No abstract available

[en] The objective of the Symposium was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the environmental and health factors as well as the economic factors involved in supplying electricity services, and to suggest a framework within which these issues should be taken into account in making future plans and decisions on electricity production and use. The potential role of different ways of meeting electricity service requirements was also to be analysed, taking into consideration both demand side and supply side options in the light of their comparative economic, environmental and health related impacts. Four Expert Groups considered key issues: the environmental implications of energy and electricity supply and demand; energy sources and technologies for electricity generation; comparative environmental and health effects of different energy systems for electricity generation; and the incorporation of environmental and health impacts into policy, planning and decision making for the electricity sector. During the Symposium, keynote addresses and invited papers presented by leading experts and policy makers provided additional related information. In this volume the background papers are presented. The proceedings have been published separately, and the individual papers in both volumes have been indexed separately for INIS. Refs, figs and tabs

[en] This report emphasizes a few central points of interest to be found in the activities of the VIK whose tasks are primarily to promote in general the energy industry, unholding its members common interests in energy management. The following subjects are dealt with: 1. Avoidance of a power gap as a common task for industry and politics 2. Power industry legislation, legislation governing power supply contracts, cartel laws, legislation governing the protection against nuisances, and water legislation 3. Power generation and fuels and 4. Further developments in the field of steam generators and power plants, focusing especially nuclear power stations. The final part of the report is dedicated to the cooperation between members and to public relations. (UA)

[en] This study examines economic and environmental impacts of uranium mining in Canada and compares these impacts with those of other extractive and energy industries. The uranium industry generates taxes and royalties, income, employment, foreign exchange earnings, security of energy supply, and technological spinoffs. The indirect impacts of the industry as measured by employment and income multipliers are lower than those for other types of mining and comparable to oil and gas because of the high proportion of costs withdrawn from the economy in the form of taxes and operator margin. Social costs are primarily occupational hazards. Uranium mining probably has a lower non-health environmental impact than other mining industries due to much smaller throughputs and transportation requirements. Residents of the area surrounding the mine bear a disproportionate share of the social costs, while non-residents receive most of the benefits

[en] The paper discusses the new energy policy of development of national power production in the context of the transition to free market economy. In the frame of this new policy there are presented the main objectives: privatization and restructuring of energetics in view of the concept of sustainable development of energy environment; utilization of new energy sources and implementing of more efficient energy distribution systems; ecologization of the energy production process according to international requirements and standards; rationalization of the energy consumption in order to meet all consumption needs, to lower the energetic demands of the national economy and reach positive ecological impacts. (author) 5 figs., 6 refs

[en] German society is in a crisis characterized by five criteria: the German unification process, globalization, social achievements, a crisis of meaning and of leadership. Five problems must be solved if the crisis is to be overcome: A new attitude to work and to technology must be found. After reunification, there is need for thorough renewal. The democratic system must give answers to the essential questions of social life and life in a community. A new leading elite with imagination, initiative, and responsibility for the 21st century must be found. What is needed, in a way, is the ethical equivalent of war and defeat. The present crisis should be the cause, and the reason, for seizing and opportunity it includes. (orig.)

[en] Short communication

[en] A national greenhouse gas abatement policy has to be set up taking the economy and employment into consideration. Cost-efficient greenhouse gas reduction measures which achieve the highest possible greenhouse gase abatement per one Deutschmark spent are of prime importance in this context. Protecting the global climate, securing Germany's competitiveness and ecosystem, sustainable development and safeguarding power supplies should be seen as a complex entity. Political and economic action has to be guided by this approach. Against this background, ways to limit power generation-based greenhouse gas emissions in Germany as well as the possible contribution of nuclear energy to achieve this goal are discussed. (orig./DG)

[en] The first outlines of what today is termed the general debate about technological risks have been emerging with the conflict about nuclear technology. Today, the global change of structure is the major issue, with society and the economy and their interdependencies being key factors deciding whether a technology takes the upward or downward trend. The paper presents and discusses tree basic patterns of viewing technology, i.e. technology as a risk factor, as a challenge to regulatory policy, and as a route of global structural change. (DG)

[en] International studies over the past decade illustrate the importance of assessing external health costs for the full energy production systems. In general, more conservative approaches are followed with respect to assessment of radiological hazards than to air pollution from other energy systems. Nevertheless, results indicate that under normal operating conditions nuclear power has lower health and environmental burdens than fossil fuels. Estimates for renewable sources of energy remain incomplete; depending on the assumption of the study, the estimated effects are either slightly below or above those for nuclear power