Peter Van Ness was convenor of an international workshop last August on Nuclear Power in East Asia: The Costs and Benefits, and this is his report on that three-day meeting.

The workshop investigated the initial cost of construction; the requirements of professional staff to operate and maintain the nuclear reactors; the establishment of an independent and transparent regulatory authority; liability in the event of accident; the cost and procedure of decommissioning (under normal circumstances and under crisis circumstances, e.g., Chernobyl and Fukushima); the relationship of nuclear power generation to nuclear weapons; nuclear waste disposal; the health implications of exposure to radiation; and nuclear power and climate change.

About the Speaker

Peter Van Ness PhD (Berkeley), is a visiting fellow in the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, in the College of Asia and the Pacific, at the ANU. For many years a member of the faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, he is a specialist on Chinese foreign policy and the international relations of the Asia-Pacific region. Awarded grants from the ACLS and SSRC and two Fulbright fellowships to Japan, he has a been a research fellow at the ANU, the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei.

After the Seminar

To allow for informal discussion, the seminar will be followed by a dinner with the guest speaker at 6:15pm. The location of the restaurant will be announced at the seminar. All are welcome, though those who attend will need to pay for their own food and drinks. As reservations must be made at the restaurant, please RSVP by noon of the day before the seminar to jasmine.lin@anu.edu.au

The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the China Institute, the Research School of Asia and the Pacific, and the Australian Centre on China in the World at The Australian National University.