industryterm:nuclear energy

“National security” cited as reason Al Jazeera nixed Israel lobby film | The Electronic Intifada
▻https://electronicintifada.net/content/national-security-cited-reason-al-jazeera-nixed-israel-lobby-film/24566

Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary into the US Israel lobby was censored by Qatar over “national security” fears, The Electronic Intifada has learned.

These include that broadcast of the film could add to pressure for the US to pull its massive Al Udeid air base out of the Gulf state, or make a Saudi military invasion more likely.

A source has confirmed that broadcast of The Lobby – USA was indefinitely delayed as “a matter of national security” for Qatar. The source has been briefed by a high-level individual in Doha.

One of the Israel lobby groups whose activities are revealed in the film has been mounting a campaign to convince the US to withdraw its military forces from Qatar – which leaders in the emirate would see as a major blow to their security.

The tiny gas-rich monarchy houses and funds satellite channel Al Jazeera.

In April, managers at the channel were forced to deny a claim by a right-wing American Zionist group that the program has been canceled altogether.

In October 2017, the head of Al Jazeera’s investigative unit promised that the film would be aired “very soon.”

Yet eight months later, it has yet to see the light of day.

In March, The Electronic Intifada exclusively published the first concrete details of what is in the film.

The film reportedly identifies a number of lobby groups as working directly with Israel to spy on American citizens using sophisticated data gathering techniques. The documentary is also said to cast light on covert efforts to smear and intimidate Americans seen as too critical of Israel.

Some of the activity revealed in the film could include US organizations acting as front operations for Israel without registering as agents of a foreign state as required by US law.

The latest revelation over the censored film shows how seriously Qatar’s leadership is taking threats of repercussions should it air.

Threats
The Israel lobby groups reported on in the film could be expected to take legal action against Al Jazeera if it is broadcast.

However, such threats alone would be unlikely to deter Al Jazeera from broadcasting the film.

The network has a history of vigorously defending its work and it was completely vindicated over complaints about a documentary aired in January 2017 that revealed how Israel lobby groups in Britain collude with the Israeli embassy, and how the embassy interfered in British politics.

Israel’s supporters are also pushing for the US Congress to force the network, which has a large US operation, to register as a “foreign agent” in a similar fashion to Russian channel RT.

But the high-level individual in Doha’s claim that the film is being censored as “a matter of national security” ties the affair to even more serious threats to Qatar and bolsters the conclusion that the censorship is being ordered at the highest level of the state.

A year ago, with the support of US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a transport and economic blockade on the country.

Saudi rulers and their allies see Qatar as too independent of their influence and too open to relations with their regional rival Iran, and the blockade was an attempt to force it to heel.

The Saudis and Israel accused Qatar of funding “terrorism,” and have taken measures to restrict Al Jazeera or demanded it be shut down altogether over what they perceive as the channel’s anti-Israel and anti-Saudi-monarchy biases.

The blockade and the diplomatic assault sparked existential fears in Qatar that Saudi-led forces could go as far as to invade and install a more pliant regime in Doha.

French newspaper Le Monde reported on Friday that the Saudi king has threatened “military action” against Qatar should it go ahead with a planned purchase of a Russian air defense missile system.

In 2011, Saudi and Emirati forces intervened in Bahrain, another small Gulf nation, at the request of its ruling Khalifa monarchy in order to quell a popular uprising demanding democratic reforms.

For three years, US and British-backed Saudi and Emirati forces have been waging a bloody and devastating war on Yemen to reimpose a Saudi-backed leadership on the country, clear evidence of their unprecedented readiness to directly use military force to impose their will.

And no one in the region will have forgotten how quickly Iraqi forces were able to sweep in and take over Kuwait in August 1990.

Air base
The lesson of the Kuwait invasion for other small Gulf countries is that only the protection of the United States could guarantee their security from bigger neighbors.

Qatar implemented that lesson by hosting the largest US military facility in the region, the massive Al Udeid air base.

The Saudi-led bloc has pushed for the US to withdraw from the base and the Saudi foreign minister predicted that should the Americans pull out of Al Udeid, the regime in Doha would fall “in less than a week.”

US warplanes operate from the Al Udeid air base near Doha, Qatar, October 2017. US Air Force Photo
It would be a disaster from the perspective of Doha if the Israel lobby was to put its full weight behind a campaign to pull US forces out of Qatar.

Earlier this year, an influential member of Congress and a former US defense secretary publicly discussed moving the US base out of Qatar at a conference hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

FDD is a neoconservative Israel lobby group that happens to be one of the subjects of the undercover Al Jazeera film.

As The Electronic Intifada revealed in March, FDD is one of the groups acting as an agent of the Israeli government even though it is not registered to do so.

In July 2017, FDD’s Jonathan Schanzer testified to Congress that it would be an “insane arrangement” to keep US forces at the Al Udeid air base while Qatar continued to support “terror.”

It will concentrate minds in Doha that FDD was one of the lobby groups most dedicated to destroying the international deal with Iran over its nuclear energy program, a goal effectively achieved when the Trump administration pulled out of it last month.

In a sign of how vulnerable Qatar feels over the issue, Doha has announced plans to upgrade the Al Udeid base in the hope, as the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes put it, “that the strategic military hub will be counted as one of the Pentagon’s permanent overseas installations.”

