Through the submission of National Reports on nuclear safety and peer review of those reports by the other Contracting Parties, the Convention contributes to achieving and maintaining a high level of nuclear safety worldwide. Waste management is an increasingly prominent public concern even though a comparative advantage of nuclear power over other energy sources is the very small volume of wastes generated. The safe management of low level waste requires sufficient financial resources and adequate systems of control over all radioactive sources. But with respect to the management and final disposal of high level waste, decisions to build final repositories are required. These decisions can be delayed but they cannot be avoided - the quantities of wastes and spent fuel are growing.
Experts agree that technical solutions exist for safe and permanent disposal.
But to my mind, only when these solutions have been demonstrated will the public perceive that the waste issue has been resolved. The bottom line is that public confidence is inseparable from nuclear safety. And nuclear safety cannot be merely proclaimed - it must be demonstrated. There can be no unanswered questions in the management of safety throughout the entire nuclear fuel cycle. I turn now to the subject of the economic competitiveness of nuclear power.