Advanced reactors are long overdue, US Senator Larry Craig told the opening plenary session of the 12th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-12), held in Crystal City, Virginia, USA on 26-29 April. Craig, whose home state of Idaho hosts the Department of Energy's (DoE's) lead civilian nuclear technology development laboratory, is a longstanding proponent of advanced nuclear systems. "Energy is essential for development," Craig emphasised. "The developing world wants a standard of living not unlike what we have, and that will take a phenomenal amount of energy." He pointed to statistics from a University of Nevada study that showed that "one third of the world's 6 billion people have no access to electricity, and 1 billion do not have good water." In the meantime, demand will continue increasing in the USA and other developed nations. US electricity demand is expected to grow by 50% over the next 20 years, "yet 31 states cannot meet US ozone standards at current production levels." Craig pointed out that, in the developing world, energy demand will grow even faster. "Most of the new energy demand will come from the developing world, led in the near future by China and India."
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