EFN - NEWS The newsletter of the Association of Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy N°11 - Minutes of the Annual Meeting of October 12th, 2002

This newsletter is archived and available to the public on the website of EFN : http://www.ecolo.org/efn-news/efn-news.en.html

Report of the Annual Meeting of 12^th October 2002

As announced, the Annual Meeting of the Association of Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy was held on Saturday, 12th October 2002 at 5:00 PM at Houilles, on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of our association.

The Board of Directors had met at 4:00 PM to discuss the state of affairs of the association, to prepare the meeting, and to examine the applications of new members received during the past year. It was decided to accept all applicants who had submitted application forms and paid their dues. Annual dues for the coming year are unchanged: Sympathizing Member: 25 euros - Active Member : 50 euros - Benefactor Member: 100 euros.

The Annual Meeting opened at 5:00 PM, in a warm and cordial atmosphere to discuss the announced agenda:

- Review of the year's activities and substantive report of the President.
- Local correspondents of EFN.
- Financial report for the year 2001.
- Election of the Board of Directors of EFN
- Membership statistics: the growth of the association.
- EFN presentations at expositions: about a million visitors informed by our expos this year.
- The Communication Group (Gr COM) and lectures given by EFN.
- Visits to nuclear sites.  
- EFN in Japan.
- The book "Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy".
- Mailing lists of EFN.    
- The web site.
- Earth Summit at Johannesburg.
- Documents on nuclear energy.
- A new presentation document.
- Subcommittees.
- Projects and priorities for the coming year.

The President welcomed newcomers and for, the benefit of new participants, he presented a brief survey of the rich history of the Association since it was founded in November 1996, as well as this year's accomplishments.

On the international scene, we have seen several major new developments this year which confirm the importance of nuclear energy as a clean and environmentally friendly source of energy:

- this year the general situation of nuclear energy is notable for the excellent record of industrial production world-wide. Over a billion tonnes of CO2, which would have resulted from the production of the same amount of energy by gas, petrol and coal, were not introduced into the atmosphere.

- Johannesburg and the follow-up of the Kyoto agreements:  it is now clear that many advanced countries will not respect the obligations to reduce their emission of greenhouse gases which they undertook at Kyoto. It is nevertheless urgent that the advanced countries reduce their emissions of CO2 not by 5% as promised at Kyoto but by 50% in order to allow the poorest countries to develop, while at the same time reducing the world wide contribution of human activities to the greenhouse effect. We must accept the fact that, even if we were to completely stop producing CO2 today, the gas already emitted would continue to heat the atmosphere for 200 years. The Johannesburg Summit emphasized this; and it constituted a turning point, for until now most of the ministries of environment of the advanced countries, often anti-nuclear, having negotiated the Kyoto agreements, continue against all logic to exclude nuclear energy from the mechanisms of clean development likely to reduce CO2 emission. Johannesburg underscored the pressing need to provide the energy necessary for development in the cleanest way to all the Earth's inhabitants, especially to the poorest. A resolution was voted that no technology is to be excluded if we are to achieve this goal.

- Finland decided democratically, by vote of the cabinet and a few months later by vote of the Parliament, to construct a fifth nuclear reactor, which will be required to satisfy the growing energy needs of the country. Finland at present depends upon its neighbor Russia for 70% of its energy supply.  EFN contributed substantially to this decision, by a lecture given before Finnish legislators on 18th October 2002, and a press conference which led to a dispatch by the Finnish Press Agency and to interviews with the Finnish press and television, presenting EFN and the ecological virtues of nuclear energy.

- In the United States, the nuclear industry set records for capacity and availability, improving its competitive position without compromising safety. Reactors are ageing less rapidly than expected and their operating life is being extended from the 40 years initially planned to 60 years. Many reactors have already received extensions of their operation licenses after inspection by the safety authorities. 

- In South Africa the High Temperature Reactor project is advancing as planned.

- In France the Greens are no longer in power and the path is now open to new projects for the future, especially for the construction of a next generation reactor : EPR, the European Pressurized Reactor.
   

Turning now to the affairs of EFN, the association has grown this year and at an increasing rate, especially internationally (see below). Our numbers are greater than ever.

