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98 TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN THE YEAR 1985 The development of telecommunications networks must proceed ahead of demand, not behind it. The situation in 1985 and even later will be largely dictated by the decisions taken today.

106 DO COSMIC PHENOMENA INFLUENCE THE GROWTH OF LIVING GEORGES VERFAILLIE CREATURES? A series of experiments appears to show that the electromagnetic radiation released by solar activity slows down plant growth.

112 SAFEGUARD AND CONTROL TECHNIQUES FOR NUCLEAR UGO MIRANDA MATERIALS The Euratom safeguards and controls system is designed to discourage, on the territory of the Community, the misappropriation of fissile materials for pur• poses other than those for which they were originally intended, but is none• theless not a policing system.

119 THE ANATOMY OF BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE COMMUNITY — HEINRICH GEORG EBERT PART 2 An enquiry pointing up the weaknesses and strong points of biological research in the European Community and indicating the sectors on which future efforts should be concentrated.

124 NEWS FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES: Power reactors in operation, under construction or planned in the Community · Meeting of Council of Ministers for Science · Exchange of experience between nuclear power plant operators · Symposium on fuels for high temperature reactors · Ground pressures and supports in mines · Fact-finding meeting on prestressed concrete reactor vessels · A handbook on radioactive pollution of water · A chart of radionuclides used in medicine · Thulium-170 generator operating at Ispra · Technical novelties · Just published · European conference on radiation and isotope techniques in the building industry · A strategy for the European electronics industry · Scientific and Technical Review of the European Communities (formerly Euratom Review)

1969-4

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Picture credits: Cover: N.V. Philips* Tele• communicatie Industrie, Hilversum (Neth• erlands); p. 98: Edouard Kutter jr., Luxem• bourg; p. 103: Filmstelle der Deutschen Bundespost; p. 107: ITAL, Wageningen (Netherlands); p. 114, 115, 116, 117: Pit Schneider, Luxembourg; p. 102, 108, 109,110,111,113,120,121: Gaston Bogaert, Brussels (Belgium); p. 128: Euratom CCR Ispra, Photographic Laboratory, Eberhard Eiselt (Italy).

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Printed in the Netherlands by A. W. Sijthoff. Leiden At a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 31 October 1967 the Six expressed their intention of taking vigorous action to revive and encourage scientific and technical research and industrial innovation. It was decided to investigate the opportunities for cooperation in the following fields, considered to be of prior importance: information science and tele• communications, development of new means of transport, oceanography, metallurgy, abate• ment of nuisances, and meteorology. How is it that one of the first active steps undertaken was a forward study on telecom• munications, of which the main findings are reported in this issue? The reason is that it became evident that the inadequate covering of certain telecommuni• cations requirements—with telephones, for in• stance, witness the long wait to get one installed, or the overloaded state of the lines— is due to a lag not in technology but in invest• ment in a sector where demand is increasing at a well-nigh explosive rate. An easy way out would be to keep up as nearly as possible with demand by trying to release enough resources to cope with the rapid spread of requirements. For the purposes of the forward study a different viewpoint was deliberately chosen, namely that the pressure of immediate needs must not be allowed to delay the introduction of certain innovations. Otherwise we risk perpetuating a situation where the supply of services follows the demand instead of preceding it, and thus does not contribute as fully as possible to economic and social progress.

Thus the report summarised here is the first step in a forward-ranging exploration of tele• communications requirements, with 1985 as its horizon. It was drawn up at the request of the Commission of the European Communities by the Federation of Telecommunications Engi• neers of the European Community (FITCE). One may hope that a joint analysis of the problems stated by the authors of the report will lead to the working out of joint solutions Telecommunications It will also be observed that the official departments are not greatly concerned in the year 1985 with telecommunication terminals, a field which is very often reserved to pri• vate enterprise. In view of the rapid evo• lution of data transmission systems, which call for operation at various rates and with different codes, selected accord• ing to a very wide range of applications, it is desirable to place at the users' dis• The report summarised in this article will be published shortly under the title "Telecommu• posal so-called "transparent" networks nications development and research—A forward survey up to 1985". by means of which many different kinds of data can be transmitted. This remark acquires its full significance when, as was done for the purposes of this study, the situation is projected to 1985, by which time the telecommunications authorities will be concerned far less with the nature of the messages transmitted and the ter• minals which produce them than with the interconnecting networks.

Telecommunications and research and thus contribute to the coordinateed development of tthi e participating countries. Before embarking on a study of tele• communications as defined above, it is Without wishing to commit itself on the opinions expressed, for of interest to point out some general which the authors only are responsible, the Commission is most notions which can usefully be borne in grateful to the FITCE for the remarkable forecasting and summarising mind during perusal of the following feat it has achieved. It likewise thanks the postal and telecommuni• chapters. cations authorities of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Luxem• The great expansion that information bourg, who kindly helped to make this study possible by allowing science has undergone as a result of the new solid state technology is a stimulus their officials to take part in the meetings of the working party set to the application of the same techniques up by the FITCE and by providing all the documents and relevant to telecommunications networks, in information without which it would have been impossible to carry the which the switchgear is based almost work through. entirely on electromechanical systems, nub with an occasional admixture of elec• tronic components. There is a temp• THE TERM "telecommunications" reasonably possible to make forecasts tation to apply to switching systems embraces the most widely differing for all the various branches, "the au• methods that have proved themselves in Émeans of communicating at a distance, thors of this study have therefore data processing, in the hope of obtain• including in particular radio, televi• concentrated on their own particular ing equally brilliant results. We tend sion, telephony, telegraphy, telex sectors, in which they have at their to forget that in the course of their transmission, phototelegraphy, etc., disposal the necessary information on long history the conventional switching without which no modern economy which to base a valid assessment. The systems have become so highly perfected could flourish. To these "conven• sectors in question are those of tele• that they can give satisfaction not only tional" means of communication will communications in the narrow (PTT) be added a host of new media, pre• sense of the word. It will accordingly dominantly for data transmission. be seen that the accent has been placed It is obvious that in such a vast on the telephone, whereas other Figure 1: The European Community's "Kirchberg Centre" in Luxembourg. On the field, in which inventions are ever sectors, such as sound broadcasting upper platform can be seen the parabolic multiplying and technologies are and television, have merely been antenna of the radio link between Luxem• constantly being superseded, it is not touched up- bourg and Esch-sur-Alzette, which has a capacity of 960 telephone channels.

98 to users of the traditional telephone and service in 1989 and even considerably technique. Its spread was limited by the of the telex but also to operators of data later. comparatively clumsy mode of opera• transmission units. It is in the light of these considerations tion, with the result that its importance Another extremely important factor that the importance of the choices to be began to decline as soon as other, more that must not be lost sight of is the cost made in 1969 is measured, since the powerful and flexible, means of commu• of telecommunication installations (still official departments or private companies nication appeared. in the PTT sense of the word) and also responsible will be committed by these After the telegraph came the telephone, their service life. Today in 1969, the com• choices for a period of 20-30 years. It which is analogue in character. Its sim• bined telephone network of the five will also be realised that the research to plicity of use and the fact that it ful• countries that participated in the study, be conducted in order to determine the filled the desire of a great many people namely Belgium, Germany, France, Italy configuration of future networks is to be able to hold a direct two-way and Luxembourg, has 17,900,000 sub• essentially of an economic nature. With conversation ensured it of considerable scribers. If the cost of a subscriber's line, present-day techniques it is possible to do success. It will thus be noted that all the including the switching systems, local anything, or, more exactly, to provide networks currently in operation are and trunk connections, etc., can be esti• any service required, albeit sometimes modelled on the transmission of speech mated at 1,000 units of account ( 1 u.a. = at a prohibitive cost. Now that we are and are used only to a minor extent for 1 US dollar), the capital invested in the preparing to abandon the conventional transmitting non-analogue information. telephone network, which represents electromechanical channels and to take The sole disadvantage of the telephone, about 90% of the total capital, amounts up electronic systems, which though namely that it leaves no written trace, led to some 18,000 million u.a. for these five highly promising are fraught with nu• to the creation of the telex network which countries as a whole. It will be appre• merous dangers, it is no doubt just as has, so to speak, taken the place of the ciated that the replacement of the electro• well to bear in mind these few simple but telegraph. Like the telephone, the telex mechanical systems cannot be effected at extremely important considerations. enables a dialogue to be held. We find very short notice but will have to be that in practice the telex network is closely spread over a large number of years. related to that of the telephone in respect Moreover, it is known that the conven• Services to be provided of both the apparatus and the basic con• tional equipment has a service life of cept. This is readily understandable when 20-30 years, which means that the electro• The earliest means of telecommunica• we consider that, as regards the invest• mechanical apparatus that is still being tion was the telegraph, which was the ment required, the number of sub• installed today will certainly still be in first network to employ the digital scribers, the volume of traffic, etc., the

Figure 2: Push-button telephone set. The use of a keyboard instead of a dial has the following advantages: —easier, quicker handling, —at the exchange, reduction in the number of parts that are used only during "dialling", —lower rate of "dialling" errors, —possibility, once the connection is made, of using the keys to communicate with a computer, for instance.

99 Figure 3: The Paris-Meudon radio-frequency Among the other conventional services tower. to be provided, mention can be made All communications on radio frequencies of phototelegraphy and facsimile. Since from Paris pass via the aerials mounted on these services are of no more than the various platforms of this tower. The con• secondary importance, use is made of the nection to the amplification station, located in Paris, is by coaxial cables at present; it existing telephone network and, in partic• will shortly be effected by circular wave ular, of the telephony band. This results guide. in an extremely low transmission speed, the time required to transmit an average- sized document being a quarter of an telex network represents at the most only hour. a few per cent of the figures for the telephone network. In particular, no Among the new services to be supplied, advantage results from the fact that the special attention must be drawn to data telex transmission is digital in nature. transmission systems, the present annual Account is merely taken of its lesser growth rate of which in certain countries requirements with regard to the fre• is 100% and which are likely in future quency band to be used. The telephony to disrupt the well-established telecom• band is accordingly divided up into a munication networks. In order to be number of sub-bands which are reserved profitable, large data-processing installa• for telex use. The transmission speed of tions must be constantly in use. Very 50 bauds1, which is equivalent to 6 2/3 often, therefore, such an installation can characters per second, corresponds to the only be economically viable if it is at the performance of a good typist. disposal of a large number of users scattered over a very wide area; another As regards radio and television trans• factor is the desirability of being able to missions (e.g. between the studio and the have access to a central data bank or data transmitters), the techniques employed index from a large number of terminals; are closely related to those of telephony. hence the advent of teleprocessing, one Radio, of course, which has to satisfy a of the essential characteristics of which more exacting clientele as far as the is that the transmission no longer takes quality of the sound is concerned, calls place between human beings but between for a wider frequency band, which is human beings and machines or even obtained chiefly by allocating several entirely between machines. Here it is adjacent telephony bands to a radio cir• obvious that the rate of 50 bauds or 6 2/3 cuit. Microware radio links, which can characters per second, which is based on transmit a large number of telephone the speed of a typist, is no longer sufficient channels (usually 960 or 1,800, accord• in a great many applications. This is one ing to the norms laid down), are also of the fundamental problems that the suitable for transmitting a television telecommunications authorities will have programme with sound. The only dif• to face in the years to come. ference as compared with telephony is that the same information is routed from The videophone will constitute a natural a studio to a number of transmitters and complement to the telephone. Unfortu• occupies wide-band links which could be nately, it will hardly be possible to trans• more usefully employed for the trans• mit the image via the existing networks mission of several streams ofinformation. unless a rather mediocre quality is con• Hence the interest in finding a new means sidered acceptable. of transmission and recovering the ex• isting network. This idea, attractive though it is, is brought up short by the Quantitative study of the services scarcity of the frequency bands available, for example, for the routing of television We have seen that the role of the programmes via satellites. telephone is absolutely essential and that the investments assigned to this sector 1. Data are transmitted by means of a series of greatly exceed those allocated to all the elementary signals (binary digits, orbits). If T is other services put together. It remains to the duration of a signal in seconds, the modu• be seen whether this will continue to be lation rate can be designated by a quantity 1/T which is expressed in bauds. the case in the years to come.

