Conclusions
The nuclear fuel cycle-the basis of nuclear power development and the primary source of all its advantages and potential shortcomings-has entered its period of industrial maturity. At its present stage, it is difficult to anticipate in principle new conceptual strategies for solving problems. This does not mean, however, that coordination of efforts at an international level has lost its significance. On the contrary, in the conditions of global internationalization of the fuel cycle and objectively predetermined transition from problems of overall planning to concrete questions of practical importance regarding reliability, safety, economics, and ecology, the need for international collaboration in carrying out complex longterm planning (and, correspondingly, the role of the IAEA as the most competent and authoritative international organization in the field of nuclear science and technology) is sharply increasing. The characteristics of the present-day situation require painstaking analysis and, in a few cases, a review of the forms and methods of collaboration which have traditionally grown up over the more than 30-yr history of nucler power development; greater flexibility in formulating programs for international cooperation; and long-term forecasts which are balanced and independent of short-term world fuel market competition.
In recent years, the IAEA has made active efforts to improve international collaboration in accord with contemporary needs, and the purpose of this survey has consisted of showing a few concrete results achieved by the NMFCTS in this regard.
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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 122–130, February, 1989.
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Nechaev, A.F. Contemporary strategy for external nuclear fuel cycle development: An analysis of the work of the IAEA NMFCTS. At Energy 66, 143–153 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01121803
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01121803