Review of world nuclear power programs

Political, economic and environmental decisions are still affecting the growth of nuclear power generation throughout the world, but there are signs that proven past performance and increasing prices of energy from conventional sources are becoming overriding factors. In the USA, some uncertainty has been created by the moratorium on reprocessing enacted by the 1978 Non-Proliferation Act. The uncertainty has spread to importers of nuclear fuel and technology, but there is increasing international acceptance of the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation. Isotope separation capacity to be installed by the US government, by the joint European organization Urenco and by the French Eurodif should ease the supply of fuel. There is little progress on waste-management policy in the USA, but in Germany a company (DWK) has been formed and a site for a rocksalt repository has been designated at Gorleben. In the UK the Windscale inquiry has a positive significance for nuclear energy generally as well as for reprocessing. An inquiry in Sweden has also come to positive conclusions. The status of nuclear energy in these and a number of other countries is discussed in terms of political and national policies. (N.D.H.)