1) Ratification of the US-China nuclear pact [AtE Sep 85] squeaked through Congress after heavy lobbying by the administration and Reagan himself. Opposition to it was based on enmity to the US nuclear industry or on Red Chinas's insufficient guarantees against proliferation, not on its totalitarianism.
2) The Soviet oil crisis is deepening: inability to meet planned targets and falling prices of the Soviets' most important commodity for earning hard currency have already led to the threat of unrest in the colonies [AtE Aug 85]. The new element is the falling demand by Western Europe, which has largely converted its power plants to nuclear and coal; in fact, Europe is no longer overly interested in the natural gas from the pipeline financed by European governments in 1981 [AtE Aug 81 to Aug 82]. These developments should curb the Soviet practice of trading arms for Arab oil, which it then sells to the West for hard currency. In this hour of distress, orator Ronald Reagan ("evil empire") sent his Secretary of Commerce, accompanied by 300 businessmen (who will trade with anybody but South Africa), to prostrate themselves in the Kremlin offering their goodies. No doubt US credit will eventually be given: it so eases tensions
¾within the Soviet Empire, anyway.3) Good reading: several lectures given at the November AIF Conference in San Francisco are available from AIF-PAIP, 7101 Wisconsisn Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814. "Developing a Concensus" by William J. Cook is particularly interesting. If utilities discover in a half-dozen years they underestimated growth, it will be too late to order nuclear plants. What nuclear has to offer is its environmental advantage. But the utilities will not carry the message, because they also burn coal and have a vested interest in evading the comparison. It is time for the industry to look where it wants to go and why. [What is a guy with such knowledge and insight doing in Newsweek?]
Will the nuclear industry listen? I doubt it: it win probably continue to guard the secret that its energy is cleaner, healthier and safer; it will leave the moral issues to Jane Fonda and Ralph Nader; it will soothe a frantic mother's fears with cents per kilowatt-hour and homilies about eggs in several baskets. That has proved such a howling success over so many years¾why abandon it now?
4) Good listening: cassette tapes ($8 each) from the Nov. 85 Seminar on civil defense and nuclear war prevention. Edward Teller on "World without war"; Nuclear Winter Critique by Kearney, Maccabee and others;
Gen. Graham on Star Shield; J. Orient on biological hazards in terrorism; H. Maccabee on Nuclear terrorism; many others. Satellite Broadcasting, Box 5364, Rockville, MD 20851 (301-946-3041).
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Vol. 13, No. 6
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 13, No. 6 Date: November 29, 2004 03:59 PM Title: Review of a review
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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