Atom Power for Europe
KNORR, KLAUS
Atomic Energy Community treaty, now up for ratification in six parliaments, can help promote political unity and free Western Europe from dependence on Arab oil Atom Power for Europe By Klaus...
...It can do so on an economical basis, moreover, long before atomic energy becomes competitive with other fuels in the United States, which is far better endowed with fossil fuels...
...Present indications are that they will be so exercised...
...If acted upon, this means a rapid start and a vast outlay of resources...
...Finally, an element of luck entered into the picture...
...United States generosity can vastly speed up the area's power program...
...This will not only place an enormous burden on these countries' ability to pay for imports...
...This fear has appreciably lessened, and Socialists are now among the staunchest supporters of Euratom and the Common Market...
...But there will be a battery of Community institutions —a Commission, a Council of Ministers, an Assembly, and a Court of Justice—to define and regulate this scope and to facilitate the job that public and private enterprises will undertake...
...If exercised with determination, these are formidable powers...
...In addition, users of fissionable materials must inform the Commission of the purposes for which the materials are used, they are obligated not to divert them to other uses, and they are subject to Community inspection and, in the event of violation, to confiscation of the materials...
...Much of the impetus behind the Euratom plan came from people who were not especially interested in atomic energy but who favored European integration as such and seized on Euratom as a likelv opportunitv for a further move in this direction...
...3. Nuclear development offers the United States and Western Europe a field for mutually beneficial partnership...
...There are several reasons why Euratom deserves American support: 1. Throughout the postwar period, the United States has been persistent in—indeed, sometimes too insistent on—supporting any movement toward the integration of Western Europe...
...Thus far, however, the dreamers, rather than the hard-boiled experts, seem to have had realism, as well as luck, on their side...
...And this dependence on the Arab countries is understandably a cause of considerable anxiety...
...American scientists and technicians are more difficult to spare...
...A great many French industries are afraid to meet German and Italian competition...
...This danger will become acute if the struggle for parliamentary approval is prolonged into midsummer...
...These treaties must now be ratified by the various parliaments...
...This is of great importance...
...But nobody can now foresee its effectiveness...
...Domestic sources of energy can furnish only a diminishing proportion of these rapidly rising requirements...
...Atomic Energy Community treaty, now up for ratification in six parliaments, can help promote political unity and free Western Europe from dependence on Arab oil Atom Power for Europe By Klaus Knorr Center of International Studies, Princeton University On March 25, six European countries—Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany—signed- two treaties in Rome to establish a European Atomic Energy Community and a European Economic Community...
...The increase is far greater in the industrially expanding countries, such as Britain and West Germany...
...There is a real danger, therefore, that this country will lag behind in the development of this new industry...
...The two projects have progressed with amazing speed...
...Of great help to Monnet's campaign was the gradual change in the attitude of the Socialist parties in Western Europe—particularly the German Socialists...
...The six Euratom nations alone are now importing the energy equivalent of 100 million tons of coal a year, thus covering about one-fourth of their annual energy needs at a cost of $2 billion...
...Previously, they had been hostile or lukewarm toward the idea of an integrated "Little Europe," which they feared would be dominated, in the absence of Britain and the Scandinavian democracies, by Catholic and conservative forces...
...technical assistance from Great Britain will be useful and has been promised, for Britain is interested in getting a share of the Continental market in nuclear equipment...
...How enterprising, how responsive will this huge apparatus be to this particular task, which is only one item on its last agenda...
...2. Wherever a nuclear industry arises, the United States is interested in seeing it develop under controls that prevent the uncontrolled diversion of fissionable materials to hazardous and destructive purposes...
...In a partnership, Western Europe could become a proving ground for the United States as well as for itself...
...If the new treaties are ratified, they will not only be the first significant move toward an integrated Western Europe since the Coal and Steel Community was set up in 1951...
...Clearly, Euratom appears to be an important step in this direction...
...Supplies of enriched uranium should not present a problem...
...Available resources must be put to use where they will do the most good, regardless of national boundaries...
...We have viewed progressive unification as essential lo the political stability and economic strength of the area...
...While the region was a net exporter of energy until 1927, it has now become a major net importer...
...to do so effectively...
...The energy situation in Western Europe is precarious...
...At the same time, by collaborating closely with the European program the United States can derive valuable experience and know-how...
...The region's hydroelectric potential is largely realized: its richer and more accessible coal seams have been exhausted...
...they must lie freed from the shackles of security restrictions which are no longer needed to safeguard the American military position...
...Furthermore, Euratom is expected to coordinate and facilitate investment in nuclear installations and to participate in investments going beyond the resources of single member-states or enterprises...
...And if the Common Market treaty encounters serious trouble in one or two of the parliaments, the prospects for ratification of Euratom will inevitably be impaired...
...If Western Europe is to be a proving ground for the United Slates, American enterprises must inevitably play a large role as suppliers and designers of equipment...
...and Western Europe's oil resources are, of course, exceedingly slight...
...how determined is the AEC—and Congress— to relax security regulations which obstruct the flow of technical information so urgently required in Western Europe...
