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PRESENTATION Water is not only indispensable to life. Water is not only indispensable to industrial development , to economic growth, to social well-being, sufficient�drinking water resources are necessary for the development of humanity. It is also indispensable for the preservation of natural resources. Adequate water supply has always been one of the indispensable prerequisites, not only to its development but to its survival. Between 1900 and 1995, drinking water demand grew twice as fast as the world population. By 2025, this demand should grow another 40%. In fifty years, some forty countries could lack drinking water. In many parts of the world, the discrepancy between freshwater needs and availabilities has already made any possibility of development, or even survival, haphazard, and these difficulties are now spreading through growing pollution to areas of the planet where such problems were inconceivable just a few decades ago. Facing the very limited water resources, water demand growth never stops, due to the economic and social development, the legitimate increase of standard of living, and demographic growth. Due to the shortage of fresh water, hundred of millions of women and children are enslaved to the daily water quest. Fresh water shortage is a very limit for food production. Its reduces population to destitution and poverty. By the end these population have no choice but dissapearance or exodus. NUCLEAR DESALINATION : THE SUSTAINABLY DEVELOPMENT ANSWER An answer is already there : seawater desalination which raises absolutely no technical problems. These technologies are fully under control just about everywhere in the world, but it is very energy intensive : seawater desalination can be very expensive. The answer to the water needs of humanity is therefore directly connected to the resolution of its energy needs. The answer must therefore avoid the pitfall of the optimisation of a substitutive allocation of energy resources. It has to be synergistic and not antinomanian. The prospects of using nuclear energy for seawater desalination on a large scale remain both challenging and attractive. Because of its energy-intensive features, large-scale deployment of nuclear desalination will depend on the competitiveness of a nuclear energy source in comparison to other conventional sources. The IAEA "Options Identification Programme for Demonstration of Nuclear Desalination" and the international symposium on "Nuclear Desalination of Seawater" held in Korea in 1997, have given momentum to national and inter-regional nuclear desalination programs in several countries. Industrial Projects are on the tracks in Argentina, Canada, China, France, India, Korea, Russia and South Africa. TO UNLOCK THE SOCIO-POLITICAL OBSTACLE The true obstacle to nuclear desalination is based on extremist societal behaviors that categorically oppose anything containing the slightest hint of nuclear energy. While the constraints are financial, the obstacle to be overcome is primarily socio-political. Suspected of the worst by a public opinion manipulated by the antinuclear associations, industrial circles dare not propose the use of nuclear energy. But this does not apply to international organization as AIEA, WWC, WONUC or AIGAM, which spontaneously enjoy strong credibility with public opinion. Armed with their independence and their neutrality, these organisations are thus the ideal facilitators for a meeting of the players in devising an effective answer to the problem of water. They control the conditions for overcoming the few difficulties that have hitherto hampered the implementation of the nuclear solution. With this in mind, holding a conference is both useful and timely, as it will provide a forum for a comprehensive update on nuclear desalination. AIM OF THE CONFERENCE Provide the decision makers and experts in the fields concerned with the technological, economic, marketing and sociological information indispensable for drawing up a water and electricity supply policy, in order to objectively appreciate the advantages and drawbacks of the nuclear solution, so that the decisions concerning research and aiming at an economic, sociological and ecological optimum, can be made with full impartiality and full objectivity. FORM OF THE CONFERENCE This meeting between scientists, financiers, industrialists and political leaders will take place in the form of an international conference. At the same time as the Conference, a technical exhibition will be held, enabling the industry to exhibit the technical solutions currently implemented or under investigation. The form of the conference is a scientific one with invited speakers and call for papers (oral or poster). Papers will be selected by the " blind " method by two members of the Scientific Board. A technical exhibition will take place simultaneously, where the nuclear and water industry companies can present their projects, their achievements, their skills and their expertise. ORGANIZERS The organizers of the Conference are the World Council of Nuclear Workers -WONUC and the Association of Moroccan Nuclear Engineers - AIGAM with the cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency - IAEA and the World Water Council / Conseil Mondial de l'Eau - WWC/CME. In the framework of the conference, IAEA. is in charge of a Symposium under the title "Advances in Nuclear Desalination". WORKSHOP AND DEMO In addition, a workshop and demo on the use of I.A.E.A. software tool "DEEP" for cost comparison of nuclear and non-nuclear desalination will be organized on the side of the Symposium CONFERENCE LOCATION The Conference will be held in Marrakesh (Morocco), in 2002, October, 16th to 18th, in the Conference Center of the Sheraton Hotel. CONFERENCE LANGUAGES The official languages of the conference are English and French. Simultaneous translation is provided. PROCEEDINGS The english copy of full papers presented will be published in unedited form as a CD-ROM. Selected papers may be considered for publication in journals such as "Desalination" and "Technovation. FOR MORE INFORMATION : [email protected]