NPY - A three-nation atomic programme

Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia have provided the initials for the NPY programme, an Agency-guided collaborative effort which since 1964 has been making important contributions to knowledge in reactor physics, has strengthened the research effort of each of the three countries and has assisted work in other countries. An idea of the happy way in which the programme has worked, and of its possible assistance in preparing other co-operative ventures between nations, is given in this article. Although the agreement signed with the Agency by the three countries officially came into force in April 1964, parts of it had already been put into operation the previous year. It was for a three-year period, but the whole operation was so successful that in 1967 an extension agreement for a further three years was signed. The broad outlines were the subject of Paper No. 596 at the 1964 Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. (author)