Nuclear power lobbyists in Washington are squaring up to face down a critical end-of-the-year deadline, which is when an export agreement with China concerning nuclear technologies would end if Congress does not renew the plan.
China has been increasing its commitment to nuclear power at a time in which major industrial countries, such as Germany, Sweden and Japan, have either put their nuclear power sector on hold or have decided to pull back from nuclear power entirely.
China represents more than 35 percent of the new reactor construction in the world today with 24 reactors currently under construction. That influence is expected to grow, The Hill newspaper reported.
Westinghouse Electric exemplifies success with the current nuclear cooperation agreement with China, which runs out at the end of the year. Under the current agreement, Westinghouse signed a deal in 2007 to share nuclear technology with China and four of China’s reactor build projects are Westinghouse AP1000 reactors – at the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang and Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Shandong.
Westinghouse Chief Executive Officer Daniel Roderick called the extended cooperation agreement “very important to U.S. business – to stay [accessible] to that market.”
The agreement was critical for allowing the United States “to be able to keep the promises made to it by China about how they would use the technology and how the program would work,” Roderick said.
While Congress has members on both sides of the aisle who are friendly to the agreement extension, nonproliferation concerns required close attention, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Both Corker and the ranking Democrat on the committee Ben Cardin, D-Md., have endorsed the extension, the Hill reported, but both also recognize a political opportunity when they see one and this one allows for revisiting nonproliferation concerns, an important issue in Washington.
President Obama, meanwhile, has circulated documentation that highlights the agreement’s nonproliferation features. Experts have also testified in Washington about new rules that mitigate nonproliferation concerns.
There is a chance Congress could ask for changes so drastic they require going back through diplomatic channels to renegotiate the terms with China – a step that some see as a deal breaker.
“We are hopeful, and ultimately optimistic, that the Congress will see the merits of approving the [agreement] as proposed,” said David Blee, executive director of the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council.
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