Small scale solar power to take off in a big way in Dubai
Dubai looks to rooftop solar power revolution, The National, Florian Neuhof May 13, 2013 , Dubai is finalising legislation that will enable property owners to feed solar power into the grid and may even allow them to make money from it. The Government last year unveiled plans for a 1,000-megawatt solar park, but it believes that small-scale applications are important for meeting its renewable energy targets.
“In the near future we will have a legislative environment that allows for grid-connected solar power. There will be different approaches for different scales,” said Ivano Iannelli, the chief executive of the government-owned advisory company Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence.
“In the next 12 months, we will see a constant increase of solar infrastructure. Not only standalone facilities such as solar pumps, but to actually power our villas, our parks, our residential communities.”
Industry sources say that encouraging the use of solar on rooftops is one of the pillars of Dubai’s plans to bring the technology to the emirate. Photovoltaic panels can be mounted on roofs of residential properties, office buildings or industrial facilities, providing electricity and creating a surplus that can be fed into the grid…… After decades of relying on fossil fuels, Dubai has now woken up to the potential of solar power.
The emirate seeks to generate 5 per cent of its electricity from the sun by 2030. Last year, the Dubai Supreme Council for Energy announced plans for the Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, and Dewa awarded the contract for the first array in October.
While solar is a clean source of energy, it is also an increasingly viable alternative to scarce natural gas. http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/energy/dubai-looks-to-rooftop-solar-power-
An unpopular truth – Iran does not have nuclear weapons
No, Iran does not posses nuclear weapons, The Spectator, Peter Oborne 1 May 2013 “…… two weeks ago I published a book, co-authored with David Morrison, 
A Dangerous Delusion: Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran. Since then my co-author and I have been subject to a series of misrepresentations and innuendo on a scale and (in some cases) virulence that I have never encountered before…….
not one of our critics have even tried to deal with the central, factual points of our short book: that Iran isn’t in possession of nuclear weapons and isn’t building them; that the US and Israeli intelligence agencies don’t think they are; that Iran is entitled under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to develop peaceful nuclear power; that in 2005 it put proposals on the table to do this under full international scrutiny (including co-ownership).
We acknowledge that Iran’s human rights record – as Geoffrey Robertson has graphically portrayed in his recent book – is dreadful. We view President Ahmadinejad’s denials of the Holocaust as utterly odious. However, to judge Iran by Ahmadinejad alone would be a mistake. He steps down in a few weeks, and in any case the final decision on nuclear matters lies with the Supreme Leader, who has repeatedly denounced nuclear weapons as forbidden under Islam. It is in the best interest of the west, let alone ordinary Iranians whose lives are being made miserable by sanctions, to engage with Iran pragmatically rather than carry on with the current policy of isolation.
In the wake of June’s elections we hope and believe that a solution satisfactory to all parties can be agreed. We passionately believe that the alternative is too ghastly to contemplate. However, if an agreement is to be reached, we in the west need to recognize that Iran – with all its faults – is an independent nation with legitimate interests, and is a fully signed up member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with every right to enrich uranium.
We also need to be clear about the facts. This is why in our book we have attempted to expose the myths, falsehoods and delusions that surround this grave and troubling subject. There is an argument of massive importance to be engaged in here. If my critics wish to challenge me to open debate about the thesis of our book, I would be delighted to engage. They know how to get hold of me: any time, any place. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/peter-oborne/2013/05/no-iran-is-an-independent-nation-with-legitimate-interests-that-does-not-posses-nuclear-weapons/
Egypt’s anger at lack of progress on nuclear free Middle East
Egypt Walks Out Of Nuclear Talks In Geneva, Huffington Post, By JOHN HEILPRIN 04/29/13 GENEVA — Egypt walked out of a round of global
nuclear talks in protest Monday, saying other nations are not acting quickly
enough to establish the Middle East as a zone free of nuclear weapons.
A statement from Egypt’s foreign ministry said the nation ended its
participation in two weeks of Geneva talks out of frustration that the zone
has yet to be created. The talks run through this week.
