Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

This Week In Energy: New Saudi King Can't Save Oil Prices


This Week In Energy: New Saudi King Can't Save Oil Prices

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/This-Week-In-Energy-New-Saudi-King-Cant-Save-Oil-Prices.html

FirstEnergy rate plan pummeled during PUCO hearing as 80 demand to testify

FirstEnergy rate plan pummeled during PUCO hearing as 80 demand to testify


http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/01/firstenergy_rate_plan_pummeled.html

US-India Nuclear Agreement: Deal Or No Deal – OpEd


US-India Nuclear Agreement: Deal Or No Deal – OpEd


http://www.eurasiareview.com/23012015-us-india-nuclear-agreement-deal-no-deal-oped/

Energy Rhetoric vs. Action

Energy Rhetoric vs. Action

By Energy Tomorrow Blog
US President Barack Obama receives appla
In a State of the Union address that mostly skimmed over energy issues – remarkable, given the generational opportunities stemming from America’s ongoing energy revolution – President Obama still underscored the yawning disconnect between his all-of-the-above energy rhetoric and his administration’s failure to put that rhetoric into action. Talking about the need for infrastructure investment,

Falling Oil Prices Ignite Concern Over Bakken Crude

Falling Oil Prices Ignite Concern Over Bakken Crude

By Joseph McGovern | Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP
Oil Boom Shifts The Landscape Of Rural North Dakota
Gasoline prices have been falling steadily for months. Now a gallon may be purchased for substantially less than three dollars in many regions of the country. That’s welcome news for consumers, but environmentalists, regulators and first responders have been asking whether there are risks associated with this happy development that may not be obvious and which should be addressed.http://breakingenergy.com/2015/01/23/falling-oil-prices-ignite-concern-over-bakken-crude/?utm_source=Breaking+Energy&utm_campaign=3cd5157781-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f852427a4b-3cd5157781-407304281

Energy Quote of the Day: ‘Grid Operators are Now Seeing Overgeneration’

Energy Quote of the Day: ‘Grid Operators are Now Seeing Overgeneration’

By Edward Dodge
California Continues To Lead U.S. In Green Technology
Gov. Jerry Brown of California has proposed ambitious new targets for increasing the quantity of renewable energy in state’s electric grid to 50% by 2030 from the current target of 33% by 2020. California is a leader in renewable power production and is already running into technical challenges managing the overproduction of renewable power. Four

Friday, January 23, 2015

EEI Leader Says Nuclear Necessary to Provide Reliability, Emissions Benefits

EEI Leader Says Nuclear Necessary to Provide Reliability, Emissions Benefits


http://www.nei.org/News-Media/News/News-Archives/EEI-Leader-Says-Nuclear-Necessary-to-Provide-Relia

NRC: We're Keeping Fukushima-Style Nuclear Reactors Going


NRC: We're Keeping Fukushima-Style Nuclear Reactors Going

Federal agency rejects appeal by watchdog group to suspend operations at reactors identical to those at disaster-stricken reactors in Japan.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/23/nrc-were-keeping-fukushima-style-nuclear-reactors-going

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-01-23/pdf/2015-01197.pdf


Four years later, NRC rejects Beyond Nuclear and 10,000+ co-petitioners' call to close Fukushima-style reactors

After nearly four years of behind closed doors deliberations, on January 15, 2015, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its “Final Director’s Decision” rejecting the April 13, 2011 emergency enforcement petition filed by Beyond Nuclear along with more than 10,000 co-petitioners from around the country. The public emergency enforcement petition called for the immediate suspension of the continued operation of the General Electric Mark I boiling water reactors in the U.S. that are identical to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors units 1, 2 and 3 that exploded and melted down following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/freeze-our-fukushimas/2015/1/21/four-years-later-nrc-rejects-beyond-nuclear-and-10000-co-pet.html

Keystone XL Pipeline May Force Republicans to Embrace Climate Change

Keystone XL Pipeline May Force Republicans to Embrace Climate Change


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/keystone-xl-pipeline-may-force-republicans-to-embrace-climate-change/

IAEA: Experts: Ocean Acidification Should Be Included in the Climate Change Discussions

Experts: Ocean Acidification Should Be Included in the Climate Change Discussions