The final straw?
The cornerstone of Qatar’s effort to win back favor in Washington has been to aggressively compete with its Gulf rivals for the affections of Israel and its Washington lobby.

Their belief appears to be that this lobby is so influential that winning its support can result in favorable changes to US policy.

Qatar’s charm offensive has included junkets to Doha for such high-profile Israel supporters as Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Morton Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization of America who publicly took credit for convincing Qatar’s ruler Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to veto broadcast of the documentary.

While an all-out Saudi invasion of Qatar over a film series may seem far fetched, the thinking in Doha seems to be that broadcast of The Lobby – USA could be the final straw that antagonizes Qatar’s enemies and exposes it to further danger – especially over Al Udeid.

With an administration in Washington that is seen as impulsive and unpredictable – it has just launched a trade war against its biggest partners Canada and the European Union – leaders in Doha may see it as foolhardy to take any chances.

If that is the reason Al Jazeera’s film has been suppressed it is not so much a measure of any real and imminent threat Qatar faces, but rather of how successfully the lobby has convinced Arab rulers, including in Doha, that their well-being and longevity rests on cooperating with, or at least not crossing, Israel and its backers.

Asa Winstanley is associate editor and Ali Abunimah is executive director of The Electronic Intifada.

Qatar Al Jazeera The Lobby—USA Al Udeid air base Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Donald Trump Jared Kushner Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Bahrain Iran Kuwait Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Jonathan Schanzer Morton Klein Alan Dershowitz Zionist Organization of America

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Ali Abunimah 2 June 2018

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Asa Winstanley 31 May 2018

Israeli minister threatens to destroy Gaza “once and for all”
Ali Abunimah 30 May 2018

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How US sanctions on Iran can help Russia win trade battle with European rivals — RT Business News
▻https://www.rt.com/business/428532-russia-iran-us-sanctions

Russian companies working in Iran have an advantage over European rivals – they are already under US sanctions, so they have nothing to lose, TeleTrade Chief Analyst Petr Pushkarev told RT.

“Russian companies will continue doing business in Iran as if nothing happened at all – in oil, gas and nuclear energy. They have this advantage over the Europeans, who, like Total or Airbus, have major businesses in the US and are listed on American exchanges,” Pushkarev said.

India & Iran drop dollar in oil trade to bypass US sanctions – report
Companies from Russia can simply ignore Washington’s threats of imposing fines for trade with Iran or for conducting projects in Iran, the analyst says. Russian trade with Iran accounts only for $2 billion, but it can grow significantly, Pushkarev notes.

“This is quite real because Russia and Iran are natural allies in Syria. #Rosneft has preliminary agreements with Iran worth up to $30 billion, and even if only a small part of these plans are implemented with Russia, and not with European partners, it can be a significant gain for Moscow,” he said.

Another possible sphere for boosting business ties between Moscow and Tehran are contracts for the delivery of civil aviation aircraft, Pushkarev says. Iran planned the purchase of 100 aircraft from Boeing, 80 from Airbus and another 20 from the Franco-Italian ATR. “Russia will have a chance to deliver its MC-21 jets, if Iran agrees to wait for a couple of years, since the aircraft is just on the way and ends the testing phase,” he said.

Une ouverture à l’exportation pour le tout nouveau Irkout #MS-21 ?

Irkout MS-21 — Wikipédia
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irkout_MS-21

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Maiden_flight_of_MC-21.jpg/1200px-Maiden_flight_of_MC-21.jpg

En 2009, Irkut annonce une première sortie de chaîne en 2014 et une certification européenne en 2016. Sa version de base MS-21-200 de 150 places devrait être suivie du MS-21-300 de 180 places et du MS-21-400 de 210 places.

En septembre 2014, à la suite de retards, on déclare qu’il fera son premier vol en avril 2016 et entrera en service en 2017. Il est prévu d’en construire 50 exemplaires par an à partir de 2018.

Le MS-21-300 effectue son premier vol le 28 mai 2017 à Irkoutsk. Il est rejoint par un deuxième prototype le 12 mai 2018.

Israel and the U.S. are triggering a risky, unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East

Triggering a Risky, Unnecessary War of Choice in the Middle East
But neither Israel’s prime minister, nor other regional U.S. allies, have any assurances America will stick around to manage the dangerous fallout from the Iran deal’s implosion

Daniel Levy May 10, 2018

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-and-the-u-s-are-triggering-a-risky-unnecessary-war-in-the-m

We will probably never know the extent of responsibility Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears for the U.S. withdrawal, under President Trump, from the Iran nuclear deal.
U.S.- Iranian relations have certainly long been poisonous, independent of Israel. Congressional enthusiasm for the deal was always low and, within the GOP, support for it near non-existent.
Still, Netanyahu and the campaign he spearheaded certainly helped to create part of the backdrop to Trump‘s announcement; indeed, in his announcement, Trump gave Israel direct credit for supposedlysupplying “definitive proof” that Iran’s nuclear intentions were never peaceful. Not for the first time, a U.S. presidential text read like it was written in Jerusalem. 

