Читать книгу Disarmament and Decommissioning in the Nuclear Domain - Jean-Claude Amiard - Страница 9

Preface

Nuclear energy is used in two main areas: military and civil. In the military field, nine countries are currently manufacturing nuclear weapons of mass destruction, which is a serious threat to humanity and all living beings. Therefore, the UN and many NGOs are working to limit nuclear proliferation, as well as to limit the number of nuclear weapons. The ultimate goal, probably utopian, is a complete eradication of these weapons. Like all human creations, the life span of nuclear weapons is limited. The military must therefore deconstruct obsolete weapons and, unfortunately, manufacture new ones that are more powerful, more precise and therefore more destructive than previous ones. The military must also urgently clean up old nuclear facilities that have become obsolete, as well as highly contaminated.

In the civil field, nuclear energy is mainly used to produce electricity and in many medical applications for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, with radiotracers (scintigraphy) and ionizing radiation destroying cancer cells (brachytherapy and radiotherapy). Here again, various nuclear installations, nuclear power reactors, plants, particle accelerators, etc. have a limited lifespan and must be decommissioned and dismantled. However, these operations are long, costly and present both environmental and health risks. They must therefore be carefully programmed, seriously supervised and controlled. The ideal is for the site to return to its initial state (often called “greenfield”).

The aim of this book, the fourth in the “radioactive risk” series, is to take stock of the state-of-the-art nuclear disarmament and dismantling. As with the previous works in this series, we have tried to use multiple information sources and verify them, in order to get as close as possible to the truth.

The first part of this book is devoted to the international efforts to limit nuclear proliferation, with various international treaties signed and some ratified, as well as agreements to limit the number of nuclear weapons held by the nuclear powers.

The second part deals with the decommissioning and dismantling of various types of nuclear facilities, including power, prototype and research reactors, as well as plants upstream and downstream of the nuclear fuel cycle or nuclear research centers.

May 2021