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A key question is the disposal of the radioactive material such as plutonium presently used for nuclear warheads. The radioactivity of plutonium is dangerous to all living things and, even if buried, its radioactivity continues for thousands of years. A proposal under study by the NATO Science Programme would convert this material into fuel for nuclear power plants. One method, by which it is converted to 'mixed oxide fuel', is already under development in the Russian Federation, Japan, Canada and four European countries. However, the question is complex, involving economic as well as political and military issues, since the proposed method is rather expensive, and more development work is needed.
Another priority area, high technology, promotes the conversion of defense-related technologies to peaceful purposes. The list of such technologies is astonishing, ranging from new materials that better withstand heat and other stresses to methods of automation, electronics and biotechnologies. A related priority area focuses on science and technology policy, including technology transfer and defence technology conversion.
Environmental security, another of the Programme's priority areas, facilitates East-West collaboration and projects to clean up contaminated military sites and address regional environmental problems, including both natural and man made disasters. In particular the projects address the extensive environmental damage, including nuclear and chemical pollution, caused by military activities during the Cold War.
The work of NATO's 'Third Dimension' is carried out in partnership with its member countries, aiding their own efforts towards disarmament, economic conversion and environmental cleanup. Hence, the fifth priority area of the Science Programme is to link up scientists of NATO with those of the partner countries in a computer network to facilitate this co-operation.
Central American Integration
Emerging from a period of bloody civil wars, the countries of Central America have launched a process of regional integration which includes a commitment to peaceful resolution of conflicts. The process involves the Presidents and parliaments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. It was formalized in the Protocol of Tegucigalpa in December 1991. Meeting again in March 1995 the Presidents of the six countries signed a Treaty on Social Integration in Central America, specifying the human being as the central subject of development. The treaty's ten basic principles correspond to a vision for a culture of peace (see box).
The Nobel Prize for Peace in 1987 was granted to Oscar Arias in recognition of his contribution to the peace and integration process in Central America. Noting that few regions of the world had experienced worse experiences of violence in recent years, the Nobel Committee said, 'For these people there is now a hope. On the 7th of August this year the Presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica signed a peace plan for Central America... The main architect behind this plan is this year's prizewinner, the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias.'
In accepting the Prize, Arias spoke for the people of Central America: 'We seek in Central America not peace alone, not peace to be followed someday by political progress, but peace and democracy, together, indivisible, and end to the shedding of human blood, which is inseparable from an end to the suppression of human rights.'
He condemned, by implication, the Cold War which had made the region into a battleground between East and West. 'I say to them, with the utmost urgency: let Central
The conversion of defense related technologies to peaceful purposes involves a wide range of applications from new materials that better withstand heat and other stresses to methods of automation, electronics and biotechnologies.awareness.'