1532 



With the Suez Crisis still fresh in mind, [the authors] observed that a future 

 stoppage of oil could be an economic calamity for Europe, and that excessive 

 dependence upon an oil supply from an unstable region might lead to serious 

 political trouble throughout the world. Estimating that future energy require- 

 ments of the economic community would increase by 83 percent between 1955 

 and 1975, they advised that the economic growth of the six countries was in danger 

 of being seriously hampered by lack of another source of energy.^s 



Euratom quickly ran into diplomatic difficulties. The Soviet Union 

 opposed both it and the European Economic Community, labeling 

 Euratom a scheme for the rearmament of Germany with atomic 

 weanons and charging that both organizations were instruments of 

 NATO. The six European nations disregarded Soviet threats and an 

 accompanying Soviet plan for Pan-European economic and atomic 

 energy integration. However, there were other problems; for example, 

 Euratom failed to win necessary support for building facilities to 

 manufacture enriched uranium — considered by European proponents 

 a top-priority feature of an independent program — but was obliged 

 instead to buy enriched uranium from the United States. Further, of 

 the 5-year research programs provided for by the Treaty of Rome, 

 the first (1958-62) was largely limited to building an organization; 

 the second (1963-67) was characterized by dissension and budget 

 troubles; and the third (proposed for 1968-72) was not even 

 approved — Euratom's research program has since been funded 

 annually. Euratom did not produce a nuclear industry for the Com- 

 munity, but rather faces competition from the national industries of 

 its members. 



The Nuclear Energy Agency of the then OECC was, like Euratom, 

 a response to European fears of a fuel shortage. The NEA was estab- 

 lished by an international statute effective February 1, 1958, with the 

 assigned objective of furthering "the development of the production 

 and uses of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes by the participating 

 countries." Like its parent OECD, the NEA is a forum rather than 

 an operational agency. As Dr. Donnelly puts it, ". . . its strong point 

 has been coordination and program [review] rather than direct 

 operation. The Agency has led its members into agreements on 

 radiation health and safety standards, and on nuclear insurance. By 

 contrast, Euratom is an operating organization as well as an agency 

 involved in establishing an industrial structure for nuclear power in 

 Europe." ^^ 



NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY 



The most recent major diplomatic consequence of the scientific 

 discovery of fission was the negotiating of the Treaty on Non-Prolif- 

 eration of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force March 5, 

 1970. The concept of the treaty was a radical one: it divided nations 

 into two classes, those which had the atom bomb and those which 

 did not; and it committed the non-nuclear-weapons parties to relin- 

 quishing their sovereignty to the extent of permitting inspections on 

 their territories by international inspection. In return, the nonweapons 



23 It)id., p. 204. 

 26 Ibid., p. 240. 