Israel will now have to live with the consequences of that success. Following Trump’s announcement, the nuclear deal is now on a clear path to unravelling completely, with only a small chance of reversing that trajectory.
Iran has been honoring the stipulations of the JCPOA, something that Netanyahu and the deal’s many critics said would never happen, and they have produced no evidence to the contrary.
The concerns which the U.S. and Israel had raised regarding the limitations of the deal, and with which Europeans, at least, were sympathetic – the sunset clause arrangements regarding Iranian nuclear energy, ballistic missile development, and especially the challenges posed by Iran regionally – all will now have to be addressed in an atmosphere of growing crisis.
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That atmosphere will only be heightened now the nuclear issue is presumably back on the table, while tensions are escalating on Israel’s northern border, and the value of American international commitments have been significantly devalued. 
Without batting an eye-lid, President Trump has effectively just called his European allies (as well as the Chinese and Russians) a bunch of morons for negotiating what he described as a “horrible,” "one-sided," “decayed,” "rotting" and “defective” deal.
Despite his recent protestations that a shortcoming of the nuclear deal was its failure to address Iran’s regional ambitions, Netanyahu was among those who pushed hardest to keep the nuclear and regional files separate in any P5+1 dealings with Iran. He has now helped bring those two together.
After Trump’s withdrawal decision there might be an attempt to create a semblance of continuity – Europeans and Iranians might explore avenues for retaining the deal which was, after all, blessed by the UN, and they could attempt to address the additional concerns raised by the U.S. But the odds are heavily stacked against that succeeding, if it is even attempted. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on Iran’s nuclear program, in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2018.JACK GUEZ/AFP
Europe cannot salvage the deal without the U.S. Thus far, Iran has implemented its side of the bargain without the reciprocal economic easing really materializing – that is primarily because European banks and companies feared being frozen out by U.S. financial institutions. Now what was speculation and risk management from European business has become fact, even fewer in the European private sector will risk extensive business dealings with Iran.

A strong economic stand by Europe against U.S. direct and secondary sanctions, possibly even at the WTO, might make a difference. There are few signs that Europe is preparing such a response. 
On the Iranian side the smart money will be on this strengthening those who cautioned against any expectations from the West in general, and the U.S. in particular, to honor agreements. 
To try and claim, as the White House has done recently, that this exit could be a prelude to a better deal is to stretch incredulity to breaking point.
The logic of Trump’s announcement is that he and his team expect one of three scenarios to play out - regime change in Iran, capitulation by Iran or confrontation with Iran.
The music suggests that that the U.S. is betting on scenarios one or two. Neither option has much going for it other than wishful thinking. American-driven attempts at regime change have a very poor record indeed in the Middle East, and anyone who thinks that Iran will agree to terms dictated by Washington, Riyadh and Jerusalem has not been paying attention.
All of which points in the direction of an increasing likelihood of the gloves coming off and of direct confrontation between some combination of the key protagonists (the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia on one side, Iran, Hezbollah and allied militias, including in Iraq, on the other.)

Neal Stephenson : Innovation Starvation | WIRED
▻https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvation

https://media.wired.com/photos/59327b9858b0d64bb35d21ba/191:100/pass/MHopkins_tree02_w.jpg

par Neil Stephenson

Still, I worry that our inability to match the achievements of the 1960s space program might be symptomatic of a general failure of our society to get big things done. My parents and grandparents witnessed the creation of the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy, and the computer to name only a few. Scientists and engineers who came of age during the first half of the 20th century could look forward to building things that would solve age-old problems, transform the landscape, build the economy, and provide jobs for the burgeoning middle class that was the basis for our stable democracy.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 crystallized my feeling that we have lost our ability to get important things done. The OPEC oil shock was in 1973 — almost 40 years ago. It was obvious then that it was crazy for the United States to let itself be held economic hostage to the kinds of countries where oil was being produced. It led to Jimmy Carter’s proposal for the development of an enormous synthetic fuels industry on American soil. Whatever one might think of the merits of the Carter presidency or of this particular proposal, it was, at least, a serious effort to come to grips with the problem.

The audience at Future Tense was more confident than I that science fiction [SF] had relevance — even utility — in addressing the problem.

I heard two theories as to why:

The Inspiration Theory. SF inspires people to choose science and engineering as careers. This much is undoubtedly true, and somewhat obvious.
The Hieroglyph Theory. Good SF supplies a plausible, fully thought-out picture of an alternate reality in which some sort of compelling innovation has taken place. A good SF universe has a coherence and internal logic that makes sense to scientists and engineers. Examples include Isaac Asimov’s robots, Robert Heinlein’s rocket ships, and William Gibson’s cyberspace. As Jim Karkanias of Microsoft Research puts it, such icons serve as hieroglyphs — simple, recognizable symbols on whose significance everyone agrees.

Today’s belief in ineluctable certainty is the true innovation-killer of our age. In this environment, the best an audacious manager can do is to develop small improvements to existing systems — climbing the hill, as it were, toward a local maximum, trimming fat, eking out the occasional tiny innovation — like city planners painting bicycle lanes on the streets as a gesture toward solving our energy problems. Any strategy that involves crossing a valley — accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance — will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done.

