Nuclear fuel scam

[Andy Hunt]

Just read a very interesting article:-

http://www.321energy.com/editorials/der ... 50906.html

Which is basically suggesting that the current problems with Iran aren't about $US hegemony or oil, but are about a 'new world order' plan for a monopoly on nuclear fuel production.

The plan is that the major nuclear powers, plus Germany and a couple of other countries, which already have nuclear fuel enrichment facilities, will have a monopoly on the supply of nuclear fuel to non-nuclear weapon states.

Iran is a threat to this plan because they have their own enrichment facilities, undermining the monopoly. This also explains France and Germany's willing involvement in bringing Iran to the UN Security Council over the whole issue, and France's veiled threat to use nuclear weapons back in January.

The Russian offer to Iran to supply them with nuclear fuel to de-fuse the crisis is part of the plan.

The IAEA will be the intermediary between nuclear fuel suppliers and customers, and the USA is hoping that the currency of exchange for the nuclear fuel will be . . . the $US. Thus, the world will go from an oil-backed $ as reserve currency to a nuclear-backed $US as reserve currency. Interesting, as years ago the scientist Buckminster Fuller proposed that the eventual currency of the world would be the "World Kilowatt Dollar".

Once this monopoly is established, any country which steps out of line politically will simply have their supply of nuclear fuel cut off. This would not affect the supplier countries, as they make their own nuclear fuel.

A very interesting article, and once read, you begin to look at Blair's policy on new nuclear build in a new light . . .

[Bandidoz]

Not really a scam, just "Peak Oil" and "Peak Uranium" coinciding.

[Andy Hunt]

It's a scam in that the Non-Proliferation Treaty states that countries are entitled to produce their own nuclear fuel.

In practice, this is turning out not to be the case, as the "Additional Protocol" which countries are being forced to sign up to, and which gives the IAEA inspectors extra powers, is there to basically prevent countries from developing their own nuclear fuel production facilities.

Iran is the test case for the future of independent nuclear fuel production in the world. Even the Indians, who Bush was cosying up to recently, are now finding that they can't deal with the Bush regime, as it requires the Indians to surrender too much of their nuclear independence.

It just seems that as ever, the major powers simply want to be able to sell nuclear power station technology (in the first instance) and nuclear fuel (in the second) to countries who don't already possess nuclear weapons - and they want to keep the monopoly to themselves.

[Joe]

Not really a scam, just "Peak Oil" and "Peak Uranium" coinciding.

Look familiar?

[Andy Hunt]

Uh-huh. Point taken

[heinbloed]

(I posted the wrong message here, that Germany has no nuclear enrichment plant employed. This is not true, in Lower Saxony, in the small town of Gronau, is an Uranium enrichment plant, run by the company URENCO. The uranuim is enriched there to be used in fuel rods.
So please consider this part of my post as wrong.The rest of it was/is correct:)

They did build one in Hanau near Frankfurt, but it never went into production. Too expensive. It stood idle for ten or twenty more years after Siemens took it in a package of scrap. Siemens wanted to sell it to China, but then they found out that China had not signed the anti proliferation agreement. And so its still standing there. You can buy it if you want. Your Government has signed the AP agreement, sure you'll get some subsidies.
Check also the graph provided by Joe. No nuclear enrichment plant in Germany.
Many nuclear powerplants of today are fed with the residues of the cold war. And these residues won't last forever. Of course, new atomic warheads could be build
and then be dismanteld to keep the powerplants "efficient".....what is absurd but within the proofen track. Germany never had any side bussiness with warheads and therefore none piled up. So there is nothing to be recycled and that makes nuclear power even more expensive. Since all costs have to be paid for by the electric consumer.
Deviding the costs of nuclear power into several fractions to make it look cheap works only in mafia states. The EU competition authoritys could easily shut down these -still practised- ways of subsidising the energy market. But not with the parliament that we have, not with commisioners like Piebalg etc...

[Andy Hunt]

Thanks for the info heinbloed - much appreciated. I didn't think that Germany was very big on nuclear, but good to have it confirmed.

I think I read somewhere that Germany's installed solar PV capacity is about the same as the UK's current nuclear reactor fleet. Just goes to show how far behind we are here in the UK when it comes to renewables.

[heinbloed]

Germany has one nuclear enrichment plant , I simply erred. The plant is in Gronau in Lower Saxony and enriches Uranium to be used in nuclear fuel rods.
Sorry for the hasted and wrong post of mine. I promise to look now twice before posting!
And I'll correct the wrong post.
But the old Siemens plant in Hanau is still for sale. I've put in a bid for the beer can dispenser in the cantine, offered ?100.- for it, no reply.
HB

[biffvernon]

I think I read somewhere that Germany's installed solar PV capacity is about the same as the UK's current nuclear reactor fleet. Just goes to show how far behind we are here in the UK when it comes to renewables.

And much of the PVs are assembled in Wales!

[heinbloed]

I found this info in wikipedia about the German PV generation in Germany: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Solar ... s_2005.png
The graph shown is by the courtesy of the German Dep. of Environment.
It shows an anual production of PV generated electricity of 1,000 gWh (giga Watt hours)/a for 2005. Which isn't much compared to the output of the British nuclear powerplants of (as far as I remember) around 60 tWh (terra Watt hours)/a.
But 2006 will look better! Thanks to the manufacturers and investors from all over the world.
The PV power installations are growing at an enourmous speed and-important- they produce the power when it is most needed, at peak demand time. Most nuclear powerplants run for 24h per day until the next shut down, producing plenty of unwanted energy during weekends and nightime. And that (and other things) makes them inefficient.
If anyone is interested in the issues: there is a German magazine available in English, twice per year. Go to www.sunwindenergy.com and order your free issue.
Good journalism, also critisising wrong developements within the industry.