The Asian Development Bank may end its long-standing rejection of nuclear energy and embrace it as a green power source for rapidly expanding Asia, AP quoted the bank's energy chief as saying Friday. The ADB, which was founded four decades ago to fight poverty through economic growth, has a standing policy of not advocating atomic power out of concerns of safety and possible conversion to weapons use. But under increased pressure to promote alternatives to the fossil fuels that fan global warming, the ADB is considering the use of nuclear power under a new energy policy to be adopted in three months, WooChong Um, ADB director of energy, told The Associated Press in an interview at the ADB's annual meeting. «Now we have an environment were a lot of climate change issues are becoming a significant and nuclear power is quite positive in that context,» Um said. «So we are actually debating it internally.» The ADB is reviewing three options, Um said. One is maintaining the no-nukes policy. The other is to promote full use of nuclear power. The third would be to let countries themselves or the private sector build and operate nuclear plants and position the ADB as a financial backer of waste collection, environmental protection and security matters. «We'll decide in the next three months or so which way we'll go,» Um said. One limitation to promoting nuclear energy is that the ADB currently has no in-house nuclear experts. Many countries in the region are still many years away from splitting the atom. Finally, there are big cost concerns. Earlier in the day, the environmental group Greenpeace urged the ADB to spend more money on promoting clean energy technologies, instead of supporting the use of coal, the burning of which fuels global warming. Among other green technologies that the ADB is pushing are wind, solar, wave-generated and hydro power. The bank is also trying to promote the use of cleaner coal throughout the region, Um said. In Kyoto, some 3,000 delegates from the ADB's 67 member governments will debate plans to make the bank more responsive to environmental woes. The bank currently spends US$1 billion a year on clean energy, but has no immediate plans to phase out funding for coal projects, which are seen as more economical for the region.
