Nuclear power cannot be a major energy source in the world's energy economy unless the problem of spent fuel management and radioactive waste disposal is resolved; global fears of nuclear weapons proliferation, a great impediment to nuclear-energy use in developing countries, are mitigated; the costs of nuclear energy production are lowered; and unfavorable public perception of reactor safety, intensified by the Three Mile Island mishap and the Chernobyl disaster, is overcome.

Given the global trend toward more regional economic development, group security arrangements, and collaborations on safety issues that transcend national boundaries, a possible solution to these problems in East Asia is the formation of a regional nuclear energy compact for nuclear cooperation. Such a compact could resolve East Asian nuclear proliferation and waste management concerns through effective spent fuel and special nuclear material (SNM) accounting, management, and final disposition. It could establish appropriate nuclear power plant operation safety cultures to allay public fears, and could also promote regional economic cooperation supported by a reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally sound nuclear energy supply.

The East Asian regional compact, comprised of China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and the Russian Far East, contains declared nuclear weapons states (China and Russia) and a potential nuclear rogue country (North Korea). As a result this region is the site of an intense contest for nuclear influence, and also the focus of security concerns. It also contains fast-growing and energy-dependent economies (China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) and sizable and ambitious nuclear energy programs (Japan and South Korea), making it the most dynamic nuclear energy development region in the world today.

Countries and areas in the region share proximity and common needs for a stable and reliable energy supply, radioactive waste disposal, reactor safety, and regulatory standards. They also share territorial disputes, overlapping security interests, both interdependency and competition in regional economic expansion, and a historically rooted mutual mistrust of expansionist aims. The likelihood of forming a regional cooperative framework in East Asia depends not only on the goodwill of the countries and areas and their desire to join, but may also require the participation of the United States, especially in the formation phase of the framework.