# Report on Germany’s Move Away from Nuclear Energy

## Introduction

Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy represents a significant shift in its energy policy, driven by both environmental concerns and public sentiment following the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

This report examines the implications of this transition, particularly focusing on how the German energy market has adapted to the loss of nuclear power, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on energy supply, and whether there is public pressure to reconsider nuclear energy.

## Advantages and Disadvantages of Removing Nuclear Power

### Advantages:
1.

**Environmental Safety**: Eliminating nuclear power reduces the risk of nuclear accidents and long-term radioactive waste management issues.

**Public Acceptance**: The phase-out aligns with strong public opposition to nuclear energy, particularly after Fukushima.

**Renewable Investment**: The move has accelerated investment in renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

### Disadvantages:
1.

**Energy Security**: The loss

# Report on Germany’s Move Away from Nuclear Energy

## Introduction

Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy represents a significant shift in its energy policy, driven by both environmental concerns and public sentiment following the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Title:

Content: Global News
Germany says restarting nuclear plants is not a solution to gas shortages
Speaking at the "Right Questions" event organized by the German newspaper Bild on Friday evening, Birbuck said she believed a final exit from nuclear power by the end of this year was right based on "the facts I know now and given what the challenge is."
She said the challenge was not electricity supply but gas, saying “I don ’ t see nuclear power as a solution ” in light of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the looming energy crisis.
According to the current law, the remaining three nuclear power plants in Germany must be closed by the end of this year at the latest, as the three plants account for 6% of the total electricity generated in Germany, and so far about 10% of the electricity in Germany is generated by natural gas.
In repeated remarks, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck stressed that the main shortage is not electricity, but gas and heating for the industrial sector, and nuclear power plants cannot address this.
We presented to you our visitors the most important details about the news of Germany: Restarting nuclear plants is not a solution to meet the gas shortage on the Gulf in this article and we hope that we have provided you with all the details clearly and more credibility and transparency and if you want to follow more news you can subscribe with us for free through our alerts system on your browser or by joining the mailing list and we are looking forward to provide you with all what is new.
We also have to remind you that this content is already published on the site and may have been the editorial team in Dot AlKhaleej confirmed or modified or quoted or may have been transferred in full and you can read and follow the updates of this news from its main source.
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Content: Germany shuts down three of its six nuclear power plants to switch to renewable energy
Saturday 01 January 2022 - 12: 41 GMT
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Content: Home / News / World /  Germany quits nuclear power; shuts final 3 plants
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Germany has shut its final three nuclear plants, marking the end of the country's end of nuclear era that has spanned more than 60 years.

Nuclear power has long been contentious in Germany.

The move has come as Germany's eyes achieve its green goal. Steffi Lemke, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection and a Green Party member, "The position of the German government is clear: nuclear power is not green. Nor is it sustainable".

Closure of three nuclear plant's history:

Germany shut three plants-- Emsland, Isar 2, and Neckarwestheim, representing the culmination of a plan set in motion more than 20 years ago.

During the 1970s, a strong anti-nuclear movement emerged in Germany. The movement gave birth to the green party, which is now part of governing coalition.

However, it was in the 2000s the German government pledged to phase out nuclear power and start shutting down plants.

But in 2009, a new government came to power and it seemed brief as if nuclear would get a reprieve as a bridging technology to help the country move to renewable energy.

Then Fukushima happened. In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to melt down.

Three days later then-Chancellor Angela Merkel who was previously pro-nuclear, announced Germany would accelerate a nuclear phase-out, with older plants shuttered immediately.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine provided another plot twist.

Germany isn’t the only country committed to walking away from nuclear — Italy gave up the technology in 1990, and Lithuania recently struck a deal to dismantle its Soviet-era reactors, which have sat idle for over a decade. But in many advanced economies, nuclear is experiencing a resurgence.

On Sunday, Finland will start regular power production at Europe’s newest and biggest reactor. The 1,600-megawatt Olkiluoto-3 unit that faced years of delays had been planned to enter commercial production on Monday. France is planning to build at least six new reactors by 2050 as well as experiment with smaller, modular ones. The UK has similar ambitions. And even in Japan, after a decade of paralysis following the nuclear accident in Fukushima, the public is warming up to the use of nuclear power. The Japanese government wants to restart reactors that have sat idle since the disaster and to extend the lifespan of existing units.

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Content: Skip to main content

福島第一原子力発電所事故から10年

進展と教訓、課題
Report

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OECD, Nuclear Energy Agency

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Cite this content as:

OECD/NEA (2021), 福島第一原子力発電所事故から10年: 進展と教訓、課題, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b94e0fcc-ja.
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Content: Hill Original
Hill: because of the “green ” recklessness, Europeans are at risk of dying from the cold, and the United States may be next
Europe ’ s commitment to a green energy policy combined with reckless idealism this winter could lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
According to the author of The Hill, this situation should serve as a wake-up call for America if the “new green course ” prevails in it.
The deadly winter is the result of Europe ’ s own energy experiment.
Utopian climate initiatives combined with inflation, declining fossil fuel production in America and reluctance to buy Russian oil or natural gas could kill hundreds of thousands of people on the continent this winter.
Although the continent ’ s purchases of Russian fuel stopped mostly this year, the seeds of the current EU energy crisis were sown many years ago.
Attempts to replace traditional energy sources with environmentally friendly sources have led to disastrous consequences.
For example, Germany spent $150 billion on renewables as part of its own version of the Green New Deal, but as a result, the country ’ s energy prices were among the highest in the world, and wind power production fell by a quarter in early 2021.
By rushing away from nuclear power and fossil fuels, former Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor, Olaf Scholz, have made the country virtually dependent on “hostile Russia ” for years to come.
At the same time, Berlin ’ s decision to dismantle its nuclear power plants after the disaster at Japan ’ s Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 led not only to dependence on Russian fossil fuels, but also to large-scale coal burning and increased CO2 emissions.
Now the country is trying to abandon its previous decision and extend the work of its nuclear power plants, while resuming the work of coal power plants.
France and Britain have banned fracking and fracking over the past five years.
The United States has been filling Europe ’ s critical natural gas shortage for nearly a decade, but America ’ s declining production means that there is more than limited scope to salvage the situation.
The head of the International Energy Agency predicts a shortage of energy in Europe this winter.
Such a commitment to green politics, combined with reckless idealism, will cost many lives.
In the UK alone, the annual excess mortality rate in winter is more than 28,000.
Every year in all of Europe, about 200 thousand such deaths are recorded, and with each decrease in temperature by 1 ° C, their number increases by 1.5%.
A very cold winter and a sharp decline in the possibility of using constant heating could potentially trigger a six-figure increase in excess mortality across the continent.
In particular, regions with large urban populations, less able to provide themselves with firewood as a backup source or particularly heavy reliance on Russian fuel oil, such as France, the UK or Germany, will be at much greater risk.
The author of the article notes that if in the United States the struggle for an accelerated transition to unreliable and costly clean energy sources or a ban on fracking is successful, the country may face consequences comparable to what the Europeans received as a result.
Had it not been for fracking, the United States would have faced a similar deficit after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, and the price of gasoline would probably have more than doubled compared to today.
“The coming winter, which could lead to deaths in Europe, should serve as a wake-up call for the United States.
Europe ’ s optimistic but ultimately ineffectual energy policy is brewing what could become the biggest energy crisis of our time.
For the sake of demonstrating “virtue ”, a threat is created for people throughout the continent: in conditions of low temperatures, they face food shortages and, possibly, high mortality, ” concludes the author of the material.
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Content: Germany To Postpone Closure Of Last Three Nuclear Power Plants - WSJ

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2022) Germany, faced with possible energy shortages in the winter as gas supplies from Russia have dropped, intends to postpone the closure of its last three nuclear power plants (NPPs) in a move marking a departure from a two-decade policy to abandon nuclear energy, The Wall Street Journal reported citing German government officials.

The decision, which has to be formally adopted by the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and would possibly require a vote in Parliament, could be weeks off, but already now the German government says two key conditions have been met that allow a temporary extension of the life of the three remaining NPPs, currently expected to close December 31: the possibility of a gas shortage and the confidence that a longer operation of reactors would pose no safety concern, according to the officials.

"The reactors are safe until Dec. 31, and obviously they will remain safe also after Dec. 31," the WSJ quoted a senior official as saying.

Scholz last week said for the first time that it could make sense to keep Germany's last three nuclear reactors online.

However, even if the life of the three German NPPs is extended, this will not be a panacea for Germany's looming energy crisis this winter as the country is mainly missing natural gas, primarily used for heating and manufacturing.

The European Union has been seeking to diversify energy imports and reduce dependence on Russia after Moscow started its special military operation in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that Russia has never used gas supplies to punish anyone, but sells energy solely in its own interests, to increase the welfare of Russians and on a commercial basis.

The German government has also outlined measures to reduce gas and power consumption in the country over the next two years. The measures in particular include lowering the temperature in public buildings. According to Germany's energy regulator, gas consumption will have to be cut by 20 percent if Germany wants to avoid a gas shortfall during this coming winter and next winter.

The three officials who spoke to the WSJ said the extension of the NPPs' life would only be made for several months.

The power plants in question are Isar 2 in the southern state of Bavaria, Neckarwestheim 2 in Baden-Wurttemberg and Emsland in Lower Saxony. They are operated, respectively, by E.On SE, EnBW AG, and RWE AG.

After the start of Russia's special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine, the West has stepped up sanctions pressure on Russia, which has led to an increase in prices for energy and food in Europe and the United States.

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Content: ContributorsPublishersAdvertisers

‘I know how much it hurts’: Biden to release US oil in bid to lower gas prices – as it happened

The Guardian
 2 days ago

9.21pm BST

Closing summary

Thanks for joining us today. The White House press briefing just finished and we’re closing down the US politics blog now - back on Friday morning, Washington time – but you can follow developments in the Russia-Ukraine war on the Guardian’s 24-hour live news blog here .

Here’s what we followed today:

  • The White House announced of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine that: “We have seen incontrovertible evidence that this has been a strategic disaster for Russia.”
  • Joe Biden announced he was releasing 1m barrels daily from US oil reserves to lower gas prices, and announced new initiatives for energy independence and clean energy.
  • The US president suggested that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was in some form of “self-isolation” and might have fired or arrested advisers who misled him over the Ukraine war.
  • A $10bn bipartisan Covid-19 relief deal was struck in Congress, according to Republican senator Mitt Romney , but still faces hurdles.
  • The House speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an human rights inquiry into Russia’s treatment of children in Ukraine, suggesting they were forcibly taken out of the country.

Related: Russia-Ukraine war latest: Russian forces leave Chernobyl; Germany rejects Putin’s gas supply ‘blackmail’ – live

Updated at 9.23pm BST

9.17pm BST

'Incontrovertible evidence that this [war] has been a strategic disaster for Russia' - White House

White House director of communications Kate Bedingfield is briefing the media now and said that there will be further sanctions on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine just over a month ago - and also that the US has evidence the war is not going well from Moscow’s perspective.

“We have seen incontrovertible evidence that this has been a strategic disaster for Russia,” Bedingfield said a little earlier, as reported by journalists in the White House briefing room, including the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith.

Bedingfield also reiterated that the US needs to see tangible de-escalation of the war by Russia before it will consider any direct talks between Joe Biden and his counterpart, Russian president Vladimir Putin , and there are no plans for them to speak at this point.