100 Study of the evolution of telephone note that in the same five countries the annual growth rate of toll traffic, at pres­ density in the past and comparison with revenue from telephone traffic in 1968 ent about 15%, is likely to decline in the the most advanced countries (USA, amounted to 2,500 million u.a. The future to around 10%, which means that Sweden, Switzerland) have shown that investment figure quoted above takes in 1985 the volume of toll traffic will be at the density progresses in accordance ho account of the replacement of obsolete least five times that of 1968. The growth of with a "natural law"—a kind of s­curve. equipment. This again reflects the international traffic should be even more Many authors have endeavoured to find magnitude of the economic problems rapid than that of local traffic. So far as sophisticated formulae on the basis of presented by telecommunications, to traffic routing is concerned, the agreed logical hypotheses, the mathematical which reference was made at the begin­ estimate of the various countries is that treatment of which has often proved ning of this article. in 1985 the main cables required to have difficult. For our part we prefer a much As regards telephone traffic it is a capacity of more than 10,000 channels simpler formula which can be written generally agreed that the growth of local will probably represent, for the European 1 + at traffic will probably be about the same as Community as a whole, a length of f(t) = A —gj, where the zero point that of the number of subscribers. The several thousand or possibly a few tens ι ­j­ e on the time coordinate coincides with the point of inflection of the curve. The Table I: Telephones in service in 1969. parameter b represents the slope of the curve in the exponential part; A is the saturation; a is the time history of the Population Number of sub­ Subscriber saturation (linear in the first approxima­ (in millions) scribers (in millions) density ( %) tion). This last parameter takes particular Belgium 9.6 1.27 13.2 account of the population growth (in the France 50.2 3.68 7.2 case where the formula expresses the Germany 59.8 7.3 12.2 absolute number of telephones) and the Italy 54.0 5.58 10.36 rise in per capita income. This formula Luxembourg 0.34 0.073 21.8 also has the advantage that it can be adjusted as time goes by. Total 173.9 17.90 10.3 Another method that has been resorted to is based on the use of regressions and For comparison purposes, subscriber density as at 31 December 1967: Sweden 38, New makes it possible to foresee the con­ Zealand 28, United States 31, Switzerland 27. sequences of a policy consisting, for example, in modifying the telephone Table II: Telephone estimates for 1985. installation charges or in arranging that the average waiting time for installation Population Number of sub­ Subscriber of a telephone does not exceed a certain (in millions) scribers (in millions) density (%) period. The results of these calculations are Belgium 10.4 2.7 25.8 set out in Tables I­III, from which it France 60.6 15.5 25.5 emerges in particular that the absolute Germany 66.4 21.0 31.1 number of subscribers in the five coun­ Italy 59.4 17.0 28.7 0.38 0.155 42.5 tries taking part in the study will rise Luxembourg from 17.9 million to 56 million, i.e. the Total 197.2 56.35 28.6 number of main connections will have trebled by 1985. The subscriber density will increase from 10.3 to approximately Table III: Increase in number of telephones from 1969 to 1985 (%)■ 28%. It is a good thing to bear in mind that Subscriber the cost of a subscriber's main connection Population Number of subscribers density is in the region of 1,000 u.a., which means that the five countries concerned will Belgium + 12 + 113 + 96 have to invest some 40.000 million u.a. France + 20 + 320 + 254 merely to meet the demand for tele­ Germany + 11 + 168 + 155 phones, that is to say an average of Italy + 10 + 205 + 187 2,500 million u.a. per annum. The in­ Luxembourg + 12 + 133 + 95 vestment is likely to be of the order of 4,000 million u.a. in 1985. To place these Total + 13 + 215 + 178 figures in perspective it is of interest to 101 of thousands of miles at the most. to the estimates). Low-speed transmis• videophone of mediocre quality whereas The development levels reached by sions will account for the bulk. a high-quality instrument, even if expen• the telex network within the Community The videophone, even more than data sive, will stand a good chance of being differ considerably from country to transmission, is the great -unknown accepted by business firms. In view of country. These levels vary between one quantity in telecommunications, on the the cost of the installation and of the telex station to 100 telephone stations one hand because the structure, or appropriate means of transmission (as and one to 1,000. The growth rate, which rather the infrastructure, of the network far as transmission is concerned the is relatively high, is from 10 to 30%. It will be disrupted by the introduction of requirements of the videophone are 100 is generally accepted that a density of this service and on the other hand because times those of the telephone), the video• 10-50 telex stations per 1,000 inhabitants the authorities can, without unduly dam• phone will long remain purely a business is close to saturation. Telex traffic could aging the economy, advance or postpone instrument. It is hardly likely to come increase at the rate of 15% per annum. the date of introduction, which is not the into use by the general public before 1985 In view of the relative importance of the case with data transmission. A survey of or even later. telex and the telephone and the possibility the market prospects for the videophone The objection raised against the of splitting a telephone channel into 24 has been carried out in one of the Com• conventional facsimile was its slowness telegraph channels of 50 bauds, the munity countries. One of the conclusions due to the limitations of the telephone routing of this traffic should not present is that there will be no market for a frequency band. It is obviously pos- any problems, even with a growth rate of 15%. Figure 4: Digital techniques: the principle of pulse-code modulation. Whereas it has been possible to give Pulse-code modulation of an analogue signal is based on three principal operations: fairly precise figures in respect of the —sampling, which consists in replacing the signal by a series of amplitude samples taken at conventional services, this is not the case regular intervals. (Sampling is based on the Shannon theorem, which states that a function f(t) as regards the new services, particularly containing no frequency higher than fm can be restored from the series of its samples taken at data transmission. Difficulties arise as the frequency 2fm. Thus for a standardised telephone channel, within the boundary values soon as one attempts to define the nature 300-3,400 c/sec, the sampling frequency most commonly used is 8,000 c/sec); —quantisation : the amplitude of each sample is replaced by the nearest of a discrete range of the requirements, owing to the dif• of standard amplitudes, of "quantisation levels"; ferent interpretations given to such words —coding: each quantisation level is identified by its value expressed in binary notation, as "terminal" and "connection". More• i.e. by a stream of bits 0 or 1. By interposing, between two coded signals, time-phase displaced over, it is difficult to extrapolate trends signals derived from the coding of other signals of the same type, a time division multiplex is on the basis of scanty data. formed. It was physically impossible to make amplitude quantisation a sector-by-sector study of the number analogue information sample amplitude levels of potential customers. These figures can signal only be obtained as the result of a lengthy survey by the various authorities in the sectors concerned. Furthermore, we have seen that the authorities are not greatly concerned—and in future will be even less so—with the content of the data to be transmitted; it is enough if they know the importance that this service will assume in the course of the years and the transmission speeds employed. Depend• ing on which country is making the forecast, the number of "terminals" in the Community as a whole in 1985 will be anything from 100,000 to several million, and the investment volume, referred to that of investment in the telephone network, will be anywhere between less than 1 % and more than 10%. An appropriate survey would yield more precise figures. The only point on which the forecasts agree is that transmissions at low or medium speeds (up to 2,400 bauds) will form a very large majority of the connections (85-97% according

102 Figure 5: Night view of the "Hochzeitsturm" in Darmstadt. Between this tower and the telecommunications centre there is a two- mile-long experimental laser section. The photograph was taken in slightly hazy weather; in clear conditions the laser beam is invisible. sible, even today, to envisage wider- Investigation of suitable technical means band transmissions achieved, for ex• of meeting the demand ample, by grouping several telephone channels together. The cost of these cir• There is one important fact that can be cuits, however, is such that applications deduced from the quantitative consider• are extremely rare. Only the general ations set out in the foregoing. In 1985 introduction of the videophone could the bulk of the demand in the telecom• completely alter the data of the problem munications field will relate to the tele• by turning the facsimile into a by• phone. We have seen that the number of product of the videophone. An ultra- subscribers will treble between now and fast service might compete with the post 1985. Since the density will then be 28 office for the routing of certain classes of main stations per 100 inhabitants, we mail. must even expect a further substantial in• Another service that could progress by crease after 1985, because the saturation leaps and bounds is that of telecommuni• density is estimated at between 40 and cations between mobile stations. Various 50%. Stress has also been laid on the solutions can be envisaged, ranging from magnitude of the investments that will be the call-up system, which uses a small required in order to be able to meet this amount of bandwidth and is therefore demand : an average annual investment in feasible at the present time, to the system the region of 2,500 million u.a. in the case which provides for direct communication of the five countries consulted. In prin• by radio, with the possibility of connec• ciple, the demand can be met without tion to the general telephone network. In difficulty by means of conventional elec• this case the problems are still far from tromechanical switching systems, but an being solved. attempt will obviously be made to take the rapid setting up of the call, which As regards sound broadcasting and advantage of the new possibilities offered allows full advantage to be taken of push• television there were only three points by solid state technology, as well as from button selection ; various service facilities that could be considered. the novel concepts born of data-pro• such as automatic transfer of calls, The first is that the congestion of the cessing2. recording of calls, three-party calls, etc. ; ether as a result of the increased number One of the chief disadvantages of —for the operating company: easy modi• of television programmes has favoured conventional switching systems is the fication of programmes, perfection of the the installation of collective aerials with delay in putting a call through, i.e. the charge-determination system, transmis• a cable distribution system. This makes time that elapses between the moment sion of information concerning charges, is possible to bring into the homes of when the calling party decides to call and traffkmonitoring, remote maintenance, viewers who were previously at a dis• the moment when the called subscriber's smaller size, etc. There is, however, little advantage a large number of television instrument rings. This delay, which is likelihood that subscribers will make programmes with excellent reception and usually expressed in tens of seconds, is large-scale use of the new facilities, which often, in the case of frequency division, due to the slowness of the dialling opera• in themselves are certainly not sufficient with simplified TV receivers. tions and, above all, to the slow response reason for the wide-spread installation Another point concerns transmissions of the electromechanical mechanisms, of electronic switching systems. between studios and transmitters, as well aggravated in many cases by the non• Among the disadvantages of the as closed-circuit television links. Even availability of certain pieces of equip• new switches mention must be made of the increase in the number of programmes ment. the following: to be transmitted is not likely to alter the These shortcomings led at a very early —the high cost of the electronic control basic problem. In view of the cost of the stage to attempts to develop switches units, which can only be used in a circuits, moreover, it is doubtful whether operating wholly or partly on electronic rational way in large urban centres, closed-circuit TV will develop to any principles. Thanks to the high speed of whereas there are also countless small great extent. On the other hand, closed- data-processing with electronic equip• nfral centres to be served ; if it is proposed circuit videophone links, the technique ment it was possible for the logical func• to provide remote control for exchanges of which is somewhat different, could tions—formerly split up—to be con• by means of data-transmission links, flourish as from the introduction of the centrated in a single control unit which videophone. more often than not is the only one in the 2. In conventional telephone exchanges the con• The last point is that cable distribution entire exchange. It is only duplicated for nections are controlled by mechanical devices. In electronic exchanges the paths contain no mov• of programmes would enable frequency reasons of reliability. This generation ing parts and are controlled by solid state com• bands to be freed for other purposes, of switches is expected to offer the follow• ponents. An exchange of this type in which particularly for services with or between ing advantages : mechanical contact points are nevertheless retained for the speech paths is known as a mobile stations. —for subscribers: shorter delay, thanks to semi-electronic exchange.

103 Figure 7: Circular wave guide. Steel tube (5 cm dia) covered internally with a spiralwound copper wire. The mechanical tolerances are extremely close (10 microns), as are the radius of curvature requirements. Being far from cheap, the wave guide is only competitive with conventional systems where the capacity is upwards of some tens of thousands of telephone channels, but it does allow very economical routing of hundreds of thousands of telephone channels and dozens of television programmes.

there arises the question of reliability in tronic telephone exchange with mechani• tronic space - switching. the event of a fault in the network con• cal contact points, but it is far more Since it is generally agreed that the necting the terminal exchange with the probable that account will be taken of solution of the (possibly distant) future central switching station; the numerical nature of the telex by in• is likely to be electronic time - switching, —the reliability of the new switching corporating it in a data transmission net• even for the telephone, one could consider units: whereas with the conventional work of which it is merely a particular the possibility of all telecommunications split-logic systems the failure of a switch• case. —be it the telex, data transmission, the ing mechanism affected only a limited telephone or even the videophone—being number of subscribers or connections, Data transmission, which was bórn of combined in a single network which there would now be a risk of total data-processing is assured of tremen• could be called an "integrated network". breakdowns if the remote-control link dous expansion in the course of the next Such a network would possess un• were cut ; ten years. The question is whether a doubted attractions: each subscriber —maintenance difficulties and problems separate network will have to be set up would be connected to the switching of adapting and retraining personnel. in order to meet this demand or whether unit by an all-purpose loop on which Various types of electronic switching the data will continue to be routed via he could transmit data, telephone con• systems have been developed: the telephone system, as at present. Since versations, telex messages, etc., as he —the semi-electronic exchange with the latter was created for the transmission wished. He would no longer be incon• electronic control and metallic contact of speech and not of digital signals, it venienced by the limited accessibility of points; is not altogether suitable for data trans• the present separate networks. —the all-electronic exchange, which can mission. The solution adopted is to make Unfortunately, there are many prob• itself be of two kinds, i.e. with space - use at the subscriber's end of adaptation lems to be solved and the integrated net• switching, whereby a well-defined path is networks, known as modulator-demod• work would therefore seem to be a permanently assigned to a connection, or ulators, whereby the d.c. digital signal vision of a still distant future. Moreover, with time-switching, which necessitates is converted into a voice-frequency signal many telecommunications authorities sampling of the signal (see Fig. 4). capable of being transmitted on the are beginning to install semi-electronic In view of the high cost of the elec• telephone network, which means that in telephone switching units, and in view tronic gate and the difficulties of cross• effect the digital signal is transformed of the long life of such equipment this talk attenuation it is scarcely likely that into an analogue signal. This seems, how• means that in certain countries anxious all-electronic space - switching will even• ever, to be a makeshift solution in the to operate a single system the advent of tually be adopted; consequently, the only absence of a network suited to these new integrated networks is likely to be competition will be between semi-elec• requirements, so that it will be necessary delayed beyond 1990. Once again, there• tronic space - switching and all-electronic to re-examine all the problems raised by fore, we can see the importance of the time - switching. Of these two systems this new means of transmission. choices to be made in 1969. The taking of semi-electronic space-switching is the Having regard to the digital char• different decisions by the various author• more advanced, owing to the lesser acter of both telex transmission and data ities would at all events greatly prejudice difficulties to which this technique gives transmission it is theoretically already the setting up of uniform networks on a rise. Several exchanges of this type are possible to envisage an all-electronic European scale. in service in the public telephone network. switch with time-division multiplexing, Among the various existing and future As regards the telex network it would, whereas in the case of the telephone transmission techniques mention must of course, be possible to develop a type network, as was mentioned above, the be made of balanced pairs, microwave of exchange similar to the semi-elec• prevailing notion is that of semi-elec• systems, coaxial cables, waveguides,