Monaco – Actions to mitigate and adapt to ocean acidification in a future global climate deal could make the agreement stronger and facilitate its implementation. That was one of the conclusions from last week’s international workshop on ocean acidification organised by the IAEA in Monaco.
Scientists aren’t alone in raising the threat from ocean acidification; many world leaders are also being alerted to the importance of the ocean’s health for our planet. “Ocean acidification is, I believe, one of the greatest scourges resulting from the considerable development of anthropic greenhouse gas emissions, to have both concrete and global impact,” said H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. His address to the workshop described how scientific, political, and economic approaches need to be considered in unison to tackle ocean acidification.
Recognising that billions of people are dependent on a healthy ocean for their well-being and economic development is the first step.
— Alexandre Magnan, Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris
Some 60 international experts discussed the challenges of ocean acidification for coastal communities and how those challenges can be addressed in this year’s upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. Organised in collaboration with the Scientific Centre of Monaco, the workshop considered the links between environmental change and economic development, as well as how the meeting’s recommendations could be incorporated in the forthcoming Paris Conference.
The December 2014 Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Lima, Peru, made significant progress towards a new multilateral agreement, but the challenges facing the ocean and the coastal communities dependent on marine ecosystem services remained essentially absent, experts said. “All nations, from the world’s very richest to the very poorest, are and will be affected by ocean acidification,” said David Osborn, Director of IAEA’s Environment Laboratories. “Acting quickly to address this issue is in everyone’s interest.”
Ocean acidification is a direct result of increasing amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere. Ocean chemistry is changing rapidly and impacts are already being felt in some regions, Osborne said.
Governance, governments, and legislation
“Recognising that billions of people are dependent on a healthy ocean for their well-being and economic development is the first step,” explained Alexandre Magnan of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris. Acknowledging in a climate deal’s legal text the threats facing the ocean could enable coastal communities affected by ocean acidification to benefit from climate financing, he said.  This will enable them to improve their understanding of the ecological and biophysical changes expected in their region, adapt to the changing social and economic balance in their region, and pressure further concrete actions by governments, he said.
Participants called for stronger emphasis on ocean acidification observations within the framework of the UNFCCC and to develop advance warnings and forecasts.
Kieran Kelleher, a fisheries and ocean specialist formerly with the World Bank, highlighted the impact of ocean acidification on species and how their decline may impact societies, including a fall in employment opportunities for women who depend on the fishing industry. “In rural coastal communities many women are employed in the fishing industry — not necessarily on boats and out at sea, but in processing, marketing, and accounting,” Kelleher said.
Coral reefs and tourism revenues under threat
Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to environmental change. With the combination of ocean acidification, global warming, increased storm events, droughts, sediment run-off, and overfishing, enormous pressure is placed on these ecosystems. Coral reefs have more than just an environmental or scientific value; they also have a vital economic one.
Hong Kong based environmental economist, Luke Brander, explained that in 2010 coral reef tourism was valued at US$ 11.5 billion. “More than 100 countries benefit from reef related tourism — many of them small island developing states. As the reefs decline so will their profits in tourism,” he said.
“The biggest losers of coral reef loss won’t be large hotel chains or million dollar resorts; it will be local restaurants and taxi drivers,” explained Linwood Pendleton of Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. The group recommended that through innovative financing, reef-dependent countries could develop alternative tourism attractions.
Addressing this issue, the meeting recommended that developed countries should assist less developed countries in gaining expertise and experience on the protection of coral reefs from damage and loss.
Modelling the biological, economic, and sociological impacts
The workshop recommended that food-web models be developed for species of interest and that demonstration programmes be established to assess the models. Protocols of communication between those that make models and those that use them also need to be developed.
David Yoskowitz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explained. “Models require a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, “We need to prioritise building on what’s already been done. We need dynamic eco-models that include fishing pressures and cover socio-economic impacts. Open ocean models are not applicable to coastal communities.”
The Environment Laboratories of the IAEA use nuclear and isotopic techniques to understand processes and changes in the marine environment, while the IAEA’s Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) promotes and facilitates key overarching international activities in the areas of science, capacity building and communication in order to make the most effective use of available science.

Energy Security, Geopolitics and the China-Russia Gas Deals

Energy Security, Geopolitics and the China-Russia Gas Deals
By Wenran Jiang
During the November 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Beijing was not only an impressive host, but also a generous financial supporter of a number of China-centered initiatives. The largest economic package during the APEC summit went to the second China-Russia mega deal of the year: Moscow and Beijing reached a non-binding memorandum that will see top Russian gas producer Gazprom ship 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually to China over 30 years. This is just slightly less than the $400 billion accord the two countries signed in May 2014 for Russia to supply China with 38 bcm a year by 2018. The two gas deals, sealed only six months apart, have profound implications on China’s quest for energy security, the volatile global energy market, China-Russia relations and broader geopolitical movements worldwide.

Some un-frozen thoughts on humanity, progress, and the dangers of pretending we can run an electricity grid with power that can’t prevent water from freezing

Some un-frozen thoughts on humanity, progress, and the dangers of pretending we can run an electricity grid with power that can’t prevent water from freezing



http://canadianenergyissues.com/2015/01/23/some-un-frozen-thoughts-on-humanity-progress-and-the-dangers-of-pretending-we-can-run-an-electricity-grid-with-power-that-cant-prevent-water-from-freezing/

Bloggers Analyze Vermont Yankee Closure: Series Starting at American Nuclear Society Blog


Bloggers Analyze Vermont Yankee Closure: Series Starting at American Nuclear Society Blog

http://yesvy.blogspot.com/2015/01/bloggers-analyze-vermont-yankee-closure.html#.VMK4rMaKI--

Russia pulls out of two-decade deal to co-operate with U.S. on safeguarding its nuclear stockpile?


Russia pulls out of two-decade deal to co-operate with U.S. on safeguarding its nuclear stockpile

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/01/23/russia-pulls-out-of-two-decade-deal-to-co-operate-with-u-s-on-safeguarding-its-nuclear-stockpile/

Relations with Russia chill, and nuclear security cooperation gets put on ice

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-22/relations-russia-chill-and-nuclear-security-cooperation-gets-put-ice

NNSA claims Russia, USA to continue nuclear security cooperation
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/179052/nnsa-claims-russia-usa-to-continue-nuclear-security-cooperation.html

Russia Denies Ending Nuclear Cooperation With US, Joint Effort To Continue In 2015

http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-denies-ending-nuclear-cooperation-us-joint-effort-continue-2015-1792404

NNSA Claims Russia, USA to Continue Nuclear Security Cooperation

http://sputniknews.com/us/20150123/1017254553.html

Toshiba negotiating nuclear power deals with China, Kazakhstan

Toshiba negotiating nuclear power deals with China, Kazakhstan


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/toshiba-nuclear-davos-idUSL6N0V11PP20150122

Karen A. Holbrook, Raymond Orbach, Richard A. Meserve Named to CRDF Global Board of Directors

Karen A. Holbrook, Raymond Orbach, Richard A. Meserve Named to CRDF Global Board of Directors

CRDF Global announced today that Dr. Karen A. Holbrook, Dr. Raymond Orbach and Dr. Richard A. Meserve have joined its board of directors. Each new board member brings extensive experience in CRDF Global program initiatives and many of the more than 40 countries where it works.



http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/01/prweb12461829.htm

NRC issues two yellow findings to Arkansas Nuclear One

NRC issues two yellow findings to Arkansas Nuclear One


http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/26402823/article-NRC-issues-two-yellow-findings-to-Arkansas-Nuclear-One

New NRC Chairman Identifies Priorities and Challenges

New NRC Chairman Identifies Priorities and Challenges


http://www.powermag.com/new-nrc-chairman-identifies-priorities-and-challenges/

The Trans-Pacific Partnership won't deliver jobs or curb China's power

Op-Ed The Los Angeles Times | http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-prestowitz-tpp-trade-pact-20150123-story.html

The Trans-Pacific Partnership won't deliver jobs or curb China's power

By Clyde Prestowitz
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a trade pact we don't need
Rising U.S. income inequality is being driven in part by international trade

Guest Post by Ambassador Chas Freeman: China as a Diplomatic Actor Remarks to the American Academy of Diplomacy

Of possible interest (text at http://chasfreeman.net/china-as-a-diplomatic-actor/)


China as a Diplomatic Actor
Remarks to the American Academy of Diplomacy

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.  (USFS, Ret.)    
DACOR Bacon House,
Washington, DC, 23 January 2015


I became interested in China a bit over five decades ago.  Back then, with the notable exception of Zhou Enlai and a few people he’d mentored, China’s diplomacy was all revolutionary bluster and bellyaching with no bottom line.  Since then the country has changed so often and so much that our view of it has always lagged behind its realities.  Frequently it's had more to do with our own head trips than with China itself.  When China didn’t make much difference in world affairs, imputing politically correct but factually dubious characteristics to it and its diplomacy didn’t make much difference.  Now it does.  So I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about the remarkable evolution of China as a diplomatic actor.

When I first encountered it, China’s diplomacy reminded me of the “forlorn hope.”  The forlorn hope is a military maneuver in which a group of soldiers, usually volunteers, is assigned to sacrifice themselves in an almost certainly fatal assault on a heavily defended position so that a larger battle plan can go forward.  As a diplomatic version of it, consider Sino-British interactions in August 1967. 

Beijing was then in the midst of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.”  The office of the British chargé there had just been sacked and its staff beaten by a mob of Red Guards.  Her Majesty’s Government responded by imposing restrictions on the movement of China’s diplomats in London.  China’s diplomats there naturally reacted to this by taking up baseball bats and having at the police outside their embassy.

In the ensuing scuffle, at least one Chinese official – along with a bobby or two – was injured.  True to the revolutionary spirit of the times, Beijing immediately instructed its chargé in London to lodge a fiery protest against British policy brutality.  He was sent an eight-page screed and told to declaim it in its entirety, come hell or high water.  Both his instructions and the text were transmitted to him en clair, enabling the Brits to read them in advance.

And so it was that China’s Chargé and an interpreter-colleague went to call on the Foreign Office’s Far Eastern Department.  In a change from usual practice, they were not greeted as they arrived.  Instead, a building guard ushered them to an office from which all furniture other than a desk and chair had been removed.  A relatively junior British official sat behind the desk as the two Chinese diplomats stood before it to make their démarche. 

After listening impassively for a few minutes, the Brit got up, ducked through a door behind him, and disappeared into a private office, leaving the Chinese chargé to read his script to an empty chair – which he did without missing an ideogram as his colleague put his rant into English.  When they’d got through about three-fifths of their text, a janitor with a bucket and mop entered the room and began to mop the floor around them.  As they finished, he suggested to the Chinese that they leave and, bucket in hand and mop over shoulder, escorted them out of the building.

Diplomacy is, of course, a political  performing art.  In this farce, both parties played their parts  with consummate skill.  By doing so, they accomplished what is so often the real rather than the ostensible purpose of diplomatic démarches – staging a show of resolve to impress domestic politicians and pundits.  British and Chinese decision-makers and opinion-molders are not alone in their overriding interest in convincing their compatriots of their toughness.  Nor are they in any respect unique in their lack of concern about the equally tough reactions their posturing is bound to evoke from the foreigners against whom it is directed.
                                                           
A dozen years after the face-off I just described, I spoke separately with British and Chinese participants in it – both diplomatic professionals I had come to know well.  Each confessed that he had seen both his own and his counterpart’s behavior as a waste of time.  But the Brit confided that he’d been impressed by the imperturbable discipline with which the Chinese had executed their idiotic instructions.  And, for their part, the Chinese said they’d secretly admired the exquisite one-upmanship with which the Brits had greeted them on a mission whose absurdity and futility they fully appreciated.

Chinese diplomats have not lost their self-possession, but they are now well-trained professionals who represent a country that is very different from the China of the 1960s.  That China was isolated, angry, poor, and weak.  Despite its impotence – or perhaps because of it – it was vociferously determined to overthrow the liberal international order we Americans had created.  Ironically, of course, American-sponsored admission to that order proved to be the key to the rapid restoration of China’s wealth and power.  China today is globally engaged, self-satisfied, prosperous, and regionally powerful.  It has become an anything-but-revolutionary and increasingly influential participant in the institutions of global and regional governance.  It is now the world’s biggest industrial power and, by some measures, already its largest overall economy.  And, while its growth is slowing, it’s living standards are still rising at rates the whole world envies.

As it grows, China continues to change.  It is becoming notably less passive in the face of regional challenges to its territorial integrity and security.  China’s neighbors have reacted to this with legitimate alarm.  Still, a bit of perspective seems in order.  So far, Chinese have been considerably more deferential to international law and opinion than we Americans were at a similar stage of national development.

Around 1875, the United States passed the U.K. to became the world’s biggest economy.  Soon thereafter, we pressed the ethnic cleansing of our country to a conclusion, engineered regime change in Hawaii and annexed it, seized the Philippines and Puerto Rico from the Spanish Empire, forced Cuba to grant us Guantánamo in perpetuity, detached Panama from Colombia, and launched repeated military interventions in Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.  To date, by contrast, China has leveraged the upsurge in its power to step up its contributions to U.N. peacekeeping and use its coast guard, construction companies, and other nonlethal means to buttress century-old claims to islands, rocks, and reefs in its near seas against more recent counterclaims by neighbors.

It says more about us than about China that we have chosen to treat its rise almost entirely as a military challenge and that we have made countering Chinese power and perpetuating our quasi-imperial, post-1945 dominance of the Western Pacific the organizing principles of our Asia policy.  China’s capacity to defend its periphery is indeed growing apace with its economy.  The military balance off the China coast is therefore inevitably shifting against us.  This is certainly a threat to our long-established dominance of China’s periphery.  It promises to deprive us of the ability to attack the Chinese homeland from there at will, as Air-Sea Battle envisages.  But greater security from foreign attack for China does not imply a greater risk of Chinese or other foreign attack on the United States.

Even more important, the notion that Americans can indefinitely sustain military supremacy along the frontiers of a steadily modernizing and strengthening China is a bad bet no sober analyst would accept.  Extrapolating policy from that bet, as we do in the so-called “pivot to Asia,” just invites China to call or raise it.  We would be wiser and on safer ground, I think, to study how Britain finessed the challenge of America’s emergence as a counter to its global hegemony.  It viewed us with realistic apprehension but accepted, accommodated, and co-opted us.

There may be more to the analogy between China and the United States as rising powers than is immediately apparent.  Post-Maoist China, like pre-World War II America, avoids entangling alliances.  Like the United States then, it is unresponsive to demands that it exercise global leadership commensurate with its economic heft or that it join in foreign wars.  And, like Americans then, Chinese do not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.  They do so to make money or for purposes of tourism. 

Like the United States, China refuses to compromise its sovereignty or sacrifice its ideological identity.  Unlike us, however, the Chinese still insist on the strict respect for the sovereignty of other states enshrined in the U.N. Charter.  Like most non-Americans, they are intrigued by democracy but do not see history as driven by a struggle between it and autocracy.  They are not into armed evangelism or regime change.  Chinese find foreigners peculiar but are content to let them remain unChinese.  They are notoriously indifferent to their foreign partners’ ideologies, politics, and social systems.  A world in which the United States shares influence with China, India, and other great civilization-states is likely to be safer for political diversity because it should be less roiled by moral supremacism, ideological expansionism, and cultural imperialism.  

China is finally becoming more active in global governance but it still shows no desire to displace American leadership.   Quite the contrary.  It says it’s ready to follow our lead in global governance.  Just five weeks ago, Vice Premier Wang Yang declared that "China and the United States are global economic partners, but America is the guide of the world. America already has the leading system and its rules; China is willing to join the system and respect those rules and hopes to play a constructive role."  This remarkable declaration by Beijing deserves to be tested.  So far, however, there has been no audible response to it from Washington.

Perhaps that’s because to be followed the United States must be prepared to lead.  That means reforming existing institutions and providing funding that can meet the very real needs of the day.  American domestic dysfunction continues to prevent us from doing this and leaves others no choice but to step forward where we cannot.  China has the money and is building the self-confidence to do this.  It has recently begun to sponsor new multilateral arrangements to fund infrastructure projects and currency swaps that are beyond the current capacity of the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank, and other legacy institutions.
 
Sadly, instead of treating these initiatives as a compelling reason to get our own act together and reassert international leadership, we have reacted to them peevishly, with carping comments and attempts to persuade others to boycott them because they don’t enforce the kinds of conditionalities we have traditionally favored.  But staying outside these Chinese-sponsored institutions will reduce rather than reinforce our role in global governance and erode, not promote, the prevalence of our values internationally.  As all in this room know, Americans are not universally admired these days.  And if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.

Our dilemma is a reminder of the purpose of politics, including diplomacy.  As every diplomat knows, this is to add the power of others to one’s own to promote shared interests – or at least interests you’ve persuaded others are shared.  To get others to see their interests the way you want them to, you must understand their world view.  For this to happen, empathy must at least temporarily eclipse egotism while realism prevails over the prescriptions of political correctness.  It’s pointless to try to enlist others in support of projects whose premises contradict their fundamental conceptions of what’s right.

Chinese do not share the interest of Americans in promoting multiparty democracy, Wall Street financial practices, regime change in autocracies, church attendance, post-pious sexual freedoms, or uncensored access to dissident perspectives on the news, among other things.  China rejects the concept of humanitarian intervention.  It disapproves of our frequent resort to punitive diplomacy through sanctions, drone warfare, and military interventions, all of which it considers both inappropriate and counterproductive.  It is privately aghast at the amateurism of many of our decision-makers and diplomats and our lack of institutional memory.

But China does share our interest in preserving and enhancing effective global governance; in promoting worldwide economic prosperity through liberalized terms of trade and investment; in retarding and ultimately reversing climate change, nuclear proliferation, and the spread of Islamist extremism; in combating terrorism and piracy; and in assuring a peaceful international environment in which to enjoy domestic tranquility and pursue national reconstruction.  And Chinese are coming to agree with us about a growing list of other matters, including the need to safeguard intellectual property, manage rather than deny the military rivalry between us, develop non-polluting sources of energy, and save the whales.  Like Americans, Chinese want relations between our two countries to embody peaceful cooperation and competition rather than antagonism and military hostility.  Given serious and skillful diplomacy by both sides, that should be doable.

But a constantly changing China will continue to affront American complacency in many ways.  It defies our doctrinaire denigration of industrial policy by outperforming us economically.  Despite multiple problems and a system of government that is a big turn-off to foreigners, China belies our disdain for autocracy with a government that enjoys very much higher levels of approval from those it governs than ours does.  (65 percent of Americans are now dissatisfied with our system of government.  70 percent of Chinese express satisfaction with theirs, with approval of the Chinese central government at much higher levels than that.)  Contrary to our orthodoxy, despite restrictions on freedom of speech, China’s huge private sector is becoming increasingly innovative.  In a challenge to our self-image, China now seems in many ways much more devoted to the United Nations and the rules of international law we helped craft than we are.  Far from the monolith we imagine, China encompasses exceptional diversity within its borders.  It includes the spectacularly futuristic city of Shanghai and the gambling paradise of Macau – now with the world’s highest GDP per capita (according to the World Bank).  But it also embraces many backward and impoverished areas, like Tibet, where GDP per capita is still on a par with that in Congo-Brazzaville. 

China’s rise is an unprecedented challenge to our country.  It should provoke us to get our act together at home, ramp up our competitiveness, make common cause with Europeans and others who share our values, live up to our libertarian ideals, strive once again to be an inspiring example to other societies, and address the many deficiencies of our diplomacy.  All this could yet happen.  If it does, China will inadvertently have done us and the world a great service.

Obama Visit to Ignite India’s Nuclear Accident Liability Debate

Obama Visit to Ignite India’s Nuclear Accident Liability Debate


http://www.businessweek.com/news/2015-01-22/obama-visit-to-ignite-india-s-nuclear-accident-liability-debate

Hackers in China Leak South Korean Nuclear Power Blueprints


Hackers in China Leak South Korean Nuclear Power Blueprints

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1215234-hackers-in-china-leak-south-korean-nuclear-power-blueprints/

Hanoi hosts 3rd Asian Nuclear Power Briefing


Hanoi hosts 3rd Asian Nuclear Power Briefing

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/science-it/121841/hanoi-hosts-3rd-asian-nuclear-power-briefing.html

Japan: Government mulls 15%-20% target for nuclear power output by 2030

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/23/national/government-mulls-15-20-target-nuclear-power-output-2030/#.VMKtysaKI-8

New Webcast: When Grid Optimization is Not Enough:

New Webcast:
When Grid Optimization is Not Enough:
Making Cents of Disruptive Change. Learn how Utilities can protect their existing investment while designing an integrated technology business transformation.

Electric utilities today face unprecedented volatility and business challenges. To stay competitive and ensure a managed transition to a sustainable future, electric utilities must ensure grid reliability, grid modernization and provide higher value energy services. Join a panel of experts to understand how to protect your existing investment while designing an integrated technology business transformation.
Why Business Transformation? The threat of distributed technologies and innovative business models
Why Now? Risks and Industry/business transformation
What is involved in a Business Transformation? The logical steps of business transformation and new business models, and pitfalls to avoid
How does Business Transformation differ from Smart Grid? The relationship between technology, business processes, and business models
What does the future hold for utilities? Long-term sustainability by way of a more open relationship with external and internal stakeholders
Register Now – Watch February 4, 2015 at 12:30 PM EST / 11:30 AM CST / 9:30 AM PST / 5:30 PM GMT
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Presenters:
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Electricity and Business Innovator, Siemens Power Technologies Consulting Group
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CEO, Siemens Smart Grid Solutions and Services
Ron Dizy
Managing Director, Advanced Energy Centre at MaRS
Keith Cronkhite
Vice President, Generation & Business Development, NB Power 

Register Today!

US NRC Blog Update: NRC Finalizes Violations for Arkansas Nuclear One

NRC Finalizes Violations for Arkansas Nuclear One

Victor Dricks
Senior Public Affairs Officer
Region IV
The Arkansas Nuclear One power plant, in Russellville, Ark., is coming under increased NRC focus as a result of flood protection problems.
anoBeginning in 2013, Entergy Operations officials and the NRC began extensive inspections of the flood protection program at ANO. Many problems were discovered and are described in a Sept. 9, 2014, NRC inspection report.
All told, more than 100 previously unknown flood barrier deficiencies creating flooding pathways into the site’s two auxiliary buildings were found. These included defective floor seals, flooding barriers that were designed, but never installed, and seals that had deteriorated over time. In one case, a special hatch that was supposed to be close a ventilation duct in the Unit 1 auxiliary building in the event of flooding had never been installed.
In the unlikely event of extreme flooding – a kind not seen since weather records have been kept for the area – significant amounts of water could have entered the auxiliary buildings. This could have submerged vital plant equipment, as well as the emergency diesel generator fuel vaults. The licensee has replaced degraded seals, installed new flood barriers and adopted new measures to better protect the site from flooding.
NRC held a regulatory conference with Entergy officials on Oct. 28, 2014. After considering information provided by the company, NRC determined violations related to flood protection have substantial safety significance, or are “yellow.” (The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at nuclear plants with a color coded process that classifies inspection findings as green, white, yellow or red, in order of increasing safety significance.)
The NRC divides plants into five performance categories, or columns on its Action Matrix. ANO Units 1 and 2 received yellow violations in June 2014 because electrical equipment damaged during an industrial incident increased risk to the plant. Workers were moving a 525-ton component out of the plant’s turbine building when a temporary lifting rig collapsed on March 13, 2013, damaging plant equipment. Those violations moved both units from Column 1 to Column 3 of the NRC’s Action Matrix. The agency increases its oversight of plants as performance declines.
The new violations will lead NRC to reassess whether even more inspection resources need to be focused on ANO. The NRC will determine the appropriate level of agency oversight and notify Entergy officials of that decision in a separate letter.

Stop Senator Menendez from warmongering on Iran


CREDO action
Stop Senator Menendez from warmongering on Iran
Tell Senator Robert Menendez:
"Your campaign to impose additional sanctions on Iran is nothing short of irresponsible warmongering. Immediately drop your dangerous Iran sanctions bill, which will kill diplomacy and risk another unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East, and support President Obama’s diplomacy."
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►  
Dear Stacey,
Senator Robert Menendez doesn't want you to call him a “warmonger” – but his actions say loudly that he is one.1
Along with Republican Mark Kirk, Senator Menendez has done more in the last two years than any other Democrat to beat the drums for war with Iran. Menendez is once again pushing a dangerous sanctions bill that, if passed, would sabotage negotiations and put us back on a path to confrontation and unnecessary war with Iran.
Tell Senator Menendez: Immediately drop your dangerous Iran sanctions bill, which will kill diplomacy and risk another unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East. Click here to sign the petition.
In his State of the Union, President Obama laid out the consequences of passing the bill, and promised to veto it if comes to his desk:
[N]ew sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails — alienating America from its allies; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress. The American people expect us to only go to war as a last resort, and I intend to stay true to that wisdom.2
In response to the president, Menendez offered up bizarre, unhinged comments to the media suggesting the Obama administration’s talking points were coming “straight out of Tehran.”3 This is beyond the pale.
There's a risk that enough Democrats will join Senator Menendez to override President Obama’s veto and push through new sanctions – but only if they can get away with doing it without being perceived as voting for war. The best way to make sure Menendez’s sanctions bill doesn’t pass is to make it clear that supporting this bill is warmongering, and force other Democrats to remember the political lesson of the Iraq war: A vote for war is a permanent stain on your legacy.
Tell Senator Menendez: Immediately drop your dangerous Iran sanctions bill, which will kill diplomacy and risk another unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East. Click here to sign the petition.
Diplomacy with Iran is working.4 So far, Iran has stuck to the commitments it has made at the negotiating table, and today, Iran is further from building a nuclear weapon that it was before the negotiations began. And there's strong evidence that a final deal is within reach.5
If the United States violates the interim agreement by passing more sanctions on Iran, we will not only drive Iran away from the bargaining table but lose legitimacy with our allies, which could cause much of the global sanctions regime against Iran to collapse.6
That will make it easier for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, further destabilize the Middle East, create friction between America and our allies, and almost guarantee an enormously bloody and costly war between the United States and Iran.
Senator Menendez should know all of this, but he is either deeply deluded about the likely consequences of his action, or, like so many of his Republican allies, acting in bad faith because he actually wants a war with Iran. Either way, we have to hold him accountable.
Tell Senator Menendez: Immediately drop your dangerous Iran sanctions bill, which will kill diplomacy and risk another unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East. Click here to sign the petition.
Thank you for taking action.
Zack Malitz, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►  
1. Patricia Zengerle, "U.S. Senate's Menendez happy in 'bad cop' role on Iran talks," Reuters, February 26, 2014
2. "President Obama’s State of the Union Address — Remarks As Prepared for Delivery"
3. Jim Newell, "Bob Menendez, Bibi & the GOP: The alliance sabotaging Iranian nuclear talks," Salon, January 22, 2015
4. George Jahn, "UN: Iran Honors Pledge to Temporarily Freeze Nuke Program," AP, January 20, 2015
5. Ryan Costello, "Iran nuclear talks 101," The Hill, January 8, 2015
6. Laurent Fabius, Philip Hammond, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federica Mogherini, "Give diplomacy with Iran a chance," Washington Post, January 21, 2015

How Much Energy Does Your iPhone (And Other Devices) Really Use?

 How Much Energy Does Your iPhone (And Other Devices) Really Use?
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ekhf45ekfdm/ipad-1-50-per-year-21/

15-004: NRC to Hold Mandatory Hearing on Fermi New Reactor Application Feb. 4 in Rockville, Md

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2015/15-004.pdf

Is Coal Money Challenging Climate Science In Secondary Schools?

Is Coal Money Challenging Climate Science In Secondary Schools?


http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2015/01/22/is-coal-money-challenging-climate-science-in-secondary-schools/?ss=energy

Drought Forcing Brazil To Turn To Gas


Drought Forcing Brazil To Turn To Gas


http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Drought-Forcing-Brazil-To-Turn-To-Gas.html

Nuclear Reactors 200 - The Cost of Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear Reactors 200 - The Cost of Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors - See more at: http://nucleotidings.com/article/nuclear-reactors-200-cost-decommissioning-nuclear-reactors#sthash.pfqjGdbB.dpuf

http://nucleotidings.com/article/nuclear-reactors-200-cost-decommissioning-nuclear-reactors

China's biggest reactor operator will five nuclear reactors into operation this year

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/01/chinas-biggest-reactor-operator-will.html

Improving Programmes for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation

Improving Programmes for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation

IAEA ARTEMIS Service Provides Tailor-made Reviews for Member States’ Needs

ARTEMIS, Peer review, radioactive waste, decommissioning, safety, energy
ARTEMIS is an integrated review service that aims to enhance the coordination and application of IAEA resources in nuclear energy and nuclear safety to peer reviews that meet the needs of Member State institutions and programmes in nuclear-related areas. (Photo: V. Mouchkin/IAEA)
Improved organizational performance, enhanced safety, optimized operations and increased national and international confidence in Member States’ organizations, facilities, programmes and activities are among the benefits that IAEA ARTEMIS peer reviews provide to Member States.
Launched in 2014, ARTEMIS is an integrated review service that aims to enhance the coordination and application of IAEA resources in nuclear energy and nuclear safety to peer reviews that meet the needs of Member State institutions and programmes in nuclear-related areas. “The scope of the ARTEMIS service covers both safety and technical considerations of spent fuel and radioactive waste management, decommissioning of facilities and remediation activities,” said Juan Carlos Lentijo, Director of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology.
The ARTEMIS service is built on the IAEA’s extensive experience in conducting international peer review missions in the fields of nuclear safety and technology. The service draws on the IAEA’s unique global perspective, with its vast networks of international experts addressing these specialized areas, as well as its role in establishing international safety standards and technical guidance for the specific nuclear-related areas that come under its domain.
“By utilizing the resources and expertise from two IAEA departments [nuclear energy and nuclear safety and security] through one service, ARTEMIS offers more comprehensive and effective reviews to the Member States,” said Pil-Soo Hahn, Director of the Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety.
ARTEMIS reviews can range from the evaluation of national frameworks and regulatory systems to assessing projects and programmes. This process covers all aspects of safety and technology implementation for radioactive waste and spent fuel management, decommissioning and remediation, including uranium production residues and sealed source management and other waste safety or waste technology issues. In order to ensure quality and consistency of this service, special review process guidelines are under preparation for the benefit of both the reviewers and the Member State institutions or organizations under review. These guidelines will be available in 2015.
The comprehensive nature of this review service also makes it a suitable avenue for those IAEA Member States seeking to meet the obligations of the European Union 2011 Waste Directive that requires peer reviews in these nuclear areas every ten years (Council Directive 2011/70/EURATOM).
Tailored to Member State needs, independent results
ARTEMIS reviews are available to all IAEA Member States including those having or introducing nuclear power plants, as well as those only using nuclear technology applications.
A typical ARTEMIS review service can consist of several steps. The IAEA works with the requesting Member State, facility or organization to define the terms, scope and focus of the review. A team of independent experts then completes the review mission and provides a report with evaluations, advice and guidance. The IAEA oversees and guides the ARTEMIS review process in order to ensure consistency and adherence to applicable safety standards, guidelines and good practices.
The result of an ARTEMIS review is a concise and coherent summary of opinions, recommendations and findings from the independent experts that can be used by the requesting entity to further develop or improve a targeted activity or programme. The mission and its final report also accounts for relevant IAEA safety standards, technical guidance and internationally recognized good practices. The final report is the property of the requesting entity, though the IAEA encourages final review reports to be made publically available for the further benefit of other Member States.
More details on the whole review process can be found in the ARTEMIS brochure and leaflet or at the ARTEMIS website.
The costs associated with an ARTEMIS review are borne by the Member State or the organization requesting the review. Some Member States are eligible to receive funding through the IAEA Technical Cooperation Programme, or through the IAEA’s extra-budgetary resources.
Member States can request an ARTEMIS review by contacting the ARTEMIS Review Coordinator or emailing the request to ARTEMIS@iaea.org.

Atoms for Peace: Nuclear Technology in the 21st Century

Atoms for Peace: Nuclear Technology in the 21st Century

Putrajaya International Convention Centre

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am very pleased to be with you today.
Malaysia has been a Member State of the IAEA since 1969 and is an important partner in many areas of our activities.
Those activities are a great deal broader than many people realise. In fact, the Agency is much more than the "world's nuclear watchdog" which the media like to write about.
Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is, of course, a core Agency activity. But, through the IAEA Technical Cooperation programme, we also make nuclear technology available to developing countries for peaceful purposes.
For me, this is just as important a part of our mandate as our non-proliferation work. For many developing countries, it is the most important part.
Today, I would like to tell you about some of the areas in which the IAEA promotes development through the use of nuclear technology. I will start with a few examples in your own country.
In Malaysia, recent projects include improving human resources in hybrid imaging. This involves the use of new diagnostic tools in hospitals that make it easier for doctors to study patients' internal organs for evidence of cancer or other serious diseases.
Malaysia is also taking part in an IAEA project to study possible radioactive contamination of the seas of the Asia-Pacific region after the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
With IAEA assistance, Malaysian specialists are looking into the use of nuclear techniques to develop new varieties of rice, and to improve soil and water management.
The use of food irradiation to control damaging pests is growing in importance. This will make it easier for Malaysian producers to export pineapples, papayas and other fruits to important markets such as the United States.
The traffic in terms of technical assistance is very much two-way. For example, Malaysia invites bright students from across this region to conduct scientific experiments at the Puspati research reactor.
In nuclear security, Malaysia has well developed systems for ensuring that nuclear and other radioactive materials are properly protected against theft or misuse. It shares its expertise with other countries in the region.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Having given you a "taster" of some of the work which the IAEA does in your country, let me take a step back and tell you a little about our global role.
The IAEA was established in 1957, with its headquarters in Vienna. Its objective under the IAEA Statute is "to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world."
In essence, that means working to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and helping to make nuclear technology available to developing countries for peaceful purposes.
Our mandate has been summarised as "Atoms for Peace," which was the title of a famous speech by President Eisenhower in 1953 in which he proposed the creation of the IAEA.
I believe we could now expand that to "Atoms for Peace and Development."
The Agency has 162 Member States. We are an independent organization within the UN family. I was appointed Director General in 2009 by the IAEA Board of Governors, which is made up of 35 Member States. Malaysia is presently a Board member.
I also report once a year to the UN General Assembly in New York.
When I last spoke to the General Assembly a few months ago, I asked Member States to help ensure that the importance of science and technology is explicitly recognised as a central part of the post-2015 development agenda.
The IAEA has an important role to play in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and of the post-2015 development agenda.
I would like to see the IAEA recognised as a unique stakeholder which promotes development through the use of nuclear technology.
I believe that nuclear science and technology have much to contribute to sustainable development in many areas, including some which I have already mentioned – human health, agriculture, water management and industrial applications, as well as in energy.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since I became IAEA Director General, I have paid special attention to the problem of cancer in developing countries.
Cancer is reaching epidemic proportions in developing countries, but many lack the resources to deal with it. Several dozen African nations have absolutely no radiotherapy facilities.
This means that many thousands of people die of cancers which could be managed effectively, or even cured, if they lived in countries with the right facilities. This is a great tragedy.
By 2020, it is estimated that over 10 million people will die of cancer around the world each year.
The IAEA, together with partners such as the World Health Organization, helps to make radiotherapy and related services available to developing countries. We provide training for medical and technical specialists and help them to gain access to modern technology.
We have been working to deploy radiotherapy and nuclear medicine programmes in around 130 low- and middle-income countries.  In the last eight years alone, we sent specialist teams to assess cancer control capacity in over 65 countries.
Strengthening the Agency's cancer control activities will remain a top priority for me. Our work in this field literally saves lives.
In addition to our work on cancer, the IAEA has recently helped a number of African countries to deal with the EBOLA virus by making special rapid diagnosis kits available. I am proud of the way in which Agency's engineers and scientists can respond quickly to urgent needs of this sort.
Another fascinating use of nuclear technology is to suppress insects which carry diseases – for example, tsetse flies.
These infest vast areas of Africa. They transmit a parasitic disease which devastates livestock herds and spreads "sleeping sickness" among human beings.
The IAEA deploys what is known as the sterile insect technique, which is essentially a form of contraception for tsetse flies. Male flies are sterilised using radiation. They are then released into affected areas, where they mate with females in the wild. These do not produce offspring.
This technique can eventually eradicate entire populations of tsetse flies, as happened in Zanzibar in 1999.
Malaysia is one of a number of countries which have been working with the IAEA to use the sterile insect technique against mosquitoes, which can carry malaria and dengue fever.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In 2012, we established an Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre at the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the world's oceans is rising steadily. This could, over time, cause serious damage to tropical coral reefs and undermine populations of fish and shellfish. The result could be very negative for tourism, fisheries and food security for coastal residents.
The Ocean Acidification Centre brings together leading experts to monitor marine pollution and help governments and scientists devise a systematic response to the threat.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A key element of the IAEA's special contribution to development is our unique cluster of nuclear applications laboratories near Vienna.
They play an important educational role, offering training in nuclear applications to scientists in Member States.
They support research in human health, food and other areas. And they provide analytical services to national laboratories.
We have embarked on an extensive renovation of these laboratories which, when completed in 2017, will equip them to meet Member State needs for decades to come.  I have asked all IAEA countries, including Malaysia, to provide financial support to this very important project.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The best known application of nuclear technology is nuclear power. Malaysia is one of a number of countries which are considering nuclear power as a possible option for the future.
It is up to each country to decide whether or not to use nuclear power.
If countries decide to proceed, the Agency's job is to help them to do it safely, securely and efficiently.
For what we call "newcomer" countries, the IAEA offers extensive support at every stage of the process. We advise on energy planning generally and on selecting appropriate sites for possible nuclear power plants. We can provide support on construction, safe operation and the eventual decommissioning of plants.
We stress the importance of having a robust and effective regulatory regime. And, above all, we underline the importance of nuclear safety.
The Fukushima Daiichi accident, nearly four years ago, was a painful reminder that a terrible accident can happen anywhere, even in a developed industrial country. The Agency is preparing a detailed report on the accident which will be presented to our Member States this year.
Public confidence in the safety of nuclear power was badly shaken by the Fukushima Daiichi accident. I believe confidence can be restored, provided governments, plant operators and nuclear regulators demonstrate total and visible commitment to the principle of "safety first." Complacency in the area of nuclear safety must be avoided at all costs.
I am impressed by the high importance which the Malaysian authorities are attaching to safety in all uses of nuclear technology as your country considers its options for the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
You will sense that I am proud of the way in which the IAEA delivers concrete results that make a real difference to the lives of the people of the world.
We have a solid record of achievement, but it is essential to maintain the momentum in meeting the changing needs of our Member States in the coming years.
I have mentioned just a sample of our activities which I thought might interest you. I could say much more about the work of this fascinating organization. But I will stop here and will be happy to take your questions.
Thank you.