Meanwhile, the US commerce department will impose further sanctions on Moscow in the coming days, targeting Russia’s defense, aerospace and maritime sectors, adding 120 entities from Russia and Belarus to its entity list, Bedingfield said.

That will bring the number of Russian and Belarusian parties added to the list to more than 200 since the invasion of Ukraine began, Reuters reports.

The White House believes sanctions are biting.

Updated at 9.30pm BST

8.15pm BST

Biden: Putin may be in 'self-isolation'

Joe Biden has suggested that the Russian president Vladimir Putin may be in some kind of “self-isolation” as the war in Ukraine continues, and that some senior advisers believed to have misled him have been fired.

“It’s an open question. There’s a lot of speculation,” Biden said when asked about Putin’s whereabouts during the earlier White House briefing on energy.

“But he seems to be, I’m not saying this with certainty, he seems to be self isolated. And there’s some indication that he has fired or put under house arrest some of his advisers.

“But I don’t want to put too much stock in that at this time because we don’t have that much hard evidence.”

Both British and US intelligence have concluded that some of Putin’s military advisers were too frightened to tell him the truth over how badly the Russian offensive in Ukraine was going.

Updated at 8.21pm BST

7.48pm BST

Romney: $10bn 'agreement in principle' over Covid relief

A bipartisan “agreement in principle” has been struck to authorize a $10bn Covid-19 relief package from Congress, the Republican Utah senator Mitt Romney has said.

The money is less than half the $22.5bn the White House was seeking , which it said was necessary to fund the provision of coronavirus testing, vaccines, therapeutics and masks into the fall.

The deal reportedly struck on Thursday, following lengthy negotiations between senior Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate, also does not include $5bn wanted by the Biden administration for vaccine measures abroad, according to Politico.

“That was a real missed opportunity,” the Virginia Democratic senator Tim Kaine told Politico, adding that he was “very upset.”

The compromise package could face a Senate vote next week, although time is tight with the confirmation of Joe Biden’s supreme court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson already on the schedule.

Romney told reporters the package must also receive an estimate from the congressional budget office.

7.24pm BST

Achieving energy independence, and advancing clean energy have long been goals of the Biden administration , which set out its vision in a January statement. Today, the president expanded on what he sees as possible.

With congressional approval for his plans, Biden said, “We can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles. The typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump. If your home is powered by safer, cheaper, cleaner electricity like solar, or heat pumps, you can save about $500 a month on average.

“Don’t take my word for it. The CEOs and 11 of America’s largest utility companies came to see me at the White House. They told me if we pass my plans before the Congress now typical families will see savings in utility bills immediately.

“Costs will come down even more as we innovate and develop cutting edge energy storage technologies, clean hydrogen technology, advanced nuclear technology, carbon capture and sequestration technologies.”

In closing, Biden returned to the economic impact of the Ukraine war.

“Look, I know gas prices are painful. I get it. My plan is going to help ease that pain today and safeguard against tomorrow,” he said.

“I’m open to ideas and to strengthen the plan, but I will not be put off and put it on hold. I will do everything at my disposal to protect you from Putin’s price hike. It’s not time for politics. Americans can’t afford that right now.”

7.06pm BST

Biden says his energy plan is twofold, and as well as lowering oil costs and saving American families money by tapping the reserves, he was including a directive “to strengthen our clean energy economy.”

“We need to embrace all the tools and technologies that can help us free us from our dependence on fossil fuels [and] move toward more homegrown clean energy technologies made by American companies and American workers,” he said.

“I’m going to use the defense production act to secure America’s supply chains for the critical materials that go into batteries for electric vehicles and the storage of renewable energy, lithium, graphite, nickel, and so much more. We need to end our long term reliance on China and other countries for inputs that will power the future.”

He went on to list the benefits he sees from his action.

“Yes, building a base in America clean energy future will help safeguard our national security. Yes, it will help us tackle climate change. Yes, it’s going to help us ensure that Americans create millions of good paying jobs for generations to come. But the most important thing my plan will do right away is save your family money.”

6.56pm BST

Biden confirms draw on oil reserves to lower gas prices

Joe Biden says his plan to release 1m barrels daily from the US strategic oil reserves will: “Ease the pain families are feeling right now, end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new and new foundation for true and lasting American energy independence.”

The president is speaking live at the White House to announce the move, which he said would last up to six months and which will represent the largest ever draw ever on the country’s emergency supplies.

“I know how much it hurts,” he said of rising gas prices that have followed the decision by the Russian president Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

“Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.”

Biden said he decided on the measure in consultation with western partners, who have joined the US in imposing economic sanctions on Russia.

“Working with our Nato allies, European partners and beyond that, we are responding,” he said.

“Thus far these actions are crippling Russia’s economy, isolating Putin from the world and helping Ukrainians fight for their country.”

Updated at 7.05pm BST

5.20pm BST

It also emerged during the Nancy Pelosi press conference that she is planning a House hearing on the ethics of the US supreme court, in the wake of the insurrection scandal involving Justice Clarence Thomas ’s wife Ginni.

Thomas has been silent amid calls for his resignation over his wife’s supportive texts to Donald Trump ’s chief of staff Mark Meadows on the day of the 6 January Capitol riot , and Pelosi pointed to a lack of standards governing supreme court justices’ behavior.

“They have no code of ethics,” she said, noting that the House had already passed the For the People act seeking to introduce one, but it was blocked in the US Senate .

“Really, it’s the supreme court of the United States. They’re making judgments about the air we breathe and everything else and we don’t even know what their ethical standard is.

“Why should they have lower standards and members of Congress in terms of reporting and the rest?”

Pelosi added: “I would like to have a hearing, not the whole bill, but taking out that piece, to focus on the supreme court ethics standard legislation.

“People say it’s a personal decision of a judge as to whether he should recuse himself. Well, if your wife is an admitted and proud contributor to a coup of our country, maybe you should weigh that in your ethical standards.”

4.44pm BST

Pelosi wants inquiry on Russia's 'crimes against children'

The House speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation into Russia’s “crimes against humanity” over its treatment of children in the Ukraine conflict.

At her weekly press conference on Thursday morning, Pelosi said she was horrified at what she learned from five female members of Ukraine’s parliament who visited with House members on Wednesday.

“To hear the stories of the children, you know, children are my reason to be here,” Pelosi said. “When some of these parents are killed by the Russians, the children have been sent to Russia. I think we should get more evidence and documentation about the crimes against humanity that the Russians are committing to the children, in some cases with a parent, in some cases not.”

Ukraine has already accused Russia of forcibly moving hundreds of thousands of its citizens into its territory as “hostages” to force a surrender.

Pelosi said she was deeply moved by meeting the women from Ukraine, who were introduced to her by Oksana Markarova , the country’s ambassador to the US.

“These women were young, they had children, one child was two, another eight years old, small children,” she said.

“Their husbands in large measure [are] on the battlefield. They thought it was important to come to the United States to tell the American people how they see it. It was factual, inspiring, emotional.”

Updated at 5.08pm BST

4.23pm BST

As social media companies promise to crack down on Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine , studies show they continue to fall short, allowing disproven narratives to reach millions.

Facebook failed to label 80% of articles on its platform promoting a fast-spreading conspiracy theory that the US is funding the use of bioweapons in Ukraine, according to a study released Friday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) .

The nonprofit disinformation research group studied a sample of posts from between 24 February and 14 March sharing external articles containing baseless claims about bioweapons. It found Facebook in 80% of cases failed to label posts as either “missing context”, containing “partly false information” or “false information” outright.

“If our researchers can identify false information about Ukraine openly circulating on its platform, it is within Meta’s capability to do the same,” said the CCDH chief executive, Imran Ahmed. “But we found that in the vast majority of cases, conspiracy theories are given a free pass.”

Read the story here:

Related: Facebook fails to label 80% of posts promoting bioweapons conspiracy theory

Updated at 4.31pm BST

4.00pm BST

The North Carolina congressman Madison Cawthorn will not face immediate disciplinary action over his claim to have been invited to orgies and to have seen Washington figures using cocaine.

After meeting Cawthorn on Wednesday, the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy , told reporters the comments were “unacceptable”.

“There’s a lot of different things that can happen,” McCarthy added, regarding possible consequences.

“I just told him he’s lost my trust, he’s gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And you can’t just say, ‘You can’t do this again.’ I mean, he’s got a lot of members very upset.”

Full story:

Related: Congressman Madison Cawthorn under fire over claims of DC drugs and orgies

3.40pm BST

The Guardian’s voting rights expert Sam Levine has taken a look at the US supreme court’s interest in Wisconsin’s electoral maps, and how its intervention reflects the panel’s hostility to equal voting rights nationally:

Even for experts who closely follow the US supreme court , there was something stunning about an emergency decision from the justices on Wednesday.

In an unexpected move, the court decided to throw out new districts for the state legislature in Wisconsin that had been picked by the state supreme court. But what was even more surprising was that the court’s conservative majority seemed to go out of its way to attack the Voting Rights Act, one of the most important civil rights laws designed to prevent discrimination in US elections. “Extra headspinning,” was how Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, described it. “Bizarre,” observed Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. David Wasserman, a redistricting expert at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, tweeted that the supreme court had entered “uncharted territory” .

The court’s decision in the Wisconsin case was the latest in a series of rulings that have left little pretense of how aggressively it is trying to weaken section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the most powerful provision of the law, which outlaws racially discriminatory voting practices. The court is not hiding its skepticism of the use of race in redistricting, even when it’s used to protect minority voters, and is making it harder for litigants to justify considering race when district lines are redrawn.

Read more here:

Related: The US supreme court’s assault on voting rights hits a new low

Updated at 3.59pm BST

3.13pm BST

Mike Pence, the former vice-president who fell out with Donald Trump over his old boss’s obsessive attempts to steal back the 2020 election, has launched a policy agenda urging Republicans to look ahead instead of backwards.

“Elections are about the future,” Pence told reporters as he released a 19-page “freedom agenda” designed to guide his party’s policy positions for this year’s midterms and the 2024 presidential election, according to Politico .

Although the document promotes conservative policies designed to repair the “damage” he believes “the radical left” has inflicted on the US since Joe Biden took over the White House last year, Pence’s underlying message is unmistakable: Republicans have no business supporting Trump’s ongoing efforts to relitigate the 2020 election he lost by more than 7m votes.

“He strongly believes it’s important to have a forward-looking agenda for the American people and not look backward,” Marc Short , Pence’s former chief of staff, told reporters on the Wednesday call, Politico reported.

The agenda’s launch is seen by analysts as an attempt by Pence to position himself in the race to seek the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.

It isn’t the first time that he has taken such a swipe at Trump, whose supporters wanted to hang the then-vice-president on the day of the 6 January insurrection after he refused to cede to the one-term president’s demand to not certify Biden’s win.

He bluntly told Trump at a conservative conference in Florida in February that he was “wrong” to believe the election could be overturned .

Updated at 3.28pm BST

2.33pm BST

Oil prices plunge as Biden mulls 180m barrel release

Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday morning amid speculation that Joe Biden will order a record release from US emergency reserves later today, intending to ease Americans’ pain at the gas pump.

The plan to release up to a million barrels daily, first reported by Bloomberg , is set to be announced at the president’s scheduled lunchtime briefing on energy. CNBC reported an initial drop of almost 6% in crude oil futures on Thursday at the news, leaving the cost of a barrel hovering around the $100 mark.