The number of lectures has also increased; we offer many thanks to Jacques Frot, leader of the Communications Group, and all our lecturers, especially, Michel, Alain and Jacques (more details below)

The internet site is being translated into several languages and every day we get messages of support from all over the world. We have new local correspondents in several countries.

Members may now pay their annual dues not only by cheque or bank transfer as before, but also directly on the internet site by credit card (using Paypal for credit card payments). This will be a great help in our international growth and we expect more members to join from all over the world.

In brief, EFN continues to develop its program and its membership at top speed, and even faster than we had anticipated.

The book "Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy" appeared in Japanese and in Romanian editions this year (more details below).

EFN is now growing rapidly on the international scene:

- the number of international members and local correspondents continues to grow.
- an independent association (EFN-USA) is expected to be created in the United States next year.
- EFN was invited by Mr Donald Johnston, Secretary-General of OECD, to make a presentation at OECD's Annual Forum on the environmental advantages of nuclear energy (see below).
- after a long admission procedure, EFN has become affiliated as a non-governmental organization (NGO) to the (United Nations) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Robert represented EFN for the first time at the annual General Conference in Vienna
- we have developed our relations with other associations and professional organizations, especially in the environmental field. In this context EFN participated in the First Strasbourg International Conference on the Greenhouse Effect, on 3rd and 4th October 2002.  Our contribution was carefully listened to and provoked a lively debate. We consider it a great success.
- we were present at the debates at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg where we distributed information to delegates and journalists, in cooperation with other associations and the delegation of the American Nuclear Society.
- we are more and more frequently invited to participate at international events - recently in Finland and Japan, and soon in China.

OECD Forum  - We had a long meeting with Mr Donald Johnston, Secretary-General of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, headquarters in Paris). Canadian, he was minister in several Canadian governments and since 1996 he is Secretary-General of OECD (click here for a biography in English or in French). We discussed with him the crucial importance of supplying energy in a way which respects the environment and provides for sustainable development. We were honored to be invited to speak in the name of EFN at the annual OECD Forum.

The annual OECD Forum gathers leaders and important individuals to discuss questions of economic development and the future of mankind. This year, education, security and energy were among the central themes.

The President of EFN spoke on Tuesday, 14th May 2002, just after Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, on the podium with such personalities as Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Edward Goldsmith, seated beside Gérard Mestrallet (President Director General of Suez), the director of Friends of the Earth (Great Britain), and just before Mrs Laura Bush (First Lady of the United States) who had come from the United States to speak of the importance of education for every child on the planet.

The title of EFN's presentation was "How to ensure environmental security"

OECD's internet site: http://www.oecd.org
Internet site of OECD's "Forum 2002" : http://www.oecd.org/forum2002/
Program of OECD's "Forum 2002" and names of speakers : click here
Resumé of EFN's contribution (on OECD's internet site) : click here (format PDF, 1,1 Mo)
Photo of EFN's speaker at OECD's "Forum 2002": click here
Text of EFN's contribution at OECD's "Forum 2002" : click here (format HTML, 12 ko)
Complete version of EFN's contribution at OECD's "Forum 2002": click here (format PPT, 4,8 Mo).

In view of the growth of energy consumption world-wide, the anticipated growth of the economies of the developing countries, the increasing greenhouse effect, and the limited oil reserves which we consume at an ever increasing rate; we will plunge in the next few years or decades into a major energy crisis with associated environmental and climatic crises. At the same time, we will begin to see the diminution of the world's reserves of oil and gas, which are mainly in the hands a few not-very-democratic countries.

At this moment, mankind consumes every year the oil which nature laid down over a period of 2 million years. At the current rate, we will in 50 years' time have exhausted reserves constituted by nature in 100 million years. We are thus very far from sustainable development. It would take 2 million planets identical to ours, to "sustain" our current consumption of oil.

More than ever, it has become necessary, essential and even urgent to reduce our dependence on oil, to better inform the public how important it is to save energy and of the need to develop as rapidly as possible (a) a more sustainable life style as well as (b) renewable and nuclear energy resources which are cleaner and more abundant. 

In summary, EFN continues to develop in numbers and in reputation, even more rapidly than expected.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our enterprise!

The Association now has members, supporters and 73 local correspondents; a growth of 30% this year. They are to be found in over 43 countries on 5 continents:

- in different regions of France.

