scroll

2004 will be a very important milestone for Europe: in May, 10 additional countries will join the European Union. In June we shall celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first significant electricity generation from a nuclear reactor, in Obninsk, in the Russian Federation. What a difference those 50 years have brought to the European landscape! The Iron Curtain, the Cold War, and even Détente now appear to be so far away as to seem surrealistic; so does a world without nuclear power.

Having only been around for five decades, nuclear power is extremely young for an energy technology. Today it supplies more than 6% of the world's primary energy consumption. If we hope to supply enough energy during this century to allow 9 billion human beings to live a decent life without irreversibly damaging our planet's climate, this share must increase. Nuclear power is not the answer to this tremendous challenge, but there is no credible answer without it.

Today, nuclear energy is almost uniquely devoted to electricity generation. Tomorrow, new applications will develop for water desalination, district heating, process heat, hydrogen production, and so on. The nuclear adventure is still in its infancy and we in the European Nuclear Society are proud to be participating in it.

Bertrand Barré, Paris, 30 January 2004