At the peak earlier this month, a barrel of Brent crude was about $139. The national average price for a gallon of gas, meanwhile, was $4.22 on Thursday, according to the AAA .

Analysts have tied high gasoline prices, caused largely by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and the inflation crisis, to Biden’s slumping popularity and the Democratic party’s prospects in the upcoming midterm elections.

It’s clear Biden wanted to act sooner than later, with an NBC poll this week reflecting an approval rating of only 40%, the lowest of his presidency to date.

The White House notification of Biden’s briefing today referred to “his administration’s actions to reduce the impact of Putin’s price hike on energy prices and lower gas prices at the pump for American families.”

The US currently has about 568m barrels in its strategic petroleum reserve stored in salt domes in Texas and Louisiana, and according to Bloomberg the draw would last for up to six months and see about 180m barrels released into the US market.

Biden has tapped the reserve before, 50m barrels last November to address supply issues, but the new plan would be a record.

Updated at 2.44pm BST

2.17pm BST

Good morning, and welcome to Thursday’s US political blog.

Joe Biden will address high gas prices in a lunchtime briefing on energy from the White House, at which he is expected to announce a record release of up to a million barrels of oil daily from US strategic reserves. Oil prices have already fallen sharply today at the news.

The Ukraine conflict continues to dominate the headlines globally, and you can follow all the developments in the Guardian’s main live news blog here .

Here’s what else we’re watching in the US today:

  • The Trump-era immigration policy that blocked asylum seekers at the border because of the pandemic is likely to end on 23 May, with an announcement expected as early as this afternoon. We wrote about it yesterday here .
  • The former vice-president Mike Pence has taken another dig at his old boss Donald Trump by releasing a conservative policy agenda urging Republicans to look forward, and not to focus on past grievances.
  • There’s growing agitation among congressional Democrats over lack of legislative action from the Biden administration. The president met with progressive and moderate caucuses separately last night, and House speaker Nancy Pelosi is likely to be asked about it at her weekly press conference this morning.
  • White House communications director Kate Bedingfield will hold her daily press briefing at 3pm.

Title:

Content: Germany starts tough energy conservation measures
Germany starts tough energy conservation measures
Follow us via
In this episode, we discuss: the IAEA mission leaves Kiev and heads to Zaporozhye; Germany is switching to energy saving status from tomorrow; a leader in the coordination framework speaks to Sputnik about the situation in Iraq; the Association of Lebanese Depositors and the Free Trade Unions demonstrate in front of the parliament.
Germany has decided to introduce an energy-saving system, such as setting the temperature of heating devices, turning them off completely in public places, and stopping the use of hot water for hand washing.
In an interview with Unfettered, European affairs expert Aktham Suleiman said:
"These measures of course will not suffice, and this reduction of energy consumption will not save much, the non-operation of any small plant will save more, and therefore are absurd measures, and this is evidence of the failed management of the crisis, and the wrong decision to stop" Nord Stream 2 ", and now the German citizen will not be silent on these measures, not because he does not want to pay a higher bill, but because he is treated lightly. And don ’ t sacrifice Germany for Ukraine, and today the headline of the most important German newspapers,“ Germany is still an occupied country, ” will lead to protests that have already started here and there.
Zakharova: Do Europeans understand that nuclear security is at stake?
The correspondent of "Sputnik" reported that the Russian army shot down a Ukrainian drone near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, while Russian security forces who arrived at the scene said that this drone was Polish-made.
This comes in conjunction with the imminent arrival of the mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency to Zaporozhye, as the official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on this visit by saying to "Sputnik":
“They are discussing what can be done to make our lives more difficult, there is a nuclear facility near them that is being bombed every day, and I think this is what EU leaders should be discussing, to keep the safety and health of their citizens, do these people really not understand that what is at stake now is the issue of nuclear safety?
Because the regime in Kiev has reached the point where the station is being used as a tool of blackmail, perhaps, because there is an understanding in the ranks of the European Union that they cannot do anything, and that the Kiev regime is simply uncontrollable in Brussels and it just obeys Washington, where are the people in the European Union pretending to be environmentalists, feeling soft on deer, hedgehogs and hares?
Where are all these people?
Do they understand what's going on?
"They are supplying the Kiev regime with money and weapons that are firing at a nuclear facility in central Europe."
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Content: Read the history of the moment: why is Germany so entangled in nuclear power? | German News | DW | 14.04.2023
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Read the history of the present: why is Germany so entangled in nuclear power?
Germany was proud of its nuclear power generation technology, but at the same time the technology has been so controversial that it has finally decided that April 15, 2023 is the date of withdrawal from nuclear power.
However, as the energy crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war continues to intensify, the wisdom of the decision to say goodbye to nuclear energy has been widely discussed.
Germany ’ s nuclear policy is in dispute again
It all started with an "egg" - Germany's first nuclear reactor in Garching, near Munich, went into operation in October 1957.
Because the nuclear reactor, which belongs to the University of Munich, resembles an egg, it is nicknamed the "atomic egg".
It was a milestone in Germany's nuclear energy research and a symbol of Germany's resurgence after World War II.
The nuclear reactor, which was used for scientific purposes, remained in operation until 2000.
In 1957, Germany built its first nuclear reactor.
Three years later, in 1960, the first nuclear power plant for civilian use was built in the city of Kahl, on the banks of the Main River in Bavaria.
At that time, atomic energy was widely regarded as both safe and reliable. The 1973 oil crisis gave further impetus to the rapid development of nuclear energy in Germany.
The start of the anti-nuclear movement
Since it has been impossible to find a foolproof way to store nuclear waste, opponents have begun to question whether nuclear energy is really a clean energy source.
Thousands of protesters clashed with police during the construction of the Brockdorf nuclear power plant in the state of Shihe.
Since the 1970s, plans for the construction of the Brockdorf nuclear power plant have triggered numerous police and civil conflicts.
"Nuclear energy? No, thank you!" has become a rallying cry for environmentalists.
In the 1980s, a new political party, the Green Party, emerged in West Germany. Its members are mainly leftists, pacifists, environmentalists and anti-nuclear forces. In 1983, the Green Party entered the Bundestag.
In 1983, Green Party politicians Gert Bastian and Petra Kelly were elected to the Bundestag.
On March 28, 1979, a serious accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, United States. On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union, exploded, causing the worst nuclear disaster in history.
Radiation clouds spread throughout Europe.
The accident also marked a turning point in discussions about nuclear technology in Germany.
At the time, Germany was still divided.
In East Germany under the Communist Party, the public received almost no information about the nuclear accident and its effects.
West Germany, on the other hand, was in a state of confusion and politicians were helpless.
People were unprepared for a nuclear leak, and the government was unable to provide guidelines and response strategies for the time being.
A hastily formed crisis management team was also disbanded shortly afterwards.
The Chernobyl nuclear accident has caused widespread concern in Germany.
People are buying iodine.
A large quantity of fruit, vegetables and milk in the supermarket was ordered to be removed from the shelves because of concerns about nuclear radiation.
Children were banned from playing in the sand pools and citizens were warned not to go out in the rain.
Although the health effects of radiation were not detected in Germany, the accident led to the introduction of nationwide radiation monitoring in Germany, which eventually led to the establishment of the Federal Ministry of the Environment.
Plans to build a nuclear waste treatment plant in the Bavarian town of Wackersdorf have sparked serious riots.
The clashes left several protesters and civil servants dead and hundreds injured.
The project was finally halted in 1989, the first major victory of the German environmental movement.
And...
In 2011, protesters handcuffed themselves to the tracks in an attempt to block trains carrying nuclear waste.
Meanwhile, in northern Germany, Gorleben in Lower Saxony became a symbol of the struggle against nuclear waste, and the town was designated to temporarily store nuclear waste until a permanent storage site was identified.
The first shipment of nuclear waste arrived in the town on 24 April 1995.
A long farewell to nuclear power - Germany's nuclear withdrawal process after many setbacks
In 2001, Schroeder's center-left coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party reached an agreement with major energy companies to phase out nuclear power.
All 19 nuclear power plants in Germany have been given operating timelines and the last one is required to be shut down by 2021.
In 2001, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced that Germany would phase out nuclear power generation.
In 2010, the center-right government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel withdrew the nuclear withdrawal agreement.
It also decided to extend the operating time of nuclear power plants.
However, the third major nuclear accident in the world has caused a change in Germany's nuclear energy policy. On March 11, 2011, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan caused by the earthquake and tsunami.
The impact of the accident on Germany is even greater than that of Japan.
As a veteran physicist, German Chancellor Angela Merkel unexpectedly changed her usual stance on nuclear energy policy.
Merkel suddenly announced that the era of nuclear power in Germany will end by the end of 2022. On July 30, 2011, the German Bundestag voted to approve the resolution.
After years of fierce fighting, the Brockdorf nuclear power plant in the state of Ishih will finally become history in 2021 after 35 years of operation.
In 2017, Germany decided to start a nationwide search for a safe place to store highly radioactive nuclear waste, with the mission to be completed by 2031.
At the end of 2021, anti-nuclear activists celebrated the closure of a nuclear power plant in North Germany.
Rethinking the nuclear policy.
The war in Ukraine has made Germany anxious to get rid of its energy dependence on Russia, which has also reignited the already ironclad policy of denuclearization.
The coalition leader has spearheaded a proposal to extend the operating time of nuclear power plants to replace natural gas from Russia with nuclear power.
In August 2022, CDU Chairman Meltz and CSU Chairman Soder both put forward the idea of extending the time limit for nuclear power operations.
Christian Lindner, finance minister of the business-oriented Liberal Democratic Party (FDP), immediately backed a return to nuclear power.
His party is junior partner in a centre-left coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
The latter will find it difficult to agree to an extension because opposition to nuclear power is one of their core issues.
But in the summer of 2022, no one in Germany completely ruled out that possibility.
LDP finance minister Lindner, who is focused on business interests, was also quick to join the pro-nuclear camp.
But for the Green Party, which is also part of the ruling coalition, the possibility of agreeing to extend the operating time of nuclear power plants is slim, because opposition to nuclear power is their basic principle.
Anything is possible in Germany in 2022.
Can nuclear power be a climate savior?
Editor: This article was originally published in August 2022
© 2022 Deutsche Welle Copyright Notice: All content in this article is protected by copyright law and may not be used without special permission from Deutsche Welle.
Any misconduct will lead to recovery and criminal prosecution.
DW.COM

This report examines the implications of this transition, particularly focusing on how the German energy market has adapted to the loss of nuclear power, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on energy supply, and whether there is public pressure to reconsider nuclear energy.

Title:

Content: German economy fears sharp recession next year if Russian energy supply stops
FRANKFURT (AFP) - A number of German economic think tanks jointly issued a forecast report today, saying that Germany's economy is likely to fall into a "sharp recession" next year if it immediately stops Russian energy imports.
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A German think tank warned in a report that high energy prices, coupled with geopolitical risks, have opened a new era in Germany, and that not every business can survive.
"Not every business model that used to make money in Germany has a future," Stefan Kooths, deputy director of the IfW Kiel institute, told a press conference in Berlin.
He said the government must keep this in mind when considering how to help troubled businesses.
According to the forecast, if Germany stops Russian energy imports in mid-April, growth will fall to 1.9% this year, and the economy will fall into recession next year, causing the German economy to shrink by 2.2%.
According to a joint statement by German economic think tanks including the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the impact of boycotting Russian energy remains insurmountable over the next two years.
As Europe ’ s winter energy demand climbs, the German economy will suffer as it enters 2024 at the end of 2023 before gradually returning to growth.
Before Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, a third of Germany ’ s oil imports, 45% of its coal purchases, and 55% of its gas imports came from Russia.
Germany has moved to break its dependence on Russian energy imports, accelerate renewable energy investment and build LNG terminals on the North Sea coast, but these are still years away from being on track.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in late March that Germany could not cut off supplies from Russia until mid-2024.

