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Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law - Volume IV: Human Perspectives On The Development and Use of Nuclear Energy Jonathan L. Black-Branch
Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law - Volume IV: Human Perspectives On The Development and Use of Nuclear Energy Jonathan L. Black-Branch
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Nuclear Non-
Proliferation in
International Law
Volume IV
Human Perspectives on the
Development and Use of Nuclear Energy
Jonathan L. Black-Branch
Dieter Fleck Editors
Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International
Law - Volume IV
Jonathan L. Black-Branch
Dieter Fleck
Editors
Nuclear Non-Proliferation
in International
Law - Volume IV
Human Perspectives on the Development
and Use of Nuclear Energy
123
Editors
Jonathan L. Black-Branch Dieter Fleck
Faculty of Law Cologne, Germany
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
This T.M.C. ASSER PRESS imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE
part of Springer Nature
The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany
Preface
This volume comes at an important time in the development of nuclear law: security
concerns related to the effectiveness of nuclear non-proliferation, environmental
and health challenges in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and new
efforts to prohibit nuclear weaponry highlight gaps in legal regulation, deficiencies
in implementation, and a general lack of consensus on taking steps towards nuclear
disarmament.
Volume I of this book series started with an exposé of relevant legal issues and
international concerns, addressing a variety of critical questions that require strict
and full application of rules emanating from various fields of international law.1
Volume II provided an in-depth review of critical aspects of verification and
compliance, assisting to develop international consensus on disputed issues of legal
application that remains essential, both from a theoretical perspective and from the
practices of States and international organizations.2 Volume III focused on legal
aspects of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, considering the role of
nation states and international organizations and presenting a number of sugges-
tions for international cooperation.3 Taken together, these contributions provide a
comprehensive assessment of the three pillars of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty4 within a modern-day context. The positive reception of these three volumes
underlines the need for continued analysis in this field, in order to explore such
issues further with the view to moving nuclear non-proliferation forward through
constructive dialogue, consensus-building on controversial matters, as well as
presenting plausible approaches to addressing pertinent issues in this important field
of law.
1
Black-Branch J, Fleck D (eds) (2014) Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law, Vol I with
Foreword by Mohamed ElBaradei. T.M.C. Asser Press.
2
Black-Branch J, Fleck D (eds) (2015) Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law, Vol II
Verification and Compliance. T.M.C. Asser Press.
3
Black-Branch J, Fleck D (eds) (2016) Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law, Vol III
Legal Aspects of the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes. T.M.C. Asser Press.
4
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1 July 1968), 729 UNTS 161.
v
vi Preface
5
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UN Doc A/CONF.229/2017/8 (7 July 2017).
6
Preliminary Report, Practice Regarding Nuclear Energy, Non-Proliferation and Regulation of
Nuclear Weapons, http://www.ila-hq.org/en/committees/index.cfm/cid/1025.
7
Second Report, Legal Aspects of Nuclear Disarmament, id.
8
Third Report, Legal Issues of Verification of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Obligations, id.
9
Fourth Report, Legal Aspects of the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes, id.
Contents
vii
viii Contents
ix
x Abbreviations
Contents
1.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Regulating Nuclear Applications ...................................................................................... 4
1.2.1 The Need for a Social License............................................................................... 4
1.2.2 Risks for Human Health and Development........................................................... 5
1.2.3 ‘Legitimate Civil Resistance’ ................................................................................. 5
1.2.4 Gender Perspective ................................................................................................. 6
1.2.5 Liability to Responders .......................................................................................... 7
1.2.6 Disability................................................................................................................. 8
1.3 Striving for Regional Solutions......................................................................................... 8
1.3.1 African Perspectives ............................................................................................... 8
1.3.2 Indigenous Engagement in the Uranium Industry ................................................. 9
1.3.3 Environmental and Health Effects of Uranium Mining ........................................ 10
1.3.4 Transparency and Public Dialogue ........................................................................ 11
1.3.5 Environmental Protection of Aboriginal Lands ..................................................... 11
1.4 Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons ........................................................................................... 12
J. L. Black-Branch (&)
Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
e-mail: Jonathan.Black-Branch@umanitoba.ca
D. Fleck (&)
Cologne, Germany
e-mail: DieterFleck@t-online.de
Abstract Much has been written on nuclear safety from the perspective of com-
pliance and verification. The literature and indeed the debate traditionally focuses
more on regulatory issues, effectively failing to address the full human impact
regarding nuclear capacity. Likewise, nuclear disarmament, a political aspiration
since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 and a legal obligation since the
1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is still the object of much controversy. This
chapter aims to raise public awareness of various concerns and deficiencies of
nuclear energy production and nuclear disarmament that are addressed and further
explained in detail in the ensuing chapters of this volume. In personalizing these
effects, the readers are asked to consider their own moral, ethical, and legal obli-
gations to other human beings as they relate to nuclear activity. They are encour-
aged to reflect on current practice in the area of disarmament, proliferation matters
and the harnessing and use of nuclear capacity within the contemporary global
context.
