I am not afraid to say that this inevitable crisis has been healthy: it has given the world a few decades warning of the physical shortages to come. It was only in 1975 that the reality and irreversability of this situation came clearly to light. Each country reacted differently (see Fig. 1). In the United States, President Nixon launched the Independence Plan whose objective was energy independence by 1980. This plan, many times revised, is very far from its fixed objective. In Europe, and particularly in France, the nuclear energy program has been reinforced and relatively little delayed in spite of very strong pressure by ecologists. Japan, though very poor in fossil resources, has fewer problems than other countries because of its surplus trade balance, nevertheless she is also banking on electronuclear energy. In short, all national economies, including those of the oil producing countries, have been deeply disrupted and a new world stability is still far out of reach. Everywhere, new forms of energy are being intensely studied, but there are many problems — particularly in the field of energy storage; on the whole, these new forms of energy just cannot compensate for the expense or scarcity of oil during the next two decades. After that period, I would put myself among those who believe the energy crisis will no longer exist; it is my opinion that fast-breeder techniques will be mastered industrially as will the problem of reprocessing irradiated combustibles. The fusion of deteurium-tritium-helium will perhaps be on the point of realization in the laboratory and, after one or two decades, we can hope to go on to the industrial stage. However, even in the light of these rather optimistic hypotheses, we must not fall
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