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Content: GOLOS.EU
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Mikhail Chaplyga: Germany is forced to buy electricity in France
On the website of the publication « GOLOS.EU » published a new record of political journalist Mikhail Chaplyga: Germany sharply increased imports of electricity, including nuclear energy, the day after the closure of its own nuclear power plants.
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Content: Russia cuts natural gas supply to many European countries may restart coal-fired power generation
Several major buyers of Russian natural gas in Europe, including Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands, signaled on Monday that they are ready to return to coal-fired power, indicating that Russian supply cuts are leading to a sharp reversal in European energy policy in the hope of avoiding an energy crisis in the winter.
Russia ’ s gas flow to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was running at only about 40 percent capacity on Monday, and both Germany ’ s Uniper and Italy ’ s Eni said they were receiving less than the contracted amount.
At present, there is still a slow influx of natural gas stocks in Europe, but Russia ’ s actions have caused gas prices to surge and made it more difficult for European countries to suppress inflation.
The latest contract for Dutch gas, the European benchmark, was quoted at €124 per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Monday, and although it has fallen sharply from its peak of €335 this year, it is still more than 300% higher than the same period last year.
Austria on Monday reopened a defunct coal-fired power plant, and the Netherlands announced that it would lift the cap on the operating rate of coal-fired power plants to no more than 35%, allowing operators to operate at full capacity until the end of 2024 and launching the first phase of the energy crisis plan.
Italy is getting closer to declaring a national energy emergency, with Gazprom telling on Monday that it could only supply a portion of its gas demand, according to the Italian company Eni.
Germany has announced a new plan to boost its natural gas stockpile and said it could restart coal-fired power, which it had planned to phase out, in a sign of a 180-degree turn in energy policy.
"This is painful, but it is necessary to reduce the use of natural gas. If we do not do so, we will not have enough stocks in the winter," said Robert Habeck, the Green Party's economy minister.
According to Markus Krebber, CEO of Germany ’ s largest power company, RWE Group, it could take three to five years for electricity prices to return to lower levels.
In addition to returning to coal-fired power, Germany has recently implemented an auction system to encourage the reduction of natural gas use, and an injection of Gazprom ’ s German subsidiary by the state-owned development bank KfW to stabilize inventories.
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Title:

Content: “Green washing. ”
Europe forced to drop its green ratings | Politics and economics | In-depth analysis with a broader perspective than DW | DW | 09.07.2022
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Politics and Economics
"Green laundry."
Europe is forced to fall back on its environmentally-friendly ratings
In a remarkable development, the European Parliament approved the green marks for energy investments including gas and nuclear amid an unprecedented energy crisis following the Russian aggression on Ukraine, a decision with significant repercussions, according to German and European experts.
The Dukovani Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant near the village of Dukovani in the Czech Republic.
The European Parliament (6 July 2022) approved a resolution classifying investments in the gas and nuclear sectors as sustainable green energy, under the EU ’ s classification of public funding for green projects.
The decision comes in the context of directing the investments of the continental bloc to achieve its climate goals by 2050, namely the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions.
A major attempt to block the proposal failed to garner the 353 votes needed to oppose the bill, with only 328 lawmakers voting against.
The bill has been sharply criticized by environmental protection organizations and some EU lawmakers for what they called a “green wash ” of fossil and nuclear energy investments since it was proposed by the European Commission late last year, saying it misled European consumers about corporate environmental practices or the environmental benefits of a product or service.
Some opponents of this shift in European policy fear the bloc ’ s increased reliance on Russian energy imports.
The German newspaper Rheinische Zeitung, published in Koblenz (6 July 2022), wrote that the European decision does not necessarily mean “a political commitment to relying more on nuclear or gas power in the climate crisis nor redirecting public investment to the era of nuclear or fossil energy. ”
The resolution ’ s obtaining a clear majority in the European Parliament, which was almost unanimously calling for an immediate exit from Russian gas, also has to do with the nervousness of MPs.
"They have just been under tremendous pressure from environmental groups against the label, but at the same time they expect greater social pressure from the general public in the fall."
The new measures are expected to take effect from 2023 unless EU member states object to them in the coming weeks.
Germany has already declared its opposition to the proposal, while Austria and Luxembourg have said they will file a case against the new law with the European Court of Justice.
watch video 37: 37
Europe is looking for alternatives to Russian gas.
Where did you get to?
Arguments of supporters and opponents of the new classification
Supporters of the new resolution argue that refusing to classify gas and nuclear power as "sustainable" would necessarily lead to higher energy prices, thereby hampering efforts to ditch more environmentally damaging coal.
A group of conservative European MPs stated in a statement that “nuclear power, for example, can provide stable and affordable energy supplies and reduce emissions quickly if given adequate access to the necessary capital. ”
The German news agency dpa reported that environmental activist Greta Thunberg criticized the European move in a tweet, saying it “will delay the truly sustainable transition that is so desperately needed. ”
The hypocrisy is blatant, but unfortunately it is not surprising. ”
The Commission of the European Union believes that this decision will be temporary because it is necessary to pass a transition phase, considering that gas is a fossil energy that many EU countries need to lead and manage their energy transition projects.
The Stuttgart-Zeitung newspaper (July 6) wrote that as long as the electricity produced by nuclear power plants cannot be replaced in a climate-friendly manner, shutting them down will have a negative impact on the climate.
In Germany, where a greater proportion of electricity is produced from coal, this substitution is damaging to the climate.
But that doesn ’ t stop Germany from moving forward with its projects to phase out nuclear power. ”
Despite all attempts, opponents of the project in the European Parliament failed to stop the legal action on the new classification.
Berlin has rejected the new European classification.
The German government has been quick to criticize the European Parliament ’ s decision, rejecting the classification of nuclear energy investments as climate-friendly.
In this regard, government spokesman Steffen Hipschtwright (July 6) stressed that "Berlin, regardless of the outcome of the vote, will remain in its position and will consider nuclear energy unsustainable."
However, it is still theoretically possible to prevent the implementation of these plans if at least 20 member states agree to represent at least 65% of the EU population by July 11, which is unlikely.
The German government has ruled out any legal action, with Hipschtwright saying: "We do not consider filing a lawsuit to be the appropriate course of action."
watch video 26: 06
Made in Germany - Global Challenges: War and Environmental Protection
Neue Tsurikhe Zeitung (June 6) went in another direction and showed flexibility in understanding the European decision; “There is a great risk that German industry will also fall back (on climate targets) if the EU changes sustainability standards, but the existence of different labels is not a market failure, but reflects that sustainability can be understood in different ways.
Anyone who manipulates information about sustainable investments should also take into account the discontent of consumer protection groups and the media as well as unfair competition. ”
Europe's inability to guarantee its energy security
In the context of the repercussions of the Russian aggression on Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (July 6) stressed that the continental bloc must "prepare for further disruptions in gas supplies, and even a complete interruption by Russia."
The Commission is expected to unveil an emergency plan for energy supply security on July 20.
Von der Leyen added: "We must support European solidarity.
"We need to protect the single market (in the EU) as well as the supply chains of the industry."
The Czech Presidency of the European Union announced in a tweet that it had called for an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers on July 26, following the Commission ’ s plan, and that the aim was “primarily to work on joint European projects that will free us from our dependence on Russia. ”
The continental bloc has launched a €300 billion plan to ease its dependence on Russian fossil fuel supplies while investing heavily to shift the market towards renewables.
The Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel (July 6) presented the predicament of the German model in the European context, writing: "Germany on average has a large industrial sector and for this reason lives in a high level of luxury.
Short-term gas replacement is almost impossible, but more effective and efficient use can be achieved.
This is evidenced by the consumption of gas in the first five months of this year, after adjusting consumer behavior by lowering temperatures, consumption decreased by about ten percent compared to last year, "so the high price motivates consumers to save and innovate among those involved in the sector.
The Paris-based International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers is pessimistic about when to get out of Europe ’ s worst energy crisis.
Vincent Demory, secretary-general of the group, said: "We may cross the coming winter without much damage.
But the winter that follows is likely to be more difficult, and the winter that follows. ”
Good weather last winter enabled Europe to have larger than expected gas reserves for heating in the coming winter season, but gas prices continue to rise in winter markets.
Austria and Luxembourg file suit against new classification
If Germany has announced that it will not go to court, Austria and Luxembourg have confirmed their intention to proceed with legal proceedings against the new European classification.
The German news agency dpa reported that Luxembourg ’ s energy minister Claude Torms confirmed in a tweet that the two countries would go ahead with legal proceedings, while his Austrian counterpart Leonor Gossler tweeted that Austria would file a lawsuit to overturn the decision with the European Court of Justice once the so-called “green washing program ” went into effect.
She added that she would work to mobilize more allies to participate in the lawsuit.
Gossler said the decision "puts our future at risk, and it is more than a reckless decision."
Germany has ruled out judicial recourse, with government spokesman Steffen Hipschtwright saying: "We do not consider filing a lawsuit to be the appropriate course of action."
Germany is under pressure from partners such as the Netherlands, which has asked it to continue operating nuclear power plants to cope with the current crisis, but Berlin is unlikely to respond.
According to Bloomberg (July 7), Dutch Minister of Climate and Energy Policy Rob Gettin has made the request to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Electricity prices have skyrocketed after Russia cut natural gas supplies to several countries in response to sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
German channel 1 ’ s Tageschau website wrote a warning (July 6): “Those who now want to invest their money in nuclear power plants should allow the question of whether they have already understood the essence of the problem at all about Europe ’ s 2050 climate neutrality targets?
It is not about replacing the evil of carbon dioxide that poisons the climate, another human being. The radiation of nuclear waste persists over thousands of years, not indirectly destroying life through warming, but directly through radioactivity. ”
Hassan Zinind

Title:

Content: General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
Crisis management professor: Consecutive obstacles behind calls for Germany to leave the EU
Dr. Mohamed Bagha, a professor of crisis management, said that the AfD ’ s call for the country to leave the European Union, especially as it came after a series of successive crises, and its export to Germany in connection with the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the large economic bill, may have nothing but a lack of Russian supplies related to gas and oil.
During an intervention on the "Matrouh for Discussion" program, broadcast on the "Cairo News" channel, and presented by the media Marina Masri, said that the large military and economic contributions borne by the European Union countries in this war, especially Germany, which is the leader of the European train in this union, put them in a critical dilemma and an economic and energy crisis.
Policies of the European Union
He pointed out that all this came in conjunction with various calls from the sectors of services and transport to demand a solution to the crisis economic conditions for the German economy, as a result of bearing expensive bills due to the entanglement of Germany with the policies of the European Union, which is a key partner and a major contributor.

