European Economic Community powers

Alone among the international organisations reviewed in this section, the European Economic Community is able to pass legislation and introduce regulations which become binding on member states. This power has been both a strength and a weakness for the Community in its response to the Chernobyl accident. 

The British electric power industry also appears to have initially overestimated the costs of reducing SO2 emissions. It recently cut its cost estimates in half in the face of mounting pressure from the European Economic Community for a 60% reduction in SO2 emissions in Europe by 1995. Britain s Central Electricity Generating Board had reported in the fall of 1983 that abatement would cost 4,000 million pounds in the spring of 1984 the Board revised its estimate downward to 1,400 million pounds, or 120 million pounds per plant. The price of electricity to consumers would increase by 4% according to current industry estimates. 

These considerations led the European community to elect gas centrifuge production for enriched uranium to be used in its power production facilities. The United States also turned away firom gaseous diffusion because of its high cost. Its diffusion plants have been retired. After extensive development a large gas centrifuge facility was constructed, but that in turn was abandoned in favor of even more economical laser separation processes (see below). In around 2002, the laser separation plants have also been closed, presumably due to present day oversupply of enriched uranium. 

As industrialisation stimulated the requirement for metal in Europe from the late 19th century onwards, so local lead ore resources rapidly became inadequate. In parallel, improvements in transport and communication networks facilitated the internationalisation of the lead industry, by allowing the European smelters to take advantage of higher quality ore deposits overseas. These large companies were able to use their economic and political power,... 

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