- in western Europe: Germany, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.

- in eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Ukraine.

- in North America: in Canada and in 26 states of the USA (AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, ID, HI, KS, MA, MI, MO, NC, ND, NE, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, UT, VT, WI...)

- in South America: Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil

- in Asia: China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea and Taiwan

- in the Middle East: Israel

- in Africa: Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia, and

- in Australia.

Anyone who wishes to help develop our activities may ask to become a local correspondent to represent the Association in his country, in his region, in his town, or just among those around him. The procedure was simplified last year and can now be done semi-on-line. One need only click on "Local Correspondent" and fill out the form on-line; print it on paper or create a PDF file; send the printout to EFN by Fax at +33 1 30 86 00 10 or by mail, or eMail the PDF to nuc-en[at]ecolo.org 

The local correspondent is under no obligation to pay dues or to attend meetings. His role is simply to provide local, voluntary support for the objectives of the Association to whatever extent he can.  For example : he can help to make the Association known to those around him by speaking about it to friends and colleagues, to circulate the petition, to make local contacts, to insert notices in local newpapers, to translate some documents, write local articles, develop local activities, etc.

All ideas and suggestions are welcome. Since we want to take advantage of all good will, it may occur that there are two or more local correspondents in the same country, region or even in the same town. In this case they ought to form a local group and coordinate their activities.

The accounts for the year 1st January to 31^st December 2001 were presented to the Annual Meeting. They are in French francs.

We note that the level of receipts and expenses remains modest. This is the consequence of the fact that the Association functions completely on the basis of volunteer contributions of effort. Each one participates as best he can so that the Association's work is carried out with operating costs kept to the barest minimum.

In view of the expansion of our activities, it would be highly desireable if not urgent to increase the Association's income so as to support our rapid international development.

After the presentation of accounts, the Annual Meeting voted on the financial report 2001. The accounts were approved unanimously.

Jean-Pierre stressed that it is of paramount importance for the future of the Association to increase the financial resources quickly. They should be great enough to ease the burden on the present secretariat by renting an office and engaging a secretary. He proposed a resolution to this effect. The resolution was put to a vote and approved unanimously.

We have made some encouraging contacts in this respect, which will be followed up with early results, we hope.

It seems anomalous that many anti-nuclear organizations should be well supported, often with public funds, while an association as representative as EFN, so many of whose members have scientific and environmental competence and credentials, which works effectively in promoting its purposes, which has members and correspondents in 43 countries, has difficulty in covering its day to day expenses!

 The By-laws of the Association requires the Annual Meeting to elect the Board of Directors. Michel NORAZ, Deputy Secretary until now, is for personal reasons no longer able to participate in the work of the Board of Directors; nor can Pierre-Yves VINCENT, who has been Treasurer of EFN since its creation. Mr Jacques GOLLION and Mr Michel LUNG announced that they would be candidates. Both are active members of EFN and they  have contributed to the development of the Association for many years, Michel LUNG in the Paris region and Jacques GOLLION as local correspondent in the region of Briançon and Aix en Provence in Southern France.

In accordance with the By-laws of the Association, the Annual Meeting voted to elect the new Board of Directors as follows:

President : Monsieur Bruno COMBY, graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (X80), author of ten books on health and the environment, including the famous bestseller "Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy"

Vice-president : Professor Henri JOYEUX, cancer surgeon and professor of Medicine at the Montpellier Medical School, International Cancer Prize.

General Secretary : Monsieur Hubert CHOPIN, magistrate and vice-president of the Higher Court of Justice at Troyes.

New Deputy Secretary : Michel LUNG, amateur of ecological gardening and sheep farming, an engineering graduate of the Bordeaux National School of Physics and Chemistry ('52). He earned a Master of Science, University of Washington ('55), and a certificate in Nuclear Science and Engineering (Saclay, 1956). He was exports manager for the Société Générale pour les Techniques Nouvelles (SGN), and he has been active in several other environmental and energy-related associations.  

New Treasurer : Monsieur Jacques GOLLION, retired, graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique(X51) and of the Transmission School of Montargis, is specialist in questions of energy. He is an amateur of ecological gardening and forestry. In the interest of promoting forest ecology and clean energy on an international scale, he is active in several other environmental and energy-related associations.