Title:

Content: General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
General Supervision
Elham Aboul Fath
Editor-in-Chief
Thank you for your patience.
Europe is losing the gas battle.
Three countries succumb to Moscow and the euro are the biggest victims of the war
In a new escalation from Russia, Gazprom announced on Wednesday the cessation of gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria, or through their territories to European countries, which means depriving these countries of an important energy source, and hits the prices of gas and the euro in Europe severely.
In this report we review the full story of the "energy file", which confuses the calculations of European leaders, on the one hand they see the stop against Russia in its war with Ukraine, and on the other hand they always leave a back door for Russia to get out of the sanctions imposed on it and its currencies, because they are in urgent need of its energy, which they have not found a substitute until now.
Europe's dependence on Russian gas
Europe depends on Russia to provide 40% of the needs of the old continent of gas, and Gazprom monopolizes the supply through pipelines from Russia, which passes through Bulgaria and Poland to the rest of the continent, and Bulgaria depends on 90% of its gas needs on the Russian product, while Poland depends on 45%, which means a severe blow to the two countries, and a warning to the rest of Europe, to prevent energy from them.
As soon as the decision was taken against Bulgaria and Poland, European gas jumped by 24%, and at the beginning of trading on Wednesday, the prices of gas contracts on European exchanges jumped and exceeded the level of $1350 per thousand cubic meters, in light of the fears of global markets significantly, announced by Russia, which is based on the decree of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, last March, to prevent the sale of gas through Gazprom, to what they described as non-countries. According to Moscow ’ s plan, the ruble will be used to treat what happened to the ruble and its banks following the sanctions imposed on them as a result of the war with Ukraine.
The success of the Russian trick and the confusion of Europe
With the start of the implementation of the Russian decision, many European countries refused to pay in rubles, because it contradicted the terms of the signed contracts, and this is a Russian ploy to evade the sanctions imposed on the central bank, which did not shy Moscow from confirming, as it explained in full transparency that the decision to switch to payments ruble for its gas instead of euros or dollars came in response to Western sanctions against its central bank, which froze about half of foreign currency reserves.
The Russian plan succeeded, and has already paid off, it achieved large foreign reserves of currencies, and the ruble returned to better levels than before the invasion, to avoid the Russian economy worst scenarios, and the new decision, which shocked the people of the old continent, to stop the supply of gas to Bulgaria and Poland, came to fruition quickly, Hungary, Germany and Austria, announced approval of the Russian mechanism to buy gas.
The euro is the victim of Moscow sanctions
The package of Russian decisions, also led to a decline in the exchange rate of the euro, which is the first victim in Europe, against the ruble, and recorded its lowest levels, earlier, since June 2020, at about 77 rubles, while the dollar and its exchange rate at 73 rubles, and in recent weeks, the ruble rose steadily to levels above what it was on the eve of the Russian operation in Ukraine.
The countries of Europe acquiesce to Russia
Hungary and Austria also announced, through foreign ministers, their country's commitment to the Russian decision, which provides for the payment of gas dues in rubles, and Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian Foreign Minister, said that his country will pay for Russian gas supplied to it based on the mechanism put forward by Moscow, stressing that the supply of Russian gas to Hungary through Bulgaria is normal.
For his part, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nihmer announced that Austria and the Austrian energy company OMV have accepted the terms of payment for gas in the Russian currency ruble, noting that the Russian terms were approved by opening a suitable account with a Russian bank.
Germany abides by Russia ’ s decisions
On Thursday morning, German media, citing a spokesman for the energy company Uniper, the largest importer of Russian gas to Germany, said it would continue to buy Russian gas according to the mechanism proposed by Moscow, confirming Berlin's acquiescence to Russian conditions.
The newspaper "Rheinische Post", quoting a spokesman for the company "Uniper", said that the price of Russian gas will be transferred to a Russian bank and not a European bank, and earlier, the company suggested the possibility of paying for gas in rubles, noting that it is continuing discussions on this with the Russian energy company "Gazprom".
Responses of Bulgaria and Poland to Russia
Gazprom notified Poland and Bulgaria to suspend gas supplies from Wednesday until payments are made in accordance with planned procedures, warning that unauthorized withdrawals of gas passing through their territories to other European countries such as Germany would reduce transit supplies.
Poland and Bulgaria have said they are working with state gas companies to find alternative sources to replace supplies from Russia, and that there will be no restrictions on domestic gas consumption for now even though the Balkan country of 6.5 million meets more than 90 percent of its gas needs with Russian imports.
For its part, Poland refused to pay for natural gas in rubles, and announced its firm stance on supporting Ukraine, stressing that it will send tanks to the Ukrainian army this week, in addition to the announcement earlier on Tuesday, a list of sanctions targeting 50 oligarchs and Russian companies, including Gazprom.
Polish gas company PGNiG said Russia ’ s demand to pay it in rubles was a violation of Yamal ’ s contract.

Title:

Content: The Russian-Ukrainian war lasted for more than a month, and Western countries have imposed economic sanctions.
Facebook fan page "Engineers look at politics" pointed out that economic sanctions against Russia have created Europe, because Europe has to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars of natural gas business to the United States every year. Although it reduces dependence on Russia, it has increased dependence on the United States, seriously harming "energy independence"; once the energy crisis is triggered in the future, the whole world will suffer, and Taiwan should not allow the Tsai government to incite hatred and blind support, otherwise it will sit and wait. And...
Facebook fan "engineers look at politics" 14, said that the Russian-Ukrainian war began, Europe followed the United States economic sanctions Russia, energy is one of the big projects, natural gas annual hundreds of billions of dollars of business, Europe will part of the procurement from Russia to the United States, on the one hand is reduced dependence on Russia, but on the other hand increased dependence on the United States, no matter which side is a risk, the importance of "energy autonomy" can be seen.
Taiwan's Tsai government wants to bring nuclear power back to zero and increase the proportion of natural gas to 50%, but this will not only emit a large amount of greenhouse gases, but also pose a serious national security risk, because this means that half of Taiwan's energy supply depends on one ship after another. It is constantly sent from thousands of kilometers away, and almost every day, a ship needs to enter the port to replenish the gas to maintain the electricity.
In this regard, Fan warned that in the future, the world is facing a "gas emergency" energy crisis, businessmen are looking at the interests of the business, do not care which country has electricity or electricity, who has money to give to whom.
The Tsai government ’ s energy policy has made it impossible to be independent and highly dependent on foreign countries, and has also caused annual sky-high financial losses. There is no better explanation than to profit specific countries / enterprises.
If the ruling party does not incite hatred and confrontation, how can the people ignore everything to vote for them? Taiwanese must look to the reality, while the energy policy is still saved, and do not let it go, otherwise they will just sit back and suffer together.
# Natural Gas # Economic Sanctions # War # Russia # Ukraine

Title:

Content: Energy security now controls politics.
Energy security now controls politics.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was not the main reason for this trend, but it strengthened strongly: the energy crisis in Europe, India and China began several months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and raised the prices of energy sources to historic levels at the time, and drought on the one hand and the processes of replacing other energy sources, made matters worse.
The most important of which is the visit of the leaders of the United States and European countries to the oil and gas countries in an attempt to win their favor, and the signing of contracts for immediate or future supplies, and this includes the expected visit of the Chinese President to Saudi Arabia. The US made an exception for six months to develop its joint projects with the Venezuelan oil company in order to increase production, and required that oil from these projects be exported to the United States only, and before that the Biden administration withdrew 180 million barrels from the strategic inventory in an attempt to provide supplies to refineries on the one hand and reduce oil prices on the other, and succeeded in doing so.
Large countries such as China and Germany have signed huge contracts with Qatar to secure future LNG shipments, while U.S. companies are expanding LNG terminals to boost exports to Europe due to growing demand there.
Some countries provided direct subsidies to their people to compensate for higher energy prices, while others tried to introduce a price cap to prevent energy prices from rising.
Japan has been granted an exemption from the G7 from the price cap agreement on Russian oil exports because of its investments in Russia's Sakhalin field.
Hungary has also been exempted from the European embargo on Russian oil and the price cap, all to boost energy security in these two countries, and China has signed huge contracts with Russia to build more gas pipelines to transport Russian gas to Chinese markets.
There is no evidence of interest in the issue of energy security more than sacrificing all the policies of climate change and ignoring the environment with the return of several European countries to coal, oil and firewood, all this so that the lights do not go out or die from the cold, and also India and China ignore the price ceiling imposed by the G7 countries and the European Union.
Experts agree that government policies and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the main reasons for raising energy prices with different sources, but popular anger and demonstrations in some countries made governments look for scapegoats, so they blamed energy companies, especially oil companies, and some countries, led by Britain, decided to impose exceptional taxes on the profits of these companies.
This policy action may work in elections, but it harms energy security in this country in the medium and long term because it reduces investment, and makes companies tend to invest elsewhere, and as mentioned in a previous article, it is interesting that part of the profits of oil companies goes to invest in renewable energy, especially wind, and losing these things to the government means not to do these projects.
Energy Security and Electric Vehicles
Electric cars were adopted to eliminate carbon dioxide, which results from burning gasoline and diesel in car engines, because they see carbon dioxide as one of the causes of climate change, and some considered that the adoption of electric cars enhances energy security because of the use of local energy sources such as solar and wind to generate electricity in place of gasoline and diesel, which are imported either in the form of crude oil or petroleum products resources.
In some countries nuclear power is used, which is also a domestic source, in others coal is used to generate electricity and some of it may be imported, in which case emissions fall in places where electric vehicles are used, but they increase in areas where power plants are used.
The problem is that electric cars began to threaten energy security in many places around the world, and some governments began to demand owners of electric cars after charging them at certain times, and this is repeated in the US state of California specifically, and with the expansion of the purchase of electric cars, this is expected to happen in more countries, and more times.
The specialized energy platform published news two days ago that the Swiss Federal Council is ready to pass legislation “Restrictions and Prohibition of Electric Power Consumption Law ” to address the expected electricity shortage, which may lead to a partial ban on the use of electric vehicles, and is expected to include four stages of escalation in restrictions on the consumption of electricity, depending on the conditions of supply.
The mention of electric vehicles came in the third phase of escalation, as the article provides for several cases only, in which it is allowed to drive, and the article states that “it is allowed to use the electric car on the necessary trips and go to work, or to visit the doctor and attend religious events, in addition to access to the court in case of need. ”
On the other hand, the exaggeration of the effects of electric vehicles in the demand for oil has led to a decline in investment in it, which means lower production and higher prices and this threatens the energy security of all countries of the world.
In short, electric vehicles have become a threat to energy security in many countries, and the solution lies in striking a balance between energy security and environmental security.
arabic indipendt

Title:

