[Nuclear Symposium] The peaceful use of nuclear energy

Since his existence, the human being is always searching for the means to improve his subsistence and to ensure his survival and cope with nature. Among the important discoveries reached by the human mind and modern science, is the discovery of nuclear energy, as an essential need, which has opened wide to the world the door of rapid progress in various scientific, environmental and bio fields .

From this standpoint, the issue of peaceful use of nuclear energy is considered to be a major and serious theme at the same time. It has preoccupied the international community since a long time ago, for it is a double-edged sword, it is either to be used for peaceful purposes or be used for the purposes of destruction and war.

Proceeding from this, provided treaties, legislation and international conventions, regional and national ban on the use of nuclear energy in nuclear arms and wars and the destruction of the world, they also guarantee, in contrast, to all nations and peoples the right to possess and use nuclear energy for peaceful and safe purposes, such as medicine, electricity generation, industry, agriculture, and the establishment of ports, and desalination of sea water, and the conduct of war ships, and the preparation of radioactive isotopes, and chemistry research, and research of solid-state physics, and follow the biological processes in the plant, animal and human, and pest resistance, and the internal structure of metallic and ceramic materials, and food preservation and pasteurization, and other vital areas and peaceful applications, involving the use of nuclear energy to make economic, scientific, political and social benefits, since it constitutes as well, a legal right for all of the international community, and also given that it contributes significantly to solving the problems of the world and its crises, such contribution to human well-being and happiness, when used for peaceful purposes, without imposing any restrictions on its transfer and use.

So, The International Agency of Atomic Energy has been working to ensure the security and proper use of nuclear science and technologies, thus contributing to the achievement of international peace and security, in a way that leads also to the achievement of development, in the social, economic and environmental areas.

The Arab world is not immune to this topic, the Arab Authority for Nuclear Energy is working, in the framework of the Arab States League, on the issues related to the use of science and nuclear applications in peaceful fields, on the development of scientific work in the Arab world, and on keeping up with the world scientific and technological progress in this area, in order to achieve Development in the Arab countries, raise the economic, social and scientific level, and achieve the advancement of scientific research in the field of atomic energy. It is also the case of the joint Arab Scientific Council, which is created within the League of Arab States, and which plays a role in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.

Nevertheless, our Arab countries are still bellow the expected ambitions , in terms of possession and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The majority of them are still in the early stages of employing and exploitation of this power, due to the lack of scientific eligible personnel, and to the weakness of promoting scientific research and budgets allocated to it, I addition to the absence of a real strategy in this area, including poor infrastructure to embrace new technologies, compared to Israel, for example, which owns a military arsenal and Nuclear reactors, used in scientific research and in the development and production of nuclear weapons. It has a huge potential in this area, especially at the level of sea water desalination, or, also, compared to Iran and its tireless efforts to possess nuclear energy, and to establish nuclear reactors, in a way that stirs the counter reactions of the West, accusing it of the fact that its nuclear program is intended for non-peaceful purposes, without forgetting here, the Iraq crisis , due to the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, and the subsequent atrocious and cruel wars.

So, When the subject is politicized, the communities who are supposed to own the Atomic Energy and nuclear weapons, and also who are supposed to have the intention to use that energy in non-peaceful purposes, places them under risk, a fact which diverts the noble objectives of the topic towards other colonial, political and economic goals.

However, it is incumbent upon the Arab countries, and particularly the rich ones, to redouble their efforts to acquire and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, which cannot be achieved without doubling the budgets allocated for this purpose.

The subject of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, remains one of the topics that are receiving increased attention by all nations, in addition to being an unavoidable source for power generation, it is also essential to our lives today as well as to our future generations.

*This material is part of those announced in the 2012 International AJA Forum held last October under the title of  the role of news media to sustain the effect of 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit. The forum was supported by the Korea Press Foundation.