#Science_fiction #Innovation #Neil_Stephenson

Behind the extravagant hype of an Israeli-Saudi ’courtship’, Israel is setting the price for Riyadh to go nuclear

The exaggerated reports and rumours about ever-closer ties are trial balloons: Jerusalem is signalling its reluctant assent to Riyadh obtaining a nuclear deterrent – but at a high price

Victor Kattan Feb 13, 2018

The real stumbling block between the two countries isn’t just the Palestinian issue. The elephant in the relationship, which is far less often mentioned, is Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of nuclear power.
Israel is currently fighting a political battle in Washington to stop the U.S. from letting Riyadh develop its own nuclear energy program that would allow it to enrich uranium that could be used to develop a bomb.
Israel has good reason to be concerned. According to reports, the Trump administration might be willing to lower certain safeguards that prevent U.S. companies from sharing sensitive nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia for fear that it might be used to develop weapons. This administration might not insist on the same precautions that Obama did in its nuclear cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi, for example, which forfeited its right to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium.

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, at a news conference to mark the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, Iran. Feb. 6, 2018ATTA KENARE/AFP
In its negotiations with the U.S., Saudi Arabia is not backing down from its demand to enrich uranium under its planned civilian nuclear program – using, ironically, as its rationale, the conditions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in which Iran has been allowed to enrich uranium. Prince Turki has made it clear, more than once, that should Iran acquire nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries would look at all available options to meet the potential threat, including the acquisition of nuclear weapons. 
The only snag for Saudi Arabia is the U.S. Congress, because this is where Israel has influential friends. Even if a deal is reached between Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration, Congress could either block the deal or add clauses preventing the U.S. from selling Saudi Arabia technology needed to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium. 
It is more than possible that through its media campaign, Israel is sending a signal to Riyadh that it understands very well Saudi Arabia’s desire for a nuclear deterrent regarding Iran - but there’s a price to be paid for Israel reducing the level of its direct and indirect opposition in Congress to an independent Saudi nuclear capability.
What Israel appears to be saying to Saudi Arabia, via a variety of trial balloons, is that if Riyadh wants Israel’s help with obtaining support from Congress, then Israel wants something in return: Jerusalem, overflight rights for Israeli aircraft, direct military cooperation and intelligence exchanges, lucrative business deals for Israeli companies in Saudi Arabia, and so on.
The publication of stories about Israel’s ever-closer relationship with Saudi Arabia, which are then magnified by media conglomerates in Qatar and Iran, is certainly one way of ensuring that the messages are received loud and clear.
Saudi Arabia would likely have anticipated that Congress could give them trouble as it has done before. 
But this time things might be different - and these changes might scupper Israel’s strategy.

President Donald Trump meets with Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington D.C. March 14, 2017Evan Vucci/AP
A deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia could aid the ailing U.S. nuclear industry and have wider benefits for corporate America. Moreover, the U.S. does not have a monopoly on nuclear technology.
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has already visited Moscow and signed agreements with Russia to build 16 nuclear reactors by 2030. Saudi Arabia already has nuclear related understandings with China, France, Pakistan, South Korea, and Argentina. One expert has even suggested that Pakistan could assist Saudi Arabia by supplying Riyadh with sensitive equipment, materials, and the expertise that would aid Riyadh with enrichment or processing.
Riyadh is also expanding research at the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy and developing a cadre of nuclear scientists. Saudi Arabia is home to large uranium deposits that could be extracted with the appropriate technology.
Obviously, Riyadh would prefer Washington’s blessing and support in developing its nuclear energy program within the rules of the global nonproliferation treaty rather than having to develop the program clandestinely with the aid of other states. Israel senses this, and would be willing to help Riyadh, but has set the price high.
Israel would far prefer a covert alliance with Saudi Arabia to contain Iran over the U.S. allowing Riyadh to develop an independent nuclear deterrent. But Jerusalem is working to prepare for both eventualities. Whether that strategy will work remains to be seen.
But should the Iran deal blow up on Trump’s watch, and Tehran acquires the capability to develop a weapon, no one should underestimate Riyadh’s resolve for self-preservation.
Victor Kattan is Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore and an Associate Fellow at the Faculty of Law. Twitter: @VictorKattan

New Release - #Energy #Transitions in the #Gulf: Key Questions on #Nuclear Power - Book Edited by Ali Ahmad
▻http://aub.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=C42219&c=33CE3&t=0&l=1181D762&email=SPojvuYjb%2FC2RIrz0o8eBqgp9yWU

Despite being among the world’s top oil producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Gulf’s largest economies, have ambitious plans to invest in nuclear power. As the interest in nuclear energy in the region grows, the need to better understand the underlying economic and security issues becomes a necessity.

In our new edited volume, “Energy Transitions in the Gulf: Key Questions on Nuclear Power” we examine the challenges and opportunities of nuclear power deployment in the Gulf and the wider Middle East region. The book is a result of a workshop held as part of the 2016 Gulf Research Meeting at the University of Cambridge, UK, under the auspices of the Gulf Research Center.

