Houston Chronicle:Governments turn attention to nuclear, amid energy price spikes
Houston Chronicle: Governments turn attention to nuclear, amid energy price spikes
WASHINGTON — Top officials from nations around the world said Wednesday they were rethinking their decadeslong skepticism toward nuclear power,?amid global spikes in oil and natural gas prices?following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a long-term effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite ongoing concern?around the high costs and safety implications of nuclear power, government officials are now looking at nuclear as a means to protect themselves against commodity price spikes and shore up their electrical grids against the inconsistencies of wind and solar energy.
At a conference hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency?in Washington on Wednesday, government ministers from wealthy and developing nations alike took turns declaring their commitment to nuclear energy as a means to address climate change.
“We know what is happening in Ukraine is having every country reevaluate whether they want their energy sourced from one country or an opportunity to generate their own power,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “Nuclear is at the top of the list given the climate crisis.”
Seven years after France’s National Assembly voted to cut the nation’s reliance on nuclear power,?President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier this year plans?to build at least six new plants.?Germany has delayed the closure of its three nuclear plants?as it rethinks the future of nuclear power there, and the?United Kingdom is building two new nuclear plants.
In the United States, Congress recently approved?the creation of a nuclear power tax credit to delay the further closure of plants, at the same time the Department of Energy and private investors such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are pouring billions of dollars into developing next-generation nuclear reactors?they hope will not have the safety and cost issues of existing nuclear reactors.
“We are starting to see progress, but only now after decades of stunted policies,” said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reports to the United Nations. “The change is palpable and seen in countries that are mature and confirmed users of nuclear energy like the United States.”
Nuclear energy, which produces no greenhouse gas emissions, has been a logical but controversial solution to the climate crisis, a well-established technology with a history that stretches back more than half a century. But sporadic disasters, most recently?the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, has long given government officials pause and helped drive opposition from environmental groups.
But 10 months after Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border — driving natural gas and power prices in Europe remain to many times normal levels — officials are willing to give nuclear another look.
“I said last year nuclear is set to make a comeback. And after the invasion of Ukraine, the wind behind nuclear is now much stronger,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, which advises governments worldwide on energy policy. "We are in the middle of the first truly global energy crisis."
Also driving governments’ interest is the development of next-generation reactors that are not only more efficient but theoretically meltdown proof.
So far no advanced reactors are being built for commercial operation. But some companies are moving into the testing phase, with Terra Energy, Gates’s nuclear startup, getting ready to build?a small-scale advanced reactor at a closed coal power plant in Wyoming.
“We’re at a pivotal moment for energy innovation, much like the life-changing breakthrough that’s led to the personal computer,” Gates said in a video appearance at Wednesday’s conference.
The question facing government officials is not only whether that technology will prove out but whether the nuclear industry can scale up fast enough to meet climate targets of net-zero emissions by midcentury.
After decades of declining interest in the technology, the supply chains for nuclear equipment and the uranium on which reactors rely to generate power are in disrepair, and regulations are out of date, said Bill Magwood, director-general of the Nuclear Energy Agency, a division of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
However, he said government officials have begun to realize how little progress has been made on climate change and are eager to find solutions to expanding nuclear energy.
“You had some discussions (five years ago), but nothing like we’re seeing today,” he said. “This is a level of enthusiasm we probably haven’t seen since the 1960s.”
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U.S. Dep. of State: Poland’s Announcement on Westinghouse Nuclear Technology Selection
We welcome the decision by the Government of Poland to select Westinghouse as its technology partner for the construction of three U.S.-designed nuclear reactors. This agreement will ensure a decades-long strategic energy partnership between the United States and Poland and is a watershed moment in advancing European energy security.
The U.S. commitment to work with Poland to facilitate the production of safe, clean, and reliable nuclear power is a testament to our deep bilateral strategic security and economic relationship. As NATO Allies, the United States and Poland already cooperate closely on a range of security and defense issues. The United States is proud to further expand our energy security partnership through this new venture.
This project is also a major step forward in our global fight against climate change. When fully operational, the reactors are projected to result in 26 million tons per year of CO2 emissions averted and demonstrate that we can strengthen our energy security and our climate ambition simultaneously.
The Polish government’s announcement is the culmination of a years-long effort between the United States and Poland, and I thank Foreign Minister Rau for his close cooperation with me on the issue. Through close collaboration, the U.S. and Polish governments developed innovative joint financing and technical solutions to address Polish clean energy needs and ensure the financial viability of the project.
This robust effort was enabled by the dynamism of the U.S. nuclear industry, and the project will create thousands of good paying jobs in both countries.
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Biden shouldn’t try to ‘save’ Israeli democracy from election victors
Democrats don’t want Netanyahu or a right-wing/religious government in Jerusalem. But what they really don’t want is for the Jewish state’s voters to determine their own fate.
