This is the more necessary since there is an worldwide increasing tendency to an anti-scientific attitude leading to a revival of magic and irrationality evident everywhere. Under such conditions it will be difficult if not impossible to have a unbiased debate on the pro's and contra's of new technologies which have the promise of advancing human welfare. Thus there is a need for a better understanding of the basic facts and of the origin of a new technology. This holds especially for a technically advanced society as the European one. These remarks relate to all scientific disciplines.
Nuclear science has additional problems to overcome.
In the eyes of the public it is associated with the nuclear bomb and nuclear reactors, both of which are at best accepted as a necessary evil. Yet nuclear physics and its associated techniques have a lot to offer. As a fundamental science it is concerned with the atomic nucleus as a whole, with its building blocks, the nucleons and with the forces acting between them. Although a lot is known, the development of new techniques continue to result in new and surprising findings such as the recent existence of very large nuclei and the discovery of new elements, to mention just a few. Except for the very first minutes after its birth, nuclear processes have been an essential element in the development of the Universe.