The global nuclear industry, traumatized by Japan's Fukushima accident 18 months ago, needs to redefine itself to regain public trust and better cooperate to improve safety, senior executives of the sector said on Thursday.
The worst such accident in 25 years laid bare the industry's dependence on public confidence as governments in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Belgium promised their voters to pull out of nuclear energy as soon as possible.
Although the order books of large nuclear companies were hit hard after the disaster, with forecasts for new nuclear capacity projecting a fall by 12% by 2020, other major economies are pushing ahead with nuclear newbuilds despite Fukushima.
"We need to make a collective effort to restore our reputation and to rebuild the nuclear brand," Luc Oursel, chief executive of France's flagship nuclear reactor producer Areva, told an industry conference in London. . .View Full Article