Iranians prepare for life after sanctions
Tehran (AFP) July 16, 2015 -
For book lovers at a recent exhibition in Tehran the
"Buy Direct From Amazon" poster summed up their plight: if something
seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Iranian consumers, unlike millions who use the US online retail giant's
global websites every day, cannot click and buy. Besides lacking credit
cards, they are sealed off from international banking because of
sanctions.
But if ...
morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iranians_prepare_for_life_after_sanctions_999.html
Iran president must take risks to capitalise on deal
Tehran (AFP) July 16, 2015 -
President Hassan Rouhani has emerged a winner from
the Iran nuclear deal but if he is to cement his moderate reputation he
must confront long-sidelined domestic political challenges, analysts
said.
The nuclear talks dominated Rouhani's first two years in office, with
previously unsignalled direct negotiations with the United States
allowing him to begin to transform Iran's international rela ...
morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_president_must_take_risks_to_capitalise_on_deal_999.html
Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire - Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry. Nuclear Activities
Friday, July 17, 2015
Kerry to launch Gulf charm offensive to sell Iran deal
Kerry to launch Gulf charm offensive to sell Iran deal
Washington (AFP) July 16, 2015 - US Secretary of State John Kerry will head to the Gulf in August seeking to allay fears over the Iran nuclear deal, as Saudi Arabia Thursday warned Tehran against any further "mischief" in the region. Back at work only days after an 18-day negotiating marathon to seal the unprecedented accord, Kerry met Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, the beginning of a charm offensive designed to win ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Kerry_to_launch_Gulf_charm_offensive_to_sell_Iran_deal_999.html
Washington (AFP) July 16, 2015 - US Secretary of State John Kerry will head to the Gulf in August seeking to allay fears over the Iran nuclear deal, as Saudi Arabia Thursday warned Tehran against any further "mischief" in the region. Back at work only days after an 18-day negotiating marathon to seal the unprecedented accord, Kerry met Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, the beginning of a charm offensive designed to win ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Kerry_to_launch_Gulf_charm_offensive_to_sell_Iran_deal_999.html
Nuclear deal critics wooed, Iran leader urges caution
Nuclear deal critics wooed, Iran leader urges caution
Tehran (AFP) July 16, 2015 - Washington and London sought Thursday to ease concerns over the Iran nuclear accord as the country's supreme leader warned that major powers are not to be trusted over its implementation. As part of an international charm offensive, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposes the landmark accord struck on Tuesday in Vienna betw ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Nuclear_deal_critics_wooed_Iran_leader_urges_caution_999.html
Obama takes on opponents of Iran nuclear deal
Washington (AFP) July 16, 2015 - President Barack Obama on Wednesday confronted critics of the nuclear deal reached with Iran, saying they were at odds with "99 percent" of the world and had failed to offer any real alternative. As the freshly-inked deal was put to members of the UN Security Council, a combative and at times testy Obama said opponents at home and abroad had offered only a path to war. "If 99 percent of ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Obama_takes_on_opponents_of_Iran_nuclear_deal_999.html
Tehran (AFP) July 16, 2015 - Washington and London sought Thursday to ease concerns over the Iran nuclear accord as the country's supreme leader warned that major powers are not to be trusted over its implementation. As part of an international charm offensive, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposes the landmark accord struck on Tuesday in Vienna betw ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Nuclear_deal_critics_wooed_Iran_leader_urges_caution_999.html
Obama takes on opponents of Iran nuclear deal
Washington (AFP) July 16, 2015 - President Barack Obama on Wednesday confronted critics of the nuclear deal reached with Iran, saying they were at odds with "99 percent" of the world and had failed to offer any real alternative. As the freshly-inked deal was put to members of the UN Security Council, a combative and at times testy Obama said opponents at home and abroad had offered only a path to war. "If 99 percent of ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Obama_takes_on_opponents_of_Iran_nuclear_deal_999.html
Britain's Hammond reassures Israel over 'robust' Iran deal
Britain's Hammond reassures Israel over 'robust' Iran deal
Jerusalem (AFP) July 16, 2015 - British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday sought to reassure Israel over a nuclear deal between major powers and Iran, saying "robust measures" were in place to ensure its success. Israel has long opposed any deal with its arch-foe Iran, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the landmark agreement struck Tuesday between Tehran and six world powers as a "historic mistake" ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Britains_Hammond_reassures_Israel_over_robust_Iran_deal_999.html
Jerusalem (AFP) July 16, 2015 - British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Thursday sought to reassure Israel over a nuclear deal between major powers and Iran, saying "robust measures" were in place to ensure its success. Israel has long opposed any deal with its arch-foe Iran, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the landmark agreement struck Tuesday between Tehran and six world powers as a "historic mistake" ... morehttp://www.spacewar.com/reports/Britains_Hammond_reassures_Israel_over_robust_Iran_deal_999.html
Russia Puts Eight ICBMs Into Service
Russia Puts Eight ICBMs Into Service
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Puts_Eight_ICBMs_Into_Service_999.html
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_Puts_Eight_ICBMs_Into_Service_999.html
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Energy Industry Briefing Web Conference Series
Today’s
utility industry faces massive changes and disruptions that make doing
business as usual impossible. Even a partial list of these changes can
be overwhelming:
However,
some utilities are beginning to find that they can harness the power of
all these changes to attain previously inconceivable benefits,
including improved adaptability and flexibility, increased employee and
customer adoption of new technologies and programs, and greater return
on investment from strategic projects.