104 Figure 8: The American Telephone and Telegraph Cy's "Picturephone". This instru• ment, which is to be launched in the United States in 1970, enables the subscriber to see the person he is speaking to and possibly to question a computer. The image is not clear enough, in the present version, to enable a typed text to be read. lasers, satellites and undersea cables. It is 5 miles, low-frequency transmission is interesting to note that present-day trans• more economic; above 20 (or 30) miles, mission techniques are capable of han• carrier-current systems are best. The dling the telecommunications traffic in problems raised by digitalisation of the 1985. Only the widespread introduction network are far from being solved. At of the videophone could completely alter what level should the analogue signal be the nature of the problem. We have seen, converted into a digital one? Are there however, that the videophone is hardly any grounds for developing a digital likely to be in general use in 1985. Fur• subscriber's terminal? Are the existing thermore, it is considered that the use of subscriber's loop wires capable of trans• waveguides will not be economically mitting digital data on a large scale? How attractive until those routes whose does one solve the problem of synchro• capacity must be increased are already nising the various networks, etc? carrying some 10,000-30,000 channels. The second subject for research As far as satellites are concerned, the is time - switching. Qualitatively, it is so-called stationary positions 22,400 a question of expediting the break• miles above the equator are greatly in through of a system which is considered demand and the frequency bands allo• by all the experts to be more attractive and on the overall structure of the net• cated are somewhat limited, so that there than the space - systems and of putting work indicated by operational research. is a risk of real congestion of the equator Europe in a good position to compete Operational research, which constitutes in the near future. It is furthermore noted with the United States. the fifth and last proposed subject of that, despite the advent of satellites, The third fieldfo r research is that of the research, consists in the use of computers undersea cables will continue to be of videophone and its possible by-product, as an aid to the taking of technical great importance. the facsimile. The principal difficulty to decisions. These decisions can relate which widespread use of the videophone either to short-term objectives, such as gives rise is the limitation of the band• traffic- and trunk-routing and the con• Possible subjects of research width that can be transmitted on the nection of subscribers, or to long-term subscribers' loops. Cross-talk studies have ones, such as the choice of investments, An analysis of the principal trends in shown that this band cannot exceed the analysis of various network models in telecommunications development reveals 1 Mes, which is considerably lower than order to determine the optimum network, five major subjects of research. the 5 Mes required for an image compa• etc. The first important subject is digitali- rable with a television picture. In order to sation of the network. Reference has al• obtain anything like an acceptable quality ready been made to the great advantages it will be necessary to reduce the size of Conclusions that could be gained from a single in• the screen. A market study carried out in tegrated network using pulse-code mod• one of the Community countries has These reflections on the probable ulation (PCM) and time-division switch• revealed that only a high-quality vid• aspect of telecommunications in 1985, ing. In Europe at any rate, pulse-code eophone would stand any chance of on the problems to be solved between modulation is used solely in a few ex• success. In view of the fact that 40% of now and then on the desirable guidelines perimental telephone links. Since the the investment in telecommunications is for research make no pretence of being switching equipment is of the conven• intended for the outside plant which, anything more than what they really tional type, the analogue signal is sampled moreover, have a service life of 40-50 are, namely an honest but certainly im• at the exchange output, coded, then years, it is difficult to see how the vid• perfect attempt to foresee what is in eophone can come into general use in the transmitted on line before being con• store. The authors have endeavoured to near future. Studies on data compression verted back into an analogue signal at highlight trends and to suggest suitable would undoubtedly be of very great value. the terminating switching unit, possibly guidelines for research, but they find it reconverted into a numerical signal for a The fourth subject for research is very- difficult to place each one of these in its second PCM transmission, and so on. Of wide-band transmission facilities. Even proper perspective. Moreover, they would course, this modulation process is only though the future requirements, at any be only too happy to be proved wrong in of minor interest as long as the switching rate up to 1985, can be met by conven• the near future by some unexpected itself is not of a time - type and the tional means, a reduction in the cost of breakthrough. They will nevertheless feel signals cannot be sent through the future techniques (waveguides, lasers) that their efforts have not been in vain switching unit without demodulation. as the result of research activity could if they have helped to provide some The PCM process is at present justified open up important outlets which at pres• enlightenment for those responsible for only for distances of approximately ent are still closed. The exploitation of research policy both on a national and 5-20 miles (in some quarters it is held that these techniques will also depend on the on a Community level. (he upper limit is about 30 miles). Below fairly widespread use of the videophone EUSPA 8-14

105 Do cosmic phenomena influence the growth been observed between the fluctuations of the Ρ indices and those of the intensity of various phenomena of solar origin, of living creatures? such as Wolf's R number denoting the frequency of sunspot appearances. Like the intensity of all geophysical phenom­ ena of cosmic origin, Piccardi's Ρ indices GEORGES VERFAILLIE go through certain well­charted periodic fluctuations such as the diurnal, annual and secular variations and the approxi­ mately eleven­year solar cycle. Since the colloidal medium is the one The radiations reaching us from outer space have long formed part of that category of in which all living cells develop, it is not semi­occult phenomena on which it was tempting to lay the responsibility for all sorts surprising that the same cosmic phenom­ of events, almost exclusively unpleasant, which could not be accounted for otherwise. ena which influence the chemical test may Even in our time they have not lost all their mystery, especially as regards their effects also influence certain biological events. on living creatures, but certain recent experiments, including the one described in this For ten years now investigations have article, have thrown fresh light on their subject. been in progress on the velocities of blood The fact that emerges very clearly from the results obtained by Mr. Verfaillie and the coagulation and erythrocyte sedimenta­ interpretation he proposes is that certain radiations of solar origin have a considerable tion and on the fiocculation and fer­ adverse influence on the growth of plants. menting capacity of Saccharomyces Ellip­ It remains to be seen whether they affect all living creatures to such a marked extent, and soideus. An increasing volume of experi­ more particularly man. This is a question which it seems essential to answer, especially ments has revealed the physiological as there is today a widely­growing awareness of the problems posed by our environment. effects of the electric and electromagnetic fields and of the ion content in the ambient air. All these researches come THE photograph on the opposite page The cosmic phenomena which might within the field of interest of the Inter­ (Fig. 1) shows two groups of rice seed­ be responsible include geomagnetic dis­ national Society of Biometeorology, which lings, all of the same age, taken from the turbances, variations of the electric field, has been publishing the International same batch of seed and grown under the hard and soft components of cosmic Journal of Biometeorology since 1961 and strictly identical controlled physical and radiation and very low frequency electro­ recently (in September 1969) held its chemical conditions. The only difference magnetic waves. All these factors act Fifth International Congress at Montreux, is that they were sown a week apart. Why simultaneously on the earth and, further­ Switzerland. are they so dissimilar? more, they influence one another, so that it is very hard to discern which of them really do act on the kinetics of the A rice growth experiment The "P" chemical test chemical reactions mentioned above. To get round these difficulties G. Pic­ In 1966 evidence was obtained for the Over the last twenty years there has cardi, Professor of Physical Chemistry first time of a correlation between a been a growing conviction that geo­ at the University of Florence, in 1954 phenomenon of extraterrestrial origin physical conditions of cosmic origin in­ worked out a chemical—and therefore and the rate of growth of a higher living fluence the speed of certain chemical objective and reproducible—test that organism, namely rice, a chlorophyllous reactions, particularly those that take would measure, not the "cosmic state", plant. We should mention that the ex­ place in colloidal states. It is further the nature of which is in fact unknown, periments which yielded this evidence did recognised that even a very thin copper but its physicochemical effects. His meth­ so quite unintentionally; in fact the effect screen modifies this influence by acting od, consists in statistical measurements of they revealed, unsuspected at the outset, as a shield, just as a Faraday cage does the difference between the velocities of brought about the failure of the research against electric field disturbances. sedimentation of bismuth oxychloride in project. It is interesting to follow the The influence appears to operate by the open air and under a copper shield. chronological stages of the observations way of minute changes in the physico­ The corresponding index, known as the which led to the unexpected conclusions chemical state of water, a state which Ρ index, is the percentage of cases in dealt with here. even today is still only imperfectly under­ which sedimentation is faster with the In the spring of 1966, at the biology stood. shield than without it. These indices, laboratories of the Joint Research recorded three times a day, are published GEORGES VERFAILLIE belongs to the Di­ Centre's Ispra Establishment, it was rectorate for Biology of the Commission of the regularly by the Centro Universitario per decided to grow some Ballila rice under European Communities. He is at present work­ lo Studio dei Fenomeni Fluttuanti in ing in the Euratom//7VÍL Association's labora­ controlled conditions in order to study tories at Wageningen in the Netherlands. Florence. Numerous correlations have this species' growth curve. As the seedlings

106 were io be used for subsequent experi• seedlings. With such a vast number of from the same batch and had been ments, the only phenological and ana• seeds to germinate and of seedlings to be weighed individually to make sure that lytical criteria employed were such as selected and then picked out, there could their weight fell within the distribution of could be applied in vivo, e.g. the total be no question of doing the whole lot in a statistically homogeneous, normal pop• fresh weight and the length of the parts a single sowing. It was therefore decided ulation (i.e. along a Gaussian curve). above the ground. to stagger the sowings over a period of Germination took place on washed white The scheme called for a batch of twenty days, leaving out the weekends. sand all soaked with the same feed solu• homogeneous starting material, namely Every day from the start of the experi• tion. To obviate the influence of any local 1,500 live seedlings fourteen days old ment, seed-boxes containing 300 seeds variation in the conditions inside the with as little measurable difference among were put at the rate of one a day into the growing-room, the seedboxes were moved them as possible. As a wide degree of same growing-room, with controlled along daily in a cycle which took each biological variability was inevitable, it conditions, and were taken out fourteen batch through exactly the same route was necessary to effect a preliminary days later. The seedlings were then mea• during its fourteen days' growth. In random selection out of some ± 6,000 sured and selected. All the seeds came addition, each seedbox was turned round through an angle of 180° every day. In this way the only possible difference of treatment between one batch and the next was the shift of 24 calendar hours for a growth period of two weeks. Of these consecutive periods, thirteen days out of fourteen were common.

Apparent violation of the rules of statistics The selection principles involved are based on statistics and can be briefly explained as follows. If we classify the seedlings into fresh- weight groups we obtain a population distributed on either side of a mean, in a bell-shaped Gaussian curve (Fig. 2). The differences from the mean weight spread out on either side of it as a function of a standard deviation represented by s which, expressed as a percentage of the mean value, becomes the coefficient of variation represented by c. The higher the value of s or c, the more widely the weights are scattered around the mean M. If we choose a selection'range of ± e on either side of the mean M, the subjects selected will be increasingly uniform and close to M as the half-range e diminishes in relation to the standard deviation s. Statistical calculation shows us that a half-range equal to 0.3 s means that 75% of the subjects will be rejected as against 25% selected. That is why it was neces• sary to start with 6,000 germinations in order to obtain 1,500 sufficiently similar seedlings. Also, as the plants were to be grown in seedboxes of 300 at a time, it was desirable that the mean of the indi• vidual weights in each box should have every chance of remaining within the

107 Figure 2: The Gaussian curve represents, m limits of the selection range. Under the and 7) are 18 times the standard deviation, our case, the frequency distribution of the conditions chosen this probability stood and the biggest difference (Nos. 1 and 9) fresh weights of fourteen-day-old rice at 500 million to one, or in other words is 28 times that deviation. This can in no seedlings. These weights vary around a amounted to a strict certainty. case be due to chance (Fig. 3). The mean M. The dispersion is characterised by the standard deviation s. If the seedlings are Against all expectations, the observa• variations thus obtained over the course sorted and all the ones with a weight differing tions yielded statistically unforeseeable of time actually make it quite impossible from the average by not more than e = 0.3 s results. If each seedbox is considered to operate any selection amongst plants are selected, only 25 % of the total will be separately, the random distribution turns that are not grown concurrently. retained, but these seedlings will all be of out to be entirely normal, confirming very similar weight. the sound basis of the selection principles Interpretation of the variations- -the M = mean adopted. But if the seedbox averages are s = standard P index compared with one another they com• e = selection range pletely cease to obey the rules of statis• These variations can only be interpreted tics. For instance, according to these as being due to imperceptible external rules, with a homogeneous population causes which themselves vary with time. the averages of different groups cannot Furthermore, the variations are neither differ from one another more than about continuous nor random, but fluctuating. five times in a hundred by more than The scientist conducting the experiment, twice the standard deviation affecting with memories of a geophysical station those averages. Similarly, the deviation he had run in Antarctica, was struck will be treble the standard deviation only by the resemblance of these fluctuations once in a hundred times, quadruple once to those of the usual cosmic phenomena. in a thousand times, and so on. But the It was then, and only then, that he had differences found between the averages the idea of comparing the rice-growing of two consecutive seed-boxes (Nos. 6 results with the concomitant geophysical

Figure 3: Variations of rice-crop yield as a function solely of the period at which the rice is grown, all other factors being constant. In ordinate, the average fresh weight expressed in milligrams per seedling. In abscissa, the time interval between the sowings (one day normally, three days at weekends). The big differences between the yields of two successive sowings cannot be explained by statistics and can in no case be a chance effect. They can only be the effect of a time- linked cause.

