Nuclear waste dumping condemned, Protocol on compensation adopted.

Nuclear waste dumping which endangers the environment or public health was condemned at the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at its thirty-second regular session (Vienna, 19-23 September). All States were asked to help prevent such dumping.

Priority, the Conference said, should be given to requests from developing States for assistance in the field of nuclear waste management. All States and environmental protection organizations should assist those nations in dealing with potential disposal of nuclear wastes in their territories. A code of practice for international transactions involving nuclear wastes was called fon

At a special one-day international meeting on 21 September, 51 States adopted by consensus a joint Protocol linking two existing international Conventions governing compensation for victims of a nuclear accident.

The two instruments dealing with third-party liability for nuclear damage are the 1960 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage. They apply to damage caused by nuclear incidents occurring in land-based nuclear installations and during transport of nuclear materials to them or from them.

Considered a landmark in efforts to create a comprehensive civil nuclear liability regime, the Protocol will extend to States adhering to it the coverage of the two Conventions and will prevent conflicts of law in cases of transport of nuclear material. Nineteen States signed the Protocol at the meeting. The Protocol will enter into force following its ratification by five parties of the Paris Convention and five parties of the Vienna Convention.

The General Conference, attended by 101 States, renewed demands that Israel and South Africa submit nuclear installations to IAEA safeguards.

Secretary-General Javier P6rez de Cuellar, in a message to the body, said the lack of public confidence in nuclear energy had made its further expansion difficult. Much work still had to be done by scientists, engineers, administrators, politicians and the mass media. The IAEA must continue to provid "an objective, impartial framework for this international cooperation and discussion which alone can safely realize the potential of nuclear energy".

On 20 September, China concluded a safeguards agreement with the IAEA, thus joining the four other nuclear-weapon StatesFrance, United Kingdom, United States and USSR-in having such an arrangement with the Agency.