[en] The 1997 Annual Report is published in a special year for Israel, marking the 50th anniversary of its independece and statehood. From its inception, and the election of a distinguished scientist as its first president, Israel has regarded science and technology as a central pillar for future AEC development and a lever for improved quality of life of its people. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission, which will be celebrating its own anniversary in a few years, has made a modest but significant contribution to the establishment and growth of the technological infrastructure of the country. The first article in this Annual Report focuses attention on yet another aspect of our continuing investigation of the basic properties of technologically interesting and important materials, presented in our 1994 and 1996 Annual Reports. The current entry describes an application of the nuclear Time Differential Perturbed Angular Correlation technique to the study of the structure and properties of metal-hydrogen compounds, of potential interest within the framework of future, environmentally attractive hydrogen-burning energy systems, and in fusion power reactors. The second article also relates to some basic aspects of nuclear fusion. A theoretical study of the behavior and properties of laser-generated hot plasmas resulted in the proposal of a new confinement scheme, in which a plasma generated by circularly polarized laser light is confined in a miniature magnetic bottle created by magnetic fields induced in the plasma by the same light. The paper discusses the conditions under which such confinement and ensuing energy gain may be achieved. Measurements of actual axial magnetic fields generated in plasma by intense circularly polarized laser light are also reported. The third report describes one of our ongoing efforts to improve and streamline the techniques and procedures used in medical applications of radioisotopes. Replacement of the customary )311 solutions for radioisotope diagnostics and therapy by individually calibrated, rapidly dissolving capsules, resulted in better dose control and reduced patient and personnel exposures. The non-nuclear aspect of our work is represented this year by the fourth paper, which deals with the utilization of our plasma physics expertise in the development and parametric studies of advanced Hall thrusters for space applications. An interesting outcome of this work was the disco Query of the dependence of the electrical characteristics and performance of the thruster on the material its chamber is made of. Finally, I would like to commend once again the authors of the selected presentations as well as the entire staff of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission for their continued efforts, contributions and achievements and to wish them all many more years of fruitful endeavors