Vision of the global nuclear industry in the 21st century

A major challenge facing mankind as we enter the XXIst century is to provide a greater fraction of a growing world population with a level of energy services allowing a decent way of life. This awesome challenge is worsened by the vital necessity to reduce the emission to the atmosphere of greenhouse effect gases, notably due to fossil fuel combustion. In this context, nuclear power cannot but be part of the world energy mix, and we might witness the premises of its second souffle. Present nuclear reactors are reliable safe and often very competitive; future reactors will be even safer and might find other use than the sole generation of electricity. One prerequisite for this second souffle is a better public acceptance of nuclear facilities, and part of this acceptance appears conditioned to the assurance of a proper management of the radioactive wastes issued from nuclear power. Nuclear wastes are properly and responsibly managed, but only on an interim basis : it is very important that final repositories for high level wastes are actually implemented.(author)