“We can’t wait forever for the implementation of this decision,” said the
ministry’s statement Monday night, explaining that Egypt’s walkout was meant
to send a message to the world that it can no longer accept what it
considers to be a lack of seriousness on the issue….. At the 1995 review,
nations adopted the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East, in a concession by
the U.S. and others to the Arabs, who wanted Israel to join the treaty and
to give up its unacknowledged arsenal of nuclear weapons. In exchange, the
Arabs backed the treaty’s permanent extension.
But after 15 years of inaction on a nuclear-free zone, Egypt proposed that
the 2010 conference endorse launching negotiations to establish one. With no
talks started, Egypt said Monday that some other members of the treaty – and
non-members – are “obstructing” the goal. Though it did not specify, the
reference to non-members was seen as implying Israel.
Ahead of the Geneva talks to prevent the spread of nuclear arms, the U.N.
Security Council’s five major powers – Britain, China, France, Russia and
the United States – had again called for progress in establishing a
nuclear-free Middle East.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/egypt-nuclear-talks_n_3181087.html
Questioning the wisdom of Netanyahu’s nuclear brinkmanship
Analysis – Israeli credibility on line over Iran nuclear challenge, The West, By Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams, 29 April 13 JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel risks a loss of credibility over both its “red line” for Iran’s nuclear programme and its threat of military action, and its room for unilateral manoeuvre is shrinking.
After years of veiled warnings that Israel might strike the Islamic Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out an ultimatum at the United Nations last September.
Iran, he said, must not amass enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity to fuel one bomb if enriched further. To ram the point home, he drew a red line across a cartoon bomb, guaranteeing him front page headlines around the world.
However, a respected Israeli ex-spymaster says Iran has skilfully circumvented the challenge. Other influential voices say the time has passed when Israel can hit out at Iran alone, leaving it dependent on U.S. decision-makers……
some officials have also questioned the wisdom of Netanyahu’s red line, arguing that such brinkmanship can generate unwelcome ambiguity -….. Tehran denies there is any military component to its nuclear activities, saying it is focused only on civilian energy needs. It charges that Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, is the greater regional threat.
Keeping in step with Netanyahu, Israeli defence and military officials issued clear warnings this month that Israel was still prepared to go it alone against Iran, once more beating the drums of war after months of relative quiet……
But there is increasing scepticism within diplomatic circles about the viability of such an option. Envoys doubt that the Israeli military could now make much of a dent on Iran’s far-flung, well-fortified nuclear installations……. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/16914529/analysis-israeli-credibility-on-line-over-iran-nuclear-challenge/
VIDEO Iraq and USA soldiers – victims of the depleted uranium horror
while our many soldiers’ DU-related health problems is terrible enough on its own, we’ve also left Iraq covered in radioactive munitions fragments that, by the very virtue of having exploded, are essentially impossible to clean up. That is a huge, if overlooked, legacy of the United States’ wars in Iraq: Not only does Iraq have to deal with the physical toll of a decade-plus of war, it’s also been left with a huge, and ongoing, health crisis.
Video (skip the ad) America’s Terrible History of Depleted Uranium http://motherboard.vice.com/read/americas-terrible-history-of-depleted-uranium By Derek Mead 24 April 13, The United States has left its mark on Iraq in myriad ways in its two wars in the Persian Gulf, but one of the least-discussed is the effects of the US military’s use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions. DU is a munitions designer’s dream: projectiles using DU alloys are armor-piercing and incendiary, which means it’s ideal for obliterating and burning tanks and other armored vehicles. But its use has left the Gulf’s battlefields blanketed with radioactive material.
DU is byproduct of the production of the enriched uranium used in nuclear reactors, and as such has relatively low levels of radiation. But Gulf War soldiers were regularly exposed to it, not least when DU used in munitions converted into an aerosol form after explosions. That means that Gulf War soldiers may have been exposed without realizing it, and has long been blamed for contributing to Gulf War Syndrome, Continue reading
Serious worries about safety of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Another Cause for Alarm in Iran’s Nuclear Program: 
Earthquakes, The Atlantic, Jill Keenan, 18 April 13, The country’s nuclear power plant is built near tectonic plates, and reports show it may not be safe in the event of a major seismic event. On April 16, a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southeast Iran, sending tremors across the region and causing casualties that are expected to reach into the hundreds. According to an Iranian official , it was the biggest earthquake to hit the country in 40 years. This devastation comes only one week after another earthquake hit the town of Kaki, also in southern Iran, killing at least 37 people and injuring more than 850 others. Shockwaves from both earthquakes were felt as far away as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and western Saudi Arabia. They are only the two most recent in a series of earthquakes that regularly haunt this seismically unstable country.