1.1 Introduction
In 1968, amid much promise, the world witnessed agreement on the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.1 Today, some fifty years on, there remain important
deficiencies in the implementation of the three pillars of the Treaty: Nuclear
non-proliferation is challenged by a continuing risk of nuclear materials getting into
the hands of unauthorised recipients including would-be terrorists; despite complex
and highly professional national and international efforts to secure nuclear safety
and security peaceful uses require intensive monitoring towards continuing
1
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1 July 1968), 729 UNTS 161.
1 The Significance of the Human Impact for Nuclear Safety … 3
improvement; and nuclear disarmament obligations remain far from being fulfilled,
raising major concern regionally and internationally.
More evident than ever, there is a human impact of these deficiencies.
Governments and policy-makers alike have been less than proactive in addressing
concerns, seeing a widening of this gap for over two generations now, a situation
that that has resulted in increased worldwide concerns amongst NGOs and civil
societies. The victims of such deficiencies are regular normal people who are not
participating in political negotiations: women, children and men alike, suffering
from diseases caused by radiation, people uncertain of the effectiveness of nuclear
deterrence or even living under the threat of nuclear attacks. More than one gen-
eration of civilian victims suffer as a result of the use of nuclear weapons (hiba-
kusha).2 Indigenous peoples are most often disproportionately affected by
environmental and health effects of uranium mining.3 The elderly and those less
socio-economically affluent lack access to social and health care and are less likely
to access appropriate medical, political or legal remedies. It is time to identify and
assess these deficiencies and their human impact and to seek a way forward in
addressing them.
This volume gathers a number of scholars, some of whom have first-hand
experience with the subject matter, to discuss the human impact of the development
of nuclear weapons, uranium mining, and nuclear energy and to propose practical
solutions that will aim to reduce such an impact. Part I highlights the need for
further regulating nuclear applications informed by economics, corporate law,
gender perspectives, social activism, human rights, persons with disabilities, and
compensation law. Part II explores how various governments, courts, civil society
groups, and indigenous groups are trying to find local and regional solutions to
some of the issues that arise when the development of nuclear weapons and energy
has a negative impact on human beings and the environment, affecting them both
directly and indirectly. Part III addresses positions on the prohibition of nuclear
weapons and how international law, philosophy, politics, and humanitarian
movements inform the regulation of nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century.
What becomes clear as one moves through the chapters of this volume, is that
nuclear weapons and nuclear energy are no longer simply the concern of diplomats,
governments, and international lawyers; nor is the conversation about nuclear
weapons any longer solely driven only by concerns of State security and main-
taining a balance of power from an international political relations perspective.4
Concerned citizens, victims, scientists, corporations, indigenous groups, doctors,
activists, legal scholars, and environmental lawyers alike are raising awareness
regarding such concerns. They are joining the debates, pursuing legal battles,
influencing political decisions on phasing-out uses of nuclear energy, and have
assisted to create the most revolutionary nuclear treaty to date; one that aims at
2
Hiroshima Report 2018.
3
Göcke 2014.
4
Hiroshima Report 2018; The BEIR Report 2009.
4 J. L. Black-Branch and D. Fleck
In developing nuclear technologies many projects fail for lack of real consideration
of and engagement with local communities. Seth Hoedl argues in Chap. 2 that
project leaders must not only consider technical viability and have their legal issues
intact; they must also gain the consent of the society with whom they are working.
This process is referred to as a social license. One gains a social license when the
concerns of the community/society are paramount from the beginning, instead of
experts patronizing people and telling them what they ought to be concerned about.
Hoedl builds this approach on four key principles: (1) engendering trust;
(2) transparency; (3) meaningful engagement with the public; and (4) protecting
health, safety, and the environment. He uses real examples to illustrate how the
social license approach has led to success. The first is a nuclear waste project in the
U.S. at Yucca Mountain which he argues failed because they did not properly
engage with the community or gain the consent of the State of Nevada. The second
two examples from Sweden and Finland have been successful in creating nuclear
waste depositories because decision-makers faithfully and honestly engaged with
the local communities by giving them a voice and decision-making power during
the process.
Hoedl presents five recommendations for achieving a social license in the
context of nuclear waste sites or nuclear energy projects: first, nuclear power
proponents should be the ones advocating for the community; second, a govern-
mental agency should not take prime responsibility for a nuclear waste repository, it
should be the led by the local stakeholders; third, proponents should gain consent
before starting the siting process; fourth, communities should be given a choice
between at least two sites; and fifth, communities should even have a veto power
over a siting decision.
5
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), UN Doc A/CONF.229/2017/8 (7 July
2017), https://www.un.org/disarmament/ptnw/.