The participants in the Annual Meeting thanked both Pierre-Yves VINCENT and Michel NORAZ, and applauded their invaluable contributions to EFN over the years of service. Pierre-Yves VINCENT was a founder and has been Treasurer since the founding of EFN, while Michel NORAZ has been local correspondent in the Departement of the Manche and has helped develop the Association in Normandy these last few years.

We welcome Mr Michel LUNG and Mr Jacques GOLLION to the Board of Directors :

To see a more detailed presentation of the members of the Board of Directors and leaders of EFN, click here.  

As of 16th September 2002, EFN had 5066 members and supporters. We were 4672 a year ago, in October 2001. EFN has grown about 10% this year.

You may recall that we had set our initial objectives as follows:

- to have 100 members and signers of the petition at the end of the first year
- to have 1000 members and signers of the petition at the end of the second year
- to have 2000 members and signers of the petition at the end of the third year
- to have 3000 members and signers of the petition at the end of the fourth year
- to have 4000 before the end of the fifth year and
- to have 5000 before the end of the sixth year.

numbers which have been largely exceeded!

The association continues to grow as more and more people become aware of the environmental advantages of nuclear energy - that it is clean and environmentally friendly.

This year EFN presented its activities to the public in the framework of several expositions, such as environmental and professional fairs.

That series of expositions and professional shows gave us the opportunity to make the public aware of the importance of questions about energy and the environment, and to answer questions of the public concerning nuclear energy and its impact on the environment. About a million people visited the expositions and professional fairs in which we took part. Public reception was warm and honest. People asked many questions, particularly about nuclear waste and reprocessing and about many rumors which circulate: the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, the safety of the transport of nuclear materials, discharge from the plant at La Hague into the sea, what to do with nuclear waste, and the impact of nuclear energy on public health in general.

Since 11th September 2001, we are often asked questions about terrorist attacks. The risk of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power station is greatly exaggerated by newspapers, magazines and television seeking emotional and sensational information. The reactor building of a nuclear power station is about 100 times smaller than the towers of the World Trade Center (and  the reactor inside is much much smaller), and makes a target hard to hit. It is enclosed in a very solid confinement structure (about a meter of reinforced concrete with other concrete walls inside before reaching the reactor). The consequences of such an attack would be much less of a catastrophe than some would like us to think.

Many visitors are happy to be able to learn and to exchange points of view, and some sign the petition. A very small minority do not share our point of view. This leads to interesting discussions, which often attracts the curiosity of people around us. It is worth remarking however that nuclear power stations are the only industrial installations which can withstand the impact of even a small aircraft. Since September 2001, EFN has informed the public about this subject and prepared several pertinent documents which are available on the internet site in the "Documents" page, at the chapter "Nuclear Energy and Terrorism".

http://www.ecolo.org/documents/listdoc-fr.htm/#kamikaze

Overall, everything goes calmly and in good humor at these shows. We seem to see a diminution of the strong opposition of a small number of resolutely anti-nuclear persons ready to do anything to defend their convictions. EFN is very well accepted by the public, and even respected by its opponents. After our success in a law suit for damages against those who attacked the volunteers of EFN physically in 1999 during an exposition at Tours, that kind of agression seems to be a thing of the past. (Click here to read the text - in French - of the judges' decision and details of that case). Our agressors have chosen not to appeal the decision of the court and our legal success is therefore final.

We note that such sporadic hostile reactions are in general not the work of the public visitors, but of the members or sympathizers of anti-nuclear organizations or of pseudo-independent organizations; they pretend to be pacifists but do not hesitate to violently attack those who do not share their radical anti-nuclear views.

Most visitors to these expos are indeed very pleased to discover EFN and to learn that there many environmentalists in favor of nuclear energy. Thus our numbers increase. 

It appears that the overall result of these shows, in terms of human relations, communications, exchanges, distribution of information, and contact with the public, is very positive and we intend to continue the program next year.

Our thanks to all who helped to set up and attend the stands, to present the activities of EFN at these expos; particularly Jean-Claude, but also Jean-Marie, Georges, Pierre et Claudine, Monique, Christiane, Alain, Yves, Luc, Clement, Marie-Helene,.Annie, Homaira...