Content:
Introduction by Ali Ahmad
Download Introduction

Chapter 1: Economic Determinants of Nuclear Power in the Gulf by Omer Akkaya
Download Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Economics of Nuclear and Solar Desalination for the Middle East by Rami W. Bitar and Ali Ahmad
Download Chapter 2

Chapter 3: Requirements for High Solar Penetration in Electricity Production in Saudi Arabia by Philippe Chite and Ali Ahmad
Download Chapter 3

Chapter 4: Nuclear Energy for the Middle East: Technology Choices and Considerations by Abdalla Abou Jaoude and Anna Erickson
Download Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Iran, Uranium, and Future Proliferation Dynamics in the Middle East by Ryan Snyder
Download Chapter 5

Chapter 6: Confidence Today, Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East Tomorrow by Marianne Nari Fisher
Download Chapter 6
Download Entire Book ▻http://aub.bmetrack.com/c/l?u=785E5A1&e=C42219&c=33CE3&t=0&l=1181D762&email=SPojvuYjb%2FC2RIrz0o

The Economics of Nuclear-Powered Cargo Ships
▻https://www.flexport.com/blog/nuclear-powered-cargo-ships

https://www.flexport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ns-savannah.jpg

The Savannah was never meant to be a profit-making commercial operation. Instead, she was a political project initiated by Eisenhower to generate goodwill towards nuclear energy and the United States. Unfortunately for Eisenhower, she has become a symbol for the idea that nuclear-powered cargo ships have no future.

(article pro-nucléaire mais intéressant malgré tout)

#transport_maritime #histoire #nucléaire

EDITORIAL: The Washington_Post Editorial Board’s Epic Fail on ’#Carbon-Free' Nuclear Power - EnviroNews | The Environmental News Specialists
▻http://www.environews.tv/042817-editorial-washington-post-editorial-boards-epic-fail-carbon-free-n

https://cdn.environews.tv/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/WaPo-Editorial-Pic.46-PM-copy.png

An examination of nuclear energy from point A, where the drill bit hits the ground in the initial quest for uranium, to the process of uranium enrichment and zirconium-clad fuel rod production, on to energy generation, power plant dismantlement, nuclear waste disposal and finally uranium mine remediation, nuclear power presents anything but a clean and green energy paradigm. Au contraire, what can be observed is a dirty, deadly, carbon-loaded process that litters the environment with radioactive isotopes and radon gas, while dumping plenty of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere along the way. To top it all off, nuclear power facilities require an enormous amount of concrete, which releases heavy doses of CO2 as it dries. Does that all sound “carbon-free?” If so, sit tight, we’re just getting started.

#carbone #co2 #énergie #nucléaire #MSM #WAPO

Is the staggeringly profitable #business of scientific publishing bad for #science? | Science | The Guardian
►https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9e135a20cf9fee927748a64d2530218ea37aef27/0_356_9051_5432/master/9051.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxNi8wNS8yNS9vdmVybGF5LWxvZ28tMTIwMC05MF9vcHQucG5n&s=48c3d82daa6741c7d6d265be179f099f

The core of Elsevier’s operation is in scientific journals, the weekly or monthly publications in which scientists share their results. Despite the narrow audience, scientific publishing is a remarkably big business. With total global revenues of more than £19bn, it weighs in somewhere between the recording and the film industries in size, but it is far more profitable. In 2010, Elsevier’s scientific publishing arm reported profits of £724m on just over £2bn in revenue. It was a 36% margin – higher than Apple, Google, or Amazon posted that year.

[...]

It is difficult to overstate how much power a journal editor now had to shape a scientist’s career and the direction of science itself. “Young people tell me all the time, ‘If I don’t publish in CNS [a common acronym for Cell/Nature/Science, the most prestigious journals in biology], I won’t get a job,” says Schekman. He compared the pursuit of high-impact #publications to an incentive system as rotten as banking bonuses. “They have a very big #influence on where science goes,” he said.

And so science became a strange co-production between scientists and journal editors, with the former increasingly pursuing discoveries that would impress the latter. These days, given a choice of projects, a scientist will almost always reject both the prosaic work of confirming or disproving past studies, and the decades-long pursuit of a risky “moonshot”, in favour of a middle ground: a topic that is popular with editors and likely to yield regular publications. “Academics are incentivised to produce research that caters to these demands,” said the biologist and Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner in a 2014 interview, calling the system “corrupt.”

1,800 tons of radioactive waste has an ocean view and nowhere to go - LA Times
▻http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-stranded-nuclear-waste-20170702-htmlstory.html

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5953c7d6/turbine/la-me-stranded-nuclear-waste-pictures-012/.jpg

... like the other 79,000 tons of spent fuel spread across the nation, San Onofre’s nuclear waste has nowhere to go.

The nation’s inability to find a permanent home for the dangerous byproduct of its 50-year-adventure in nuclear energy represents one of the biggest and longest running policy failures in federal government history.

#nucléaire #déchets #etats-unis

Hit delete on the “right” to nuclear energy in new weapons ban, by Ray Acheson (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
▻http://thebulletin.org/hit-delete-right-nuclear-energy-new-weapons-ban

http://thebulletin.org/sites/default/files/Nuclear-plant.jpg

The so-called right to nuclear energy is already enshrined in the existing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and reflects an outdated understanding of the technology’s risks. It is part of an ill-conceived bargain designed to convince countries that don’t already have nuclear weapons not to develop them.