1 The Significance of the Human Impact for Nuclear Safety … 5
In Chap. 3, Seth Hoedl surveys the risks and benefits of common applications of
nuclear and other radioactive materials to human health and development and
explains how these applications rely on uranium mining and enrichment. First, in
the medical field, radioisotopes are used for diagnosis and for curative or palliative
therapy (mostly for cancer), and sterilization of medical equipment. Most of these
isotopes are produced by nuclear reactors which require uranium and uranium
enrichment. Second is industrial uses, all of which require nuclear reactors and
uranium. These include: radiography and nucleonic gauges for non-destructive
testing of facilities and products like oil pipelines; well logging, which is used to
determine how different layers of the earth will hold oil or gas; material processing
where radiation is used to enhance properties of certain industrial materials; and
radioluminescence (lighting without batteries). Third, radioactive materials are used
in agriculture to cause radiation-induced mutations that create new plant and crop
varieties and to control insect population. Fourth, nuclear and radioactive materials
have assisted scientists in making discoveries in particle physics, material science,
and medical discoveries. Fifth, nuclear reactors which rely on enriched uranium, are
a large source (10% of the world’s electricity) of emissions-free energy, which
creates benefits both for the environment and for human beings by reducing air
pollution.
Regarding the health risks of radiation exposure, Hoedl argues that the benefits
of nuclear applications must be balanced against risks to human health and envi-
ronment. It is not clear how limited doses of radiation cause risks to human health,
nor is it clear that the use of nuclear energy poses a greater risk to human health
than more polluting forms of energy production such as coal or natural gas com-
bustion. Hoedl concludes that eliminating the use of uranium and uranium
enrichment would have significant adverse effects which should cause anti-nuclear
activists who oppose all nuclear activity to pause and carefully examine their
position. Despite this call, many hold the view that total elimination of nuclear
mining, regardless of these reasons, is warranted.
Seth Hoedl
Contents
2.1 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 20
2.2 The Social License Concept.............................................................................................. 23
2.2.1 Background............................................................................................................. 23
2.2.2 Society and Indicators of Consent ......................................................................... 26
2.2.3 Key Principles......................................................................................................... 28
2.2.4 The Role of Regulation .......................................................................................... 33
2.2.5 The Role of Project Proponents and Governments ............................................... 34
2.3 Nuclear Case Studies......................................................................................................... 36
2.3.1 Yucca Mountain Waste Repository ....................................................................... 36
2.3.2 Swedish and Finnish Waste Repositories .............................................................. 37
2.4 Application to Nuclear Technologies................................................................................ 38
2.4.1 Nuclear Waste Siting.............................................................................................. 38
2.4.2 Advanced Fission and Fusion Power Plants.......................................................... 40
2.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 41
References .................................................................................................................................. 42
Abstract Nuclear energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate climate
change. However, these technologies face many challenges, including high costs,
societal concern and opposition, and health, safety, environmental and proliferation
risks. Many companies and academic research groups are pursuing advanced
designs, both fission and fusion-based, to address both costs and these risks. This
chapter complements these efforts by analyzing how nuclear technologies can
address societal concerns through the acquisition of a social license, a nebulous
concept that represents ‘society’s consent’ and that has been used to facilitate and
improve a wide range of publically and privately funded projects and activities
S. Hoedl (&)
1900 Powell Street, Suite 600, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA
e-mail: shoedl@gmail.com
2.1 Introduction
The benefits of nuclear technologies are well known and discussed elsewhere in this
book series. However, nuclear energy technologies can be difficult to implement.
They are often expensive, generate radioactive waste, and are inevitably connected
to nuclear weapons, either directly through the materials and facilities used, or
through knowledge transfer that can be redirected for weapons purposes. As a
consequence, nuclear energy technologies have long been controversial. Power
plants, waste repositories, enrichment and fuel processing facilities have been met
by legal and/or civil protest.1 Opposition is driven by, inter alia, concerns regarding
capital expense, radiation exposure, radiation leaks, catastrophic accidents, waste
stewardship, non-proliferation, terrorism,2 and fears that nuclear power exposes
individuals to risks that they cannot control.3
Despite the opposition to nuclear technologies, there is a need for new facilities
associated with electric power production. Regardless of nuclear power’s future,
waste repositories need to be built and operated to deal with nuclear wastes that
have accumulated since the dawn of the nuclear age. More controversially, there
may also be a need for new nuclear power plants. Multiple studies suggest that
humanity is unlikely to meet the climate change challenge without at least some
1
For a review of early opposition in the 1970s, when nuclear power was expanding rapidly, see
Bickerstaffe and Pearce 1980; Falk 1982. Such challenges and protests continue to occur world-
wide. See The Economist 2013.
2
Bickerstaffe and Pearce 1980, pp. 313–320.
3
Mufson 1982, p. 60, citing Otway et al. 1978.
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Hän pysähtyi.
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19.
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