The votes in Israel’s latest Knesset election are still being counted, but the exit polls confirmed the worst fears of the Biden administration. While Israel isn’t getting the same kind of obsessive attention it has received at times in the past, there’s no question that President Joe Biden and his foreign-policy team have strong opinions about who should be running the Jewish state that are echoed by most Democrats and the liberal mainstream media.
They liked interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid and feared the possible return to power of Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
The prospect of not only a victory for Netanyahu and his Likud Party, but the formation of a government with a prominent role for the Religious Zionist Party and one of its controversial leaders, Itamar Ben Gvir, is enough to set the hair of Democrats and the foreign-policy establishment on fire.
Ben Gvir was a supporter of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s in his youth and has a well-earned reputation as a right-wing provocateur who often clashed with the police. The attorney/activist moderated his views somewhat however, as he became more politically viable. But he is still treated by both Israeli and American liberals as anathema and a mortal threat to democracy.
That sets up a situation where the temptation for Washington to try to influence the coalition negotiations that will follow the counting of the votes may prove irresistible.
It wouldn’t be the first time American administrations had tried to play that game. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both sought to defeat Netanyahu and then aid his opponents in their quest to thwart his efforts to form governments. But this time, the motivation is slightly different.
In the past, those attempts to topple Netanyahu-led governments were primarily part of a campaign to promote the peace process with the Palestinians. Now, the main focus of American intervention—which may well be seconded by many leading American-Jewish groups—will be an effort to prevent the Religious Zionists and Ben Gvir from being part of a governing coalition.
The same group of Democratic foreign-policy hacks have largely staffed the Clinton, Obama and now Biden administrations. They all refuse to acknowledge the reality that Palestinian nationalism is inextricably tied to century-old Arab war on Zionism. That renders them incapable of accepting the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders might be drawn.
Biden’s team is just as devoted to the myth of “land for peace.” But they are not so dim as to fail to realize that expending precious political and diplomatic capital on behalf of the Palestinians is a waste of time. They know that there will be no two-state solution in the foreseeable future, regardless of who is prime minister of Israel.
Still, the initially Naftali Bennett-led ramshackle coalition that ousted Netanyahu in the summer of 2021?downplayed its opposition?to Biden’s desire for rapprochement and a new nuclear deal with Iran, rather than openly challenging them, as Bibi would have done.
Biden was even happier with Lapid, who took over after the coalition collapsed. Lapid bowed to American pressure?to make concessions?to Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon on a maritime border agreement that involved Israel’s conceding its rights to natural-gas resources that it had previously claimed. Netanyahu has vowed to reverse that one-sided deal.
Yet, keeping Netanyahu out of the Prime Minister’s Office will not in of itself be the main focus of American intervention. The Religious Zionists’ impressive performance, which seems to have made them Israel’s third largest party, not only puts them in a position to help Netanyahu gain the majority that had eluded him in the four rounds of Knesset elections that were held since the spring of 2019.
It also means its leaders, Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir, are in line to become ministers in the next government. And this is something that both Washington and liberal American Jews would do just about anything to prevent.
While there has been a flurry of articles in the legacy media and liberal Jewish outlets seeking to depict Smotrich, and especially Ben Gvir, as enemies of both democracy and decency, it will have been a mere foretaste of what is likely to follow the election.
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The pair give their detractors plenty of fodder for criticism. But the rise of Smotrich and Ben Gvir is a natural consequence of the failure of the current government to adequately address the rise in Palestinian terrorism. It also reflects the growth of the religious population and the collapse of credibility of those parties that championed outreach to the Palestinians over the course of the last two decades as the Oslo peace process proved to be a disaster.
In contrast to the overwhelmingly liberal bent of American Jewry, Israeli Jews are more likely to be proudly nationalist and have fewer illusions about the Palestinian desire for peace. They are sympathetic to leaders who are unashamed about their desire for Israel to be a Jewish state rather than a non-sectarian nation in which Jewish peoplehood and religion are downplayed.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir have prospered because they have captured the spirit of the times with their in-your-face style and confrontational attitude toward both the Israeli left and the Arabs.
They horrify the latter, as well as most American Jews and even those Democrats who, like Biden, talk about their love for Israel, but only like those Israelis who do as they are told and are presentable to liberal American audiences. Even a pro-Israel stalwart like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who was a thorn in the side of the Obama administration because of his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, has said that a government with the Religious Zionists would not get a warm welcome on Capitol Hill.
But the claims that Smotrich and Ben Gvir would be a threat to democracy?are partisan bunk. Neither their justified efforts to reform Israel’s judiciary nor their demands for a more aggressive stance against terrorists—nor even their support for annexation of settlements in Judea and Samaria—would transform the country into a non-democratic entity or fundamentally change its character.
Israeli society will remain an often-confusing mix of the secular and the religious and an avowedly Jewish state, whether they are in the government or not. The canard that Israel is an “apartheid state” will be just as much a lie with them running ministries as it was when they were in the opposition.
What it will mean, though, is that the next Israeli Cabinet will be less easily manipulated by Netanyahu as he characteristically aims to chart a cautious middle path on policy, especially on security issues. Indeed, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir will probably be troublesome coalition partners.
