East Asia Institute (EAI) held the 41st Smart Talk Forum with Mr. George David Banks on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Mr. Banks is a senior fellow and deputy director of the Nuclear Energy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). At the forum, he emphasized that the “atrophying” U.S. civil nuclear sector due to the rigid non-proliferation policy and pro-renewable energy subsidies can have negative impacts on the U.S. national interests. He suggested that this atrophy may hinder the U.S. capacity to influence the global non-proliferation agenda and to implement domestic environmental policy such as CO2 reduction program. He then argued that the economic, environmental, and national security benefits of the civil nuclear program are often undermined by the U.S. policymakers who do not have a clear grasp of the expanding global nuclear market. After the presentation, the discussants exchanged their thoughts on possible ways South Korea and the United States can bilaterally or multilaterally collaborate on developing civil nuclear program while adhering to the nuclear non-proliferation.
Topic
“Problems Facing the U.S. Civil Nuclear Sector”
Presenter
George David Banks, CSIS
Moderator
Sook-Jong Lee, EAI
Discussants
Chaesung Chun, EAI & Seoul National University
Young-Sun Ha, EAI
Dong-Joon Jo, Seoul National University
K-P Kim, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Dong-Hyoung Lee, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Kwang Seok Lee, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Jae Soo Ryu, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Seong-Ho Sheen, Seoul National University