Internationalizing Nuclear Safety: The Pursuit of Collective Responsibility

The future of nuclear energy could depend upon the international infrastructure established to ensure the creation of a strong and uniform safety culture. Deliberations during the 1990s, leading to the recently promulgated International Nuclear Safety Convention, held out the prospect of both bolstering nuclear safety and gaining public recognition of the need to address transboundary safety concerns head-on. Unfortunately, the Convention that emerged from the deliberations constitutes little more than another form of technical as::istance. The basis for an alternative, and more substantial, Convention is presented—one that would be based on the establishment and evaluation of perfonnance standards, the creation of a series of political “firebreaks,” and the encouragement of nuclear power plant designs that minimize the catastrophic offsite consequences of accidents.