That’s why Netanyahu would likely prefer, if at all possible, to entice the center-left parties led by Lapid and Benny Gantz into his government. But, since neither of them is apt to be led down the garden path by the slippery Bibi again, he’s likely to be stuck with the Religious Zionists.
The “defending democracy” rhetoric of those Americans inclined to meddle in Israeli politics in the coming weeks is a smokescreen for something less admirable. The main problem that both Israeli leftists and their American sympathizers have with Israeli democracy is that their side doesn’t win the country’s free and fair democratic elections.
Israel’s people don’t need to be saved from themselves. Their governments are supposed to represent the needs and concerns of the citizens, not the sensibilities of the country’s foreign friends, be they of the faithful or—as is the case with many of Netanyahu’s and Ben Gvir’s most bitter opponents—the fair-weather variety.
It will be a bitter pill for American liberals to swallow, but if they truly support the Jewish state, they will accept the verdict of the voters. If not, they should stop posing as defenders of democracy.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS?
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TX Logistik to transport hinterland traffic Wilhelmshaven from 2023
TX Logistik, subsidiary of Mercitalia Group, will integrate the deep-water port of Jade-Weser-Port Wilhelmshaven into its network. It will start transporting hinterland traffic from mid-January 2023 to Nuremberg and Kornwestheim. More destinations will be added in the first half of 2023.
The decision to incorporate the port was made based on the forecast volume growth at Jade-Weser Port. According to experts, the volume handled will increase further in the coming year when the container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd and other members of the shipping consortium “The Alliance” will start their first Far East service.
The rail line between Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven has recently been double-tracked and fully electrified. With the completion of all construction work by the end of 2022, the nearly 70-kilometer route can be operated with modern electric locomotives in 2023.
This will ensure efficient traction and significantly improve the accessibility of the logistics hub Jade-Weser port for freight trains, says the operator. TX Logistik is currently working on the final details. In parallel, discussions are being held with potential users of the new connection, which is to be offered as part of the boxXpress production platform.
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Hungary in Trieste: will it boost Italy’s role on the New Silk Road?
Italian ports can become the sea transportation solution for cargo to and from landlocked Hungary. This is not only attractive for continental traffic, but also for rail freight between China and Europe.?
The Adriatic corridor is a popular transport link for cargo to and from Hungary arriving by sea, and this popularity has only increased since the outbreak of the war. “Ukrainians now value transit alternatives, said Agnes Hernád from RailCargo Group Hungary during the RailFreight on Tour summit in Debrecen. “The Adriatic corridor to Hungary played a crucial role in that.”
That the relevance of the Adriatic ports has not gone unnoticed by the Hungarians also became clear with Hungary’s new project for a rail terminal in the port of Trieste. This terminal is expected to function as an import-export platform for Hungary, which does not have an outlet on the sea in its territory. Currently, there are already six to eight daily trains between Trieste and Budapest, number which will increase once the terminal is completed.
Better than the Greek ports
According to Baratta, using rail freight routes to the Italian ports have advantages over the routes to the Greek ports. “The main disadvantage of rail routes from Greece is that they cross non-EU countries, which require more documentation and therefore cause slowdowns”, he pointed out.
Moreover, transit times from Italy to Budapest are quite attractive. As Baratta pointed out, there are daily connections with Hungary from Milan and Trieste with a transit time of roughly three days. He also mentions that a direct rail connection would allow “extending container transportation to the inland of Europe in a regular and reliable way”.
The Adriatic corridor on the New Silk Road
As Baratta pointed out, Italy and Trieste play a significant role in the New Silk Road but are “far from the main train connections with China”. Italy is the fourth largest EU trading partner with China, and strong connections with Hungary could help when it comes to trade via rail between Rome and Beijing. (ctd.)
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Why the Chinese see Budapest as the ideal rail freight entry to Europe
In China, rail freight operators consider Budapest as one of the rail freight main hubs in Europe. Although traffic is now diverted via Malaszewicze due to the war in Ukraine, it is still consolidated in the Hungarian capital.?
Choosing Budapest
“The transit time of this route is about seven days faster than the traditional route via Malaszewicze; at fastest, Budapest can be reached within fourteen days.In addition, Budapest has a complete railway distribution network. After the goods arrive in Budapest, they can be delivered to Bucharest/Constanza, the port of Koper, Duisburg and Hamburg within 2-3 days.”
“In choosing railway routes, Chinese platform companies mainly choose Budapest as the first hub in Europe”, he continued. The distribution range is large. In contrast, Vienna or Bratislava have an incomplete industrial setup and higher transit costs. Because of this, only few customers choose to book directly to Vienna or Bratislava.”
“This is an ambitious plan, aiming to build the largest and most modern inland terminal and logistics center in Europe. If it is up and running, it can indeed form an important transshipment hub for Eurasian corridor. I believe it will further strengthen the positioning of Hungary in the operation of China-Europe freight trains.”
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