We know that nuclear energy increases proliferation opportunities. All nine nuclear-armed states have used nuclear reactors to create plutonium for their nuclear weapons. In the United Kingdom and France, civilian nuclear energy and military programs overlapped. North Korea and India acquired nuclear weapons through supposedly “peaceful” civilian nuclear programs. Fears about Iran’s nuclear energy program drove a major diplomatic effort to limit its ability to develop nuclear weapons.

(…) The ban treaty may not be able to curb nuclear energy, but it must not give any legitimacy to this failed and destructive technology.

#nucléaire #armement #énergie #traité #UN

Flamanville nuclear plant explosion exposes crisis in French nuclear industry - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/02/10/flam-f10.html

Greenpeace, which also opposes the use of nuclear energy, commented: “With two recent fires at the Catternom nuclear plant in Moselle this is the third fire at a nuclear plant in the last ten days.” According to Greenpeace: “The NSA itself declared that the state of Nuclear Security in France gives grounds for concern.” On the NSA web site, 12 more or less dangerous incidents in French nuclear plants were recorded for the months of December and January.
This is not the first technical incident at the Flamanville plant. The most important was the discharge of non-radioactive smoke in August 2015 from Reactor N°2. This incident provoked the triggering of an Emergency Plan for a number of hours.
Between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, Reactor N°2 had to be shut down for five weeks after the breakdown of a transformer that consequently had to be replaced. In October 2015, the EDF had declared a level 1 incident (the highest of 7 levels) after having discovered that wrong joints had been used in “a few” places on the both Reactor N°1 and N°2.
According to the newspaper 20 Minutes, at the end of 2016, 21 reactors out of the 58 installed in France had been shut down, that is more than one-third. Another 15 were stopped for “planned maintenance.” However, seven were being tested because of potentially defective steam generators. Since flaws had been detected in generators built in the Areva factory in Creusot, the NSA has imposed inspections of the 18 reactors equipped with generators from this factory.
The incident at Flamanville, even though fortunately not causing a nuclear catastrophe, underlines the critical state of the nuclear installations in France. The number of reactors that are coming up to or have already gone over 40 years of service, which EDF considers the maximum, is increasing. With the aging of the reactors, the cost of modernization before they can be replaced by a new generation of EPR reactors is increasing considerably.

#nucléaire

Global nuclear power : the interactive - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
▻http://thebulletin.org/global-nuclear-power-database

Our new datavisualization puts a wealth of information on 60 years of nuclear power plant startups and shutdowns at your fingertips

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/7z8nez0ll4v6744/the%20bulletin%20nuclear%20visualization.png?dl=0

une petite #cartographie interactive conçue et réalisée par @visionscarto et ►http://www.worldnuclearreport.org

#nucléaire #énergie #électricité #industrie_nucléaire

référence Visionscarto : ▻https://visionscarto.net/global-nuclear-power-database

Why not nuclear ? | The UB Post
▻http://theubpost.mn/2017/01/06/why-not-nuclear

http://theubpost.mn/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2013.6.18.blog48.jpg

бүү март, бүү дафт

Debate concerning the use of nuclear power has divided many scientists, leaders, and countries ever since the establishment of the world’s first nuclear power plant, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union.
[…]
Going nuclear, while also simultaneously pursuing renewable energy such as solar and wind, is the most beneficial route in terms of energy. With our current technology, renewable sources of power do not produce enough energy and are not sufficiently reliable. Statistics show that nuclear energy is not nearly as dangerous as perceived, and looks to be the future of energy. As the world works to move away from coal and strives to decrease carbon emissions, #Mongolia needs to be on the right side of history and get a head start.

#Mongolie #nucléaire ? …

Pro-nuclear countries making slower progress on climate targets
▻http://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/36547

A new study of European countries, published in the journal Climate Policy, shows that the most progress towards reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable energy sources – as set out in the EU’s 2020 Strategy – has been made by nations without nuclear energy or with plans to reduce it.

Conversely, pro-nuclear countries have been slower to implement wind, solar and hydropower technologies and to tackle emissions.

While it’s difficult to show a causal link, the researchers say the study casts significant doubts on nuclear energy as the answer to combating climate change.

#nucléaire #climat #énergies_renouvelables

Why it’s time to dispel the myths about nuclear power | Science | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/apr/11/time-dispel-myths-about-nuclear-power-chernobyl-fukushima

scare-stories about Chernobyl and Fukushima are too often employed as an empty rebuttal by those unwilling to countenance the situation we face.

Nuclear energy is complicated, has drawbacks, and like any form of energy production it has risks. But it is also clean, safe and hugely efficient.

OK OK donc Fukushima c’est rien qu’une histoire à faire peur, et Tchernobyl c’était rien — mais pourquoi ranger cet article dans #science et pas dans #propagande #nucléaire ?

In China, 110 nuclear reactors to be operational by 2030 | Business | chinadaily.com.cn

▻http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2015-12/04/content_22630779.htm

Puisqu’on parle de la Chine, cette nouvelle réjouissante (et cette fois-ci, comme par miracle, le lien marche !)

Exports of indigenous technologies to be key thrust in new five-year plan, says Power China

China will have 110 operational nuclear reactors by 2030, making it one of the largest nuclear energy users in the world by then, a leading power plant builder said on Thursday.