Abroad, we are please to tell you of the excellent initiative of Dr Peter Raics, a member of EFN, who organized a public exposition on the subject of "Natural Radioactivity" from 10 to 19 September 2002 at the University of Debrecen in Hungary. It was primarily intended for students but open to the public: it attracted about 10 thousand visitors and was a great success. The exposition was organized together with the Budapest Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Experimental Physics of the University of Debrecen. Visitors could see natural radioactivity with a bubble chamber and made measurements with Geiger counters, thus becoming aware of the natural radioactivity which surrounds us. Bravo to Peter for this excellent initiative!  

For more details (in Hungarian) visit the website : http://indykfi.phys.klte.hu/Radioaktivitas2002

See a photo of Peter Raics's exposition in Hungary at :
http://pegazus.phys.klte.hu/~ptarjan/Radioaktivitas2002/vizipok/kiallitas2.jpg

This group within EFN is led by Jacques Frot (retired from the oil industry); there are about 15 competent and motivated "communicators". The very positive results of their activities were presented.

In point of fact, energy is a vast lacune in the public knowledge, and there are many cliches and false ideas floating around, which need to be clarified and demystified.

Most people have no idea about how a nuclear power plant works; about the impact of different sources of energy on public health and on the environment; about how nuclear wastes are treated (and other wastes are often not treated); about how power stations are dismantled at the end of their working life, etc. They do not realize that information given out by the anti-nukes, by the news media, and sometimes even by some public authorities, is incomplete and biased.

Nothing can be compared to the exchange between a competent and enthusiastic speaker and the audience who put questions to him. That is the mission of GR COM (communication group) in giving lectures on the theme of nuclear energy.

The organization of this group is very simple. Standard lecture modules concerning different forms of energy and their environmental impact are prepared including written presentations and transparencies. Their object is to better inform the public, by providing information as complete and as objective as possible.

During the course of the past year, about fifty such lectures were given. They are mostly about energy in the world, different sources of energy, the environment, nuclear power and the environment, the greenhouse effect, the environmental advantages of nuclear power, etc.

The lectures given by EFN's GR COM are delivered to various audiences: schools and universities, health professionals, social-professional organizations, city halls and cultural centers, clubs and associations, etc.

Of course the speakers adapt their discourse to the level of the audience.

After the lecture the audience is invited to ask questions, whether on the subject of the lecture or on related topics - no taboos, no restrictions.

Three years after the inauguration of the GR COM program, about 50 such lectures are now given each year, to provide objective information, and reaching audiences of over 6000 persons in all.

EFN has participated in public and environmental meetings, at schools and universities, before clubs and associations and, this year for the first time, has been invited to speak in Japan, at the International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna, and upon the invitation of its Secretary-General, Mr Donald Johnston, a Canadian, at OECD's annual Forum 2002 where EFN was one of the principal speakers.

The President of EFN will soon visit China where he will lecture and visit the Chinese nuclear reactors at Daya Bay.

See the up-to-date program of past and future lectures on GR COM's website: http://www.ecolo.org/conferences/

Information is available there on how to organize a lecture in your town or region.

This year, delegations of EFN visited the following sites in the framework of its communications activities:

- the nuclear power station at Golfech (January 2002),

- Japan : see the section on Japan below:

Since the creation of EFN in 1996, its delegations have visited: the nuclear reprocessing plant at LaHague (twice), the EDF nuclear power station at Penly (two 1300 MW reactors), the site of the once proposed laboratory of ANDRA at La Chapelle-Baton (Vienne), the Superphenix fast neutron reactor (1450 MW), the Marcoule plant for processing liquid effluents (STEL), the Phenix fast neutron reactor at Marcoule, the Centraco plant for packaging low-level waste, the Melox plant for fabricating MOX fuel, the Chalk River nuclear center in Ontario (Canada), the nuclear power station at Civaux, the laboratory for underground storage of nuclear wastes at Mol (Belgium), Guarapari in Brazil (one of the most naturally radioactive places in the world, where natural radioactivity levels may rise locally as high as 40 microSieverts per hour, that is, several hundred times more than in other locations), the nuclear power station at Angra (Brazil), the BR2 and BR3 reactors in Belgium (the first PWRs in Europe, now being dismantled), the Sellafield reactor (UK), the nuclear power station at Blayais (twice), the nuclear power staion at Loviisa (Finland) ...

