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INEA Newsletter No 1 - 2006
In
the year 2006, the
Executive Committee of the International Nuclear Energy Academy met twice.
The first meeting was held on 24 July 2006 by teleconference attended by
seven members, and the second one, in the margins of the Winter Meeting of the American Nuclear Society in
1.
SUBSCRIPTIONS.
The
decline of the value of the US dollar has resulted in a decrease of the
Academy’s income in sterling terms (where most of the bills arise at
present). Therefore, the Executive Committee approved to raise the
subscription rate to US$30 with effect from 2007.
It
was also agreed to inform members who might fall more than two years
behind with their subscriptions, that they will be automatically
transferred to the Emeritus category.
2.
STATUS OF PAPERS AND NEW PAPERS
Contentious
papers appear on the INEA website as statements of “Members’ Views”.
The Chamberlain/Meneley paper on “Hazardous
Radiotoxic Waste Disposal” is now displayed there. The European
Nuclear Society had sought permission to display this paper on its website.
The paper on the “The
Transition to Large Scale Nuclear Energy Supply”
by Dan Meneley is also posted on the “Members’ Views” of the INEA website.
Bertrand
Barré´s paper entitled “HLW
disposal: Status and Trends” has been posted as an INEA Executive
Statement.
Dave
Rossin’s paper on “Nuclear
Facilities and Terrorism” had proved very useful, and is also on the European Nuclear Society’s
website.
As
for new papers, their status is as follows:
Low Level Radiation. It was pointed out that the INEA paper needed to include the effects of
background and the variations in it, as well as neutron and alpha
radiation double chain damage in DNA, which was much less likely to be
repaired naturally than single chain damage. This part of the paper should
be written by an educated layman and then reviewed by professional
scientists.
Uranium Resources. Arguments about U resources, price and exploration have been found as
not entirely accurate when the U market is compared with the oil market,
as oil is influenced by political factors which do not apply in the case
of uranium. Before publication, INEA will ask Steve Kidd to write
supplementary considerations to those on Julian Stein’s paper with
further inferences regarding the Red Book figures.
Actions
for producing papers on Hydrogen
economy, and Non-proliferation
will be pursued.
The subject of Infrastructure needs for nuclear power programmes in newcomer countries has been considered as a possible new issue leading to an INEA Statement.
3.
CO-OPERATION WITH IAEA
Upon
invitation of the NGO Section of the Agency’s Secretariat, INEA proposed
the following list of topics for discussion at the regular meeting of NGOs
on the first day of the 2006 General Conference:
The
IAEA accepted only one of these topics for inclusion in the meeting Agenda,
namely: “Climate change – scientific,
technological and engineering grounds for discussing climate change solutions”.
The result was to take note of the Academy proposal with no further action.
The
International Atomic Energy Agency informed INEA they did not have funds to
proceed with the Knowledge Preservation Project that would have the Academy as a
collaborator. Actions taken in
4.
WORLD NUCLEAR UNIVERSITY
PROJECT
The
WNU idea for associating graduates of summer schools with INEA; as Associate
Members with a fast track to eventual full membership, was considered
implausible by the Executive Committee because such graduates were too young and
inexperienced to become members of the Academy. The idea of “Associate Members”
was worth pursuing but on the condition that an Associate Member should normally
be older -about 45-50 years old- and nearing the top of his/her profession.
There
was no progress in the area of
recruiting mentors from INEA for the WNU summer schools. It was agreed that this
proposal should be re-iterated.
5.
PARTICIPATION IN G8 MEETINGS
INSC requested INEA to support
its inclusion as an NGO to take part in Preparatory Meetings for the next G-8
Berlin Meeting. An NGO
wanting to take part of such meetings has to approach the organizers and the G8
Research Group,
6.
BYLAWS
The
list of Charter Members was posted on the INEA webpage
as
an Attachment to the Charter.
In
order to avoid that candidates having contributed or sponsored nuclear weapons
proliferation become INEA members, the Executive Committee agreed to consider
the possibility of an amendment to the Bylaws.
7.
MEMBERSHIP
The
implementation of the translation of dormant members into an “Emeritus“ list,
to give room for the recruitment of fresh blood, is being done.
Lists
of Active and Emeritus Members were updated as of 1st August 2006 (see
INEA webpage <www.INEA.org.br>). As
of this date, the Academy has 96 Active Members and 15 Emeritus Members. The
Secretary is stressing again to the Active Members that failure to pay the
subscription, or to respond to messages from the Academy, would lead to removal
to the Emeritus category for inactivity after two years.
A
Form for applying to INEA Membership was developed to have a uniform information
system for analyzing potential members. A
request by the applicant for consideration to be accepted as member of INEA (that
can be sent by e-mail) should be accompanied by a brief Curriculum Vitae, a full
list of publications and a List of references.
In
this period, the following applications were approved as INEA Active members:
Jose Pablo Abriata -
8.
MEMBERSHIP
DIPLOMAS
On
August 1st, when INEA Membership Diplomas were sent to the newly
appointed Members, it was realized that after Kun Mo Chung's chairmanship the
practice to send such Diplomas had lapsed and many members did not have their
Membership Diploma. To correct this, it was decided to send a Diploma to all
members listed in the current Active Members List. This was done by means of
Internet.
9.
ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS
Bertrand
Barre’s nomination to Chair INEA in the period 1st January 2007 –
31st December 2008 was approved at the 2006 AGM as well as those of
Parvez Butt, Pakistan, and Jaime Pahissa-Campa, Argentina, to act as
Vice-Chairmen respectively for the South-Central Asian region and for the Latin
American region.
The Committee endorsed the proposal to invite Mr. Nicolai Ponomarev-Stepnoi to occupy the position of Vice-Chairman for the Eastern European region.
10.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
The
next meeting of the Executive Committee is likely to take place in the last week
of June 2007, again as a teleconference, and the next AGM should be held in the
margins of the IAEA General Conference in September
11.
RETIREMENT
OF THE CHAIRMAN
Jorge
Spitalnik will end his mandate as the chair of the Academy after two years
service on 31st December 2006. He is thanking members for their
unstinting support during that time. Bertrand Barré will take over from him as
Chairman with effect from 1 January 2007.
Gerald
Clark
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