242 



organization, the project has enabled the participants, some of whom 

 could not readily afford so large an effort, to take an active part in a 

 major investigation of a potentially important type of power reactor. 

 It has also enabled the project to benefit from the knowledge and 

 specialist facilities available throughout a large part of Europe. An 

 optimistic assessment by several of the Dragon staff asserts the proj- 

 ect's experience has shown that : 269 



. . . cooperation between individuals, firms and other organizations in a 

 number of countries can be established to mutual benefits, and that the coordina- 

 tion of the efforts of many and widespread contractors in both research pro- 

 grams and in complex engineering tasks can be achieved. The creation of an 

 integrated scientific, technical and administrative staff with clearly defined 

 objectives, within a fixed time scale and within a fixed budget, has engendered 

 the necessary feeling of unity of purpose and concern for the early achievement 

 of the tasks on an economical basis. 



THE EUROCHEMIC PROJECT IN BELGIUM 



Of the three international nuclear energy agencies, only the Nuclear 

 Energy Agency has a working fuel reprocessing plant. This facility, 

 may, however, be shut down in the face of competition from France, 

 the United Kingdom, and West Germany, who have banded together 

 in a trilateral arrangement to use their own reprocessing capacity. 

 The implications of this change for commercial nuclear energy in 

 Europe and for American policy vis-a-vis the European nuclear power 

 industry are not yet apparent. 



The NEA fuel reprocessing plant is located at Mol in Belgium. It 

 is owned and operated by Eurochemic, an international company with 

 a $38 million paid capital whose shares are held by governments, 

 public or semi-public bodies, and private industry of NEA countries. 

 Eurochemic was established in July 1959 under a Diplomatic Con- 

 vention signed in December 1957. At the time its reprocessing plant 

 came into service in 1966, it was probably one of the most versatile in 

 the world, designed to accept nuclear fuels of virtually any composition 

 and manufacture. It has made substantial contributions to the tech- 

 nology for reprocessing used nuclear fuels. 270 



In 1971, it was reported that France and Germany, who dominate 

 Eurochemic, had decided to cut off their financial support for its 

 commercial reprocessing after 1974. 271 Then in mid-October 1971, it 

 was further reported that the French and British Government nuclear 

 organizations had agreed with a West German consortium to set up 

 Europe's first multinational nuclear fuel reprocessing company — 

 United Reprocessors GmbH— in Frankfurt. Deprived of its market by 

 this venture, Eurochemic is tentatively scheduled to stop commercial 

 reprocessing in 1974 except to service small research reactors, and 

 possibly to carry on some new research. 



Building the Infrastructure for Nuclear Power 



In addition to its research and development functions, NEA has 

 worked to create the infrastructure of regulations and other arrange- 

 ments required for the commercial deployment of nuclear energy in 

 Europe. It has been active in development of regulations for nuclear 



«* Ih1<1.. p. 323. 



*"> "Work of the European Nuclear Energy Agency," Science Policy Newt, vol. 2 (Sep- 

 tember 1970). p. 18. 



•" Nucleonics Week, vol. 12 (September 16, 1971), p. 10. 