108 time (days) Figure 4: Parallelism of fluctuations with time of the seedlings' fresh weight yield and of the Ρ indices for solar activity (the intensity of both phenomena is sealed 0­100, with the Ρ index scale intentionally inverted). The negative correlation signifies that the growth is greater when the Ρ indices are smaller. 50 50 The solar activity slows down growth!

o fresh weight • Ρ indices time (days) data that could be obtained a posteriori. périment was undertaken immediately. believed to act through radiations which Of these data, the cosmic neutron and If cosmic effects are the root cause of are emitted by them and intercepted by meson radiation intensity, the geomag­ growth fluctuations, their action on two the earth. The radiations are of two netic Κ indices and the Wolf R numbers concurrent series of sowings must be kinds, electromagnetic and corpuscular only yielded doubtful correlations with parallel. So for ten consecutive days not (Fig. 8). the growth rate of the rice. Piccardi's one but two identical seedboxes were Both types of radiation are emitted indices, however, recognised by their treated simultaneously under conditions simultaneously. The first, electromagnet­ author as being most likely to interpret similar to those of the first experiment. ic, travels uniformly at the speed of light, the fluctuating biological phenomena, As the choice of a single criterion— impinges on the earth in a solid mass showed an astonishing negative correla­ weight of fresh matter—was open to after about eight minutes and passes right tion both with the seedlings' growth rate criticism, the measurements this time through the atmosphere, producing in it (Fig. 4) and with the coefficient of varia­ were extended to include the dried matter short­term effects generally lasting less tion affecting that rate (Fig. 5). As the and ash weights ; there was nothing to than an hour. causes affecting variability can make prevent this since the seedlings were no themselves felt from the very first day of longer being grown for transplanting and The other, corpuscular radiation, is a germination, it is the sum of the Ρ indices could be destroyed. As the figures (6 and great deal slower. Its particles, under the covering the whole fourteen days' growth 7) show, the parallelism obtained is be­ pressure of electromagnetic radiations, that has been chosen in Fig. 5 as the yond all doubt. leave the sun at speeds ranging down variable representing the cosmic state. In A solar hypothesis, the likelihood of from 2,000 to 600 km/sec, the liberation Fig. 4, on the other hand, that variable is which has been confirmed over recent velocity on the sun. As the sun's gravity represented by the sum of the indices years, interprets the time­linked biological slows down the particles, the first cor­ covering only the last six days' growth, variations as effects of the sun's chro­ puscular front does not reach the earth because it is during those six days that mospheric eruptions. These eruptions are until about a day after the electromagnet­ over 90% of the fresh weight of a fort­ night­old seedling is acquired.

It may appear startling, we agree, that Figure 5: There is a similar correlation with the coefficient of variation c which affects the such an ordinary event of life as the growth rate. Solar activity reduces the uniformity of a crop! growth of a plant can be closely depen­ dent on imperceptible if not mysterious causes. Yet the degree of significance of variability values the correlations, as calculated by the Ρ indices usual methods, is so high that in the case in question it exceeds that of the correla­ 0 IM ¿'t tion between the weight and height of the plants. Who would dream of ques­ "\ tioning the evidence of such a correlation? Incidentally we should mention that the laboratories which were observing on the Sü 50 one hand the rice plant growth and on the other hand the chemical tests were virtu­ ally unaware of each other's existence at the time of the experiments and were, moreover, nearly two hundred miles

apart. UZ O In order to check the authenticity of the cosmic interpretation, a second ex­

time (days) fresh weight dry weight absolute variations

mg mg mg J 28 i S?

160 1 il 3.0 ( J i Á 26 t ¡ 5 rι L iψ 1 ...f \ i s / Γ i 24 κ i f N 2.6 \ S \ 140 / Åf t } i iL y1 ^ IF ! w 22 \ \ 1 ι 2.4 f \ Ì \ k .k f J > 1 \ 2.2 20 / : 150 Τ Ι time time time Figure 7: Parallelism of fluctuations through Figure 6: The yields of two concurrent sowings fluctuate in parallel with time. Time is a time in the uniformity of the yield given by biological factor which has to be taken into account two'concurrent sowings.

ic radiations. The slower particles arrive fading in radio broadcasts. The distur­ at intervals covering a period of several bances may last several days, diminishing days. The particles are arrested by the in intensity and following a daily cycle earth's ionosphere in which they set up due to the earth's rotation. disturbances detectable in the guise of This being so, it seemed worth while geomagnetic storms, polar auroras and to find out whether the rice growth was influenced by the same type of radiation as Piccardi's chemical test, with which a close correlation had been found. If the Figure 8: Diagram of solar emissions during a chromospheric eruption. Below, the effects of two phenomena depend on the same type these emissions as recorded at geophysical stations in the form of geomagnetic storms. of solar radiation, the correlation will be SFE (Sun Flare Effect) is a sharp, short disturbance due to the electromagnetic radiation greatest when the correlated data are emitted during solar eruptions. concurrent (Fig. 9). If not, the maximum eruption time correlation should be found with pairs of data with a time shift of the order of one day between them. tctromagn We calculated all the mathematical radiati correlations existing in respect of time shifts between data ranging from minus four to plus five days at the rate of three increments a day. Fig. 10 shows the findings. The value of the time shift At of the chemical data (Piccardi's Ρ test) in relation to the biological data (rice growth rate) is shown in abscissa. The ordinate t (Student value for 18 degrees of freedom) is a function representing the likelihood of the correlation. The clarity of the results obtained is astounding. Not only do we find a very ^^ΑνΛψΑ^ν-Λ^ magnetogram sharp peak corresponding to a time shift of +21 hours but, something quite un­ + expected, there are the four first daily 110 geomagnetic storm and diurnal repetitions relative variations

χ

P indices related R Pi time shift Δ t P ' to solar activity­."1 p; P< 2 (chemical data) V / T 2.0 \ \ / \ :\··:·:.■­■ ··.·■' '·/: / \ :^· :·■■.:­.:. ■/.:■. / 1.8 \ / \ / \ / 1.6 \ / \ «I» / \ / 1.4 \ / \ ate yield of a rice time sowing time t (biological data) growth time

Ρ preceding Β Ρ and Β concurrent Β preceding Ρ Figure 9: Diagram explaining the principle of the analysis of the mathematical correlation between the Ρ indices (chemical test connected with solar activity) and biological effects (growth of rice). The problem: is the optimum calculated correlation obtained when the chemical and biological data are concurrent (P¡PÍ­B¡B2) or when there is a time shift At between them? In the latter case, which time shift will give the optimum correlation?

repetitions of decreasing intensity men­ tioned earlier on. This suggests that the rice growth must be directly influenced by the electromagnetic radiations of chromospheric origin, whilst Piccardi's chemical test must be sensitive to the corpuscular emissions from the same source, or at any rate to the secondary Figure 10: The optimum mathematical correlation is obtained when the Piccardi chemical effects produced by them in the earth's test data are 21 hours behind the biological data. This time­lag is precisely the lag at earth ionosphere. level of corpuscular radiation, also called the solar wind, behind electromagnetic radiation. The diurnal repetitions of the correlation peak can be accounted for by the earth's rotation EUSPA 8­15 in the corpuscular flow of the solar wind, (t is a statistical function reflecting the probability Literature: (1) H. BORTELS: Beziehungen of the correlation). zwischen Witterungsablauf, physikalisch­che­ mischen Reaktionen, biologischem Geschehen und Sonnenaktivität. Naturwissenschaften 38 (1951) p. 165. (2) S. CHAPMAN and J. BAR­ TELS: Geomagnetism. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1940) p. 799 and following. (3) G. PICCARDI: The chemical basis, of medical climatology. Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, USA (1962). (4) J. POUMA1LLOUX et R. VIART: Corrélations possibles entre l'incidence des infarctus du myocarde et l'augmentation des activités solaire et géomagnétique. Bull. Acad. Méd. V (1959) p. 143, Nos. 7­8, p. 167. (5) R. REITER: Beziehungen zwischen Sonnen­ eruptionen, Wetterablauf und Reaktionen des Menschen. Ztschr. Angew. Met. 1 (1953) p. 289. (6) N. SCHULTZ: L'activité solaire et ¡es maladies cardio­vasculaires. Ann. med. Nancy 1 (1962) p. 177. (7) M. TAKATA: Über eine neue biologisch wirksame Komponente der Sonnenstrahlung. Archiv. Met. Geophys.­ Bioklimat. Β (1951) p. 486. (8) M. TAKATA und T. MURASUGI: Flockungszahlstörungen im gesunden menschlichen Blutserum, "Kos­ moterrestrischer Sympathismus". Bioklimat. Beibl. 8 (1941) p. 17. (9) A. TCHIJEWSKY: L'action de l'activité périodique sur la mortalité générale. Traité de climatologie biologique et médicale, de Piery, Paris 1042 (1934). electromagnetic wave corpuscula Δ t in davs Safeguard and control techniques for The materials subject to supervision may be in the course of dispatch, produc• tion, processing or use, or they may be nuclear materials still in storage. This means that these materials can be present in many dif• ferent forms, e.g. as ores, nitrates, various salts, oxides, carbides, hexafluorides, UGO MIRANDA pure metals or alloys, in the form of fuel elements, powders, solutions, scrap, etc. In practice nearly all the fissile materials The Euratom safeguards and controls system is designed to discourage, on the territory find their peaceful use as energy sources of the Community, the misappropriation of fissile materials for purposes other than in nuclear reactors, hence all plants which those for which they were originally intended, but is nonetheless not a policing system. form part of the fuel cycle are included in the field of application of the safe• guards (see Fig. 1). To these installations must be added the research centres, which may likewise contain large quantities of fissile materials What is the aim of safeguards and Atomic Energy Agency and other coun• and other plants not related to the fuel controls? tries, in which agreements it is linked cycle. with the clauses governing the supply of To give an idea of the scope of Eura- BEFORE reviewing the techniques cur• these materials. More recently it con• tom's control activity, the number of rently employed or being developed for stituted the primary objective of the installations of various types on Com• the safeguarding and control of fissile nuclear non-proliferation treaty. munity territory as at 31 December 1968 materials, more particularly in the As regards the Euratom system in was as follows: European Community, it is desirable to particular, it is noteworthy that this is the —research installations 57 define the actual aim of the safeguards only instance of multinational safeguards —industrial plants 37 for this can determine the choice of the to which six countries have submitted— (from ore concentration to fuel methods to be used. spontaneously and independently of all element fabrication) In Chapter VII, Article 77, of the international commitments—, over ten —processing plants 10 Euratom Treaty it is laid down that "the years ago. —reactors 133 Commission shall ensure that the ma• terials subject to control are not used for 237 purposes other than those declared by What materials are subject to supervision? the users". On the same date the approximate This definition shows that in the case The materials subject to supervision quantities of fissile materials in these of the Community the aim of safeguards are normally those which can be of con• plants were: and controls is a fairly wide one and is siderable interest from the point of view —natural and depleted not centred exclusively on considerations of their military application. In the case uranium 11,000,000 kg relating to the peaceful use of the mate• of Euratom the supervision extends to —enriched uranium . . 480,000 kg rials. Nevertheless it is indisputable that "special fissile materials", i.e. plutonium —plutonium...... 700 kg by far the most important aspect of the 239 and mixtures thereof with other safeguards is to prevent the misappro• isotopes, uranium 233 and uranium priation of fissile materials for military enriched in " U235 or U233 ; it also What are the means of control? purposes. extends to "raw materials", which com• This concern manifests itself in all prise natural uranium, or uranium de• In order to provide a system of safe• bilateral agreements concluded between pleted in U235, and thorium; finally, to guards it is necessary to set up appro• the United States, Canada, the United these materials must be added heavy priate structures and mechanisms, which Kingdom, the European Community water and tritium, as well as reactor may differ according to the concepts (Euratom), the OECD, the International equipment should the supplying coun• that are adopted from both the legal and tries so require. the technical point of view. There are Moreover, Euratom supervision is es• various ways of defining the relation• sentially of a territorial nature, that is to ships between the supervising and the UGO MIRANDA is head of the "Control and supervised parties, and choices have to Accounting" Division of the European Com• say it is exercised over all the above- mission's Directorate-General for Safeguards mentioned materials merely by virtue of be made as regards the means of super• and Controls, whose function is the imple• the fact that they are "on the territory of vision to be used and the points at which mentation of Chapter VII of the Euratom Treaty. the Member States". the checks must be applied.

