REMARKS BY ZACK PATE
Inaugural Ceremony of the World Nuclear University
4 September 2003

I will take only a few minutes in trying to add something of value to what has already been said so well by my distinguished colleagues.

If I were to ask this audience, "Do you think nuclear energy is important to sustainable development of our civilization?", the answer would be an overwhelming yes. A poll here would probably produce a positive result well in excess of 90 percent. But if I were to walk just a few hundred meters down to the tourist area outside Buckingham Palace and poll the first 400 people I encountered, we all know that the answer would be quite different. Only a small fraction would express agreement with the view that nuclear energy is important to sustainable development. Even fewer of the people would have any conviction about the value of supporting that statement.

To cite an example with more statistical validity, I was on the advisory committee handling a recent study on nuclear energy by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One aspect of it was a poll of Americans to test their thinking about nuclear energy and about global warming. The poll was carefully designed to give an unbiased result. Among its findings, a relevant point for our purposes was that very few Americans saw any correlation between nuclear energy and global warming. They just simply don't understand the link.

These examples illustrate one of our greatest shortfalls in carrying out President Eisenhower's vision of 50 years ago: a shortfall in creating a public understanding of the technology and its potential benefits.

In recent years, John Ritch has emerged as one of our worldwide industry's best spokesmen. John does his homework, as evidenced by his presentation this morning, and he has demonstrated a scholarly dedication to nuclear technology through a series of speeches and other endeavours, especially the creation of the World Nuclear Association and the work of bringing it to the pre-eminence it now enjoys.

Now the World Nuclear University has been brought into existence alongside the WNA, and these two bodies give John and our community a greater ability to reach out beyond our own ranks. That challenge is one that we haven't met so well, as we all know. We all also know that it is a vitally important challenge as we go forward.

For these reasons and the reasons expressed by my colleagues this morning, I'm giving John my full support in this new endeavour. I encourage each of you to give him - and the WNU - your full support as well. Thank you.