Nuclear power plant safety in the framework of future energy systems

The work in the direction of 'sustainability' must, in the author's opinion, include the development of appropriate sustainability criteria. These must be concretised in such a way that they can be considered as technically mature and that one can derive from them further requirements for the development of energy systems. Once such criteria have been defined and accepted and dogmatism is driven back, nuclear technology would have considerable chances. On a planetary level, nuclear energy has a convincing perspective. The ongoing development work and the tendencies followed thereby, including a new safety cannot last for ever. An unprejudiced debate on nuclear risks, as can be observed at many places, on adequate internalisation of external costs, on the 'value' of technology for a country are signs of a 'normalisation'. However, this process is not (yet) robust and reliable, or even manageable. (author) 9 figs., 3 tabs