645 



European Organization for Nuclear Research 



The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is another 

 successful enterprise. Factors contributing to its success 

 undoubtedly were its freedom from commercial stakes, freedom from 

 military applications of its work, and absence of problems with the 

 transfer of commercially useful technology. Evidently such an 

 organization was the only way that European countries could mount a 

 world-class program in high-energy physics of a stature comparable to 

 that in the United States and to the program that promised to develop 

 in the USSR and Iron Curtain countries. The governance of CERN has 

 been highly successful and serves as a useful example of program and 

 budget stability. 



One unforeseen consequence of this large-scale international effort 

 was that corresponding national programs of the member countries 

 gradually diminished in size and impact. This effect may also occur 

 in the EC fusion program as effort becomes concentrated on large 

 devices. However, by that time, there may be less need for auxilliary 

 national activities. 



Fission Energy 



Successful international cooperation has also occurred in the 

 development of fission energy. Cooperation in this technology has 

 proceeded at three different levels — that of information and personnel 

 exchange, that of medium technology projects, and that of very large 

 projects. The information exchange agreements have been fruitful, but 

 they might have been more fruitful had they not been hindered by the 

 recognized commercial applicability of the best technical information 

 that was developed and by an excessive insistence on a quid pro quo in 

 the exchange of such information. 



Cooperation on medium-sized technology projects would have been 

 enhanced if there had been better recognition of the relationship of 

 the research and development that was being performed vis-a-vis its 

 future commercial use and better provision for the capture of those 

 benefits. 



The Super-Phenix project, a 1200-megawatt (electric) fast breeder 

 reactor, is an example of a large-scale project that probably could 

 not have been conducted without international cooperation. 

 Super-Phenix is the result of agreements between the French and 

 Italian governments for breeder development signed in 1974 and 

 agreements between the French and Germans in 1976 on three levels: an 

 agreement on breeder development policy between the governments; an 

 agreement on research and development and the "harmonization" of 

 national efforts between the nuclear research agencies; and agreements 

 on commercial development between French, German, and Italian 

 companies. 