112 Figure 1: Flow scheme of the fuel cycle (for the sake of simplicity the thorium/uranium 233 cycle is omitted).

113 Figure 2: One of the portable gamma- spectrometers, with crystal and sample holder, which have been used for several years by Euratom inspectors (measurable energy range 5 keV-SMeV; automatic print• out).

the authors of the statements are respon• sible for them and the Commission checks them. On the basis of these statements the Commission has instituted and keeps up to date an accounting system covering the ores, raw materials and fissile sub• stances present in the Community, together with a balance of stocks, move• ments and losses. The examination of these statements paves the way for an initial series of purely book-keeping checks which are made possible by the fact that each plant reports to the Commission directly and independently of any other plant. The accounting system based on the state• ments submitted by the holders of the materials facilitates and renders more significant the physical checks carried out directly on the materials concerned. It is possible, for example, to envisage Clearly, owing to the processing to a safeguards system which functions by which they are subjected, the materials noting directly and by its own means all do not remain indefinitely in the same the data relating to the materials, just place but undergo changes and pass from as one can conceive of a system which is one plant to another. The book-keeping based solely on the declarations made situation as declared represents an in• by the supervised parties and which ventory of the changes undergone by the confines itself to checking those declara• material in the course of time, both in tions by accounting methods. One can quantity and in form. Consequently, also imagine a system whereby the super• when a physical check is carried out on visors are given the role of policemen the spot, the book-keeping data make and are furnished with means of pre• it possible to work out the state in which venting any misappropriation of mate• the materials should have been at the rials. time of a previous verification. Hence the As far as the European Community is possibility of continuous and constant concerned the structure and principles of checking. the- supervisory system employed are based on Articles 78 and 79 of the Eura• tom Treaty, as well as on Article 81. The What are the physical checks? plants are required to keep accounts of the materials subject to safeguards and to By far the trickiest and most complex submit systematic and regular state• part of the supervisory procedure is the ments to the Commission (Article 79). on-the-spot checks, the object of which The Euratom inspectors verify the accu• is to verify that the situation as declared racy of these statements on the spot by is in fact the true one. means of accounting methods and phys• The difficulties stem chiefly from the ical checks (Article 81). In other words, fact that the materials are present in

114 many different physical and chemical Figure 3: Spectra obtained with the gamma­ forms, from their dispersion in certain spectrometer illustrated in Fig. 2. installations and from their degree of accessibility. By way of example, men­ tion need only be made of the fuel ele­ ment fabrication plants, in which much A particular feature of non­destructive of the material is present in various measuring techniques is that in some forms all along the production chains, cases they can be carried out by means and of the reactors and irradiated fuel of portable apparatus, with the advan­ reprocessing plants, where direct access tage that the result of the determination to the material is practically impossible is quickly known. owing to its very high radioactivity. Furthermore, their use facilitates the =^H r^-i =—\ In the course of their on­the­spot checks carried out on the same materials caesium­137 checks the inspectors often take samples, at different times and makes for more (peak at 0.66 MeV) which are sent to approved laboratories effective checking when non­destructive for analysis. The analyses most frequently methods cannot be employed. required relate to uranium or plutonium It is necessary with the aid of these concentration and to isotopie composi­ methods to be able not only to detect RUSTRAK tion. the presence of fissile materials but also In cases where the material is directly to determine the quantity; in addition, = accessible (for active solutions, of course, they must enable the degree of enrichment special techniques must be adopted) and to be ascertained. representative samples can be taken from There are both absolute methods, it, conventional methods of analysis which do not call for standards of com­ are employed. These methods are often parison, and relative methods, by which limited in their use by their cost, the the results are given with respect to frequently long time needed to obtain known quantities of materials taken as the result and, lastly, by the very fact of references. ­\fn having to resort to sampling at all. In­ The first category includes, for ex­ — — deed, samples constitute a difficulty in­ ample, the calorimetrie methods, which 93 %­enriched uranium asmuch as their cost is always high (in the are particularly suitable for plutonium (peaks at 93­95 and 184 keV) case of highly enriched uranium the cost and which serve to determine the heat is about $12/g and in that of plutonium quantity released instead of the weight of about S43/g) and because the sampling material present. Application of this must be confined to materials which are technique requires an exact knowledge in solution, in powder form or not in of the plutonium's isotopie composition their final state, in order not to add to the and the americium­241 content. cost of the material itself that of fabrica­ The second category embraces methods tion, which in the case of fuel elements, based on gamma­spectrometry, neutron for example, can amount to several counting, etc., for which it is necessary thousand dollars. to have a reference element of the same type as those on which the measure­ ments are to be performed and of which Non-destructive measuring techniques the composition and enrichment are known. I C —■<: - — f= — I— In order to overcome these difficulties The methods can be further subdivided depleted uranium increasing use is being made of non­ into "passive" and "active" ones accord­ (peaks at 93­95 and 194 keV) destructive analysis methods whereby ing to whether they are based on the the material is examined directly, in what­ measurement of X­rays, neutrons, ever state it is in, without recourse to gamma­rays, etc., spontaneously emitted sampling. This is a necessity whenever by the material to be analysed, or whether sampling is difficult either because the the emission is brought about by bom­ material is non­homogeneous or because bardment with a neutron beam. it has undergone a particular treatment in The "passive" methods suffer from a order to be transformed into, say, finished limitation insofar as neutrons and fuel elements, the sampling of which gamma­radiation are emitted only by would result in their destruction. certain materials, and in many cases the

115 gamma-rays characteristic of a partic• ular material are of such low energy that they are not even able to pass through the emitting medium. These difficulties are avoided by the use of "active" methods. Table I summarises the methods that can be employed and indicates the con• ditions under which the measurements can be carried out, as well as the accuracy that can be expected. In conclusion, the requirements with which the physical techniques must comply are as follows: they must be sufficiently accurate, provide a quick answer and operate as far as possible without the need for destruction of the material. It must, however, be pointed out that it is not yet possible to use non-destructive Figure 4: Portable gamma-ratemeter for measuring techniques on all the materials rapid measurement, during inspections, of and in whatever form they occur; 239 the 384 keV peak characteristic of Pu . although several of the techniques men• tioned are in an advanced state of applica• tion, others are still in the design stage.

Where should the checks be carried out?

Another interesting aspect of the im• Figure 5: Personal monitors; tongs and seals plementation of physical supervision is used during inspections. the choice of the points at which the checks must be carried out. Physical checks can be performed either at every stage in the fuel cycle or only at certain points which can be regarded as com• pulsory transit points. Similarly, during physical checks it is possible to choose between confining the measurements to certain points in the plant and carrying out the determinations wherever the materials are present. In some cases the points at which material checks can be performed are already determined by the nature of the operations to which the material is subjected. In fuel reprocessing plants it is technically possible to carry out the material measurements only at cer• tain points for which provision was made at the design stage.

Other safeguards methods

A research team at the GfK1, Karls• ruhe, has commenced studies aimed at 1. Gfk= Gesellschaft für Kernforschung.

116 limiting the checks in the plants solely Figure 6: Portable Geiger counter as used to those points which in recent terminolo­ by Euratom inspectors. gy are known as "strategic" and are situated outside the zones where opera­ tions are carried out on the basis of processes which, for commercial reasons, Literature: (1) Euratom Treaty, Regulation No. 7 of 18.2.59 and No. 8 of 12.3.59. (2) U. MI­ must be protected. RANDA: Euratom - Ten years of experience The research relates to the identifica­ in safeguards. Paper presented at the meeting of I.N.M.M., Washington D.C., June 1967. (3) Re­ tion of such points, for each type of port of the Panel on safeguards techniques, plant, which fulfil the condition of being I.A.E.A., Vienna, 21-25.8.1967. (4) Report of the Panel on safeguards methods for conversion necessary and sufficient for a determina­ plants and fuel fabrication plants, I.A.E.A., tion of the material balance. This sur­ Vienna. 14-18.4.1969. veillance is based on the measurement of the materials flow and provides, among other things, for the installa­ tion of devices which would "seal off" the plant using the materials. According to this concept it should be possible to ensure that the ma­ terials always enter or leave the plant at the same points and it is at these points that the measurements would be effected. Certain plants such as reactors are already "sealed off" in this sense and have a clearly defined route for incoming and outgoing materials; in the case of other installations studies are still in hand on possible surveillance techniques. It should be noted in this connection that the surveillance of the materials flow relates solely to the quantities in circulation; as no provision is made Figure 7: Equipment used for gamma- for access to the installations, it is spectrometry measurements: 2" χ 2" Nal impossible to check on what use is made (Tl) crystal and photomultiplier; lead of the materials during their presence collimators. in the various parts of the plant. In short, the Euratom safeguards system is not a police system, but it is designed to detect any violations and hence to discourage any misappropria­ tion of materials. To this end there is provision for sanctions, which are directly applied by the Commission. Other methods, based on different legal and technical concepts, could be brought in as a means of exercising safeguards but at present they exist only as studies or proposals and have yet to be put to the test. Moreover, it must be pointed out that surveillance techniques are con­ tinually evolving. Euratom's safeguards system is benefiting greatly from this thanks to research and development programmes conducted by specialised personnel of the Joint Research Centre. EUSPA 8-16

117 Table I: Principal methods of inspection.

Material to Form Determination Method" Error Remarks be inspected

metal, alloy, salts, destructive analyses a representative sample of the oxides, carbides, etc. material to be measured is required

fuel elements (MTR plates, assemblies, U content gravimetry, coulometry, 0,2-0,5% pellets, etc.) spectrophotometry, etc.

enrichment mass spectrography 0,5%

non-destructive analyses the measurement has to be carried out with respect to standards

U content and spectrometry (emission 0,5-2% measurement of the gamma- enrichment + absorption) emission from U-235 ; absorp• tion measurement with gam• ma-source (Cr-51, etc.).

fissile U delayed neutrons use of a neutron source content

fissile U reactivity variation subcriticai or critical assembly content is required

plutonium metal, alloy, salts, destructive analyses a representative sample of the oxides, etc. material to be measured is required fuel elements. Pu content coulometry, etc. 0,2-0,5 %

isotopie mass spectrography 0,5% distribution

non-destructive analyses

Pu content calorimetry + delayed 0,5-1 % it is necessary for calorimetry neutron and gamma- to know the isotopie distribu• counting tion of the Pu and the Am-241 content fissile Pu counting of spontaneous 0,5-1 % for delayed neutrons or gam• content fission neutrons ma-counting the counts must be carried out with respect to standards fissile Pu reactivity variation need for a subcriticai or content critical assembly

118 The anatomy of biological research in the Community - part 2

HEINRICH GEORG EBERT

An enquiry pointing up the weaknesses and strong points of biological research in the European Community and indicating the sectors on which future efforts should be con­ centrated.

AN ENQUIRY conducted by the Com­ Research in biology and medicine,... tion, with the accent naturally on the mission of the European Communities cell recovery mechanisms. The aim must over the years 1966 and 1967 yielded Many institutes engaged in biological be to elucidate the mechanisms regulat­ interesting data on the state of research research, basic medical research and ex­ ing these phenomena. Study of the in biology, medicine and agriculture in perimental medicine replied at con­ problems in question will undoubtedly the Common Market countries. A first siderable length. On the other hand, only be a worthwhile basis for rational geron­ article ("The anatomy of biological marginal attention was given to clinical tological research, which is frequently research in the Community, Euratom medicine, so that it is impossible to assess regarded as having especial significance Review, Vol. VII (1968) No. 4 pp. 1 Μ­ the situation fully in this sector, impor­ for the future. Ι 16) summarised the results of the tant though it is. The results of this general experimental statistical part of the enquiry, which From the replies received it is difficult study of the cell should give a new boost dealt with the manpower and appro­ to arrive at an overall appraisal of the to cancer research, as regards both priations available to research institutes level attained by biomedical research etiology and therapy. Cancer research in the fields covered. The other part of in the Community, with opinions ranging is in turn closely linked, by reason of the the enquiry consisted mainly in obtaining from "Community ahead of everyone oncogenic viruses, to the second main replies to the following three questions: else" to "Lagging behind hopelessly". focus, namely, virology, which is con­ a) "In which fields of your discipline do What does emerge clearly, however, is sidered as being of major importance but you consider the European Community that the position is much the same in all also as virtually undeveloped in the to be behind or ahead of non-member the member countries. Community countries. countries?" Immunology, together with all its b) "What fields of research do you con­ ramifications such as immunological sider as promising or particularly im­ ... its focal points ... biology, immunopathology, immunologi­ portant, having regard to possible cal chemistry, immunosuppression and consequences of a practical nature?" The results of the enquiry have revealed cancerological immunity, also occupies c) "What new measures would you a number of focal points in biomedical a central position. Its practical value is recommend?" research. Repeatedly quoted disciplines mainly in connection with the grafting Our intention in the present article is to were the experimental study of the cell, of tissues and organs. outline the chief ideas which emerged virology, immunology, molecular bio­ During recent years, research in the from some 750 detailed replies, taking logy, radiobiology and cancerology, all field of immunology-has progressed first the biomedical and then the agricul­ of which offer considerable, potential, satisfactorily in the Community coun­ tural sector. especially as regards practical applica­ tries. According to some, it is more or tions. less on the same footing as in the United In the field-of cell study, .the main States and the United Kingdom;.accord­ HEINRICH GEORG EBERT belongs to the problems are those of -normal and ing to others, it still "falls-short of.the Directorate for Biology of the Commission of the European Communities. disturbed growth and of cell differentia­ standard-achieved in the. United States.