Most ominously, the epicenter of the April 9 earthquake’s first tremor, which measured a 6.3 on the Richter scale, was centered only 62 miles away from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. Continue reading
Saudi Arabia to spend $109 billion on renewable energy projects
Saudi Arabia To Add 50GW Of Renewables By 2030 http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3693 17 April 13 Saudi Arabia plans to spend $109 billion on renewable energy projects over the next 20 years, installing more solar and wind power capacity than the rest of the world to date. Continue reading
Anxieties in the region, about safety of Iran’s nuclear reactor
Any nuclear disaster at Bushehr will have regional implications.
Iran nuclear plant: the looming danger With Bushehr becoming operational, Iran is the only nuclear power country that is not a signatory to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, Gulf News By Ali Vaez April 12. 2013 A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Iran’s southern shores last Tuesday, on the afternoon that the country was celebrating its National Nuclear Technology Day. Continue reading
Earthquake? no worries – Iran will build more nuclear reactors there
Iran says it will build more nuclear plants in area hit by earthquake : http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/10/iran-to-build-more-nuclear-plants-in-area-hit-by-earthquake/#ixzz2QBoycUDm April 10, 2013
FoxNews A day after an earthquake rattled the area containing Iran’s only nuclear power plant, the country announced that it plans to build more plants in the same place.
Tuesday’s magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck 55 miles southeast of Bushehr, killing at least 37 and injuring more than 900, Iranian officials said.
The Russian power company that helped build the nuclear plant says its operations were unaffected. But the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization told state TV hours after the earthquake that more reactors would be built near Bushehr, Reuters reports.
Iran has repeatedly ignored safety concerns about housing a nuclear facility in the area, which is highly seismic.
Last week, a report by U.S. think tanks the Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said the Bushehr reactor sits at the intersection of three tectonic plates, Reuters reports.
In 2003, an earthquake in Bam, which is about 600 miles east of Bushehr, killed more than 25,000 people.
Iran’s nuclear plant – close to recent earthquake
Strong earthquake near Iran nuclear plant kills dozens Radio Australia 10 April 2013, More than 30 people are dead after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake which hit near Iran’s only nuclear power plant. A powerful earthquake has struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing at least 37 people and injuring 850 as it destroyed homes and devastated two small villages.
The magnitude 6.3 quake totally destroyed one village, a Red Crescent official told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), but the nearby Bushehr nuclear plant was undamaged, according to Iranian officials and the Russian company that built it.
Many houses in rural parts of the province are made of mud bricks, which have been known to crumble easily in quake-prone Iran.
The death toll is expected to climb, as the stricken area is home to some 12,000 inhabitants.
Across the Gulf, offices in Qatar and Bahrain were evacuated after the quake. Its epicentre was 89 km south-east of the port of Bushehr, according to the US Geological Survey.