Several visits are planned for the coming year.

Several lectures were given by Bruno Comby in major cities in Japan, notably at Hiroshima, Tokyo, Tsuruga, etc. on the occasion of the recent publication of the Japanese version of the book "Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy". The preface was provided by Dr Yumi Akimoto, a survivor of the Hiroshima explosion, who opens his preface with a particularly moving account of his first encounter with nuclear energy, on 6th August 1945. You may read the excellent preface of Dr Akimoto in English or in French on the EFN internet site. 

While in Japan, EFN was invited to visit several nuclear sites including Tokai Mura (the site of the 1999 criticality accident - we consider this a great honor for we were only the second foreign delegation to visit since the accident), and Monju (the site of the sodium leak which had no environmental nor human consequences - nobody was injured). We also visited a nuclear fuel factory and several nuclear reactors, including the most advanced prototype HTTR (High Temperature Test Reactor) in the world, several water-cooled reactors, as well as the Jaeri Research Center and the fast neutron reactor at Monju.

	See the introduction to EFN's lecture at Hiroshima (8 kb) Download the lecture given by EFN at Hiroshima (7,6 Mb)
The representative of EFN visiting the Japanese HTTR (High Temperature Test Reactor) , the most advanced high temperature reactor in the world. Download the text of EFN's presentation at Tsuruga (290 kb)	The memorial at Hiroshima, about 200 meters from ground zero, the point directly under the terrible atomic explosion which destroyed most of the city and killed about 140 000 people.

Japan is a magnificent and fascinating country. Nuclear technology there is in full development (for peaceful purposes only). In nuclear technology, Japan is among the most advanced countries in the world, and Japan will soon have more nuclear reactors than France. We will have occasion to go their again. Our thanks go to all those who helped us discover this charming country.

Thanks to the devoted and efficient efforts of our new local correspondent in Japan, EFN's internet site is now entirely translated and available in Japanese:

http://www.ecolo.org/base/basejp.htm

EFN has two mailing lists, in French and in English, by which we keep our correspondents informed all over the world.

This service is gratis and available even to those who are not members of the Association, provided they share our views (and have signed the petition). To be kept uptodate on EFN you have only to subscribe on-line with typing in your e-Mail address. You may receive either the French version or the English or both, as you prefer.  If you change your e-mail address, please be sure to "unsubscribe" your old address and "subscribe" your new one.

With their permission, you may subscribe your friends who might wish to learn about our activities.

To subscribe in English :  http://www.ecolo.org/list/listen.htm

To subscribe in French :  http://www.ecolo.org/list/listfr.htm

This year, the mailing list system has been completely remodeled and automated.

Until now, the secretariat of the Association has handled the French and English mailing lists manually, and we learned a great deal about the management of mailing lists.  But the number of subscribers has rapidly increased as the years go by. Victim of its success, the manual treatment of thousands of subscriptions and cancellations has become very time consuming to the extent of almost paralysing the secretariat. The new automatic system will be more efficient and allow us to reach more correspondents with less effort.

The theoretical limit of the number of our subscribers is raised from 5000 to over 100 000 for each list!

Before, each new subscription required many operations - several copy-and-pastes, transfer of the address to an address book, then to the mailing list, etc. From now on, it's totally automatic - each person subscribes and "unsubscribes" himself! Nevertheless, each list is monitored by a manager in the EFN secretariat and/or a national correspondent. Previously, the manager of a given mailing list had to be physically at the same place as the administrator of the system, that is, at the headquarters of EFN. In the new system these two functions are separate; thus the administrator can assign responsibility for the management of each (language) list to a national correspondent.  With this system, EFN can have many mailing lists in many languages - Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish, etc., with the management of each mailing list entrusted to a correspondent in that language/country, while the main office organizes and administers the system.

A final remark - the new system allows us to send eMail either in text format or in html format (like this message). This offers us access to new technical possiblities, as we can now include photos, tables, links, blank forms, etc. directly in the messages sent to our correspondents.