119 Whenever, as is often the case in the genetics, experimental evolution, gene three fields just referred to, the emphasis regulation, recombination biochemistry, is on the elucidation of fundamental extrachromosomal heredity and, in the phenomena, thinking and working meth• field of human genetics, prognoses ods must be directed to molecular relating to pathological anomalies. Also biology. While this field was quoted mentioned as subjects of interest for the with remarkable frequency in the replies, future are the study of the fine structure one is in many cases left with the im• of human chromosomes, the study of pression that the expression has been new diseases, the study of biochemical used rather as a slogan. When the prob• actions and the study of chromosomes lems are described in more concrete in cases of neoplasia. terms, very important areas are listed, There are many who regard cancero- such as: logy as one of the major research prob• —the molecular mechanisms governing lems for the years ahead, and more the effect of active compounds at the particularly cancerological biochemistry, physiological and pharmacological levels cancerological virology and cancer im• (hormones, carcinogenic factors, drugs, munology. Needless to say, the problems etc); inherent in cell growth and differentia• —molecular genetics ; tion are intimately bound up with can• —molecular neurophysiology; cer research. The main call in this field is —biophysics and biochemistry of cell for a detailed study of experimental membranes. carcinogenesis; other areas indicated are All the focal points are, of course, cancer immunotherapy and chemothera• closely linked with radiation research and py and research on cytostatics. A sector Figure 1: Average staff per institute special• radiobiology. of cancer research which many feel ising in biological, medical or agricultural In this connection, attention is drawn should have priority is the study of research in European Community countries. oncogenic viruses. White is used for university institutes; black to the necessity for studying the follow• for research institutes. ing problems: The United States is ahead of everyone —late-developing radiation damage, par• else in cancerology. The Community ticularly after the incorporation of radio• has no institutes on the scale of the NIH, nuclides; Bethesda, and the Sloan-Kettering Insti• —widening of knowledge of human tutes, New York, where a large number radiobiology by studying as thoroughly of specialised clinical units cooperate as possible the long-term effects of closely with those of the major research radium-224 and thorotrast treatment; institutes which are engaged entirely in —radiation damage resulting from minor cancer research. In Europe, the Chester radiation doses; Beatty Research Institute is the nearest —study of radiotoxicity and, in par• equivalent to the US organisations but ticular, of bone-seeking isotopes; is in no way comparable with them as —study of compound lesions; regards size. In a field of this kind, it is need to set about studying the metabolism —biochemical radiation protection. not sufficient to promote intensive colla• of drugs and pesticides, with particular boration between individual groups of emphasis on their teratological effects. Genetics continue to arouse a sub• research scientists; it would be more Nor is the situation in the field of stantial degree of interest. The Com• appropriate to set up a European form physiology deemed very favourable. Even munity's advance on non-member coun• of the NIH. so, the development of certain sectors, tries is not very clear-cut; in some such as electrophysiology and endo• cases, indeed, there is a considerable . . .and some other problems with a bearing crinology, is as advanced as in other coun• leeway to make up. According to some on the future tries. replies, there are scarcely any laboratories Broadly speaking, the biochemical whose performances are well above the In pharmacology and toxicology, there disciplines (such as general and medical average; however, some are to be found is a certain lag vis-à-vis the United States, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell in France (micro-organism genetics), one of the chief causes being that efforts biology, etc.) are of especial importance Italy (human genetics and general are in many cases confined to conventional to the future of most if not all disciplines. genetics) and the Netherlands (human toxicology. This also accounts for the The Community has a number of front- genetics). frequently voiced desire for more in• rank biochemical laboratories. The over• Particular significance, both theoretical tensive use of molecular biochemistry all situation, however, is unsatisfactory and practical, attaches to molecular and pharmacology. There is an obvious compared with the United States. Mod-

120 In biophysics, medical physics, radia• on the proportion accounted for by tion measurements, electrocardiac therapy stockbreeding in income from agri• and nuclear medicine, there are many cases culture. Thus in Italy scarcely any atten• of dependence on the United States as tion is given to applied genetics in agri• regards new instruments and the latest cultural colleges even though the work techniques. No clear picture of the accomplished in zootechnics has been situation emerges. The importance of appreciable. these disciplines lies partly in their being A Dutch institute states that in future fundamental (in the case of micro- it will be necessary for research on plant dosimetry and cybernetics, for example) improvement to embrace cytogenetics, to biology and medicine and partly in biometrics, physiology, phytopathology their auxiliary function. The applica• and biochemistry if such research is to tion of nuclear medicine methods to maintain over the long term the progress haematology and cardiology has enabled it has achieved. Due weight will have to the Community to forge ahead in these be accorded to this factor and it will fields. Great promise is held out by the accordingly be essential, on the one hand, application of the results of nuclear for existing research institutes to intro• medicine to metabolism kinetics and cell duce specialisation by their biogenetic kinetics and by the use of the data thus researchers in certain particular fields acquired for experimental or therapeutic and, on the other hand, to ensure, at both action on metabolic processes. national and international level, close cooperation or, where appropriate, divi• sion of work. Figure 2: Average expenditure per institute Agricultural research,... In the field of plant diseases, the in thousands of u.a. (— US dollar). White specialised sectors of mycology, bac• is used for university institutes; black for teriology and physiology are regarded as research institutes. In the opinion of a number of the institutes which cooperated in the en• having attained a satisfactory level of quiry, agricultural research in the Com• development. Virology, haematology and munity Member States is slightly ahead general microbiology, on the other hand, of other countries if it is considered as a have a considerable leeway. In the view of whole. However, the degree of develop• certain institutes, the excellent perfor• ment is not the same in the various mance in the Netherlands is particularly Member States. worthy of mention. Where veterinary science is concerned, the Community has a distinct lead in ... the situation in certain special fields.. . preventive medicine and in control and analysis processes. It is true that harmo• It is agreed that the Community has a nisation is seen to be necessary in this sec• certain lead in some particularly im• tor. The accent is laid on the importance em biochemistry is insufficiently rep• portant sectors, such as genetics, zootech- of research in the field of domestic animals resented at university level and nearly nics, plant improvement, plant diseases, and zoology, which has been particularly all the progress achieved has come from parasite control and soil science. To neglected. the major research institutes. The chief these research sectors may be added In marine biology, there is a long way drawback in this state of affairs is that others which are concentrated in one or to go before catching up on the United the universities, and in particular their more of the Member States, namely rice States, the USSR and Japan. clinical departments, find themselves cut cultivation, oenology, tobacco research A problem frequently referred to is off from new biochemical methods and and problems affecting olive groves. that of technological resources. Some from new discoveries in biochemical In applied genetics, Belgium and Italy institutes feel that the situation is satis• research. Hence the chorus in favour of are seen to be lagging behind the Nether• factory as regards research on the appli• biochemistry. lands, Western Germany and, to some cation of rational cultivation techniques In some parts of the Community, extent, France; this is attributable to the and on mechanisation. transplant medicine has been developed inadequate numbers of research scientists Just as in biology and medicine the use considerably, and a certain amount of working in this field. of computers for recording, simulation, progress is seen to have been achieved in Zootechnics and the genetics of operation and a dministration is considered the field of incompatible transplants, domestic animals are fields the develop• urgent and essential. Emphasis is laid on such as bone-marrow grafting and ment of which varies widely from country the usefulness for research of modern transplant immunology. to country in the Community, depending computing methods. The lag, compared

121 witn the United States in particular, as Noteworthy aspects of soil science regards computers and other technical include the use of chemical fertilisers, aids is a matter for concern. organic and mineral metabolism, the movement and equilibrium of oligoele- ments in the soil and their relation with ... and research of especial significance plant food, and biological and micro• for the future biological activity in the soil. Soil hy• Many institutes devote particular atten• drology, especially in arid areas, would tion to the use of research results for lend itself particularly well to coopera• raising living standards and have stressed tion at Community level. the significance of certain fields in this In the context of environmental pollu• respect, mentioning in particular muta• tion, ecology is also regarded as impor• genesis, from both a theoretical and a tant. practical standpoint. For work of this kind, researchers from the various disciplines concerned The role of basic research should be brought together in new in• stitutes. A problem frequently accorded con• Fields mentioned in particular are siderable weight, whether in medical mutation research and the improvement or in agricultural research, is that inherent of genetic material, notably when ex• in the transfer to applied research of the posed to irradiation, and the improve• results, methods and ideas deriving from ment of the efficiency of phytosynthesis of basic research. There are many who proteins by plants. criticise the lack of coordination between Another serious problem from an these two types of research. Hence the agricultural research standpoint is pollu• need for cooperation within the various tion of the environment, which engaged disciplines and in many cases beyond the attention of numerous participants national frontiers, better coordination of in the enquiry, although not solely with the work, and the setting-up of a form of reference to possible radioactive contam• organisation aimed at securing optimum ination. Research on pesticides, in• use of the joint effort. secticides and fungicides and its practical consequences is regarded as a field of interest in the years ahead. Many in• Cooperation in the Community stitutes are of the opinion that there is still insufficient knowledge of the effect The promotion of cooperation at in• which pesticides have on biological ternational, and in particular Commu• systems, the way in which they build up nity, level is considered by the majority in plants and animals, and the pattern of the institutes concerned with this of their development in the food chain. question as a factor of prime importance. The same applies to the use of hormones Contacts with American scientists are and antibiotics in stockbreeding. closer than contacts with scientists in A corollary to this problem is the need other Member States. to carry out research into food additives In order to step up cooperation within and their toxicological effects, with the Community, it is proposed that : particular attention to food preservation —the work involved be jointly planned by irradiation. At all events, food bio• and apportioned; chemistry is marked out for a role of —joint key programmes be drawn up ; capital significance. —joint working groups and Community Parasite control is highlighted by the laboratories be set up and given assis• problem of environmental pollution. In tance ; this context, it is proposed that a search• —funds be made available for travelling; ing study be conducted into the behaviour —grants be set up ; of useful and harmful insects, as well as —seminars and colloquia be organised. on the host-parasite relation, parasitism It is surprising to note how frequently physiology, radiation sterilisation of replies from the Member States show monogamous harmful insects, etc. the Community as being the natural and

122 obvious level for the planning and - 'UUIMTlTkHI - coordination of research programmes and joint key projects. S Organisation of research i The proposals aimed at setting up modern laboratories recommend, in I addition to interdisciplinary cooperation (considered as an obvious condition), collaboration between scientists from different fields (such as biology, med• ! icine, chemistry and physics) and with different specialisations. Top-grade interdisciplinary working groups should be set up on an inter• national basis. In most cases, such teams can only be formed within the wider Community framework, for in a smaller one it is impossible to find the PLANTS - 02 highly qualified researchers required for a rational and efficient team. It is - MUCUIC ACID also necessary to increase researcher mobility in the Community and to ensure that researchers are really able UX Wøw. X Ow to move freely between the Member Vu«. O...«. kW» ;"... States, by affording opportunities for careers of the same level and removing any obstacles of an administrative and legal nature. «1 The "research gap" in the Community, whether in the construction of up-to-date Community-scale laboratories, the struc• ture of the institutes concerned or the absence of sound scientific management, 'I is often ascribed to the lack of organisa• tion. Finance is not always the main difficulty with which researchers have to cope. It is frequently pointed out that the

social and professional status of the GENETICS - 08 scientist in the Member States leaves something to be desired. The rigid Figures 3 and 4: Two "terminology charts" pyramid of authority in the universities, used for indexing purposes in Euratom's the repeatedly quoted structural crisis, nuclear documentation system (see report the unsatisfactory career opportunities, EUR 500e 2nd edition, Part II). especially outside the university sphere, all give rise to problems. In the event of increased mobility, a career must no longer (as has happened so often in the past) be totally disrupted through em• ployment in another Member State, with the researcher himself taking the risk involved.