Power Construction Corp of China Ltd, also known as PowerChina, said that the total scale of nuclear power generation from reactors both under construction and in operation in the country will reach 88 gigawatts by the end of 2020, according to estimates in the draft 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for the power industry.

According to the draft plan, China will set aside 500 billion yuan ($78 billion) for setting up nuclear power plants using its homegrown nuclear technologies and add six to eight nuclear reactors every year from 2016 for the next five years.

#chine #nucléaire

Is Ukraine blocking Swiss investigation of Yatsenyuk ally?
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/is-ukraine-blocking-swiss-investigation-of-yatsenyuk-ally-398159.html

A powerful Ukrainian lawmaker facing a criminal investigation by Swiss law enforcement is being protected from prosecution by Ukrainian authorities, lawmakers allege.

Member of parliament Serhiy Leshchenko, who is part of President Petro Poroshenko’s dominant faction, sounded the alarm over the case at the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kyiv on Sept. 12.

He asked why Mykola Martynenko, deputy head of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front faction, had not been ousted from his post as head of parliament’s energy committee or even investigated in Ukraine, despite Switzerland having launched a criminal investigation into him on suspected bribery.

Martynenko, widely believed to handle finances for Yatsenyuk’s faction, faces bribery accusations by Swiss prosecutors in a case that has been kept secret for nearly two years.
[…]
Ukrainian authorities may have good reason for playing down the investigation: Swiss journalists reported that Martynenko accepted bribes from Skoda JS, a nuclear engineering company that positions itself as Czech-owned but is actually part of Russia’s OMZ engineering group – which is controlled by Kremlin-run Gazprombank.

Martynenko is accused of accepting roughly $30 million in bribes, though it was not clear how much of that allegedly came from Skoda JS.

Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung cited Swiss prosecutors as saying in March that Martynenko is suspected of taking bribes from Skoda JS in 2013 in order to grant the company a contract for the maintenance of nuclear reactors in Ukraine.

Skoda JS and Ukraine’s #Energoatom signed a memorandum of understanding on the deal last October, prompting some criticism from experts in nuclear energy.

“With this contract, the government in Kyiv wanted to create the impression among its people and the European Union that Ukraine had begun to depend on the West in the nuclear sector,” Yan Haverkamp, an expert on nuclear energy at Greenpeace, was cited as saying by Ukrainian media.

La Russie poursuit sa percée dans le secteur nucléaire au Moyen Orient, après la Russie et la Jordanie
Nuclear deal among key Saudi-Russian pacts | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
▻http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jun-20/302970-nuclear-deal-among-key-saudi-russian-pacts.ashx

Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed several key agreements, including on nuclear energy, after President Vladimir Putin met with Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman al Saud.

A Saudi government body in charge of such projects confirmed the agreements.

The government body, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, announced the nuclear cooperation deal on its website Thursday.

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, citing unidentified sources, said that the Gulf kingdom planned to construct 16 nuclear reactors in which Russia would play a significant role in operating.
[...]
In 2012, Saudi Arabia said it aimed to build 17 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power by 2032 as well as around 41 GW of solar capacity. The oil exporter currently has no nuclear power plants.

Nuclear and solar power stations would reduce the diversion of Saudi Arabia’s oil output for use in domestic power generation, leaving more available for export.

#énergie #electricité #nucléaire

U.S. moves in on Russia’s nuclear energy turf in Ukraine
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/business/us-moves-in-on-russias-nuclear-energy-turf-in-ukraine-345793.html

Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia subsided yet again this month when state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom on April 11 concluded a deal with America’s Westinghouse to supply fuel rods until 2020. The agreement came more than two weeks before Ukraine signed a memorandum with Slovakia for the supply of up to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to replace Russian blue fuel imports. The deal also comes on the heels of a scandal involving dented rods, competing interests and conflicting evidence.

L’accord a été signé le 11/04, le lendemain de son annonce comme probable ►http://seenthis.net/messages/246030 (avec les réserves de Rosatom)
L’accord sur le gaz avec la Slovaquie, c’était il y a 3 jours ►http://seenthis.net/messages/252000

Les crayons de combustible se déformaient dans les assemblages entrainant des risques pour . Pour Westinghouse, c’étaient les russes, pour TVEL les états-uniens. En fait, les deux !…

According to Forbes, in April 2012, after all rods were removed from an SUNPP reactor following a scheduled period of use, plant technicians discovered that in fact both the American and Russian rods had suffered dents and scratches to their containment structures, which threatened the integrity of the radioactive material inside. Nevertheless, the chief inspector of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate Michael Gashev recommended to an Energoatom commission that it only forbid the use of American rods.

L’accord prévoit un test de validation avant extension de l’utilisation du combustible provenant de Westinghouse.

As per the amended contract, in December 2014-January 2015 during scheduled maintenance the first batch of the modified rods will be loaded into the third unit of the SUNPP for a test period to collect data for approval by the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate. If all goes well, the rods can then enter regular usage.

Néanmoins, la coopération avec la Russie dans le domaine de l’énergie nucléaire se poursuit. Et Rosatom espère participer à la privatisation de Turboatom reportée pour les raisons que l’on sait…

Furthermore, Russia’s nuclear energy giant Rosatom is interested in privatizing Turboatom, a highly profitable Kharkiv-based producer of turbines for nuclear power plants. Privatization was expected to happen this year, though it was postponed due to political instability in the country and thus far remains unclear.