Reserve your spot at a web conference to learn how to manage this change within your organization!
With
the guidance of E Source and Prosci, a global pioneer in change
management best-practice research, these forward-thinking utilities have
found that people have to change how they work and how they interact if
we want to get real business results out of all this change.
Join us on Wednesday July 22 at 2:00 p.m. EDT for the free web conference Deliver Business Results with Utility Change Management to learn how to make change work for you.
Speakers:
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This web conference is part of the E Source Industry Briefing Web Conference Series
that provides thought leadership, practical advice, and real-world case
studies to help the utility industry navigate a wide range of critical
strategic issues. Covering topics such as the next generation of
customer programs, holistic customer management, the future of
demand-side management and distributed energy resources, and successful
change management strategies, this series will provide you with
actionable insights and pragmatic recommendations from E Source experts.
Deliver Business Results with Utility Change Management
Learn the Seven Critical Factors for Successful Change Wednesday, July 22 | 2:00 p.m. EDT/11:00 a.m. PDT |
Entrepreneurial Startups Tackle Advanced Nuclear Reactor Designs
Posted: 16 Jul 2015 04:30 AM PDT
Almost
three dozen firms representing $1.3 billion of investor money are
pursuing technological innovations in the field of nuclear energy. A
June 2015 report by the Third Way, a Washington, DC, think tank, details
the mix of firms includes small startups and big-name investors like
Bill Gates.read morehttp://www.theenergycollective.com/dan-yurman/2249768/entrepreneurial-startups-tackle-advanced-nuclear-reactor-designs
Can Economic Growth Be Green?
Can Economic Growth Be Green?
How Prosperity Enables Environmental Progress
http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/dialogue/can-growth-be-green
What is Modern in Ecomodernism?
What is Modern in Ecomodernism?
Nature, Technology, and Politics in the Anthropocene
http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/dialogue/what-is-modern-in-ecomodernism
The Deal with Iran Is a Serious Blow to Threat Inflation
The Deal with Iran Is a Serious Blow to Threat Inflation
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-deal-with-iran-is-a-serious-blow-to-threat-inflation/AREVA awarded contract for nuclear energy site decommissioning
AREVA awarded contract for nuclear energy site decommissioning
http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2015/07/areva-awarded-a-contract-for-nuclear-energy-site-decommissioning.html?cmpid=EnlDailyPowerJuly162015&eid=288118515&bid=1123946
ANS Update: Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival 269
Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival 269By ansnuclearcafe on Jul 15, 2015 12:46 pmThe 269th edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Yes Vermont Yankee •Click here to access Carnival 269. Each week, a new edition of the Carnival is hosted Continue Reading → Read in browser »   |
After a historic nuclear agreement, challenges ahead for Iran
After a historic nuclear agreement, challenges ahead for Iran
http://thebulletin.org/after-historic-nuclear-agreement-challenges-ahead-iran8504The experts assess the Iran agreement of 2015
The experts assess the Iran agreement of 2015
http://thebulletin.org/experts-assess-iran-agreement-20158507
Guest Post by Michael Shellenberger: USA Today: Campaign to stop fracking sacrifices nature for ideology
It is hard to remember now, but it wasn't so long ago that
natural gas was seen as one of the most important solutions to global
warming and a cleaner environment. That's one reason a new report
released this month shows that natural gas has eclipsed coal as the largest U.S. source of electricity for the first time.
USA Today: Campaign to stop fracking sacrifices nature for ideology
What changed? Gas became cheap and abundant thanks to fracking. And where conventional natural gas production was historically centered in the oil patch, shale gas is often present in places such as upstate New York, where a lot more environmentalists live. As a result, while gas remains the state's No. 1 source of electricity, its production there has been effectively banned.
