A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons (see nuclear-weapon-free zone) and nuclear power plants are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question. As control of such technology is at the federal or national level, nuclear weapons and components have freely traversed through, nuclear-free zones via military transport without the knowledge or consent of local authorities.
Nuclear free zones usually do not address nor prohibit radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine, even though many of these are produced in nuclear reactors. Nuclear Free Zones typically do not prohibit other nuclear technologies such as cyclotrons used in particle physics.
Several local authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, this label is often symbolic, as nuclear policy is usually determined and regulated at higher levels of government. New Zealand was the first Western-allied nation to legislate towards a national nuclear free zone, effectively renouncing the nuclear deterrent.
Famous quotes containing the word zone:
“There was a continuous movement now, from Zone Five to Zone Four. And from Zone Four to Zone Three, and from us, up the pass. There was a lightness, a freshness, and an enquiry and a remaking and an inspiration where there had been only stagnation. And closed frontiers. For this is how we all see it now.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)