Keynote address: International nuclear cooperation

These meetings provide an important opportunity for the nuclear community to assess the scope and direction of its wide-ranging activities. Nuclear technology has given us the tools to understand and shape our physical environment in ways which can solve ancient problems of health, food supply, energy, and many others which affect the quality of our lives. International cooperation is necessary to secure the peaceful benefits of nuclear technology. Meeting global energy needs must be high on any priority list of issues for the coming decade and the 21st century. The satisfaction of energy needs is today and will increasingly be a crucial factor in international stability. Hand in hand with the need to assure energy sufficiency is the need to assure the long-term protection of the environment. Three key elements that give a useful framework for approaching the future of nuclear cooperation are technological factors, economic issues, and political acceptability. Technological avenues to greater safety must be vigorously pursued. Economic alternatives must be identified and objectively weighed. Most important of all, the framework of public confidence must be strengthened