Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, UAE and Saudi Arabia seek atom technology
THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.
The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.
The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.
All want to build civilian nuclear energy programmes, as they are permitted to under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb.
“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,”? Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.
Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that it was clear that the sudden drive for nuclear expertise was to provide the Arabs with a “security hedge”?.
“If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world],”? he said.
The announcement by the six nations is a stunning reversal of policy in the Arab world, which had until recently been pressing for a nuclear free Middle East, where only Israel has nuclear weapons.
Egypt and other North African states can argue with some justification that they need cheap, safe energy for their expanding economies and growing populations at a time of high oil prices.
The case will be much harder for Saudi Arabia, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Earlier this year Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, told The Times that his country opposed the spread of nuclear power and weapons in the Arab world.
Since then, however, the Iranians have accelerated their nuclear power and enrichment programmes.
….. Methinks the importance for us to get hot establishing "alternative fuels" has just ratcheted up a click. And it’s past time for thier majesties the lords and ladies on the east coast to quit whining about wind farms and get with the program with the rest of us. Or we put their priority waaaayyy down the list when fossil fuels are rationed.
Can’t you just imagine the fireworks show when all those people get their very own nukes screwed onto the tips of their missiles? 🙄
I am a midwesterner, living on the east coast – Long Island, and I can tell you that there is no way in hell the Mob is going to let go of their "fuel oil" business. Yes, that’s correct, 99% of the homes on Long Island do not have central air. They still have the "wall/window" AC units, and the big ole oil tank in the basement to heat their homes in the winter……….So, if you can afford a $400-500K three bedroom, one bath fixer upper, with outdate heating and cooling systems, come on out to the East Coast……
I hear you. Last winter son-in-law got PCS’d to the sandpile, and bought his family a vintage (1860’s or so) home about 20 miles down from the Canadian border in NY. Being in the middle of the winter, it was difficult to really see the place and any defects, but that’s another story when you’re buying a house in the winter on a tight schedule. Anyway, when spring broke daughter changed out her oil furnace/water heater for natural gas. Oil had been costing her 5-c’s per month when she found a crack in the firebox. From what I’ve heard, you go much closer to the coast and you have a hard time getting away from oil at all. And my prior comment about the windfarms was after hearing how thier majesties around Cape Cod don’t want their expensive ocean view screwed up with nasty old wind vanes, just to provide some relief for the fossil fuel consumptionby the masses who have to figure fuel into thier family budgets. Saw lots of signs around upper NY "No Wind Turbines". Well, with all the forests in the area, you could never have seen the windmills anyway, but those people sure don’t want any in their fancy neighborhoods. Kind of silly IMO, because we have rows of hundreds out her in the west, and they sit up there on the tops of the ridges here and there, and the wildlife roams all over the place, nibbling the foliage, grasses and sage in the area. They are controlled by computers from miles away so there is no industrial traffic to and from them to speak of. BTW, they (windmills) don’t make any more noise right underneath them than the wind itself does, like some people are crying about.
Anyway, when the foreign oil stops, and it will, there is going to be some *really* high priced dinosaur-juice around the world. Our town (20-G or so) made a little electric plant years ago driven by a stream that comes out of the mountains, and we sell KW back to the big boys most of the time. I’d convert one of my trucks over to natural gas in a heartbeat if the gas co. would sell us a home-dispenser like one NG company has done in one part of the state. Otherwise, it’s too hard to come by on any kind of a trip. Had a 51 Willys that had been converted a long time ago and it ran like a scalded ape. We’re kind of fortunate out here, we have a couple of local fuel producers that deal only in extracting U.S. dinosaur juice, and we have never had any kind of shortage even back in the early ’70’s if you remember that fiasco.
There is just too much big money that pedals fossil fuel in this country to get any real progress on alternate fuels.
Oh yes, back in about 1956 or so (Dad had just bought a ’56 Olds that ran like a racehorse) one of our neighbors bought a new Buick, took delivery at the plant, and drove it home. He kept thinking the fuel guage was defective, but it never did take much gas coming home. Just a few days after he got home, some company boys came driving up and told him they had given him the wrong car, and they brought him another one to replace it. He told them no such deal, he got the right one, had the papers to prove it, and they could get their a$$3$ back to wherever they came from. They were persistent, and after (quite politely, btw) explaining they would have it one way or another, they gave him $50G and the replacement car they had brought. Kind of an offer he couldn’t refuse. Dad wished that he had gotten the wrong car too, $50G was a lot of dough back in the ’50’s.
But we’re just going to grind to a slow crawl when the well runs dry if we maintain the present level of alternative fuel development.
Anyway, I think so. Hope I’m wrong about it.