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Leadership and the Future of Nuclear Energy
Remarks
Rose Gottemoeller
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance
Chicago, IL
June 9, 2011
Thank you very much for inviting me to speak this morning. It's good to see so many old friends and colleagues: from the University of Chicago, from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, from Argonne National Lab, and from other eminent institutions -- an impressive group! I am pleased to be able to join you.
I last participated in this conference on the future of nuclear power in 2006. At that time I was at the Carnegie Moscow Center and was very much focused on potential areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia. Also at that time, I was honored to be on the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Today, as the Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance my job remains very much about looking for potential areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia. One very important area has been the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, New START, which was ratified last year and entered into force in February. I am pleased to report that implementation of the Treaty is well underway and going forward in a positive and businesslike manner.
The issues you are considering over the next two days are ones I have worked on throughout my career whether in government at the National Security Council or the Department of Energy or in the non-governmental community. Your discussions are important to urgent government policy issues, and I applaud your continuing contributions.
I would like to focus my remarks on an issue that, while not specifically on your agenda, is critical to all of us because it involves global security: the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
I am sure you are all familiar with a speech President Obama delivered in Prague in April 2009. In that speech, the President spoke about "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." Among the many steps he said the United States would take to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, was the pursuit of ratification of the...