Our aim is to determine whether a reactor much safer than the current light-water reactors can be designed and built at acceptable cost. (Though I shall not dwell on costs, all of us realize that the current costs of some reactors, particularly in the United States, have escalated ridiculously; unless we can control costs better, nuclear energy will price itself out of the marketplace.) The current moratorium on new nuclear plants in the United States may last for at least a decade.... I believe the only path available to the nuclear community is the one I have outlined: to establish a record of safe operation, even with 500 reactors in the world, and to maintain such a record over the next two decades. Common sense must eventually prevail over the narrow sectarianism that now grips so much of the Western world's view of life's risks.
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