In its
resolution 33/16 of 10 November 1978, the General Assembly approved the decision of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to request the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to include in its agenda consideration of technical aspects and safety measures relating to the use of nuclear power sources in outer space. For that purpose the Committee recommended that the Subcommittee should create a working group of experts, subsequently referred to as the Working Group, on the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space and opened to all member States of the Subcommittee.
Following that request, the Subcommittee for the first time formally considered technical aspects of and safety measures relating to the use of nuclear power sources in outer space at its sixteenth session, in 1979. Since that time, the item entitled "Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space" has been in the agenda of all subsequent sessions of the Subcommittee.
In the next years the Subcommittee continued, through its Working Group, its consideration of matters relating to the use of nuclear power sources in outer space, including the need for internationally acceptable scientific and technical criteria for design and safe use of nuclear power sources in outer space, enhancing of the safety margin of space objects with nuclear power sources on board and issues regarding to national and international research concerning the safety of nuclear power satellites.
The Subcommittee and its Working Group actively contributed to the preparation by the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations
Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space (adopted by the General assembly resolution 47/68 of 14 December 1992).
Currently the Subcommittee and its Working Group work under the multi-year work plan for developing an international, technically based framework of goals and recommendations for the safety of nuclear power source applications in outer space. The Subcommittee endorsed the work plan at its fortieth session in 2003 and amended it at its forty-second session in 2005.
In accordance with the work plan, in 2006 the Subcommittee, through its Working Group, will hold a joint technical workshop with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and will prepare a draft report on the Workshop.
Joint United Nations/ IAEA Technical Workshop on the Objectives, Scope and General Attributes of a Potential Technical Safety Standard for Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space, Vienna, 20-22 February 2006