Content: Concern in Germany about continued Russian gas outage until winter | Politics and economy | In-depth analysis with a broader perspective than DW | DW | 12.07.2022
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Politics and Economics
In Germany, Russian gas outages will continue until winter.
As the annual maintenance of Nord Stream 1 begins, there is uncertainty about the return of Russian gas to the country.
Stopping Russian gas would have disastrous economic and social consequences for Germany, especially during the harsh winter.
Many Germans worry that the gas crisis will continue into winter.
At the moment, there is no talk among Germans except for gas as the energy crisis has worsened, which has led to an increase in residential rents due to rising heating costs, with a housing company in the capital Berlin announcing a 100 percent increase in heating prices for apartments heated with gas or oil.
This has added to the concern of tenants that no one knows whether this increase will be final or will be followed by further increases.
The GdW Association, which represents 3,000 housing companies, has concluded that each household will have to allocate an additional budget of up to 3,800 euros to pay its energy bills over the next year.
Possible social unrest
A housing association in the state of Saxony warned that this is a big problem for low- and middle-income citizens, adding: “We are talking about the livelihoods of families, so politicians need to realize this before it is too late. ”
Rising energy bills are burdening not only German households but also high inflation, which affects all walks of life.
German Chancellor Olaf Schulz insisted that no country in the world could afford the impending increase in costs, stressing the difficulty of "subsidizing all prices" while Economy Minister Robert Habeck urged citizens to conserve energy in the past few weeks.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has warned of the country ’ s low gas reserves.
German residential real estate company Fonovia, which is the largest in the country, plans to lower the default temperature in gas-heated buildings to 17 degrees Celsius at night.
The measure will reduce consumption by 8%, while daytime heating will be conducted as usual, with no effect from hot water supplies and no restrictions on showers.
In the small town of Deboldswald in Saxony, the situation is changing, with the Tenants Housing Association reporting that hot water will be available early in the morning, midday and evening.
"We have to save (energy) now for the coming of winter," the association said.
Such calls have sparked heated debate on social media platforms, prompting German Federal Construction Minister Clara Goetz to describe the restrictions as illegal.
The German Tenants Association said the lack of hot water was a reason for rent cuts and tenants showed some understanding, according to a member of the board of one of the housing associations.
"I am happy to start such a discussion even if the company is currently being attacked online.
The steps of the individual precede the steps of the politicians in Berlin. "
Is gas flowing back through Nord Stream?
The energy crisis is starting to manifest itself in government institutions, with air conditioners in the Ministry of Economy being shut down weeks ago, heating systems will be turned on at a lower rate in the fall, and the minister urged all ministries and other government institutions to do so nationwide.
Berlin ’ s dependence on Russian gas, most of which flows through the Nord Stream pipeline, which transports Russian gas to Germany directly through the Baltic Sea, has been reduced, the economy ministry said, from 55 percent last year to 35 percent now.
Nord Stream 1 pipeline stopped for maintenance work
Russia has drastically reduced the flow of gas because of a "missing turbine" that German company Siemens has repaired in Canada and its delivery was delayed for weeks due to Western sanctions on Russia, but Canada said it returned it over the weekend.
On Monday, the Nord Stream line was completely shut down for maintenance amid questions about whether Russia would restart the line after the 10-14 days of maintenance work was completed.
For its part, Russia has said that if the turbine arrives after a repair, it will “allow an increase in laurel flows, ” while the Kremlin has insisted that Moscow is not using gas supplies as a means of exerting political pressure on Germany.
A cold winter without gas. Heating?
The German government fears that Nord Stream will continue to close as residents of the capital Berlin hope the situation will improve, but at the same time prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Laws have been passed to mitigate any fallout from the gas shortage and the resulting rise in energy prices.
The Energy Security Act stipulates that more coal-fired power plants than gas-fired ones will be used to heat homes, despite pre-war decisions to reduce reliance on coal to preserve the environment.
The new legislation will pave the way for affected energy companies to receive assistance from the federal government as they face a shortage of gas supplies from Russia.
For example, gas supplies agreed to arrive from Russia ’ s Gazprom to Germany ’ s Yonbier energy company have fallen by 40 percent since mid-June.
This has led Germany ’ s largest gas supplier, Unbier, to look for other sources of high-priced gas supplies to offset Russian imports.
As a result, the company slipped into an unstable financial situation, prompting it to submit a request to the government to rescue it amid talk of receiving an estimated 9 billion euros in aid similar to the financial support that Lufthansa received from the government to compensate for the losses incurred during the peak of the Corona pandemic.
After Russian gas supplies plummeted, the German government was asked by the giant Uniper to bail it out.
The specter of a severe financial crisis?
And it ’ s not up to Uniper, as many struggling companies catch up with it day after day.
This prompted Friedrich Meretz, leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Party of Germany, to warn that Germany was “heading into the worst economic crisis since the establishment of the Federal Republic. ”
Germany is experiencing its highest inflation rate in 30 years, he said, amid talk of an imbalance in the country's trade balance for the first time in decades caused by an increase in the import rate.
He stressed that German companies are threatened with losing their ability to compete in global markets.
A study published at the end of June by the economic research institute Prognus said that if Russian gas supplies were to cease completely, Germany would have to look for other sources to replace Russian gas from other countries and rely on its gas reserves.
But within four weeks, there will not be enough gas for everyone and production is likely to be affected, the study said, with new laws requiring gas to continue to be supplied to homes, community centres and heating companies.
It would affect vital industrial sectors such as iron, steel and chemical industries as production is expected to fall by about 50% while the study estimated that economic output in Germany will fall by 12.7% by the end of the year in the cessation of Russian gas completely.
Sabine Kinkartz / M.E.

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Content: Sunday 26 November 1443 AH - 26 June 2022 |
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Grim scenarios.
Putin pushes German economy to the brink of collapse
German authorities have taken emergency measures, including increasing the use of coal to secure its energy needs amid declining volumes from Russia.
For some time now, German authorities have been concerned about the cessation of industrial furnaces due to the scarcity of energy resources following the Russian war on Ukraine.
For decades, these furnaces have been operating without interruption, “but if they suddenly cool, the molten material will harden and break the entire system, a concern that engulfs Europe ’ s largest economy. ”
After President Vladimir Putin cut energy flows to Europe by 60%, German experts and the administration of Chancellor Olaf Schulz this week looked as if they were waiting for bleak scenarios for the coming winter.
Klaus Müller, who heads the German federal network BNetzA, said Friday in an interview with Deutschland Funk radio: “If we had a very cold winter, it wouldn ’ t be pretty. ”
Ovens need 75% of their natural gas consumption to prevent the molten glass inside from overrunning and destroying the furnace.
For decades, Germany has thrived on cheap gas prices, and the response to the economy ’ s growing needs has often been the construction of a new pipeline to Russia.
But this era is now, and German companies are beginning to face a new and unusual reality.
Quick Solutions
There will be quick fixes, such as reviving polluting coal plants and converting fuel into industrial processes, despite their risks, because the transition to affordable renewable energy will take years.
Companies that manufacture metal, paper and even food may be forced to scale back or close German production sites, accelerating the ongoing mass migration of manufacturing jobs and leaving lasting damage to the country ’ s economic landscape.
Wolfgang Han, managing director of Energy Consulting Group GmbH, said: “Companies will move production to where there is a competitive line, and this will not be in Germany. ”
“You can ’ t correct 20 years of policy mistakes in two or three years. ”
The latest figures show it will take 115 days to reach the government ’ s target of filling gas reserves to 90% by November.
This timeframe assumes that flows remain at the current level, which is unlikely given the Kremlin ’ s increasingly aggressive stance toward Europe in response to sanctions imposed by Russia ’ s war in Ukraine.
The energy crisis
Gas storage levels in Germany are still below 60% of its capacity.
In response to the bleak outlook, Germany, which still depends on Russia for more than a third of its gas supplies, raised its threat level to the second-highest “alarm ” stage on Thursday.
If the pressure intensifies, Germany could start rationing supplies, the Bloomberg report confirms.
The moment of truth is likely to come next month when Nord Stream pipeline pumping for scheduled maintenance drops, as Germany fears pumping will never return.
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Thursday in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF in particular: “I ’ ll have to lie if I say I ’ m not afraid of it. ”
If energy suppliers continue to pile up losses by forcing them to cover lost Russian supplies at high prices, there is a risk of a wider collapse.
Uniper SE, Germany ’ s largest importer of Russian gas, has warned it could struggle to meet supply contracts to domestic utilities and manufacturers if Moscow lengthens or increases gas cuts.
The crisis has already spread far beyond Germany, where 12 EU member states have been affected and 10 countries have issued an early warning under the gas security regulation.
Rising European demand for LNG will also affect poorer countries around the world as they struggle to compete for shipments.
Estonian President Kaja Kalas, speaking at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, said “we are concerned ” that Russia will cut off gas supplies to Europe.
“We need to be ready for an energy mix.
Different, unified LNG purchases and doing these things together. ”
Scope of risk
German economic institutes warned in April that an immediate halt to Russian imports of oil and natural gas would result in production being hit by 220 billion euros over the next two years.
Stefan Kothes, an economist at the Kiel Institute for World Economics, said that while it may be more moderate now with high storage levels, predicting the outcome of an unprecedented situation is difficult.
The Bundesbank estimates that the national economy will contract by more than 3% in 2023 if Russian energy supplies stop.
This would be the worst recession outside the recessions triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and the global financial crisis.

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Will Russia ’ s oil embargo force Putin to end the war in Ukraine?
Contact – Report:
The issue of energy and securing access to it remains a major problem facing Europe, which was heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas for energy.
EU governments are seeking an oil embargo on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as they gather this week with U.S. President Joe Biden for a series of summits aimed at toughening the West's response to Moscow.
Fifth round of sanctions
In an attempt to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine, the European Union, along with Western allies, imposed a comprehensive set of sanctions that included freezing the assets of Russia ’ s central bank.
A senior EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions are not public, said: “We are working on a fifth round of sanctions and many new names are being proposed. ”
EU governments will hold discussions among foreign ministers on Monday before Biden arrives in Brussels on Thursday for summit meetings with 30 NATO allies as well as the European Union and G7 countries including Japan.
Although there have been four rounds of sanctions imposed by the EU over the past three weeks, involving 685 people from Russia and the Russian Federation and sanctions on Russian finance and trade, they have not resulted in the Kremlin changing course in Ukraine.
Crisis of Europe
If the EU is targeting Russian oil and gas as the US and Britain have done, securing its needs from them is fraught with difficulties, as well as a significant rise in oil and gas prices if the EU decides on this plan, which will constitute more economic burdens on 27 countries, all of which rely heavily on Russian gas for energy.
Diplomats told Reuters the Baltic states, including Lithuania, were pushing for a ban as the next logical step, although Germany warned against rushing into action because of already high energy prices in Europe.
The global market needs about 4.3 million barrels of oil per day, according to Rystad Energy, more than 4% of the total global supply, and because Russian exports to the West are so huge, the threat of cutting them has made the expectations of companies on Wall Street tilted towards the worst-case scenario, in which the price of crude exceeds $200 a barrel by the end of this year.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told The Times on Sunday that "the West pays about $700 million a day for oil and gas and Putin uses it to finance his aggression against Ukraine," referring to the European Union countries to ban Russian oil, as did America and Britain.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced on Saturday that his country plans to abandon Russian coal by autumn and Russian oil by around the end of the year.
“Every day, even every hour, we say goodbye to more and more Russian imports, ” he said.
Germany currently imports a third of its oil and about 45 percent of its coal from Russia, according to German government statistics.
Germany announced on Monday that it had succeeded in reaching a German-Qatari agreement to start a long-term energy partnership, especially in the field of liquefied gas.