The web site

A new "Archives" section was opened on the web site. Messages sent out to the mailing lists now remain available on-line on the website in the "archives" section :

in English : http://www.ecolo.org/archives/archivesen.htm
In French : http://www.ecolo.org/archives/archivesfr.htm

For example, this message is archived there.

EFN participated at the Earth Summit at Johannesburg as planned. The position of the Association at the Earth Summit is presented in the following documents :

In English : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_english/joburg2002-positionpaper.en.htm
In French : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_french/joburg2002-positionpaper.fr.htm
In Czech : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_czech/joburg2002-positionpaper.cz.htm

This document has been translated into several languages. It was broadly distributed by internet and it was available in print at the Earth Summit. We made the point of view of our Association known to official delegates, to journalists and to the general public. Do not hesitate to distribute it to friends, acquaintances, and especially to journalists.

We hope that we have thereby contributed to the efforts of other groups, to better inform the public about energy and the environment.  

Many documents on nuclear energy are available on EFN's website in .DOC or .PDF or .HTML format, and in English, German, French, and many other languages. New documents are added regularly. See: http://www.ecolo.org/documents/

There you will find articles on many subjects of current interest: nuclear terrorism, nuclear safety, cancer caused by the Chernobyl accident, etc.

The Documents pages of the French part of the internet site have been reorganized with a new and friendlier opening page giving access to hundreds of documents arranged by subject on a pop-up menu. On the home-page http://www.ecolo.org click on the French flag, then click on Documents where you will find a pop-up menu of subjects. Within each subject, every entry is identified by a small flag icon showing the languages available. (The Union Jack means American as well as English.) You need only click on on a subject on the pop-up menu to go directly to the corresponding list of documents.

Here are the English translations of the subjects on the pop-up menu.

documents généraux sur l'énergie / general information about energy
l'énergie solaire / solar energy
l'effet de serre / greenhouse effect
l'histoire du nucléaire / nuclear history 
les énergies renouvelables / renewable energies
les réacteurs à neutrons rapides / fast neutron reactors
les réacteurs à haute température / high temperature reactors
statistiques sur l'énergie / energy statistics
le coût et l'impact sur l'environnement des différentes énergies
         / cost and environmental impact of difference sources of energy 
Hiroshima / Hiroshima
Tchernobyl / Chernobyl
les déchets nucléaires / nuclear waste
la radioactivité naturelle / natural radioactivity

List of documents in French : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/listdoc-fr.htm
Documents available in other languages : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/

The presentation document of the Association has been rewritten. The new version (printable) as well as the membership application form are now available on the internet site in French and in English in PDF format. You can print them, photocopy them and distribute them around you to publicize the Association. 

In English : http://www.ecolo.org/subscri/subscrien.pdf
In French : http://www.ecolo.org/subscri/subscrifr.pdf

The leader of each subcommittee works in close cooperation with the board of directors of EFN :

- The communication group of EFN (GR COM): is led by Jacques Frot with the help of Michel, Alain, and Bruno - it is composed of a total of 15 authorized lecturers.

- Legal affairs: Hubert and Raoul, Attorney at the Paris bar.

- The CSPI/La Hague group : Jean-Paul.

- Strategy and general organization: the Board of Directors.

- "Fast neutron" group : Michel, Jean, Jacques

- Youth group: Mathieu and Delphine.

- "Letters to the editor", external relations, contacts with journalists and politicians, as well as the organization of site visits: Michel

- American and international affairs : Berol

Our projects and priorities for the coming year are:

- the growth of the Association. 

- increase the number of local correspondents and our international activities. 

- the modernization of the EFN web site: the site has received more than a million hits since it was established. We intend to continue the program of improving the internet site, and we will put online dozens of pages of new information to explain the advantages and shortcomings of various sources of energy.

- continuation of activities to inform the public :

• participation at fairs and shows
• lecture program of the GR COM communications group

Spread the good word about EFN around you wherever you are - all volunteer help is welcome!

The Annual Meeting ended at 8 P.M. and was followed by a friendly and healthy organic buffet supper.

The next Annual Meeting will be held: in the autumn 2003.

A few of the participants at the Annual Meeting of EFN held on 12th October 2002
(for a high definition enlargement, click here)

http://www.ecolo.org

 

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