The President of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) reiterated his message that the world needs to make informed, rational decisions about the future of nuclear energy, taking into consideration the interweaving factors of economic growth, reliability and sustainability.

Professor Way Kuo was speaking before an audience of regional security experts at a Sino-US Colloquium on: Energy Cooperation: challenges and opportunities on 13 January at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“There is no perfect solution to the challenges posed by the energy situation,” Professor Kuo said. “We have to make sure that the decisions we make weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each source of energy and that we assess the situation in terms of reality.”

Reviewing alternative energy sources, Professor Kuo, who has spoken about nuclear energy security and global safety at a number of high-profile conferences and seminars before and since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, highlighted fundamental problems such as the lack of reliability of wind energy and the need to boost the reliability of the human resources working in nuclear facilities.

“The general public needs to know and understand the reality of nuclear energy, which means we have to overcome the psychological problems associated with people’s perceptions of the industry,” he added.

Other keynote speakers at the Colloquium included Admiral Bob Inman, former Director of the US National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the CIA; Admiral William Fallon, former Commander of US Central Command and Commander of US Pacific Command; General Pan Zhenqiang, Deputy President of China Foundation for International Studies and Academic Changes; and Professor Huang Zhen, Vice-President and Director of the Energy Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The organiser of the event was the China Energy Fund Committee, a non-profit, non-governmental think tank devoted to public diplomacy and research on strategic issues with an emphasis on energy and Chinese culture. Located in Hong Kong, with stations in Beijing and Shanghai, it is an NGO in Special Consultation of the UN Economic and Social Council.