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Content: Germany does not want to abandon Russian gas forever - RIA Novosti, 02.07.2023
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Germany does not want to permanently abandon Russian gas
Saxony Prime Minister Kretschmer: Germany should not permanently abandon Russian gas
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BERLIN, July 2 - RIA Novosti.
Germany should not permanently block its access to Russian gas, in addition, it should strive to resolve the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy, said the Prime Minister of the Federal state of Saxony Michael Kretschmer in an interview with the media group Funke.
"We should not forever block our way to Russian gas," Kretschmer said.
There is no crisis.
Europe is just getting worse.
The Minister does not want to hear the phrase "Russia - never again", and the so-called change of the energy era in Germany calls a failed venture against the background of a sharp increase in energy prices and the fact that the ordinary people "can not make ends meet."
“
"It would be important to think about everything again: nuclear energy, the abandonment of coal, domestic gas, Nord Stream, the expansion of renewable energy sources - there are many ways to reach a compromise," he said.
As for the conflict in Ukraine, Kretschmer advocates a diplomatic solution, which is also advocated by the majority of the German population.
"And I expect the federal government to remain open to that," he added.
The people are not the same: the Germans sabotage the green agenda
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Content: The German Chancellor called the replacement of Russian gas a reason for pride
The Chancellor said that the country was able to find sources to replace the supply of Russian gas, and called it a reason for pride.
His words, spoken at the economic conference in, leads TASS.
He also noted that in connection with the conflict, it was necessary for the state to change the situation with energy and increase defense spending.
According to Scholz, Germany managed to replace 50 percent of gas imports into the country, accounted for by Russian products.
He claims that Russia itself stopped deliveries, and against its gas "there are still no sanctions."
Germany does not receive gas via Nord Stream.
These pipelines were damaged in 2022 as a result of sabotage in the Baltic Sea.
The Russian president had previously called the incident a terrorist attack.
At the same time, Germany, having reduced purchases of Russian gas, became dependent on the supply of Russian agricultural fertilizers, the volume of which increased by more than 300 percent.
According to experts, gas and electricity reach 80-90 percent of the cost of mineral fertilizers, and “imported fertilizers are nothing more than cheap Russian natural gas in the next stage of the value chain. ”
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Content: Han Yonghong: The gap between Europe and the United States
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After Russia ’ s invasion of Ukraine, the rare coordinated pace between Europe and the United States did not last long, and the issue of the Russian energy embargo caused the first crack in the picture of European and American cooperation.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced a total ban on Russian oil, gas and coal imports on Tuesday, and Britain followed suit, but this time the continental powers refused to cooperate.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schorz said in a public statement that Germany and European partners deliberately excluded energy from the sanctions against Russia, because there is no other way for Europe to guarantee heating, transportation and industrial production of energy, other than to import from Russia.
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Content: Germany: Anti-nuclear campaigners demand end to nuclear business with Russia - Sunrise Gate
Wednesday 2 November 2022 9: 23 PM Cairo Cairo 24 °
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Germany: Anti-nuclear campaigners call for end to nuclear business with Russia
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Published on: Wednesday 2 November 2022 - 7: 46 PM | Last updated on Wednesday 2 November 2022 - 7: 46 PM
Ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers, several anti-nuclear initiatives in Germany have called for an end to all business with Russia in the field of uranium and nuclear energy.
The ministers of the group will hold a meeting in the western German city of Münster later in the day.
In an open letter to German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbuck of the Green Party, the initiatives said the German government can and should set a good example.
Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom still supplies about 20 percent of the uranium consumed in the European Union, activists wrote.
Activists have been particularly critical of business dealings in this area between Germany, France and Russia.
They said Russian uranium was supplied again in September for the first time since the Russian war on Ukraine to a fuel element plant of French state nuclear energy company Framatom in the German city of Lingen.
A spokesman for Germany ’ s Federal Office for Nuclear Waste Safety said the operation was based on permits issued in 2021.
Rosatom contributes significantly to the operation of the Ukrainian Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which is occupied by Russian forces.
In their letter, which also referred to other ties between Russia and EU countries in the field of nuclear trade deals, the activists said that "Framatom in Lingen - using permits from German authorities and ministries - is doing business with the occupant of the Zaporizhia plant, which we consider absolutely unacceptable."
Helge Braun of the Osgstraalt group said: “The German government must finally put Russian nuclear energy companies on the sanctions list.
"FDP ministers who want to stick to nuclear power ignore that this will only increase dependence on Russia."
He concluded by saying that Germany ’ s uranium plants and nuclear power plant operators could not continue to fill Russia ’ s war coffers with their purchases, without being penalized.
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In Germany, were afraid of the termination of Russian energy supplies
German authorities believe that in response to the sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia due to the recent events in Ukraine, Moscow may stop supplying energy to Europe.
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Content: Is China neutral?
Opinion Exposure Under Censorship | Deutsche Welle Introduces Germany from Germany | DW | 23.03.2022
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The political climate of the times
Is China neutral?
Public opinion under censorship is exposed.
Since the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, China has portrayed itself as a neutral party.
Xi also recently expressed his opposition to the war to Biden.
But China ’ s domestic coverage of the crisis and measures to control discussion paint a different picture of Beijing ’ s true position.
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Content: January 24, Monday | Last update — 17: 39 | vz.ru
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Zelensky rushes in search of salvation
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Germany chooses between gas and principles
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There is no agreement with the West.
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Britain to import tons of weapons to Ukraine with the help of aviation
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Pashinyan won again
24 January 2022, 17: 20
Photo: president.am / ru
Text: Stanislav Borzyakov
The unexpected resignation of Armenian President Armen Sarkissian was another political triumph for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Many hate him as the leader of the “color revolution ” and co-author of the defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh, but this man still knows how to turn crises in his favor and go dry.
It is not Russia that needs to worry about this, but Britain.
The official reason why the formal head of the Armenian state resigned is not enough power.
In the explanation on the website of Armen Sarkissian, it is said that the President of Armenia does not have “constitutional instruments of influence ” on“ domestic and foreign ” policy, on “issues of war and peace ”, and if not, forgive.
And this is presented in the genre of “deceived, offended ”: when Sargsyan agreed to the presidential post, he allegedly thought that he would have the tools and opportunities.
The fact that there is little power, it is a holy truth.
In the current version of the Armenian constitution, the post of president is more decorative than the British monarchy, at least Elizabeth II is considered the supreme commander of the armed forces, and the president of Armenia is not.
His position exists in order to smile and feed children with sweets, and is comparable rather to the post of President of Germany.
Horst Keller, Christian Wolf, Joachim Gauck - all these people with low names were the heads of Germany during the period of Angela Merkel.
However, Sarkissian is cunning when he writes that he was preparing for another role.
Because it was for the role of a powerless symbol that it was originally prepared.
However, history ordered that Sargsyan had to play a different, ungrateful and rare role in politics - the role of an oppositionist as head of state.
Since 2018, the ceremonial president of Armenia is elected by the National Assembly (parliament), and all the power is in the hands of the Prime Minister, appointed by the same parliament after the elections.
Previously, Armenia was a typical presidential republic, and its constitutional maneuver had a specific goal - to preserve the personal power of Serzh Sargsyan, who was prohibited by the basic law from running for a third consecutive presidential term.
By that time, the Armenian Republic had also become a typical corporate state, with all major assets under the control of a “narrow circle ”.
There were two obvious options with the preservation of “their own ” on the economy, both implied a change in the constitution - either to remove restrictions on presidential terms (the Belarusian-Central Asian version), or to redistribute power in favor of the party prime minister (the Georgian-Moldovan version).
The Armenians were offered to go on the second way, as if “European ”.
Thus, Armen Sarkissian – a former prime minister, but more a diplomat than a politician, and more a physicist than a diplomat – became a decorative head of state, elected at Sargsyan ’ s suggestion by MPs from the ruling party.
A week later, they elected Sargsyan himself as the new, now all-powerful prime minister.
This plan did not take into account the fact that the Armenians felt deceived - they were tired of the Sargsyan "corporate state" to death, they hoped, at least, to change generations in power.
The discontented took to the streets, the “revolution of love ” began, in the terminology of the current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during which Sargsyan did not dare to violently suppress the protests and was forced to throw out the white flag.
After the dissolution of parliament, Pashinyan ’ s “My Step ” alliance defeated the early elections – until recently, the ruling“ Republicans ” were not even able to overcome the electoral barrier.
Thus, the decorative President Sarkissian became the only representative of the “old ” power in the power of the new one, which gave him a mission for which he was not ready - to resist the regime that took up the task of clearing the“ corporate state ” and purging the people of Sargsyan.
Then there was the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, this war was lost by Armenia – and not least thanks to both the actions and inactions of the Pashinyan government.
The bitterness of defeat, coupled with a sense of national shame, made the prime minister a persecuted figure, the disgruntled took to the streets again, and the old elite had a chance to return to power.
Sargsyan ’ s role in such conditions could turn from decorative to key – if the crisis, turmoil and war led to the fact that the government could not function properly, the president would receive extraordinary powers.
But the government was able, although Sargsyan tried to push the falling, for example, in the postwar conflict Pashinyan with the military from the General Staff clearly took the side of the latter.
In this battle of the “new ” with the“ old ” (which the “old ” veterans of the first Karabakh war tried to pass as a battle“ winners ” with “traitors ”), everyone tried to appeal to the people, and the people judged unexpectedly for many.
Pashinyan again won the snap elections and again defeated - the "new opposition" clearly overestimated the scale of the Armenians' claims to the new government, underestimating its own anti-rating and the burden of previous sins.
The Armenian political crisis is over.
Pashinyan has already been buried by the rumor and confirmed his leadership at the national level, and his persecutors received a consolation prize - two opposition factions in the new composition of the National Assembly, which more reflects the real balance of power than the previous election results.
During Pashinyan ’ s first term, the opposition worked as “wooden soldiers ” of the“ authoritative ” oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan from the “Prosperous Armenia ” party and supporters of joining NATO from“ Enlightened Armenia ”.
So President Sarkissian, being a notorious stranger in the new power structure and a fragment of old elites, lost all motivation to “dig ”: to influence anything, he had neither authority nor loyalty from the system, although in some periods of confrontation his personal rating exceeded Pashinyan ’ s rating.
The next president is now being sought (if they have not already found) in the prime minister ’ s entourage, with his election through the parliament controlled, Pashinyan will not remain in power.
For Russia, this is not a reason for frustration.
Yes, Pashinyan is a wayward upstart, looking towards the West, and the former “republican ” elites of Armenia were on good terms with ours.
But this does not apply to President Sarkissian personally, he is a pronounced Anglophile, a former Cambridge teacher and a former British citizen.
It is possible that now he will return to the “misty albion ” and restore citizenship, which he refused because of the requirements of Armenian legislation to civil servants.
As for Pashinyan, this person may cause rejection, but his cross is really heavy, and the mission is ungrateful - to fulfill the provisions of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan, the guarantor of which is Russia.
Much worse than Pashinyan for us is the Armenian revanchism, which the former elites tried to play on.
And he himself is no longer the troublemaker that he used to be, but the temporary chairman of the CSTO, who agreed on the introduction of collective security forces in Kazakhstan to suppress either a rebellion, or a terrorist attack, or attempts at a revolution, in some places similar to the one that brought him to power.