Nuclear Power’s Promise and Peril - Video - NYTimes.com

▻http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002847044/nuclear-power8217s-promise-and-peril.html?emc=edit_th_20140429&nl=todayshea

12 minutes très bien faites

Nuclear Power’s Promise and Peril
April 29th, 2014

More than three decades after the accident at Three Mile Island cast a shadow on the atomic dream, is America again ready to give nuclear energy a chance?

Erdoğan’s mega-projects promise mega-burdens for coming generations
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/news-345600-erdogans-mega-projects-promise-mega-burdens-for-coming-gene

The build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-lease-transfer (BLT) models seem to best suit Turkey’s needs in financing ambitious projects that cost a fortune at a time when problems in the global economy are making liquidity scarcity a prominent issue, but today’s dream may turn into a nightmare in the next decade with accumulating costs, experts warn.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has been hailed for its mega-projects, mostly in the fields of construction and energy, which are meant to boost welfare and create huge numbers of jobs. Nuclear energy power plants in Mersin and Sinop, 15 city hospitals in 14 provinces, a new airport in İstanbul with a capacity to serve 150 million passengers annually, a third bridge over the Bosporus, the “crazy project” of Kanal İstanbul to connect the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea and alleviate the dense and dangerous traffic on the Bosporus are only a few of these mega-projects. Their combined price tag is a hefty $150 billion. No money will be paid in advance for most of these projects, but the long-term costs will likely surge well beyond their total estimates for construction and operation, laying huge amounts of debt at the feet of the coming generations, experts say.

The nuclear reactor in Mersin’s Akkuyu district will be the first of its kind in Turkey to satisfy the country’s ever-growing hunger for energy. The estimated cost of the power plant is $20 billion, all to be met by the Russian-owned NGS Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. But the purchase guarantee by the government mars this extremely strategic investment. Turkey has pledged to purchase the electricity to be generated by this power plant for 15 years at a price of 12.35 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which equals $4.57 billion per year considering the plant’s planned capacity of 4.8 billion megawatts. This adds up to $68.54 billion to be paid by Turkey to the NGS, which means the amount to be paid out of the state coffers is more or less $48.5 billion.
The deal drew criticisms from many in the energy business, who largely drew attention to the price tag for the purchase guarantee, 12.35 cents per kWh. Yet nobody was sure whether the market price of electricity will be higher or lower by the end of the purchase guarantee term.

#Nucléaire
#Turquie
#Infrastructure

Still not loving ISDS: 10 reasons to oppose investors’ super-rights in EU trade deals | Corporate Europe Observatory
▻http://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2014/04/still-not-loving-isds-10-reasons-oppose-investors-super-rights-eu-t
▻http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/styles/fullwidth_nocrop/public/corporate-charter.jpg?itok=c2a6eZry

For example, tobacco giant Philip Morris is demanding US$2 billion from Uruguay over health warnings on cigarette packets; Swedish polluter Vattenfall is seeking over US$3.7 billion from Germany following a democratic decision to phase out nuclear energy; and Canadian company Lone Pine is suing Canada via a US-subsidiary for CAN$250 million after the Canadian province of Quebec imposed a moratorium on shale gas extraction (fracking) over environmental concerns.

http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/number-of-cases-mar2014.png

#TTIP
#ISDS
#investment-treaties
#investor-state dispute settlement
#Transatlantic-Trade-and-Investment-Partnership #TTIP
#CETA
#arbitration

Global Warming Scare Tactics - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/opinion/global-warming-scare-tactics.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

But there is every reason to believe that efforts to raise public concern about climate change by linking it to natural disasters will backfire. More than a decade’s worth of research suggests that fear-based appeals about climate change inspire denial, fatalism and polarization.

Messages focused on extreme weather events, they found, made many Americans more likely to view climate change as an act of God — something to be weathered, not prevented.

One recent study, published by Yale Law School’s Cultural Cognition Project, found that conservatives become less skeptical about global warming if they first read articles suggesting nuclear energy or geoengineering as solutions. Another study, in the journal Nature Climate Change in 2012, concluded that “communication should focus on how mitigation efforts can promote a better society” rather than “on the reality of climate change and averting its risks.”

Même si la conclusion (pro-nucléaire et géo-engineering) est très (très) discutable, il est intéressant de voir réfuter l’approche par la peur.

Jordanian king in Moscow to discuss bilateral ties
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19371

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/635302-01-08.jpg

Russia’s President #Vladimir_Putin (R) shakes hands with #Jordan's King Abdullah II during their meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, on April 9, 2014. Putin hosted today Jordan’s King Abdullah II for talks on #syria, nuclear energy and defence. (Photo: AFP- Ria-Novosti / Pool/ Alexey) #Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Jordan’s King Abdullah II during their meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, on April 9, 2014. Putin hosted today Jordan’s King Abdullah II for talks on Syria, nuclear energy and defence. (Photo: AFP- Ria-Novosti / Pool/ Alexey)

Russian President Vladimir Putin joked with his visitor King Abdullah II of Jordan in front of journalists (...)

#Mideast_&_North_Africa #Articles #Daraa #Iraq #King_Abdallah_II #Lebanon