USE OF NUCLEAR POWER SOURCES IN THE EXPLORATION OF OUTER SPACE

摘要

While law should not precede the advance of technology, we will soon be arriving at an era in which space exploration will utilize nuclear fission to enable power systems with characteristics incomparable to anything used in space to date, harnessing nuclear energy for propulsion and unprecedented systemic power. While the NPS Principles do not apply to propulsion systems, they are demonstrative of some of the political concerns that users of space NPS will face in the UN and other fora. While various agreements in international nuclear energy law have established clear duties and responsibilities in the event of a terrestrial accident involving radioactive material, current space law has also appropriately provided a liability regime for an accident occurring in outer space. However, as this technology progresses, questions will continue to arise concerning whether states that utilize space NPS have a legal duty to take certain preventative steps to minimize risks to areas beyond their national jurisdiction, and also whether a generally agreed concept of safety would lead, over time, to the crystallization of a standard of care in a rapidly advancing technical environment. Whether or not it has become customary international law, the "precautionary principle" in international environmental law appears to reflect that states have a duty to take substantive, preventative measures concerning actions that pose certain potential transboundary risks. In the US, before any launch of NPS, and consistent with the public interest, executive agencies already participate in an exhaustive and carefully detailed environmental and safety review process.