Present and future development of nuclear knowledge

Full text: Over millennia, Man has developed technology, and this technology has made possible a great increase in population, which in return finds technology indispensable. The progress in technology has been accompanied by a depletion in natural resource and pollution. The doubling of the population required l,650 years from the Year AD One, but now takes a mere 45 years. Consumption-based economies in modern times also mean that each person consumes ever so many things in order to live, and massive production and distribution networks lead inevitably to pollution and environmental devastation. The future of mankind is in jeopardy and nature has only a limited capacity to absorb and handle this extra burden of pollution. Fortunately, nuclear energy can be deployed to mitigate and even to reverse the global trend toward destruction of the environment. Issues are addressed under the headings of what is known, what should be done now and for the future. Our first priority should be training of manpower to make effective use of the nuclear knowledge which is already abundantly available. Secondly we must push for research and development in all phases of the nuclear program. Our third priority must be to develop a desalination reactor and to produce cheap and abundant nuclear hydrogen and confront the environmental issue with a high-temperature reactor. IAEA's INPRO and U.S.-led Gen lV programs together with associated fuel cycle schemes must be encouraged with a view towards eventually developing economic, reliable and proliferation-resistant reactors and fuels. Finally, the nuclear community must strive to develop a commercial transmutation reactor to incinerate long-lived radioactive nuclides. (author)