...Since American energy costs are comparatively low, American enterprise has little incentive at present to rush into the field of non-military applications of atomic power...
...According to recent forecasts, imported fuel will have to meet 40 per cent of total needs and will cost a staggering $6 billion by 1975...
...In implementing such a program...
...While in this country the costs of electric power average between 7 and 8 mills per kilowatt-hour, they average twice that in Western Europe...
...The rejection of the European Defense Community by the French National Assembly in 1954 was generally seen as so decisive a defeat of the European-integration movement that remaining hopes for substantial progress in this direction were written off as unrealistic dreams...
...According to a provision inserted on French insistence, the treaty permits nuclear materials designed for use in military programs to be transferred from the control of Euratom lo that of the Western European Union, which was set up in 1954 to serve common purposes of defense...
...Beyond question, the technological development of nuclear power has matured enough to justify the conclusion that this new source of energy can make a substantial and increasing contribution to Western European power needs...
...Above all...
...On the other hand, to build a huge nuclear-power industry in the Community of Six, and to do so speedily, demands vast resources—not only in financial terms but in terms of scarce scientific and technical personnel and in terms of enriched uranium, for which the United States Government will be the only likely supplier for several years to come...
...The proposed International Atomic Energy Authority, to be set up under the United Nations, may contribute to such control...
...Consumption of energy has been growing by an average of nearly 5 per cent annually since the war...
...But there were also excellent reasons, specific to the new industry, for promoting it within a supranational framework...
...they will also represent the most important step in this direction ever undertaken in the history of Western Europe...
...In February 1957...
...Although there is little opposition to Euratom —the name by which the European Atomic Energy Community is best known—the Common Market is far less assured of plain sailing...
...West Germany, for its part, is suffering from overconfidence...
...though answered in principle, the question remains as to how and in what forms and volume American support will be forthcoming...
...A committee of "three wise men," charged with drawing up a nuclear power program for the next few years, has boldly proposed the installation of nuclear power stations with a total capacity of 15 million kw by 1967 and 50 million kw by 1975...
...For some time to come, the Western European countries will depend on American supplies of enriched uranium and American technical assistance...
...This is precisely what Euratom is expected to achieve...
...But assistance from the United States is indispensable...
...The major obstacle, however, resides in the Atomic Energy Commission...
...Only a year ago, when the two projects were still in an early phase of exploratory drafting, expert observers were nearly unanimous in predicting their failure...
...The Suez crisis, and the drift of United States policy away from firm identification with European interests, stimulated the idea that an increasing measure of united action is indispensable to the welfare of the Western European nations...
...coal mining has become an industry marked by high and rising costs...
...These provisions go a long way toward enabling the Community to prevent the misuse of nuclear materials...
...In particular, the Commission is to promote research and spread knowledge by (1) establishing a common research and training center in the nuclear field, (2) seeing to it that duplication of research is avoided, (3) helping other research centers throughout the Community by supplying materials, installations, experts and even finance whenever this seems desirable, and (4) collecting and disseminating non-patented research findings, limiting the rights of patented findings, and giving enterprises non-exclusive licenses for the use of patents which are the property of the Community...
...Even if this country does make enriched uranium available, the shortage in Western Europe of investment funds, industrial capacity and qualified personnel makes it imperative that these be used with utmost efficiency...
...many Germans feel that their country can do very well on its own without interference from new supranational institutions...
...the United States did agree to supply enough nuclear materials and some technical assistance to support Euratom's ambitious program...
...wasteful duplication must be avoided...
...On the contrary, the vast bulk of actual research and manufacturing activities will be carried on by a multitude of private concerns, public authorities, universities, etc., offering scope for initiative to be exercised at many points rather than just one...
...Even if, in cases of extreme scarcity, enterprises are permitted to purchase materials on their own from outside the Community, Euratom will be a party to the import contracts...
...While much of the credit must go to Paul-Henri Spaak, the Belgian Foreign Minister who directed the drafting work, it was the Political Action Committee led by Jean Mon-net, former head of the European Coal and Steel Community, that succeeded in rallying the support of key parliamentary leaders in the six countries...
...Prospects for ratification are fair now, despite these uncertainties...
...A regular supply of minerals and combustible materials is to be assured by vesting their ownership in the Community—no matter where they are produced— and by giving an agency of the Commission an option on all materials produced in all territories of member-states and the right to import such materials from elsewhere...
...West Germany is scheduled to hold elections in September, and it is hard to predict how much longer the Mollet Government will last in France (its fall would handicap the passage of the two treaties...
...it will also mean a sharply increasing dependence on Middle Eastern oil as well as American coal...
...Euratom will not establish the new nuclear industry as an integrated public enterprise under the domination of a supranational bureaucracy...
...Both these conditions are best guaranteed on a broad Community basis...
...Therefore, a dependable scheme of supranational control over an industrial area which ranks next in importance to the United Stales and the Soviet bloc is a matter of some consequence...
Vol. 40 • April 1957 • No. 16
