CGTN Europe spoke to Ernest Moniz, Former United States Secretary of Energy, on site of the Munich Security Conference.
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00:00Dr. Ernest Moniz is the former U.S. Secretary of Energy in the Obama administration.
00:05I asked him for his thoughts on restarting nuclear arms control talks with China and Russia.
00:12President Trump has for many, many years, going back to the 1980s, talked about the risks of nuclear weapons.
00:19So that's a good start.
00:21Now the idea of reopening talks with Russia and China looks pretty challenging, but it would certainly be interesting.
00:28I know we personally, we means the nuclear threat initiative in Washington, D.C.
00:34We've started some strategic discussions with China.
00:38So maybe they are ready to start those talks, which would be a great breakthrough.
00:43With Russia, obviously, it's hard to see those talks going very far until the Ukraine issues are resolved.
00:50But I think the president being interested in those talks and opening it up to China and Russia is actually quite encouraging.
00:59How would you assess Donald Trump's current energy policy?
01:03Obviously, the president, President Trump, has emphasized more production of oil and gas.
01:10Frankly, I'm a little bit skeptical that there's much there left to do.
01:16And certainly, the companies themselves and very importantly, the financial sector are very reluctant, frankly, to increase production.
01:25On the other hand, I think the realization that while oil and gas will be important in the transition to a low-carbon economy over the next two, three decades,
01:39it's also the case that renewables and nuclear power, for example, will be a very important part of the international energy development.
01:51And consequently, the United States should want to be playing in those spheres as well.
01:57What are your views on the space for nuclear energy in United States energy policy, especially when it comes to the green transition?
02:04How central can nuclear energy be as an alternative to fossil fuels?
02:08Well, first of all, for nuclear energy to be central to the energy transition, to grid reliability,
02:16to meeting the load growth that is being posed by AI and other initiatives like electric vehicles and the like,
02:25to meet that and to be meaningful, we'll certainly need at least a doubling of nuclear power by mid-century, if not more.
02:35A tripling is what was committed to in the Dubai Climate Conference in December of 2023.
02:42Now, to reach that, I guess the question is what do we need?
02:47Well, I think what we need is consolidation around a small number of new design nuclear reactors.
02:55I have no particular preference there.
02:59I think the utilities and the customers will decide that.
03:04But there has to be, I think, a convergence towards a small number of technologies
03:11and then to a significant aggregation of demand for those technologies,
03:17risk sharing with the government and strong commitment from the financial sector.
03:22That's what's needed.