@@ Iran's logic proven correct to the entire World @@
Arash
March 28, 2005
Kyoto Goes Nuclear
By Dr. James Gordon Prather
Nuclear weapons physicist
Following Russia's formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol) last November, it went into
force on February 16, 2005.
The Kyoto Protocol obligates "industrialized" signatories to reduce by 2012
their emissions of six "greenhouse gases" (Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous
oxide, Sulphur hexafluoride, Chlorofluorocarbons, and Perfluorocarbons) –
primarily carbon dioxide – to 5.2% below 1990 levels.
The United States is not a signatory.
Of course, it's obvious how one reduces greenhouse gases – go nuclear.
Nuclear power plants don't emit any greenhouse gases.
Perversely, five European Union signatories – including Belgium, with 60% of
its electricity nuclear – had already decided to phase out nuclear power.
Worse still, one of the conditions of EU accession is the closure of all
first-generation nuclear power plants. More than 85% of Lithuania's
electricity is generated by such plants.
Ironically, last week, in Paris, the International Atomic Energy Agency
sponsored the International Conference on Nuclear Power for the 21st Century
(http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Meetings/Announcements.asp?ConfID=122).
Guess what? Some EU countries – including Germany – are having second
thoughts about phasing out nuclear power.
For one thing, replacing Germany's nuclear power plants with coal-fired
plants would result in an increase of more than 170 million metric tons in
carbon dioxide emissions.
Finland will begin construction of Olkiluoto-3 later this year, and
Electricité de France is scheduled to begin construction in 2007 of a new
power plant at Flamanville.
Several EU accession states are determined to retain the nuclear option.
Even in Poland, where nuclear development was halted by parliamentary
decision in 1990, the Council of Ministers recently approved a draft energy
policy that explicitly includes nuclear power.
Of course, one of the weird things about the Kyoto protocol is that
developing countries like India and China, whose greenhouse gas emissions
have been rapidly increasing since 1990, are not really covered.
India depends upon domestically mined coal for more than half its energy
needs, and is the world's third-largest producer after China and the United
States. India imports 70% of its oil and half its natural gas. India's
natural gas demand will almost double by 2015.
Therefore, India announced plans to expand its nuclear generating capacity
ten-fold by 2022, and hundred-fold by mid-century.
However, India is not a signatory to the Treaty on Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Weapons. So, at the urging of the United States, the Nuclear
Suppliers Group is refusing to allow Russia to supply India any more such
things as nuclear power plants unless India subjects its entire nuclear
infrastructure – including its nuclear weapons program – to the IAEA
Safeguards regime.
Hence, India is developing an indigenous nuclear power plant production
capability, based upon the liquid-metal fast-breeder reactor, which breeds
plutonium fuel from a natural uranium blanket.
But what about China – also considered a developing country?
China burns about 1.5 billion tons of coal per year. China is the
second-largest importer of oil, consuming 120 million tons in 2004, up by
more than 33% from 2003. China currently imports 58% of its oil from the
Middle East, a figure expected to reach 70% by 2015.
China already has a 50% stake in the development of the Yahavaran oil field
in Iran. The Chinese National Petrochemical Corporation has acquired the
rights to explore for natural gas in Saudi Arabia's al-Khali basin.
Nevertheless, China plans to raise its total installed nuclear electricity
generating capacity from the current 6.5 gigawatts to 36 gigawatts by 2020.
The Russian Federation plans to raise its nuclear generating capacity from
the current 22 gigawatts to 40-45 gigawatts by 2020.
And, of course, Russia and China plan to build a half-dozen gigawatt plants
in Iran in the next few years – all subject to the IAEA Safeguards regime,
of course.
In Paris last week, U.S. Ambassador Constance Morella told conferees that
nuclear energy was "clean" and "reliable" and necessary in order for the
world to have a "secure energy supply."
Mohammad Saeidi, a vice president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
(http://www.aeoi.org.ir), delivered more or less the same message to the
conferees.
Oil and natural gas "are limited and belong to all subsequent generations"
and "unrestrained use of this source of energy is not prudent", he said.
Iran's goal, Saeidi added, is nothing less than "self-sufficiency in all
aspects of the peaceful use of nuclear energy".
Mohammad Saeidi called the research into and the production and use of
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes an "inalienable right" of signatories
to the Nonproliferation Treaty – "without discrimination".
The Brits, French, and Germans – acting as agents for the EU – have already
agreed to that.
The question is, can they get George Bush to agree?
http://eur.news1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/xp/ap_photo/20050322/all/l1374421.jpg
Mohammed Saeidi, vice president for planning and international affairs at
the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, talks to reporters after he
delivered a speech in Paris Tuesday, March 22, 2005, on the second day of a
conference on the future of nuclear power gathering government energy
ministers and envoys from more than 60 countries. Saeidi said Iran will
press ahead on the "tortuous path" to developing civilian nuclear power.
Listen to a recent interview with Dr. Prather
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com
* Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing
official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal
Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the
Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the
Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for
national security affairs to U.S. Senator Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy
Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a
nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather
