Video Green energy project endangers fish life

Killer whales hunt salmon in the rich waters off the North American west coast. But a new green energy project, in which turbines are places on the seafloor, threatens to harm fish life.

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VIDEO: What is LNG? Turning natural gas into liquid

Iran: Téhéran voit "une vraie possibilité" d'accord sur le nucléaire

"Je vais à Genève bien décidé à en repartir avec un accord. Je vois une vraie possibilité d'y parvenir", a déclaré à la presse Mohammad Javad Zarif, à l'issue d'un entretien avec son homologue italienne Emma Bonino.

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Brussels indulges in Trans-Caspian pipe dream again

After the European Commission has finally realized that major investors (RWE) and transit countries (Hungary) are leaving Nabucco, bureaucrats in Brussels are now trying to revitalize a distressed project – the so-called Trans-Caspian gas pipeline. Their goal is obvious – to find the lacking resources for a shorter version of Nabucco (the so-called Nabucco-West) and prevent its complete failure. Even in Europe many specialists in energy policy understand that without the gas of five Caspian littoral states including Iran, Nabucco will be a mere show of empty pipeline.

European experts in public relations haven’t given Trans-Caspian pipeline (TCP) project a pretentious brand name yet. And they had very good reasons to be cautious. Negotiations between Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and the EU on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have been ongoing since the late 90s. Despite extensive talks for more than 10 years, all summits and meetings were inconclusive. The European Union has made no financial commitment to the TCP project. What are the bottlenecks of the controversial pipeline? Why many politicians believe it still remains a distant prospect, not to say just another over-advertized pipe dream of Brussels?

First, legal status of the Caspian is currently unregulated. Therefore, territorial arguments among the littoral states are unavoidable. Even worse, two main stakeholders of the Trans-Caspian project, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, have unresolved disputes concerning gas fields: Baku and Ashgabat disagree over the ownership of the Kapaz/Serdar hydrocarbon deposit, which is needed to fill the pipe. Such issues are not easy to settle in reality, even if the European “big brother” is turning the heat on and demanding to get all the paperwork done in 2013.............

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Investissements records pour trouver du pétrole et du gaz en 2014

Photo fournie par l'entreprise publique argentine YPF montrant ses installations sur le gigantesque gisement d'hydrocarbures de schiste de Vaca Muerta, dans la province de Neuquen ( YPF/AFP/Archives / Felipe Scilipoti)

Le monde devrait dépenser quelque 750 milliards de dollars (550 milliards d'euros) l'an prochain pour abreuver la planète en pétrole et en gaz, mais avec une croissance en léger tassement, selon une étude publiée vendredi.

En 2014, la tendance haussière des investissements d'"exploration production" devrait se poursuivre à un rythme un peu moins élevé (+8% en euros courants, contre 11% en 2013), a détaillé l'institut de recherche énergétique IFP Energies Nouvelles lors d'une conférence de presse à Paris.

"On marque un petit peu le pas après quatre années de forte croissance", a résumé Nathalie Alazard-Toux de l'IFP EN, tout en rappelant la croissance "considérable" des dix dernières années, très loin des creux d'activité des années 90.

Les moteurs de la croissance restent inchangés: un prix du baril élevé autour de 100 dollars, de "nombreuses possibilités d'investissements", la poursuite de projets pluriannuels ainsi que les hydrocarbures de schiste aux Etats-Unis, selon l'IFP EN.

La croissance qui faiblit dans les pays émergents ralentit un peu la pression de la demande, mais reste un facteur fondamental du marché, a relevé Olivier Appert, le dirigeant de l'institut parapublic.

Plus de 100.000 puits par an

En 2013, la croissance du secteur devrait avoisiner les 11% (soit le même rythme qu'en 2012), pour atteindre 694 milliards de dollars d'investissements.

Pas moins de 104.000 puits (+2%) auront été forés à terre au cours de l'année 2013, dont 58% en Amérique du Nord, où l'exploitation des hydrocarbures de schiste nécessite un nombre plus important de puits que les gisements conventionnels.

En mer, 3.700 puits auront été creusés (+9%), avec cette fois une domination en Asie-Pacifique (44%).

Le marché aux Etats-Unis est marqué par une "pause", avec une croissance nord-américaine tombée à 2% cette année "après quatre ans de très forte croissance" liée au "boom" des hydrocarbures de schiste, a souligné Mme Alazard-Toux.

L'Asie-Pacifique, tirée notamment par des prix du gaz plus élevés qui rendent les gisements plus rentables, et l'Amérique du Nord ont concentré à elles deux plus de la moitié des investissements, avec environ 180 à 190 milliards chacune.

Suivent l'Amérique du Sud, l'Afrique et l'Europe hors Russie. Étonnamment, les pays de l'ex-CEI et le Moyen-Orient, principaux pourvoyeurs d'or noir mondiaux, concentrent moins de 15% des investissements, selon l'ex-Institut Français du Pétrole.

Le chiffre d'affaires des entreprises françaises dans le parapétrolier est estimé à 35 milliards d'euros (en 2012) par le secteur, soit une part de marché d'environ 7%.

Dans le raffinage, la croissance mondiale devrait elle afficher 2%, à environ 70 milliards d'euros, et la tendance devrait se poursuivre en 2014, selon l'IFP EN.

En 2004, les investissements pétroliers avoisinaient les 250 milliards de dollars, contre 40 milliards dans les renouvelables. Soit un triplement pour le pétrole, mais un sextuplement pour les renouvelables, a souligné IFP EN.A titre de A titre de comparaison, l'institut parapublic relève que les investissements dans les énergies renouvelables ont atteint 224 milliards de dollars en 2012, soit environ trois fois moins que les investissements pétroliers (raffinage inclus).

Néanmoins, depuis 2012, l'or noir continue de progresser, tandis que les investissements dans les renouvelables ralentissent.

Le transport routier reste le gros point faible du verdissement de l'économie, avec une dépendance quasi totale au pétrole.

Les biocarburants actuels ne pourront qu'assurer une part limitée de la demande du fait de leur conflit d'usage avec les terres agricoles. Et la voiture électrique n'est réellement "propre" que si l'électricité qu'elle emploie l'est aussi, or la production de courant reste majoritairement d'origine fossile (charbon et gaz notamment) dans le monde.

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Libya: All About Oil, or All About Banking?

Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank – this before they even had a government.  Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:

I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising.  This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.

Alex Newman wrote in the New American:

In a statement released last week, the rebels reported on the results of a meeting held on March 19. Among other things, the supposed rag-tag revolutionaries announced the “[d]esignation of the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and appointment of a Governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi.”

Newman quoted CNBC senior editor John Carney, who asked, “Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power?  It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.”

Another anomaly involves the official justification for taking up arms against Libya.  Supposedly it’s about human rights violations, but the evidence is contradictory.  According to an article on the Fox News website on February 28:

As the United Nations works feverishly to condemn Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi for cracking down on protesters, the body’s Human Rights Council is poised to adopt a report chock-full of praise for Libya’s human rights record. 

The review commends Libya for improving educational opportunities, for making human rights a “priority” and for bettering its “constitutional” framework. Several countries, including Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia but also Canada, give Libya positive marks for the legal protections afforded to its citizens — who are now revolting against the regime and facing bloody reprisal. 

Whatever might be said of Gaddafi, the Libyan people seem to be thriving.  A delegation of medical professionals from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus wrote in an appeal to Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin that after becoming acquainted with Libyan life, it was their view that in few nations did people live in such comfort:  

[Libyans] are entitled to free treatment, and their hospitals provide the best in the world of medical equipment. Education in Libya is free, capable young people have the opportunity to study abroad at government expense. When marrying, young couples receive 60,000 Libyan dinars (about 50,000 U.S. dollars) of financial assistance.  Non-interest state loans, and as practice shows, undated. Due to government subsidies the price of cars is much lower than in Europe, and they are affordable for every family. Gasoline and bread cost a penny, no taxes for those who are engaged in agriculture. The Libyan people are quiet and peaceful, are not inclined to drink, and are very religious. 

They maintained that the international community had been misinformed about the struggle against the regime. “Tell us,” they said, “who would not like such a regime?” 

Even if that is just propaganda, there is no denying at least one very popular achievement of the Libyan government: it brought water to the desert by building the largest and most expensive irrigation project in history, the $33 billion GMMR (Great Man-Made River) project.  Even more than oil, water is crucial to life in Libya.  The GMMR provides 70 percent of the population with water for drinking and irrigation, pumping it from Libya’s vast underground Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in the south to populated coastal areas 4,000 kilometers to the north.  The Libyan government has done at least some things right.   

Another explanation for the assault on Libya is that it is “all about oil,” but that theory too is problematic.  As noted in the National Journal, the country produces only about 2 percent of the world’s oil.  Saudi Arabia alone has enough spare capacity to make up for any lost production if Libyan oil were to disappear from the market.  And if it’s all about oil, why the rush to set up a new central bank?

Another provocative bit of data circulating on the Net is a 2007 “Democracy Now” interview of U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.).  In it he says that about 10 days after September 11, 2001, he was told by a general that the decision had been made to go to war with Iraq.  Clark was surprised and asked why.  “I don’t know!” was the response.  “I guess they don’t know what else to do!”  Later, the same general said they planned to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. 

What do these seven countries have in common?  In the context of banking, one that sticks out is that none of them is listed among the 56 member banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).  That evidently puts them outside the long regulatory arm of the central bankers’ central bank in Switzerland. 

The most renegade of the lot could be Libya and Iraq, the two that have actually been attacked.  Kenneth Schortgen Jr., writing on Examiner.com, noted that “[s]ix months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept Euros instead of dollars for oil, and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar.”

 

According to a Russian article titled “Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,” Gadaffi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar.  Gadaffi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency.  During the past year, the idea was approved by many Arab countries and most African countries.  The only opponents were the Republic of South Africa and the head of the League of Arab States.  The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa.

 

And that brings us back to the puzzle of the Libyan central bank.  In an article postedon the Market Oracle, Eric Encina observed:

 

One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned. . . . Currently, the Libyan government creates its own money, the Libyan Dinar, through the facilities of its own central bank. Few can argue that Libya is a sovereign nation with its own great resources, able to sustain its own economic destiny. One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability.  Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations.

Libya not only has oil.  According to the IMF, its central bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults.  With that sort of asset base, who needs the BIS, the IMF and their rules? 

Read Ellen Brown in The Global Economic Crisis

All of which prompts a closer look at the BIS rules and their effect on local economies.  An article on the BIS website states that central banks in the Central Bank Governance Network are supposed to have as their single or primary objective “to preserve price stability.”  They are to be kept independent from government to make sure that political considerations don’t interfere with this mandate.  “Price stability” means maintaining a stable money supply, even if that means burdening the people with heavy foreign debts.  Central banks are discouraged from increasing the money supply by printing money and using it for the benefit of the state, either directly or as loans. 

In a 2002 article in Asia Times titled “The BIS vs National Banks,” Henry Liu maintained:   

BIS regulations serve only the single purpose of strengthening the international private banking system, even at the peril of national economies. The BIS does to national banking systems what the IMF has done to national monetary regimes. National economies under financial globalization no longer serve national interests. 

. . . FDI [foreign direct investment] denominated in foreign currencies, mostly dollars, has condemned many national economies into unbalanced development toward export, merely to make dollar-denominated interest payments to FDI, with little net benefit to the domestic economies. 

He added, “Applying the State Theory of Money, any government can fund with its own currency all its domestic developmental needs to maintain full employment without inflation.”  The “state theory of money” refers to money created by governments rather than private banks.

The presumption of the rule against borrowing from the government’s own central bank is that this will be inflationary, while borrowing existing money from foreign banks or the IMF will not.  But allbanks actually create the money they lend on their books, whether publicly-owned or privately-owned.  Most new money today comes from bank loans.  Borrowing it from the government’s own central bank has the advantage that the loan is effectively interest-free.  Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of public projects by an average of 50%.   

And that appears to be how the Libyan system works.  According to Wikipedia, the functions of theCentral Bank of Libya include “issuing and regulating banknotes and coins in Libya” and “managing and issuing all state loans.”  Libya’s wholly state-owned bank can and does issue the national currency and lend it for state purposes. 

That would explain where Libya gets the money to provide free education and medical care, and to issue each young couple $50,000 in interest-free state loans.  It would also explain where the country found the $33 billion to build the Great Man-Made River project.  Libyans are worried that NATO-led air strikes are coming perilously close to this pipeline, threatening another humanitarian disaster.                

So is this new war all about oil or all about banking?  Maybe both – and water as well.  With energy, water, and ample credit to develop the infrastructure to access them, a nation can be free of the grip of foreign creditors.  And that may be the real threat of Libya: it could show the world what is possible.  Most countries don’t have oil, but new technologies are being developed that could make non-oil-producing nations energy-independent, particularly if infrastructure costs are halved by borrowing from the nation’s own publicly-owned bank.  Energy independence would free governments from the web of the international bankers, and of the need to shift production from domestic to foreign markets to service the loans. 

If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank joins the BIS, whether the nationalized oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and health care continue to be free.  

Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute,http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.  In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back.  Her websites are http://webofdebt.com and http://ellenbrown.com.

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VIDEO: Syrie : l'enjeu du gaz pour le Qatar

Égypte : accord US/Chine dans gaz et pétrole

Décidément, le chaos qui règne actuellement en Egypte n’a pas que des inconvénients pour certains …. et notamment les géants pétroliers.  Cela vous étonne ? Après la France et Total récemment, c’est au tour de la Chine et de Sinopec de « profiter » de l’occasion pour accroître sa présence dans le secteur énergétique égyptien.

Le groupe pétrolier Sinopec a ainsi annoncé vendredi avoir conclu un accord avec le pétrolier US Apache en vue d’acquérir un tiers de ses opérations en Égypte, le tout pour 3,1 milliards de dollars.

Une opération qui constitue une première étape du partenariat stratégique conclu entre les deux groupes, lesquels devraient mener ensemble des projets d’exploitation de pétrole et de gaz.

Apache a tenu toutefois à préciser dans un communiqué distinct que la finalisation de ce rachat, devrait être néanmoins soumise à l’approbation des autorités égyptiennes. Laquelle devrait intervenir au quatrième trimestre 2013.

Pour rappel, en 2012, la production nette d’Apache en Égypte représentait un volume moyen quotidien de 100.000 barils de pétrole brut et 10 millions de m3 de gaz. Le pays représentant ainsi 15% de la production mondiale du groupe au deuxième trimestre 2013 (contre 25% en 2010).

Via des propos qui auront le moins le mérite d’être clairs, le groupe américain a également tenu à préciser que ses « opérations d’exploration et de production » étant « concentrées dans des zones non habitées de l’ouest désertique du pays », elles n’étaient « pas affectées par les évènements politiques dans la région ». Comme quoi, tout va pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes en quelque sorte … Le géant pétrolier US mentionnant fermement son intention de poursuivre ses opérations en Égypte. Une annonce qui aura en tout état de cause permis au pétrolier US de bondir de 8,95% à 85,68 dollars vendredi à New-York.

Rappelons que Apache est engagé dans un processus de vente d’actifs non essentiels, en vue de consolider son bilan. En juillet dernier, le groupe avait vendu pour 3,75 milliards de dollars d’actifs dans le golfe du Mexique à un fonds d’investissement spécialisé. Indiquant alors vouloir rééquilibrer son portefeuille d’activité en se concentrant sur l’acquisition et le développement de différents champs pétroliers onshore en Amérique du Nord.

Précisons enfin qu’en début de semaine, le géant pétrolier français Total annonçait la signature d’un accord avec le géant pétrolier US Chevron en vue de lui racheter ses 66 stations-services en Égypte.

Opération intervenant trois mois après sa main-mise sur celles détenues par l’anglo-néerlandais Shell. Les troubles politiques qui secouent l’Egypte semblant visiblement permettre de rabattre les cartes du secteur énergétique du pays. Les pétroliers US profitant de l’occasion pour se « délester » de certains actifs.

Sources : Sinopec, Apache, AFP, Reuters

Elisabeth Studer – www.leblogfinance.com  – 31 août 2013

Source: Le Blog Finance

L'Iran et le Zimbabwe ont signé un contrat secret sur les fournitures d'uranium

Le Zimbabwe a secrètement signé un contrat de vente d'uranium à l'Iran.

Les médias informent se référant au vice-ministre des Exploitations minières du Zimbabwe, Gift Chimanikire, que Téhéran projette d'utiliser l'uranium zimbabwéen pour mettre au point une bombe atomique en contournant les sanctions occidentales.

Des analystes ne croient pas cependant que les fournitures à l'Iran seront bientôt organisées. Selon eux, il faudra attendre longtemps avant que les réserves d'uranium du Zimbabwe soient prêtes à être exportées.

Source: Voix de la Russie

Lire la suite: http://french.ruvr.ru/news/2013_08_10/LIran-et-le-Zimbabwe-ont-signe-un-contrat-secret-sur-les-fournitures-duranium-8852/

Depleted uranium found in Miami airport, evacuation ordered

Portions of an airport in Miami, Florida have been evacuated after depleted uranium was discovered early Thursday.

Firefighters have cleared a 150-foot area of the Opa-locka Executive Airport in south Florida after a 55 gallon drum located either on or near part of a dismantled aircraft was discovered to be containing exposed, depleted uranium, NBC 6 South Florida reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Arnold Piedrahita Jr tweeted that a haz-mat scene is on the scene attempting to assess the severity. 

Opa-locka is a reliever airport which serves as a secondary landing field for aircraft normally going in and out of the larger Miami International Airport. It also is a hub used by the United States Coast Guard for air and sea rescue stations.

According to a local NBC affiliate, officials at Opa-locka say there are no reported injuries.

Source: RT

La Moldavie rêve d’une révolution du schiste

La Moldavie rêve d’une révolution du schiste

La semaine dernière, le gouvernement moldave a définitivement adopté ses plans pour faire de son pays un exportateur de carburant bleu.

Des experts moldaves confirment qu’il doit y avoir du gaz de schiste au sud de la république et que le pays peut théoriquement produire jusqu’à 100 tonnes de pétrole et de gaz par jour...........

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Pétrole: la consommation mondiale en hausse de 1,2% par an (Lukoil)

La consommation mondiale de pétrole augmentera au rythme de 1,2% par an pour atteindre 105 millions de barils par jour (mbj) d'ici 2025, indique un rapport du géant pétrolier russe Lukoil consacré au développement des marchés mondiaux des hydrocarbures pour la période allant jusqu'en 2025. 

 

Selon Lukoil, de 2010 à 2025, le parc mondial de véhicules automobiles augmentera de 670 millions d'unités, ce qui fera croître la consommation de carburant de 9 millions de barils par jour sur cette période. 

 

Fondé en 1991, Lukoil figure parmi les plus grands producteurs mondiaux de pétrole. Le groupe se classe troisième parmi les compagnies énergétiques privées en termes de réserves prouvées d'hydrocarbures. Ses revenus annuels sont supérieurs à 100 milliards de dollars et son bénéfice net à 9 milliards.

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Russia ranks 1st in reserves of shale oil

Russia ranks first in the world in reserves of shale oil. According to a report published by the U.S. Department of Energy, technically recoverable resources in the Russian Federation are at 75 billion 

barrels.

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Le gazoduc OPAL à l'abri des clauses du troisième paquet énergie ?

 "Gazprom ne possède pas de garanties pour la totalité du gaz qu’il peut dès maintenant transporter par Nord Stream. Car lorsque le gaz arrive en Allemagne, il doit céder une partie des capacités dans les réseaux de distribution aux opérateurs indépendants éventuels qui voudront sans doute pomper leur propre gaz. Ce quota doit être réservé en permanence et si la Commission Européenne décidait de mettre OPAL en marge du troisième paquet, le gaz de Gaprom remplirait entièrement le tube en augmentant par là même la quantité de combustible en Europe dans l’intérêt des consommateurs européens », explique Dmitri Alexandrov, directeur du département d’études analytiques de la société « Univer Capital »

More on Voix de la Russie

Lire la suite: http://french.ruvr.ru/2013_06_05/OPAL-sera-exempte-des-exigences-du-troisieme-paquet-energie-2722/

Fukushima : une nouvelle fuite d'eau radioactive

Une nouvelle fuite radioactive s'est déclarée dans la centrale de Fukushima 


http://french.ruvr.ru/news/2013_06_05/Fukushima-une-nouvelle-fuite-deau-radioactive-4822/

Cracks in Iran’s nuclear reactor facility following quakes – diplomats

A general view of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, some 1,200 km (746 miles) south of Tehran.(Reuters / Mohammad Babaie)

Cracks of several meters long have appeared in one concrete section of the facility, claimed diplomats from countries monitoring Iran’s nuclear program. Cracks however were not visible around the highly-radioactive reactor core, they said. Iran’s only power producing nuclear reactor in Bushehr was damaged by earthquakes which struck Iran over April and May, diplomats told AP. Cracks have reportedly appeared in at least one section of the structure.

Tehran did not deny or confirm the report with Iran’s chief delegate to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, telling AP: “I know nothing about Bushehr.” 

Iran has stated that the plant is technically sound and was built to withstand quakes up to magnitude 8.

Russian nuclear specialists examined the facility following the April quake that caused much damage in the neighboring Pakistan killing around 40 and wounded hundreds. 

"The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor, personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," an official with Atomstroyexport, the Russian company which built the facility, told RIA Novosti. 

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said at the time that Iran reported that earthquake caused no damage to the facility. 

“Iran has informed [the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Center] of the event, reporting that there has been no damage to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and no radioactive release from the installation,” the agency said in a statement, according to Reuters. 

The safety of the plant was thrown into question following the April quakes, one of which was 7.7, and a subsequent moderate quake in early May. Their severity caused concerns that protective vessels which contain the radioactive material inside the reactors could be cracked. Intense earthquakes can also knock out power and disable cooling systems that prevent overheating and possible meltdown. 

The country has not signed up to a nuclear safety convention put together in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, fuelling fears of damage, which have been exacerbated by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. 

More news on RT

Conseil de l'Arctique : le bilan de la rencontre de Kiruna

© Collage : La Voix de la Russie

Une réunion intergouvernementale des pays membres du Conseil de l'Arctique tenue à Kiruna a dressé le bilan des deux années de présidence de la Suède. La présidence est passée au Canada. Le représentant de la Russie au Conseil Anton Vassiliev a raconté à La Voix de la Russie :

« La 8e rencontre ministérielle du Conseil de l'Arctique s'est tenue à Kiruna. Elle a clôturé le premier cycle de présidence des 8 membres du Conseil. Une déclaration conjointe, Vision pour l'Arctique, a été adoptée à cette occasion. Dans ce document, les ministres ont positivement apprécié le fait même de la constitution du Conseil de l'Arctique et l'évolution de la coopération internationale en Arctique au cours de ces 16 dernières années.

Une déclaration de Kiruna a été également adoptée. Celle-ci a dressé le bilan de deux ans de la présidence suédoise et a fixé les grands axes du travail pour les années à venir sous la présidence du Canada. La signature de deux documents panarctiques juridiquement contraignants est considérée comme des succès majeurs de ces deux dernières années. L'un d'entre eux, l'Accord de coopération sur la surveillance et la réaction aux pollution par le pétrole des mers de l'Arctique, a été signé à Kiruna. Un autre document, l'Accord de coopération en matière de recherche et de sauvetage aéronautiques et maritimes dans l'Arctique, a été signé en 2011 à Nuuk. A Kiruna, le Conseil a institué un secrétariat permanent qui aurait son siège à Tromso.

Anton Vassiliev a mis en relief les projets de coopération pour l'avenir fixés à Kiruna. Ainsi le Conseil devra accorder une attention spéciale à l'essor des liens directs entre les régions arctiques de tous les pays membres du Conseil et aux gens qui vivent et travaillent au-delà du cercle polaire, les peuples indigènes de l'Arctique compris. En plus, le Conseil va développer les axes dont l'importance est déjà devenue évidente, notamment la sécurité industrielle, la protection de l'environnement et la lutte contre les pollutions industrielles existantes.

Le Conseil a adopté un programme d'études scientifiques et pratiques. Une de ces études portera sur le du changement de la diversité biologique. Nous savons peu de choses sur l'oxydation de l'océan Glacial arctique. Le dioxyde de carbone émis dans l'atmosphère en résultat de l'activité humaine se retrouve dans l'eau augmentant son acidité. Cela conduit à la destruction du calcium, base de la colonne vertébrale de tous les organismes vivants en Arctique. D'où une menace à la survie de tous ces organismes en Arctique !

D'autres problèmes ont été examinés. Ainsi, il a été formellement recommandé à tous les habitants du Nord de ne pas prendre des bains de soleil en avril et en mai car la couche d'ozone s'est amincie suite à des changements climatiques et de graves maladies dermiques peuvent en résulter.

Les Etats de l'Arctique s'occupent de concert de l'ensemble de ces problèmes. Beaucoup d'idées et de souhaits ont été suggérées au Canada, prochain président du Conseil de l'Arctique.

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Nuclear unclear: Radioactive materials disappear in UK over last decade

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released papers under the freedom of information act, revealing that radioactive materials have gone missing from businesses, hospitals and universities more than 30 times in the past 10 years.

The papers revealed by the HSE, the UK government’s safety watchdog, list some big names in British industry as amongst the culprits including Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations in Derby, which makes the reactors for Britain’s nuclear submarines, it was reported in The Guardian on Monday.

Small pellets of highly radioactive Ytterbium-169 were lost from the Rolls-Royce marine division, while a 13kg ball of depleted uranium went missing from the Forgemasters steel works in Sheffield, The Royal Free hospital in London lost caesium-137 used in cancer treatment. A report into the incident found that it “had the potential to cause significant radiation injuries to anyone handling [it] directly or being in the proximity for a short period of time.”

In another case, materials containing caesium-137 were lost on a North Sea oil rig by the oil services firm Schlumberger.

While at the site of the former atomic energy research center at Harwell near Oxford, cobalt 60 was found under a tube store under a machine during clearance.

Earlier this year a small canister of iridium-192 was stolen from a van in Lancashire, but was later found at a nearby retail park almost a month later.

“The unacceptable frequency and seriousness of these losses, some with the potential for severe radiological consequences, reflect poorly on the licenses and the HSE regulator. I cannot understand why it is not considered to be in the public interest to vigorously prosecute all such offences,” John Large, an internationally consultant to the nuclear industry, told The Guardian.

“Such slack security raises deep concerns about the accessibility of these substances to terrorists and others of malevolent intent,” he said.

While the HSE successfully prosecuted the Royal Free Hospital, Shlumberger and the massive Sellafield nuclear plant, other organizations have got away with written warnings.

In the case of Sellafield, the nuclear reprocessing facility pleaded guilty at Workington magistrates to sending  mixed general waste, such as plastic, paper and metal from controlled radioactive areas to the Lillyhall landfill site in Workington when it should have been sent to the low-level waste repository [for low level nuclear waste] at Drigg, Cumbria.

The science departments of York and Warwick universities were luckier; they received written advice over losing radioactive materials during science demonstrations.

While the Loreto high school in Manchester is being investigated over the loss of americium-241. 

“Some of these radioactive sources are very persistent, for example the Royal Free hospital’s lost caesium-137 has a half-life of around 30 years, so it remains radio-toxic for at least 10 half-lives or about 300 years,” said Large, who led the nuclear assessment risk for the raising of the destroyed Russian nuclear submarine Kursk in 2001.

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A tour of one of the largest oil reserves in the world

The flares in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region (Yugra) burn off a mix of natural gas and crude oil that reaches the surface. Visits to the region showcase the oil-producing units of the Russian majors, specifically Lukoil, Rosneft and Surgutneftegaz. Yugra began oil tours in 1999, and with ever increasing demand, has slowly opened up its doors to the public: http://rbth.ru/travel/2013/04/25/a_tour_of_one_of_the_largest_oil_reserves_in_the_world_25467.html

VIDEO: 3 hurt as 6 massive blasts rock Mobile, Alabama shipyard

A series of six large blasts on a fuel barge in Mobile, Alabama, rocked the area Wednesday night, critically injuring three. An evacuation zone was set up after firefighters were unable to put out the blaze, which they hope will burn out overnight.

The first blast occurred on a natural gas barge on the east side of the Mobile River at around 8:30pm local time, and was followed shortly afterwards by four more blasts. Fox10 News has reported that the barges may still be carrying hundreds of gallons of gasoline.

Officials said that there were no fatalities, but three victims of the Alabama barge explosion remain in critical condition after being admitted to the University of South Alabama Medical Center for treatment. 

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