USA Today: Campaign to stop fracking sacrifices nature for ideology
Environmental groups used to call natural gas a "bridge fuel" away from coal to renewables. The Sierra Club was so enthusiastic that between 2007 and 2010, according to Time magazine, it accepted $25 million in funding from oil and gas interests to pay a small army of lawyers and lobbyists as part of its "Beyond Coal" campaign.
But a few years later, the environmental movement reversed its position. Recently, the National Resources Defense Council successfully lobbied
for a ban on fracking — the practice of cracking open underground oil
and gas formations with water, sand and chemicals — for natural gas in
New York state. The Sierra Club abruptly ended its alliance with the
industry and announced a "Beyond Natural Gas" campaign. A recent Gallup poll
finds 40% of Americans support fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, and
40% oppose it, with environmentalists and Democrats most likely to
oppose it.What changed? Gas became cheap and abundant thanks to fracking. And where conventional natural gas production was historically centered in the oil patch, shale gas is often present in places such as upstate New York, where a lot more environmentalists live. As a result, while gas remains the state's No. 1 source of electricity, its production there has been effectively banned.
Goaded on by grassroots opposition to fracking and fearing that
cheap gas would slow down the transition to renewable energy,
environmental leaders now claim that fracking is contaminating wells and depleting aquifers, and that leaking natural gas makes fracking worse for global warming than coal.
In reality, gas remains a vastly superior source of energy than coal by virtually every environmental metric — just as it was a decade ago. That's because coal is a dirty sponge rock. Burning it emits mercury, a toxic heavy metal, and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. You have to literally blow the tops off of mountains to get the stuff. Whole river watersheds in West Virginia are buried under toxic debris. This month, thanks, in part, to natural gas, new federal statistics show mountain top mining is down 62% since 2008.
Natural gas is so clean, many of us burn it in our kitchens without need for chimneys or vents. It emits practically no mercury and 17 to 40 times less sulfur dioxide, according to our study with Breakthrough Institute. As for water, simply switching electricity production from coal to natural gas saves 25 to 50 times more water.
Critics claim these benefits are not being realized because gas has displaced renewable energy and nuclear power instead of coal. In reality, our analysis shows that more than 90% of the growth in gas-fired generation since the onset of the shale gas revolution in 2005 has replaced coal-fired generation.
Far from undercutting renewables, wind and solar energy depend on the gas-fired generation to keep the lights on when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, which is about two-thirds or more of the time for the average wind or solar plant. Without natural gas, utilities would have to ramp coal plants up and down rapidly to back up variable renewable energy sources, which makes coal plants even dirtier because it requires operating them less efficiently.
A study at University of Texas-Austin, meanwhile, found that the amount of natural gas that leaks during its production has decreased. Even if methane leak rates were substantially higher, there would be little climate impact because it is a short-lived greenhouse gas and mostly irrelevant to the rate at which long-term temperatures will rise.
The main event when it comes to the fight against global warming is still carbon dioxide, not methane, and there are few better ways to reduce carbon emissions than replacing coal plants with gas turbines. It is more than a little ironic that at the moment that gas became cheap and abundant enough to displace coal at large scale, environmental groups began to oppose it.
Fracking, of course, does not come without environmental costs. But the real impacts of fracking are felt locally. In places such as Pennsylvania and Colorado, fracking is industrializing rural landscapes that haven't seen large-scale energy production for a century or more. The rigs, pipelines and truck traffic are changing bucolic landscapes that many people rightly care deeply about. Local communities are struggling to balance the rights of landowners to exploit their mineral resources and the need for development in rural communities that are struggling economically with quality of life for affected community members. These are legitimate debates, probably best addressed locally through cooperative problem-solving and old-fashioned bargaining, but we should not in those discussions forget the larger context.
Ultimately, how America navigates the fracking wars will have a lot to say about how clean our air will be and how much carbon we will emit in the coming decades. Energy transitions come slowly, and it is highly improbable that gas production avoided through moratoriums such as New York's will be replaced in significant part with renewable energy.
Too often, blocking energy development locally simply outsources it somewhere else, often with much greater social and environmental consequences. Developing a truly zero carbon energy system will take many decades. In the meantime, despite its local impacts, gas can bring us great environmental benefits.
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, co-founders of the Breakthrough Institute, are co-authors of An Ecomodernist Manifesto.