The early afternoon shock was also felt in financial hub Dubai, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates
The Russian company that built the nuclear power station, 18km south of Bushehr, said the plant was unaffected….. http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2013-04-10/strong-earthquake-near-iran-nuclear-plant-kills-dozens/1113782
How the BBC’s John Simpson obscures the truth on depleted uranium
Depleted Uranium: The BBC’s John Simpson does a hatchet job on Fallujah’s genetically damaged children by William Bowles http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/depleted-uranium-the-bbcs-john-simpson-does-a-hatchet-job-on-fallujahs-genetically-damaged-children-by-william-bowles/
Under the title ‘Fallujah’s children’s ‘genetic damage’ that old war horse ‘literally’ of the BBC’s foreign propaganda service, John Simpson, manages not to mention the phrase ‘depleted uranium’ when allegedly reporting on the alarming rise in birth defects that include cancer, leukaemia and a horrific rise in child mortality since the US demolished the city of Fallujah in 2004. And it’s not until right at the end of the piece that the US attack on Fallujah is even mentioned, let alone depleted uranium! Continue reading
Iran’s nuclear program, more for pride than for economics
Iran’s nuclear program entails huge costs, few benefits: report Yaghoo News By Yeganeh Torbati 3 April 13 DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will pursue its nuclear quest although it has reaped few gains from a totem of national pride that has cost it well over $100 billion in lost oil revenue and foreign investment alone, two think-tanks said on Wednesday. Continue reading
The nuclear toll: Fallujah’s birth deformities, cancers- theme for June 19
‘
Falluja Babies’ and Depleted Uranium — America’s Toxic Legacy in 
Iraq http://www.alternet.org/world/falluja-babies-and-depleted-uranium-americas-toxic-legacy-iraq Two US-led wars in Iraq have left behind hundreds of tons of depleted uranium munitions and other toxic wastes. March 18, 2013 |
Many prominent doctors and scientists contend that DU contamination is also connected to the recent emergence of diseases that were not previously seen in Iraq, such as new illnesses in the kidney, lungs, and liver, as well as total immune system collapse. DU contamination may also be connected to the steep rise in leukaemia, renal, and anaemia cases, especially among children, being reported throughout many Iraqi governorates.
There has also been a dramatic jump in miscarriages and premature births among Iraqi women, particularly in areas where heavy US military operations occurred, such as Fallujah.
Official Iraqi government statistics show that, prior to the outbreak of the First Gulf War in 1991, the rate of cancer cases in Iraq was 40 out of 100,000 people. By 1995, it had increased to 800 out of 100,000 people, and, by 2005, it had doubled to at least 1,600 out of 100,000 people. Current estimates show the increasing trend continuing. Continue reading
USA, UK, France will not admit the growing radioactive pollution of Iraq, due to depleted uranium weapons
The health effects are disputed by the US and UK governments, who joined with France and Israel to vote against a resolution calling for “a precautionary approach” to the use of DU weapons at the United Nations general assembly in December; 155 countries voted in favour of the resolution.
Iraq’s depleted uranium clean-up to cost $30m as contamination spreads Rob Edwards guardian.co.uk, 6 March 2013 Report says toxic waste is being spread by scrap metal dealers, and describes its ‘alarming’ use in civilian areas during Iraq wars Cleaning up more than 300 sites in Iraq still contaminated by depleted uranium (DU) weapons will cost at least $30m, according to a report by a Dutch peace group to be published on Thursday.
The report, which was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warns that the contamination is being spread by poorly regulated scrap metal dealers, including children. It also documents evidence that DU munitions were fired at light vehicles, buildings and other civilian infrastructure including the Iraqi Ministry of Planning in Baghdad – casting doubt on official assurances that only armoured vehicles were targeted. “The use of DU in populated areas is alarming,” it says, adding that many more contaminated sites are likely to be discovered.
More than 400 tonnes of DU ammunition are estimated to have been fired by jets and tanks in the two Iraq wars in 1991 and 2003, the vast majority by US forces. The UK government says that British forces fired less than three tonnes.
DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as wasteby the nuclear power industry. It is used in weapons because it is an extremely hard material capable of piercing armour. Continue reading
Secretive and dodgy company Glencore traded with Iran nuclear company
Glencore traded with Iranian nuclear firm, The Independent NIKHIL
KUMAR , NEW YORK 01 MARCH 2013 Glencore, the London-listed Swiss
commodities giant, supplied thousands of tonnes of alumina to an
Iranian company with links to the country’s controversial nuclear
programme.
Glencore supplied the raw material to the Iranian Aluminium Company
(IAC), which was hit by European Union sanctions in December for
allegedly supplying aluminium metal to Iran Centrifuge Technology Co.
(ICTC), a subsidiary of the body responsible for Iran’s nuclear
programme.
The deal was part of a barter arrangement – where goods are swapped
for other goods ….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/glencore-traded-with-iranian-nuclear-firm-8517404.html
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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