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ENERGY is one of mankind's basic needs. The production of energy has side-effects that can be widespread and even global in their impact. Whilst being a necessary ingredient for development, energy constitutes a potential source of hazard, tension and conflict. We are far from having achieved a responsible approach to energy production, which would take into account the impact on the environment and the exhaustion of reserves of cheap non-renewable fuels. Today, nuclear reactors provide about 17 % of electrical power, world-wide, but with a very unequal distribution geographically. Governmental policies regarding nuclear power are equally varied and are influenced by public opinion as well as by the availability and price of alternative energy sources. As a result, the long term future of nuclear energy (up to about the year 2050) is far from clear. It has some obvious advantages: nuclear reactors do not produce CO, and thus nuclear energy does not contribute appreciably to the "greenhouse effect", nuclear fuel is far more evenly distributed geographically than are oil and coal, and new technologies are being developed (breeders and hybrid reactors) which make far better use of fissile materials, and which can reduce the effective lifetimes of nuclear wastes. However, the safety of at least some current designs of reactors is still strongly open to question. In addition, nuclear wastes need to be stored for long periods of time, entailing, in the long term, both cost commitments and risks of human and environmental damage. Perhaps most importantly, there always remains a possibility that the fissile materials generated by reactors could be diverted to facilitate the proliferation of nuclear weapons. There are thus strong arguments for moving away from reliance on nuclear energy. However, the consequences of doing this must also be assessed quantitatively, particularly in the light of the considerable increase of energy needs in developing countries. The nuclear industry is characterised by long intervals of time (of about 20 years) between the conception and the industrial realisation of new technologies. Since the current generation of nuclear reactors will provide electricity up to the years 2010-2020, it is now timely to examine the environmental and security issues which can bear on the long term future of nuclear energy. It was against this background that plans were made for writing a book that would provide authoritative accounts of some of the main issues of topical interest, and would do so in a manner that is accessible to the non-expert. As a key part of the publication process all the authors attended, together with an additional group of scientists and others from a wide range of disciplines, a two-day "workshop" at which all draft texts were presented, discussed and criticised - thus helping the authors to ensure that their contributions were fair and accurate. The workshop meeting was organised jointly by the French, Belgian and British Pugwash' groups, but ultimate responsibility for factual accuracy, and for the opinions expressed, is entirely that of the individual authors and of the editors. The contents of the book fall broadly into three parts, dealing (respectively, and in shorthand terminology) with Energy, Health and Weapons Proliferation. The prospect of a world energy crisis is widely appreciated and, in early chapters, we review the background to this in some detail, particularly exploring the role in it, if any, that nuclear energy may be called upon to play. An important factor here is the very different needs and perceptions in developing countries, as contrasted with highly industrialised countries. Much of the concern expressed about nuclear energy, particularly in North America and in some European countries, has focused on the risks posed to human health by both routine and accidental releases of radioactivity to the environment. In a series of chapters we therefore take a look at the problems involved in ensuring acceptably safe operation of power generating reactors, and in management of their eventual waste products. The other major cause for concern, which many feel to be particularly worrying, is the production by reactors of nuclear explosive material: plutonium. 'Me concluding section of the book therefore assesses the nature of this problem and the options for addressing it. At least for the immediate future this must entail international collaboration on devising and implementing effective administrative safeguards. In the longer term, however, it will clearly be very desirable to reduce, if not eliminate, global stocks of these materials, and we therefore also discuss some ideas on how this might be done. Some of the topics that are dealt with in the book are technically somewhat complex. We have therefore provided an introductory chapter that may help the nonexpert to follow the subsequent, more detailed discussions. This book makes no pretence to provide comprehensive treatment of what is, of course, an enormous subject. Nor, even, can it deal fully with all the issues that are of potential public concern. If, however, it stimulates and assists informed discussion of some of the more pressing issues that will need to be resolved in the coming years, we shall feel that it has served its purpose. Kit Hill |