EUSPA 8-17

123 NEWS FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Power reactors in operation, under construction (*) or planned (**) in the Community (Status as at 24 October, ¡969.—NB. As compared with the situation shown in euro­spectra Vol. VIII (1969) No. 1 pp. 29­30, the total power reactor capacity in service, under construction or at the planning stage.in the Community has increased by 3,500 MWe in spite of the provisional removal from the list of the French Fessenheim project (2 χ 650 MWe). This advance stems exclusively from the projects announced by the German producers and distributors, which relate to very large nuclear power plants. In view of the present status of the construction work and the declarations of intention known to date, the Community can expect to have 15,000­16,000 MWe of nu­ clear power available towards 1975.) 1. The total net electric capacity of the nuclear power plants in operation, under construction or planned is 16,618 MWe, broken down as follows :

a) Proven-type reactors High­temperature Gas/graphite HKG (Schmehausen) D 300** Chinon 1 (EDF 1) F 70 AVR (Jülich) D 13 Chinon 2 (EDF 2) F 200 KSH Geesthacht 2 (Schi. Holstein). . D 22* Chinon 3 (EDF 3) F 480 Sodium/zirconium hydride St. Laurent 1 (EDF 4) F 480 St. Laurent 2 F 515* KNK (Karlsruhe) D 19* Bugey 1 (St. Vulbas) F 540* Nuclear­superheat G 2 Marcoule F 40 HDR (Grosswelzheim) D 22 G 3 Marcoule F 40 ENEL (Latina) I 200 c) Fast-breeders Boiling water Phénix (Marcoule) F 250* 4 KRB (Gundremmingen) D 237 SNR (Weisweiler) D 300** 1 KWL (Lingen) D 155 d) Type not yet decided VAK (Kahl) D 15 5 Kernkraftwerk Neckar (Lauffen) . . . D 750** ENEL (Garigliano) I 150 6 BASF (Ludwigshafen) D 1.200** GKN (Doodewaard) Ν 52 ENEL 4 (Isola Serafini ­ Lomb.) . . . I 650** KWW (Wurgassen, Weser) .... D 640* ENEL 5 (. . .) I 650** HEW/NWK (Brunsbiittelkoog) . . D 750** E.V. + Badenwerk (Oberhausen) . . . D 600** Pressurised­water Chem. Werke HULS + VEW (Marl) . D 600** KWO (Obrigheim) D 283 Fessenheim 1 F p.m** SENA (Chooz)2 F 266 Fessenheim 2 F p.m** ENEL (Trino Vercellese) I 257 KKW Schmehausen (Westfalen) . . . D 600** BR 3 (Mo!) Β 10 GKM + Badenwerk (Kirschgarthausen) D 700** KKS (Stadersand Elbe) D 630* Bayernwerk + Isaramperwerke . . . . D 600** S.E.M.O. (Tihange s/Meuse)3 . . . Β 750** Centr. Nucí, de Doel (Doel s/Escaut) Β 780** 2. Percentage breakdown of the reactors in operation and under PZEM (Borssele) Ν 400* construction, according to type RWE (Biblis/Rhein) D 1.150** Gas/graphite 2,565 MWe 41 % b) Advanced converters Boiling­water 1,249 MWe 20% Heavy­water Pressurised­water 1,846 MWe 30% MZFR (Karlsruhe) D 50 Heavy water 220 MWe 4% KKN (Niederaichbach) D 100* Other advanced converters 76 MWe 1 % EL 4 (Monts d'Arrée) F 70 Fast breeders 250 MWe 4% CIRENE (Latina) I 32** 6,206 MWe 100%

3. Breakdown according to state of completion and by country

Germany France Italy Netherlands Belgium Community

Reactors in operation 775 1,646 607 52 10 3,090 Reactors under construction 1,411 1,305 400 3,116 2,186 2,951 607 452 10 6,206 Reactors planned 7,550 1,332 1,530 10,412 TOTAL 9,736 2,951 1,939 452 1,540 16,618

1. Excluding conventional superheat 2. Franco­Belgian power plant (50/50) 3. With French participation (EDF) of 50% 4. Break­ down of participation: Germany 70%, Netherlands 15% and Belgium 15% 5. Participation and commissioning date not yet settled 6. Including 400 MWe for steam supply.

124 Meeting of Council of Ministers for Science Thus a start has been made on the procedure already laid down of con• sultation with non-member countries On 28 October 1969 the Ministers for Party on Scientific and Technical Re• with a view to European cooperative Science of the six Community countries search Policy (Aigrain Group). action in the field of science and tech• met at Luxembourg to examine the In the seven fields given priority at a nology. situation of Euratom and the outlook for previous meeting of the Ministers, As regards Euratom (promoting of a European scientific cooperation in non- namely information science, telecommu• common nuclear industry policy, com• nuclear sectors. nications, new means of transport, mon research programme, the question of They decided to send the four countries nuisances, meteorology, oceanography a European uranium enrichment plant), seeking membership of the Community and metallurgy, the memorandum to be no decision has been taken, except to (United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and sent to those countries mentions the allow further time for thought. The file Norway), together with Austria, Portugal, courses of action that have received will perhaps be brought up at the meeting Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (and substantial approval among the Commu• of the Heads of State or of Government perhaps other non-member European nity countries. This does not mean, of to be held at The Hague in December countries later on), a memorandum pro• course, that any of the countries con• 1969, and in any case will be the subject posing cooperation on the basis of the sulted cannot propose other action that of a fresh meeting of the Community report by the Community Working they consider particularly worthwhile. Council of Ministers.

Review of work on plutonium recycling and 14 October, in Brussels and at the Mol Research Centre, followed up by Under a number of Euratom research loading of twelve plutonium elements a series of visits to the CEN and Belgo- contracts a thorough study of the pro• into the Garigliano reactor (see Euratom Nucléaire plutonium laboratories. blems of plutonium recycling in thermal Review Vol. VII (1968) No. 4 pp. 126-127) reactors has been carried out during and, very recently, the order placed with This meeting was also used for review• recent years. In the case of two of these three Community firms (Alkem, Belgo- ing the work carried out in the entire contracts, signed with the French Com• Nucléaire and Combustibili Nucleari) for Community during the last ten years, it missariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) and four prototype plutonium elements to be being found that as regards both the the CEN-BelgoNucléaire Association re• used in the same reactor. physics óf plutonium-containing lattices spectively, the work was completed a few In order to let interested Community and the manufacture of plutonium fuel, months ago. Another contract, with the circles know the results of this work as the experience accumulated in the Italian ENEL, is still in progress, but an quickly as possible, the Commission or• Community is broadly comparable with important milestone was passed with the ganised an information meeting on 13 that of the Anglo-Saxon countries.

Exchange of experience between nuclear power plant operators countermeasures to be taken and the lessons to be drawn from them for future As part of the scheme run by the first having taken place in Amsterdam in power plants were described and dis• Commission of the European Commu• November 1966 and the second in Paris cussed thoroughly and with considerable nities to promote the exchange of ex• in November 1967 (see Euratom Bulletin candour. It should be emphasised that perience between nuclear power plant Vol. VI (1967) No. 1 p. 27 and Euratom the success of this project, in which the operators, some 90 specialists, including Review Vol. VII (1968) No. 1 p. 30). Community's nuclear plant operators are the representatives of 25 Community The agenda included reports of ex• participating on a voluntary basis, electricity utilities, met in Brussels on perience acquired during 1968 and 1969. depends on the frankness with which 23 and 24 October 1969. Discussion centred particularly on in• experience is exchanged. This was the third event of this kind, the cidents during operation. Their causes, One of the thorniest subjects raised was

125 NEWS FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

the damage suffered by the internals of turbine defects and the number of end of the meeting on future work to be two pressurised water reactors, the incidents totals 18. This would suggest carried out under this scheme it emerged subsequent intense investigations carried that the special problems arising because that it would be beneficial to extend the out into the vibrational behaviour of the these turbines run on saturated steam exchange of experience henceforth to affected components and the modifi• have been underestimated. Blade failures non-Community countries such as Brit• cations that had to be made to the plants. are generally attributed to vibrational ain, the United States, Switzerland, phenomena which have since been Spain and the Scandinavian countries Steam turbines were another major thoroughly investigated. and to tackle not only purely technical point on which attention was focused, for problems but also topics such as the since 1963 seven operators have reported From a general discussion held at the training of nuclear plant operating staff.

Symposium on fuels for high temperature reactors dustry show that the capital cost of a twin power plant with a capacity of 1,320 MWe would be in the region of A symposium held in Bournemouth, the kernels and their coating (see Euratom $145/kWe, the cost price of the electricity England, from 4 to 7 November 1969 was Review Vol. VII (1968) No. 2 pp. 46-51) produced being approximately 3.8 mills/ attended by 260 representatives of 35 in• to their compacting in cartridge form and kWh. dustrial organisations and research cen• the assembly of the fuel elements. The tres from the 12 countries which signed main difficulty at present is to go over Concerning the design of fuel elements, the Dragon Agreement. The main aim of from fabrication in the laboratory to the Dragon Project wishes to encourage the conference was to review research and industrial-scale production. industry to adopt the "teledial" type (the development work on fuels for high Studies carried out jointly by the configuration of which does in fact temperature gas-cooled reactors. Dragon Project and the Ispra Establish• resemble a telephone dial), which enables The discussion covered all aspects of ment of the Joint Research Centre and the maximum temperature of the coated fuel production, from the fabrication of based partly on data provided by in• particles to be limited to 1,250°C.

Ground pressures and supports in mines If we can achieve a better understand• ing of the "ground pressures" phenom• enon, and if we can acquire more The Commission of the European The research reported on during these accurate knowledge of the forces at work Communities devoted two factfinding two days comes under the general head• and their interaction, we shall be better days, 13 and 14 November 1969, to one of ing of the Community's energy policy, able to develop sophisticated extraction the most important aspects of its pro• the main aims of which are long-term processes and support equipment. It will gramme for the promotion of research in security of supply and favourable and then be possible to speed up technical the coal industry, namely, ground pres• stable prices ; the technical results of the improvement of collieries, to reduce the sures and supports in mines. This sector research, insofar as they are passed on to risk of accidents and to increase the has absorbed approximately 17% of the and turned to account by operators, help mechanisation and automation of pro• funds made available by the Commission to reduce costs. duction through which heavy manual (and its predecessor the High Authority In European mines, ground pressures work can be replaced by control and of the ECSC) for the entire programme. are very considerable on account of the supervision operations. The 270 pL/ticipants included experts depth of the workings and the low The research effort in this sector is from ten other countries besides the six resistance of the rocks as a result of therefore of social as well as of economic Community Member States. dislocation of the deposits. importance.

126 Fact-finding meeting on prestressed concrete reactor vessels that the prestressed concrete vessel, enabling as it does the technological More than 350 experts met in Brussels It emerged clearly that within the space frontiers to be pushed back and being between 18 and 20 November 1969 to of a few years, as a result of an ever- easier to use and quicker to build, may exchange ideas and experience on pre• increasing number of tests and the well become a serious rival to steel vessels. stressed concrete reactor vessels and availability of more powerful computers, their thermal insulation. substantial progress had been achieved in The second theme of the meeting was This was the second meeting on this the technology of prestressed concrete thermal insulation of pressure vessels, subject to be sponsored by the Com• reactor vessels. In particular, computers which is, moreover, inseparable from mission of the European Communities, have made it possible to ascertain the their construction, as the solutions the first having been held in November behaviour of containments subjected to a adopted are conditioned by the solutions 1967 (see Euratom Review Vol. VII pattern of complex triaxial stresses, and chosen for their thermal shielding. It is (1968) No. 1 pp. 18-23). However, unlike consequently to reduce superfluous pre• gratifying to note that in this field, too, the first occasion, when participation was cautions due to the ignorance factor. considerable progress has been achieved limited to the Community Member Originally developed for proven and during the last few years by dint of States, the meeting just concluded was then for advanced gas reactors, the searching basic studies which Jiave made thrown open to countries outside the application of this vessel design is now it possible to clarify the convection Community, being attended by represen• being extended to boiling-water reactors. phenomena responsible for heat transfer tatives from 14 countries in all. The studies reported pointed to the belief in insulating media.

A handbook on radioactive pollution of water ecological systems before reaching the human organism. It would .be unreason• The Commission recently published a help the health authorities of the Commu• able, however - and-this idea stands out handbook under the title "Principles and nity States to align their methods of very clearly in the handbook - not to general methods for determining the dealing with the problem of liquid allow discharges of radioactive effluents maximum radiological capacity of a radioactive waste. whose behaviour, dilution and dispersion hydrobiological network". This book, The chief difference between these have been studied beforehand, if their which is a summary of the talks and effluents and conventional waste lies in biological effects meet basic radiation discussions held between the Commission the persistence of radioactivity and in the protection standards (see Euratom Review and experts from numerous fields, should way it travels through the various Vol. VII (1968) No. 3 pp. 66-73).