In reality, gas remains a vastly superior source of energy than coal by virtually every environmental metric — just as it was a decade ago. That's because coal is a dirty sponge rock. Burning it emits mercury, a toxic heavy metal, and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. You have to literally blow the tops off of mountains to get the stuff. Whole river watersheds in West Virginia are buried under toxic debris. This month, thanks, in part, to natural gas, new federal statistics show mountain top mining is down 62% since 2008.
Natural gas is so clean, many of us burn it in our kitchens without need for chimneys or vents. It emits practically no mercury and 17 to 40 times less sulfur dioxide, according to our study with Breakthrough Institute. As for water, simply switching electricity production from coal to natural gas saves 25 to 50 times more water.
Critics claim these benefits are not being realized because gas has displaced renewable energy and nuclear power instead of coal. In reality, our analysis shows that more than 90% of the growth in gas-fired generation since the onset of the shale gas revolution in 2005 has replaced coal-fired generation.
Far from undercutting renewables, wind and solar energy depend on the gas-fired generation to keep the lights on when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, which is about two-thirds or more of the time for the average wind or solar plant. Without natural gas, utilities would have to ramp coal plants up and down rapidly to back up variable renewable energy sources, which makes coal plants even dirtier because it requires operating them less efficiently.
A study at University of Texas-Austin, meanwhile, found that the amount of natural gas that leaks during its production has decreased. Even if methane leak rates were substantially higher, there would be little climate impact because it is a short-lived greenhouse gas and mostly irrelevant to the rate at which long-term temperatures will rise.
The main event when it comes to the fight against global warming is still carbon dioxide, not methane, and there are few better ways to reduce carbon emissions than replacing coal plants with gas turbines. It is more than a little ironic that at the moment that gas became cheap and abundant enough to displace coal at large scale, environmental groups began to oppose it.
Fracking, of course, does not come without environmental costs. But the real impacts of fracking are felt locally. In places such as Pennsylvania and Colorado, fracking is industrializing rural landscapes that haven't seen large-scale energy production for a century or more. The rigs, pipelines and truck traffic are changing bucolic landscapes that many people rightly care deeply about. Local communities are struggling to balance the rights of landowners to exploit their mineral resources and the need for development in rural communities that are struggling economically with quality of life for affected community members. These are legitimate debates, probably best addressed locally through cooperative problem-solving and old-fashioned bargaining, but we should not in those discussions forget the larger context.
Ultimately, how America navigates the fracking wars will have a lot to say about how clean our air will be and how much carbon we will emit in the coming decades. Energy transitions come slowly, and it is highly improbable that gas production avoided through moratoriums such as New York's will be replaced in significant part with renewable energy.
Too often, blocking energy development locally simply outsources it somewhere else, often with much greater social and environmental consequences. Developing a truly zero carbon energy system will take many decades. In the meantime, despite its local impacts, gas can bring us great environmental benefits.
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, co-founders of the Breakthrough Institute, are co-authors of An Ecomodernist Manifesto.
Reactions from fear to fury follow the Iran nuclear deal
Reactions from fear to fury follow the Iran nuclear deal
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/reactions-from-fear-to-fury-follow-the-iran-nuclear-deal/article25511872/
Fukushima Update 7/16/15
Fukushima Update 7/16/15 –
Removal of the unit #1 enclosure roof at F. Daiichi will begin later this month… The IAEA has finished its inspection of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke station in Niigata Prefecture… Decontamination of the Fukushima “J-Village” has begun… Tokyo approves restart safety for Ikata unit #3 in Ehime Prefecture… Tokyo warns against increased dependence on fossil fuel for electricity generation.
http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.
Removal of the unit #1 enclosure roof at F. Daiichi will begin later this month… The IAEA has finished its inspection of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuke station in Niigata Prefecture… Decontamination of the Fukushima “J-Village” has begun… Tokyo approves restart safety for Ikata unit #3 in Ehime Prefecture… Tokyo warns against increased dependence on fossil fuel for electricity generation.
http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.
Land deal signed for £10bn Cumbria nuclear power plant
Land deal signed for £10bn Cumbria nuclear power plant
http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2015/07/15/land-deal-signed-for-10bn-cumbria-nuclear-power-plant/
US-China Nuclear Trade Vital to American Interests
US-China Nuclear Trade Vital to American Interests
- Continued trade supports U.S. economy, nuclear safety and nonproliferation goals
- Renewal of China 123 agreement under congressional review
- NEI supports entry into force of new agreement “without delay”
http://www.nei.org/News-Media/News/News-Archives/US-China-Nuclear-Trade-Vital-to-American-Interests
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