Malaysia, Developing Countries Benefit from Nuclear Applications, IAEA Director General Says

Malaysia, Developing Countries Benefit from Nuclear Applications, IAEA Director General Says

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano addressing delegates at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo: C. Brady/IAEA)http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/malaysia-developing-countries-benefit-nuclear-applications-iaea-director-general

Cultivating new varieties of rice, reducing soil erosion rates and improving imaging techniques for cancer treatment are just some of the areas in which the IAEA helps Malaysia to benefit from nuclear technology. Assisting Member States in the use of nuclear technology for development is as important to the IAEA as its non-proliferation work, said Yukiya Amano, Director General of the IAEA, in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. "For many developing countries, it is the most important part."
"Our mandate has been summarised as "Atoms for Peace," which was the title of a famous speech by President Eisenhower in 1953 in which he proposed the creation of the IAEA," Mr Amano added. "I believe we could now expand that to "Atoms for Peace and Development.""
In a lecture at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, Mr Amano thanked the Malaysian government for its contribution to the IAEA's work. This includes inviting students from universities from across Southeast Asia to conduct experiments at the Puspati research reactor and sharing the country's expertise in nuclear security to protect nuclear and other radioactive materials from theft and misuse. Such assistance to other developing nations, often referred to as South-South cooperation, significantly increases the reach and impact of the IAEA, Mr Amano said.
IAEA and the Sustainable Development Goals
Mr Amano said that the IAEA aims to play an active role in the post-2015 development agenda, the emerging framework of development goals that will succeed the Millennium Development Goals - a set of eight global development targets identified for the first fifteen years of the 21st century. "I would like to see the IAEA recognised as a unique stakeholder which promotes development through the use of nuclear technology," he added.
Mr Amano said he continued to pay special attention to the growing problem of cancer in developing countries. The IAEA, working with the World Health Organization, helps to make radiotherapy available to patients in developing countries, some of which have previously had no modern cancer diagnostic or treatment services. "In the last eight years alone, we sent specialist teams to assess cancer control capacity in over 65 countries," he said.
Talking of Malaysia’s energy policy, he reiterated the IAEA's commitment to provide assistance if the country decides to build a nuclear power plant.  "It is up to each country to decide whether or not to use nuclear power," Mr Amano said. "If countries decide to proceed, the Agency's job is to help them to do it safely, securely and efficiently."
The IAEA has delivered concrete results, he said, and is counting on the support of Member States like Malaysia to continue its mission. "We have a solid record of achievement, but it is essential to maintain the momentum in meeting the changing needs of our Member States in the coming years."
The lecture was part of a two-day visit to Malaysia, the first stop on the Director General's five-country tour of Southeast Asia. He met Foreign Minister Sri Anifah Hj. Aman, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Ewon Ebin, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mah Siew Keong and Dr Muhamad Bin Lebai Juri, Director General of the Malaysian Nuclear Agency.