À chart of radionuclides used in medicine radionuclide it lists the physical and Prof. A. S. Simon, Professor of of radionuclides used in medicine and chemical characteristics and biological Radiology at the Free University of biology. behaviour, the dosage in cases of medical Brussels, has been entrusted by the This guide will commend itself partic• use, the irradiation doses and the Commission of the European Commu- ularly to industrial physicians and to necessary protection and decontami- nities with the task of drawing up a chart radiological protection officers. For each nation measurements.

Thulium-170 generator operating at Ispra

Since 19 September, a generator in ated by a radioisotope source has been in ment. The source- consists.:of 14.-thmium- which approximately four watts are gener• operation at the IspxaJLesea rxJLEstafchsh- ftlled Junes ÍD_wbjcb lhe jsotoøe íbiiliurri-

127 NEWS FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

170 (a beta-emitter with a half-life of The power measured at the consumer 127 days) is produced by irradiation in resistance was 4.14 watts, which corre• the BR 2 reactor at Mol. The heat sponds to a thermal efficiency of 4.5%. generated in the tubes is converted into With minor improvements in design the electrical energy by means of germanium- efficiency might be raised above 5 %. The silicon thermocouples. temperatures on the hot side of the This experiment is the result of studies couples were 835°C and on the cold carried out at Ispra, on a very limited radiation-cooled side 390°C. budget, with a view to obtaining techno• logical knowhow in the field of radio• isotope generators for space travel purposes in Europe. Valuable experience was acquired, especially as regards the solution of heat insulation problems, thus leading to high conversion efficiencies and the installation of powerful radioisotope sources in generators. Their use in satellites would, however, necessitate further optimisation studies on generator measurements and radiation shielding. The following are some technical data. Figure: The generator being set up in a On 19 September 1969, the source shielded cell with the aid of a remote han• supplied a thermal power of 92.2 watts dling device (taken through a 25 cm thick for a radioactivity of about 41,000 curies. lead glass window).

Technical novelties —Automatic X-ray apparatus for fuel element welds. In its "Technical Notes" series the -Reactivity computer. —Pneumatic device for transporting Commission of the European Commu• -Pneumatic exchanger for gamma spec• irradiation capsules in a nuclear nities recently published information on trometry. reactor. the following devices and processes, -A simplified method for determining which were developed under the Euratom the BET surface. Enquiries for further details on these research programme: -Device for heat treatment in a vacuum. devices and processes, with a view to —Programmer for automation of chem• -Rapid sealing device for tubes. their application, should be addressed to ical and radiochemical separation -Device for securing finned tubes to the Commission of the European Com• processes. measuring benches in a vertical po• munities, D.G. XIII, Direction A, 29 rue —Smoke detector. sition without deformation. Aldringer, Luxembourg.

European conference on radiation and isotope techniques in the building building, plastics, metallurgy, concrete, industry paints and varnishes, and wood. Organisations and individuals in a The Bureau Eurisotop is to hold a industrial maturity and with the latest position to present papers on the con• European conference in July 1970 on results of applied research. ference subject are asked to submit their "Radiation and isotope techniques in the proposals to: Bureau EURISOTOP, building industry". It will be concerned The conference programme will be Commission of the European Commu• in particular with developments or drawn up in conjunction with the trade nities, 200 rue de la Loi, Brussels 4 applications which have already reached associations in the relevant fields, e.g. (Belgium).

128 Index

Volume VIII (1969) Issue and page are indicated. SHOULD YOU WISH TO RE• CEIVE euro-spectra REGULARLY. PLEASE SEND YOUR ORDER FORM TO:

APPLICATIONS OF ISOTOPES AND Symposium on fuels for high temperature Agence et Messageries de la RADIATIONS reactors 4/126 Presse Ground pressures and supports in mines . . 4/126 1, rue de la petite île Georg Pröpstl: Irradiation technology Fact-finding meeting on prestressed concrete and the European economy 3/79 reactor vessels 4/127 Brussels 7, Belgium Roger Nauche: Autoradiography and Technical novelties 4/128 (Postal account C.C.P. 416.69) the study of Irradiated nuclear fuels . . 3/87 Eurisotop Bureau publications 3/96a or: Thulium-170 generator operating at Ispra . . 4/127 HEALTH AND SAFETY H.M. Stationery Office Nuclear hazards and the public 2/63 P.O.' Box 569 BIOLOGY, MEDICINE AND Revision of Euratom basic standards .... 3/96 London S.E. 1, Great Britain AGRICULTURE A handbook on radioactive pollution of water 4/127 or; Hans Balner: Bone marrow trans• plantation 1/21 European Communities Extermination of the tsetse fly by sterilisation of the male 1/31 INFORMATION SCIENCE Information Service The fight against the Colorado beetle .... 2/62 Suite 808 Creating higher-yield varieties of millet. . . 2/62 The IAEA asks the Commission to help Farragu: Building Georges Verfalllie: Do cosmic phenom• prepare Its International Nuclear Documenta• ena Influence the growth of living crea• tion System l/32a Washington, D.C. 20006 tures? 4/106 U.S.A. Heinrich Georg Ebert: The anatomy of biological research In the Community - part2 .· · · · 4/"' A chart of radionuclides used in medicine . . 4/127 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Pierre Maillet: The present status of international technological cooperation 1/2 COAL AND STEEL Getting European scientific and technological cooperation off the ground again 1/28 please see overleaf Grants for coal and steel research 3/95 Future activities of Euratom 1/28 Reasons for satisfaction, reasons for concern 1/31 The Commission of the European Com• munities defines "Euratom's future activities" 2/57 COMMUNICATIONS "Aigrain" report forwarded to Council. . . 2/59 Gustav Wonnerth: ECSC sponsorship of Telecommunication· In the year 1985 4/98 coal research: 3/74 Deliberations of the Council of Ministers on European technological cooperation .... 3/91 Consultative Committees on programme ECONOMICS AND INDUSTRY management 3/94 Meeting of Council of Ministers for Science . 4/125 Manfred Slebker and Henri Martini Towards a symbiosis of oil, coal and the atom 2/34 Report on enriched uranium 2/59 Jean Leclercq: Whither nuclear fission? . 3/66 LAW Why a uranium enrichment plant is needed in the Community 3/93 Can thorium compete with uranium?. . . . 3/96 New move towards European patent . . . .2/61 A strategy for the European electronics indus• Intergovernmental conference on patents . . 3/96 try 4/129

PHYSICS EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Proposals for directives on "engineers" . . . 3/95 Conclusion of six "fusion" contracts .... 3/94

ELECTRONICS REACTORS Stresa symposium on nuclear electronics . . 1/32 Jacques Vilain: General aspect· of the fast reactor family . . . 1/15 Power reactors in the Community (Status as ENGINEERING AND EQUIPMENT at 28 January 1969) 1/29 Gottfried Juppe: Chemonuclear reactors 2/39 Jean-Claude Leny: Nuclear desalination The ESSOR reactor is presented to industry 2/60 Conference on Dodewaard, Lingen and 1968 I/I I Testing of Vortex twisted-tape element in the Obrigheim nuclear power plants 2/63 Extension of Dragon agreement 3/91 Kahl reactor 1/31 Technical novelties 1/32 Power reactors in the Community (Status as Behaviour of granular material I /32a at 24 October 1969 4/124 Jan van Audenhove: Lévitation melting . 2/46 Reinier Nijslng and Walter Elfler: Heat transfer In tightly packed fuel rod bundles with liquid metal cooling. . . . 2/50 Ugo Miranda: Safeguard and control SOCIOLOGY techniques for nuclear materials .... 4/112 Exchange of experience between nuclear Michel Glbb: Are there national research power plant operators 4/125 habits? 2/52 SHOULD YOU WISH TO RE­ CEIVEeuro­spectra REGULARLY. PLEASE SEND YOUR ORDER FORM TO: Agence et Messageries de la •Presse 1, rue de la petite île Brussels 7, Belgium (Postal account C.C.P. 416.69) or: H.M. Stationery Office P.O. Box 569 London S.E. 1, Great Britain or: European Communities Information Service Suite 808 Farragut Building Washington. D.C. 20006 U.S.A.

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The Commission has just published a This booklet can be obtained free of mission of the European Communities, booklet entitled "Research and Tech• charge from the Scientific and Tech• 200 rue de la Loi, Brussels 4. nology and the European Community". nological Information Service, Com•

A strategy for the European electronics industry American firms exceeds the combined total for private firms and public au• thorities in the Community ($ 750 million The gap between Europe and the only 25% of output, compared with more compared with $ 542.5 million). United States in the electronics sector has than 40% in the Community and almost Proceeding from this analysis the its roots not only in research but rather, 60% in Japan. study goes on to consider the various and in particular, in the structure of the It was also found that, within the strategies open to European firms. Hav• industry and its markets. If each of the electronics field, only small American ing rejected the development of foreign Community countries wishes to develop firms had a highly specialised product techniques—the "Japanese" approach— its industry along purely national lines, range, but these "small" firms had a which is politically dangerous, and the American firms will inevitably take over turnover eight to ten times that of their policy of "market gaps", which tends to complete control of Europe's electronics counterparts in the different countries of concentrate efforts on a particular area industry sooner or later. Europe. In fact, specialisation is only while abandoning others, the report finds This pessimistic forecast was made by possible if the market is large enough. that most large European firms have a group of three research teams (French, Outlets, and particularly orders for adopted what is known as the "controlled German and Italian) which the Com• hardware placed by public bodies, are gap" policy and strive, with the aid of mission of the European Communities therefore seen to be the dominant factor. multidisciplinary research centres, to asked to carry out a study, the results of This being the case, and since the Com• keep up with technological progress. which will be published shortly. The munity countries cannot resort to arti• While this strategy prevents the gap report analyses and compares the struc• ficial methods such as the United States' from widening, however, it can hardly ture of the electronics industries in the military and space programmes, an close it. Herein lies the explanation for Community and certain non-member agreement should be reached between governments tending increasingly to countries, stressing the R and D aspect governments to give preference to intervene directly in the industrial sector. and drawing conclusions as to possible European manufacturers in the placing of What happened in the particularly strategies. orders by public bodies for equipment sensitive field of data processing is now A comparison of the turnovers of the which is at present imported. being extended to the components field. different companies reveals the absolute The part played by public funding is However, while rationalisation moves predominance of the American industry even more significant when it comes to leading to the establishment of publicly- over its rivals, be they the European research and development. The pro• backed national groups may enable heavy Community countries (5 to 1), British (11 portion of research and development research costs to be borne, such an to 1) or Japanese (13 to 1) and points up carried out in the private sector of the approach may also seriously hamper the a revival of the consumer durables sector electronics industry is 73 % in the Com• formulation of a common policy by the in the United States since the introduction munity and 81 % in the United States, but Member States which would ultimately of colour television, a trend that has not the proportion financed by public funds result in the reorganisation of the Com• yet appeared in the other countries, is 16 and 66% respectively. munity's electronics industry. where the market represented by the As a result American firms can afford In the absence of such a common general public is far from saturated. to spend a relatively smaller proportion policy the Community countries would Another finding is that the degree of of their turnover on research and with the passage of time be condemned to concentration in the electronics industry development than their European com• allow the complete control of an industry is inversely proportional to the size of the petitors (3.5 compared with 7.1 %). Here which is universally recognised as being market. Thus, in 1965 the four largest again, however, the effects of size are felt of fundamental importance to pass into groups in the United States accounted for and the amount of money put up by American hands. topi radioisotopen s hip propulsion schiffs antrieb propulsion na vale propulsione nava le scheepsvoortstuwî ng biology biologie biologie biologia bio logie medicine medi O zin médecine medicin \^J a geneeskunde healt h protection gesundh e'itsschutz protection sanitaire protezione s σ\ anitaria bescherming ^Φ van de gezondheid O automatic data proces O sing automatische inf ormation information ΓΊ1 automatique ¡nforrna \Z* zione automatica auto fS matische verwerking van gegevens insura nee versicherungswes en assurances assicura zione verzekeringen economics Wirtschaft économie economia e conomie education and training ausbildu ng enseignement inse gnamento onderwijs en opleiding power reactors leistungsreak toren réacteurs de pu Issance reattori di po tenza energie reactor en nuclear fusion ke rnverschmelzung fusi on nucléaire fusione nucleare kernversmei ting radioisotopes r adioisotope radioisot opes radioisotopi ra dioisotopen ship pr opulsion schiffsantrie b propulsion navale propulsione navale scheepsvoortstuwî ng biology biologie biolo gie biologia biologie medicine medizin mé decine medicina gene eskunde health pro tection gesundheitssc hutz protection sanit aire protezione sanita ria bescherming van de gezondheid auto matic data processing automatische Informa tion Information auto matìque informazione automatica automatis che verwerking van g egevens insurance v ersicherungswesen as su rances assicurazioni verzekeringen econ omics Wirtschaft èco nomle economia eco nomic education and training ausbildung enseignement insegn amento onderwijs en opleiding power reac tors leistungsreakto ren réacteurs de pu issance reattori d! po tenza energie reactor en nuclear fusion ke rnverschmelzung fusi on nucléaire fusione nucleare kernversmei ting radioisotopes r adioisotope radioisot opes radioisotopi ra dioisotopen ship pr opulsion schiffsantrie