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Show If Nuclear Industry Performance Defies Obstacles, Forum President States Carl Walske, president of the Atomic Industrial Forum, told a luncheon meeting last week at the group's annual conference confer-ence in San Francisco, that the United States is no longer on the threshold thresh-old of the nuclear age. "By any reckoning we are now in the nuclear age," Walske said. "Nuclear "Nu-clear power has become a fully competitive, widely wid-ely adopted conventional source of electricity." The Forum's chief executive ex-ecutive cited the decade from 1963 to 1973, when the U.S. nuclear capability capabil-ity went from a single power plant to a point where only last month U.S. utilities made their 200th commitment to nuclear nu-clear power, "In only a few years nuclear power has gone from a blip on the charts to the source of 5 of our national electric power po-wer capacity," Walske noted. "Nuclear power has developed de-veloped rapidly in the past few years largely because it is desperately needed by our country, and by much of the industrialized in-dustrialized world. For all its imperfections, nuclear nu-clear power is perhaps still best described by Glenn Seaborg's phrase: 'it truly came along in the nick of time'." Walske criticized the contention that U.S. nuclear nu-clear power development in the past has been painfully pain-fully below expectations and will fall short in the future. "The projections for nuclear power have often been exceeded by the industry performance," he emphasized. "For example, in 1959 the official estimate was that we would have 25,-000 25,-000 megawatts of nuclear power on line in 1980. That level will be achieved ach-ieved by the end of this year. "Three years later in 1962 the Atomic Energy Commission was predicting predict-ing 40,000 megawatts by 1980. We shall reach that output in 1974. By 1964 the AEC's 1980 forecast was 60,000 to 90,000 megawatts. me-gawatts. As recently as 1966 itwas 80,000toll0,-000 80,000toll0,-000 megawatts. But the AEC's most likely current cur-rent forecast for 1980 is now 132,000 megawatts or five times the amount am-ount projected in 1959. "In citing these numbers," num-bers," Walske said, "I don't mean to make light of the disappointments we have experienced in the last five years. There have been and there are obstacles to nuclear power pow-er growth, and we must pay particular attention to the racing problems of (uranium) enrichment capacity, ca-pacity, uranium supply, capital requirements, public pu-blic understanding, and licensing." The Forum President went on to say that today, to-day, more than ever before, be-fore, the industrialized world is looking at nuclear nu-clear power to play an ever larger role. "Where 10 years ago nuclear power was a won derful technological tion looking for a lem, today it is ahn. b ely vital . to the fufe J ?tur, sy aS we C j He said the Forum 1,1 died the question much more nuclear nnu? could do in the 1980s ,h is now planned. "Accnr'" ding to our findings L could reach 365,000 rC :-1 awatts of nuclear nnwf" -'e by 1985 instead of her " presently projected 280 01 000 and by i990 1 could reach 700,000 me gawatts instead of th0" -c 500,000 now forecast '$i "These expanded' fi fl gures would make u I Clear's share of our el ectrical generation cana V ilyJ$ in 1985and6W in 1990. Theat increase of 200,000 megawatts" s 1990 would, over the life ' of the plants, produce a savings in equivalent oil 1 of 125 of the estimate t oil reserves in the In- ited States, including Al- aska. " ' The Atomic Industrial i Forum is a not-for-pro. ' fit international associ- ation of about 600 organ- - izationa and individuals " interested, in the peace- ' ful development of nu- -' clear energy. |
