4th and 5th activity reports of the OECD Nuclear Energy (NEA)

Recommendation 831 (1978)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 4089See Doc. 4089, report of the Committee on Science and Technology. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 14 March 1978.

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Having examined the 4th and 5th activity reports of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) ;

2. Aware of the growing difficulties of meeting Western Europe's energy demands from traditional sources, including large and growing quantities of oil imported from outside the European area ;

3. Convinced that these imports should be reduced as much and as rapidly as possible ;

4. Aware that such reduction must lead to substantial expansion of power production from other sources, including nuclear power ;

5. Aware of public concern about various aspects of nuclear power and its fuel cycle,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers urge the member states' governments to instruct their representatives in the OECD's Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy to call upon the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency :

a to implement to a greater extent the programme delineated in the Agency's 2nd (1973) activity report (paragraph 18) for the improvement of public understanding of nuclear power ;

b to verify in its next (6th) activity report that the systematic disposal of radioactive wastes into the deep Atlantic Ocean over the past decade has not led to measurable changes in the radioactivity of the ocean in the neighbourhood of the disposal site ;

c to ensure that full information is made publicly available in advance concerning any proposed operation for the disposal of long-lived radioactive wastes into the ocean bed ;

d to examine and report on the present situation and future possibilities of obtaining power from controlled nuclear fusion ;

e to examine whether a computer model could be constructed whereby the practical implications of various alternative nuclear power policies, in relation to contemporary and interdependent policies concerning other energy sources, could be determined by calculation ;

Further recommends that the Committee of Ministers urge governments of member countries signatory to the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, and to the Oslo Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft, which may not yet have ratified these conventions, to take steps to do so as soon as possible.