Chief director of IAEA: US loses leadership in commercial nuclear technology

The United States has lost its leadership in commercial nuclear technology to Russia,, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

This came during his speech at a conference hosted by the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“This is a problem for the United States. It has traditionally been a pioneer and has lost these leading positions,” he said, noting that according to his information, only 3% of the gigawatts added come from the United States over the past 20 years.

The main supplier of commercial nuclear technologies today is Russia, he said, stressing at the same time that China is actively working in this area as well.

He further stressed that the reason for the successes of Russia and China  because they have a different financing model, which allows them to move more flexibly, including in international markets, so that is the challenge for American companies abroad.

“I think this is a challenge for America. It has traditionally been the leader, it lost this leadership but I heard the [US] secretary of energy say that we want to regain this leadership,” Grossi pointed out.

E.M