to safe and secure development of nuclear energy. Any safety incident that occurs in one country impacts all countries. And certainly, there are many other intangible benefits as well. Therefore, we encourage all of the countries that are participating as observers to join GNEP as full partners. This is not again just a U.S. partnership; it is a 19 country-wide partnership. Hopefully we’ll see it grow even further.
Question – There were reports on Turkey’s ambitions to become a Uranium Enrichment Center under the control of the IAEA and GNEP. Have you been told about such ambition?
OFFICIAL: I’m not aware of any plans for an enrichment facility.
Question – Do you think is that technically possible for Turkey to become such center in this region?
OFFICIAL: I would defer to Turkish officials to explain what they believe would be their appropriate role. Again, it is U.S. policy to supporting Turkey developing a safe and secure form of nuclear energy. Beyond that we would defer to Turkey to address these questions.
Question – You mentioned that you compliment efforts of IAEA and within this support, where is Iran? Are you on the ground part of IAEA or can you just elaborate a bit? What’s your perspective about Iran?
OFFICIAL: Well, we certainly work closely with the IAEA. They’re a strong observer and we support safe and secure development of nuclear energy and we also support the full compliance with safeguards and other standards. I mean, this is part of supporting the safe, secure, responsible development of nuclear energy. Our concerns with Iran have not ended. We are not concerned about Iran developing nuclear energy for nuclear power, but developing nuclear energy for nuclear weapons.
Question – Concerning Turkey’s full membership to GNEP. What was the response of Turkish officials when you discussed Turkey’s full partner membership?
OFFICIAL: We had a very positive discussion and GNEP is very supportive of our observers. So beyond that, as far as their particular position, I would defer to Turkey on that. But I would just say that we had very positive discussions today, very constructive, and we very much appreciate Turkey’s participation as an observer.
Question – What are the requirements to be full member for GNEP?
OFFICIAL: Well, you will see the set of operating documents that is publicly available. It describes the process by which countries are invited to join GNEP as a full partner. One requirement is to sign the statement of principles. In addition, even before that, there’s a requirement that the GNEP partners have consensus and agree to invite a particular country. So, countries are invited to join based on all of the partners achieving consensus to invite them. Turkey was invited, based on consensus by other partners. In fact, in the September 16^th GNEP Ministerial all the countries that joined - 16 at that time - all agreed that Turkey, from among the other observers, should be invited to join simply by signing the statement of principles. So at this stage it is simply now we’d defer to Turkey whether it would be prepared to sign the statement of principles. That’s all we need to do at this stage to become a full partner.
Question – Do you have some specific projects working with Turkey in GNEP in your group? Do you have some specific areas? How do you supply from Turkey’s experience in this area actually?
OFFICIAL: So, let me just say that the GNEP partnership that I’ve described is a multilateral partnership, a multinational partnership. But in addition we certainly have strong bilateral cooperation with Turkey, extending in the energy area and that certainly extends to civil nuclear energy. So, bilaterally with the U.S., we are also engaged in communicating with Turkey, and we are in the process of collaborating with our technical points of contact and perhaps examining opportunities for us to further collaborate in the bilateral area as well for civil nuclear energy.
Question – When was the invitation to Turkey officially made?
OFFICIAL: The invitation for Turkey to join GNEP was made via a letter from U.S. Secretary of Energy Bodman on behalf of the GNEP partnership. Turkey was invited to join GNEP and at that time, there were five partner countries when those invitations were extended because it preceded the Sep 16^th meeting. So, Secretary of Energy Bodman sent a letter on behalf of China, France, Russia, Japan and the U.S. inviting Turkey to attend the GNEP ministerial on Sept 16^th and join GNEP. Once we had that meeting, 16 countries formally signed the statement of principles. One order of business was that the 16 countries agreed that all those countries that were invited and had accepted the invitation to attend were essentially pre-approved to join GNEP simply by signing the statement of principles. And that’s where Turkey is now.
Question – Did you receive any hesitations from the Turkish counterparts to sign the statement of principles?
OFFICIAL: No, I would not necessarily describe any hesitation, I think, with a very ambitious, comprehensive and ground breaking initiative. It requires robust communication to effectively explain what GNEP is and the opportunities for GNEP. Because once one becomes a partner, they co-own that partnership and all next steps will be done based on that partner and the others’ decisions.
Question – Is there any link between GNEP and unstable oil market?
OFFICIAL: No, what I would say is, GNEP attempts to support the realization of an important source of energy that is clean, environmentally friendly and, in our view, commercially viable.
Question – Any country that joins GNEP must sign and abide by the statements of principles?
OFFICIAL: The statements of principles, first of all, are not legally binding. This is a document that represents a voluntary agreement to the common set of goals by those countries that are either interested or actually pursuing nuclear energy. If a country signs up to it, it’s done voluntarily. We would certainly hope and look to those countries to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with the statement of principles. But again it is not legally binding and is voluntary.
Question – What is your overall estimate on Turkey’s nuclear energy strategy? How do you see the Turkey’s nuclear energy capacity to produce?
OFFICIAL: First of all, I came to discuss GNEP. I would defer to the appropriate Turkish officials to explain their specific strategy. I would still reiterate that the U.S. supports Turkey’s efforts to safely and securely develop nuclear energy.
The statement of principles is not about one specific country and it is not intended to constrain a country. I think this is the challenge: to appreciate that GNEP truly is seeking to bring together those countries considering or that already have nuclear energy. It is not intended to replace or be the mechanism for all civil nuclear energy efforts. It’s really focused on providing and gaining consensus on an agreed path forward. So, again, it’s not intended to constrain a country, it’s intended to find common areas of agreement.
Question – When do you expect Turkey to sign this letter of principles?
OFFICIAL: I would defer to the Turkish officials on that question. They are free to sign it at any time they wish.
Question – Did they tell you any time limit or any date in their mind?
OFFICIAL: No, I’ll defer to the Turkish government as far as when they choose to join as full partner. Thank you for taking the time out of your day.

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