Nations push for safe development of nuclear energy

More than 30 heads of state, government leaders, senior representatives and chiefs of international organizations attended the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on Thursday to highlight the role of nuclear energy in addressing the global challenges to reduce the use of fossil fuels, enhance energy security and boost economic development.

It has been the highest-level meeting to date, exclusively focused on nuclear energy.

Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing, as Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy, attended the summit. Zhang is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

In his speech, Zhang conveyed President Xi's good wishes for a successful summit jointly hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, and Belgium.

He said that nuclear energy has unique advantage in addressing climate change and ensuring energy security, adding that China has adhered to the rational, coordinated and balanced nuclear safety strategy proposed by President Xi 10 years ago.

China has formulated policy measures for nuclear energy development in a safe and orderly manner as a practical move to achieve its goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, he added.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said on Thursday that without the support of nuclear power, the world has no chance of reaching its climate targets on time, adding that nuclear power will play an important role in those countries without major resources for renewables.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the IAEA, said that nuclear energy accounts for about 25 percent of the clean electricity power generation in the world, and his agency will play its role to help increase the nuclear energy capacity in a safe, secure and nonproliferation way.

A representative of the China Atomic Energy Authority expressed that China is third in the world in the number of operating nuclear power reactors and first in the number of reactors under construction.

He said China will adhere to the concept that "openness leads to development, and cooperation leads to win-win future", and China will use its advantage of a complete nuclear energy industrial supply chain to make greater contribution to the global nuclear energy technology innovation, sustainable development as well as peaceful use and safe development of nuclear energy in developing countries.