Powering Lebanon’s grid
By Georges Pierre Sassine – Rolling blackouts have become a symbol of the political crisis affecting the Lebanese government. According to the World Bank, Lebanese citizens incur on average 220 interruptions of electricity per year, which is the worst performance in the Middle East. Today, electricity production stands at around 1,500 megawatts (MW) while demand exceeds 2,400MW at peak times, resulting in rationing cuts from between 3 to 20 hours a day, depending on where you are in Lebanon....
By Salah Tabbara – For a small country Lebanon has significant wind resources, and while other Arab countries are planning on relying on nuclear energy to meet their present and future power needs this tiny Levantine nation can invest in a much cleaner and safer source for power: wind. In many wide-ranging areas average wind speeds are in excess of 9-10 meters per second per year and, in many other areas, average wind speeds are in excess of 6.5 to...
By Chen Kane – A recent article by Mark Hibbs examining the implications of Taiwan renouncing enrichment and reprocessing under its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement (NCA) with the United States has sparked significant controversy. I disagree with the premise of Mark’s article – that the UAE agreement was related to the gold standard in any way – but agree with his conclusion when he says “…others will have a different calculus, depending on what they want from the...
By Egle Murauskaite – Before the second round of Egypt’s presidential election was held, a curious Egyptian announcement stated that the country’s plans to construct a 1,000MW nuclear power plant – frozen following the revolutionary events of 2011 – have been revived. While Egypt has the right to a full nuclear cycle under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) it has consistently promoted regional nuclear disarmament for over thirty years. With the international community gradually coming to terms with nuclear (though...
By Ala’ Alrababah and Ghazi Jarrar – Sheikh Hamzeh Mansour, chief of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Jordan, criticized Jordan’s nuclear program in an interview with The Jordan Times: “If implemented, Jordan will suffer the project’s dangerous political, economic, social, financial, health, environmental and security burdens in return for selling others clean electricity at cheap prices and on their terms.” Clearly, Sheikh Mansour views the nuclear program as an...
By Chen Kane – Earlier this week Jordan announced that it has entered the final phase of deliberations with two potential suppliers for its first nuclear power reactor. The good news: the Canadian company AECL is out of the race, leaving the Russian firm Atomstroyexport and a French-Japanese consortium comprised of AREVA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as contenders. Not that I have anything against Canadians; I love Canadians. But I wouldn’t want to see CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactors anywhere...
How long will Riyadh wait for Washington?
By Bilal Y. Saab – According to this important April 25 Reuters story, Saudi Arabia expects to finalize its nuclear energy plans this year. In the absence of a non-proliferation, 123 deal between Riyadh and Washington, U.S. companies cannot take over this multi-billion dollar project, possibly missing out on this huge opportunity and leaving it for others (the Koreans?). I see at least two waiting games here – the first, by U.S. firms waiting for the bureaucracy in Washington to approve and ink...
By Chen Kane – The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit was held in South Korea in March 2012. This is the second summit, following the one held in Washington DC in April 2010. Both summits focused on how to safeguard weapons-grade plutonium and uranium to prevent nuclear terrorism. Eleven areas of priority in nuclear security were identified and presented with specific actions in each area. The 11 areas are – the global nuclear security architecture, the role of the IAEA, nuclear materials, radioactive sources, nuclear security and safety, transportation security, combating illicit trafficking,...
Kuwait’s nuclear energy aspirations
By Bilal Y. Saab – Two years ago we learned that Kuwait, the 5th biggest oil producer among OPEC members, was planning to build 4 nuclear power reactors by 2022. They won’t be the first, the UAE already has a civilian nuclear energy program, unique in the Arab world (many call it the model for the region), and Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are thinking carefully about their nuclear options and planning accordingly. I am sure Qatar is in that list of...
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