With the voluntary resignation of the last symbol of the old power, this revolution was finally completed.
Whatever Sarkissian says now, the resignation fixes both his personal defeat and the political defeat of the “Republicans ”, and will go down in history as an attempt to evade responsibility.
At least, the abdication of responsibility remains the most convincing explanation for the demarche of the now former president.
Otherwise, he would have to visit agreements with Ankara and Baku on the settlement of relations - another heavy cross that fell to Pashinyan and the whole of Armenia.
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Content: Guardian Original
Berbok admitted that the Ukrainian crisis forced Germany to rethink its relations with Russia and its neighbors on the continent
The Russian special operation in Ukraine has opened a new chapter for Germany and made it realize its responsibility to partner countries in a new way, writes Annalena Berbok in an article published by the British newspaper The Guardian.
The Germans, she said, “managed to surprise even themselves ”: Germany has coped with its dependence on Russian gas, has become one of the leading arms suppliers to Ukraine, and has recognized itself as a leader on whom its allies can rely.
The ability to surprise is perhaps not the first thing that people usually associate with Germans, writes German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbok in an article published by the British newspaper The Guardian.
But if you look at what direction Germany has been heading since Russia launched its military special operation in Ukraine, “perhaps we Germans have managed to surprise even ourselves, ” she adds.
Just two years ago, billions of cubic meters of gas flowed from Russia to Germany via Nord Stream 1 and other pipelines.
Russian fossil fuels accounted for a significant share of the country ’ s energy consumption.
That number has now been reduced to zero.
Just two years ago, the idea that Germany would supply tanks, air defense systems and howitzers to a combat zone would have seemed far-fetched, to say the least.
“Today, Germany is one of the leading suppliers of weapons for Ukraine ’ s self-defense, ” Burbock said.
This is not only a change in how Berlin perceives threats to its own security, but also in how Germany understands its responsibility in the modern world — “as a leader on whom our partners can rely, ” the German foreign minister said in his article.
After the horrors of World War II unleashed by the Germans, German foreign policy was based on the principle that war should never again come from German soil.
“In the first stage of foreign policy after 1945, our country sought to regain the trust of former enemies.
We are eternally grateful to them for reaching out to us, once again accepting us into the world community, ” Burbock wrote in The Guardian.
Over the following decades, German governments adhered to what became known as “checkbook diplomacy ” — the belief that German money, not soldiers, should help resolve conflicts.
In the 1990s, the third phase began.
At first, Germany acted gradually, through participation in missions led by the UN, and then – under the influence of the intolerable pictures of the Balkan wars – much more actively through active participation in the forces led by NATO in Kosovo.
“This decision was important not in spite of our country ’ s history, but because of it, ” Burbock writes.
As former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer noted, Germany ’ s responsibility for the disaster meant a commitment to never again allow not only war, but also concentration camps and genocide.
Adherence to the values of the UN Charter and international criminal law meant that Germany supported its partners in UN missions around the world.
After 9 / 11, Germany supported the United States and its partners by sending a Bundeswehr to Afghanistan.
According to Burbock, in connection with the Russian special operation in Ukraine, something, however, has changed radically, which leads to the fourth stage of foreign policy.
It is about how Germany perceives threats to its own security in the heart of Europe.
For too long, we have not heeded the warnings of our eastern neighbors, who urged us to take the threats posed by Russia seriously.
We have learned that “hoping for the best ” is not enough.
Despite all efforts to build a European security architecture with Russia, economic and political engagement has also failed to tip Moscow toward democracy, Berbok said.
Germany ’ s allies can count on it, she continues.
We Germans will never forget that we owe our freedom in a reunited country also to our allies and to our eastern neighbours.
As they helped us, so we will help them now, because the security of Eastern Europe is the security of Germany, ” the foreign minister wrote in his article.
“We know that for the foreseeable future, President Putin ’ s Russia will remain a threat to peace and security on our continent and that we must organize our security against Putin ’ s Russia, not with it, ” Burbock said.
In Germany ’ s first-ever national security strategy, its government explains how it seeks to assume responsibility in this new phase of foreign policy, in Europe and beyond, through an integrated security policy.
First of all, it means strengthening Germany ’ s commitment to the “Euro-Atlantic family. ”
Berlin strengthens NATO as a guarantor of collective security.
Berlin is also building up its military capabilities with an “unprecedented ” package of €100 billion and is committed to meeting NATO ’ s defense spending target.
In addition, Germany is building a geopolitical European Union that “opens its doors to new members such as Ukraine, Moldova, Western Balkan countries and, in the long term, Georgia. ”
According to Berbock, Germany learned “through pain ” that security means protecting not only from wars and crises, but also from economic vulnerability.
“Decisions about where we buy gas, oil or technology have security implications.
“Although we believe that in the context of globalization, it is impossible to break away from China, we strive to reduce risks and reduce our vulnerability.
Diversification is an investment in security. ”
Therefore, Germany is strengthening its strategic global partnerships.
“And if we want our common rules – based on the UN Charter – to govern our world in the future, we must prove their value by promoting solutions that meet the needs of our partners – on security, trade and the fight against the climate crisis.
If we fail to do so, others who do not share our strong commitment to international law and human rights will step in, ” Burbock warned in an article for The Guardian.
The Russian special operation in Ukraine opened a new chapter for Germany and forced it to rethink its desire to promote peace, freedom and sustainability in this world – as a “partner who accepts his leadership. ”
Some, from the point of view of Berbok, this may surprise, but “this is a matter of responsibility, ” concludes the German foreign Minister in an article for the British newspaper The Guardian.
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Content: Hydrogen: A new way for Germany to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas?
• Janek Schmidt
• BBC Business Technology Reporter
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany has reduced its dependence on Russian oil and gas imports from 35% to 12%, and natural gas imports from 55% to 35%.
Energy exports, however, remain a significant source of revenue for Moscow. Figures from the Energy and Clean Air Research Center (CREA) in Helsinki, Finland, show that in the first two months after the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany paid nearly 9 billion euros for Russian oil and gas.
Veronika Grimm, a professor of economics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, is one of three special advisers to the German federal government.
“Our access to energy needs to diversify and decarbonize more quickly than initially thought, ” she said. To achieve this, Ms. Grimm hopes Germany will increase its use of hydrogen energy.
Hydrogen contains a large amount of energy, replacing natural gas in industrial processes, fuel cells used in trucks, trains or aircraft, which emit no pollution and only release water vapor that meets drinking standards.
Grimm ’ s obsession is having an impact.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says more than a dozen countries have published national hydrogen energy strategies or are about to do so.
Despite the interest, it is unclear whether large-scale use of hydrogen energy is feasible.
After two oil crises in the 1970s, and as concerns about climate change intensified in the 1990s, there was a similar enthusiasm for hydrogen energy.
But neither of those two ended up with tangible results.
So, is the passion for hydrogen energy different today?
Skeptics warn that industry representatives, who dominate most of the world ’ s hydrogen energy agencies, often favor hydrogen because it comes with subsidies and is able to maintain demand for existing assets such as pipelines, tankers, fans or boilers.
They also say that politicians prefer large, green-sounding plans for the future over more difficult solutions.
But environmental groups are more cautious, pointing out that hydrogen energy cannot be obtained in large quantities as the main fuel.
There are two main ways to obtain hydrogen, each with different color codes.
Green hydrogen refers to the electricity generated from renewable energy that dissolves water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules through an electrolysis machine.
But the cost of these machines and electricity is high.
According to the International Energy Agency, the high cost means that no emissions of hydrogen energy only accounts for 0.03% of global hydrogen production.
Grey hydrogen is 5 times cheaper, it is obtained from natural gas, and in some cases from oil and coal.
However, due to losses in the production process, carbon dioxide emissions are about 50% higher than direct combustion of natural gas.
Another related technology is called blue hydrogen.
It relies on the same production process, but can capture, reuse or store 60-90% of carbon emissions in production.
The disadvantage of this method is that it costs about twice as much, and it also lacks large-scale production facilities.
Blue hydrogen accounts for only 0.7% of global hydrogen production.
So, while hydrogen is environmentally friendly and has huge potential, global hydrogen production currently emits carbon dioxide equivalent to that of France as a whole.
It is important for specific countries to decide how to produce hydrogen energy.
Some countries already have clear development priorities, with sunny countries looking to solar power to generate hydrogen using solar-powered electrolytes, while France relies heavily on nuclear energy.
China has prioritized the development of cheap gray hydrogen, which is extracted from coal and natural gas, while investing in other green energy sources.
The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Norway are the main countries pushing blue hydrogen, injecting carbon dioxide into oil and gas fields for long-term storage, or increasing production with so-called enhanced oil recovery technologies.
But the situation in Germany is not clear.
Professor Volker Quaschning, an expert at the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences in Berlin, criticized Germany ’ s hydrogen energy strategy.
“The Merkel government is using it as a cover for their failure in the energy transition, ” he said.
He believes solar and wind power should be rapidly expanded to boost future green hydrogen production, a move already promised by Germany ’ s new government.
However, on the issue of hydrogen energy, the three parties in the German coalition government, the three competent departments and the National Hydrogen Council are discussing internally whether to focus on green hydrogen, or whether to accept the blue hydrogen option to temporarily solve the problem of insufficient supply.
Ms. Grimm and the majority of the members of the Hydrogen Energy Committee share the same view, that is, they are in favor of multi-colored hydrogen.
"Acceptance of blue hydrogen will help boost supply and meet the needs of our industrial development, underpin technological breakthroughs in Germany and encourage potential suppliers to invest in green hydrogen production," she said.
In January, the German economy minister, Robert Habeck, announced an ambitious plan to boost renewable energy by doubling the domestic green hydrogen production target of the past two years, from 70 megawatts to 150 megawatts now to 10 gigawatts by 2030.
This represents a quarter of the EU ’ s 40 billion megawatts target, which is larger than France ’ s 6.5 billion megawatts target.
Therefore, as domestic production expands, Germany is looking for sources of hydrogen supply from abroad.
Andreas Kuhlmann, the head of the German Energy Agency, said that Germany has rapidly accelerated international negotiations to buy hydrogen energy.
The German Energy Agency is a government-owned company whose purpose is to facilitate the energy transition in coordination with the National Hydrogen Council.
The talks include the development of a hydrogen pipeline linking southern Europe, which has more solar and wind power and is more cost-effective to produce hydrogen.
Robert Habek is currently busy visiting energy exporting countries.
During the week of March, he went to Norway to reach a feasibility study agreement for a hydrogen pipeline, to Qatar to finalize an energy cooperation agreement, and visited the United Arab Emirates to sign five cooperation agreements.
The first imports from the UAE are expected to arrive in Germany later this year.
Other countries that received Robert Habek ’ s attention in terms of hydrogen energy imports were Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Chile, Namibia and Australia.
Although he acknowledged the need to import hydrogen, Professor Volcker Käuschning poured some cold water on Halbek ’ s enthusiasm.
“Importing hydrogen from a factory built in the desert is not an efficient, cheap way to do it, ” he said.
Every link in the supply chain consumes some raw energy: desalination of seawater, feedstock for electrolysis, re-liquefaction of ships, oil tankers, local pipelines in Germany, and conversion of hydrogen into electricity.
"All of these steps will consume at least 70 percent of the electricity in the desert," says Professor Kwaisenin.
“So even if the solar panels in the desert generate 80% more electricity than the solar panels in Germany, the result is that solar power in Germany will be twice as efficient in the first place. ”
Due to the high cost, hydrogen energy is said to be champagne for energy conversion.
Who drank the first glass of champagne?
Most observers are more consistent.
Felix Matthes, an energy expert at the Öko-Institut, a member of the German Hydrogen Council, said, “It ’ s crucial that we only allocate hydrogen to sectors that cannot be directly electrified. ”
"Therefore, we should first use hydrogen energy in the steel, chemical and glass industries," he said.
The industries that fall behind may be shipping, long-haul car freight, and medium and long-range aircraft.
Hydrogen energy for cars and heating is not efficient, expensive and the purpose is unclear and impractical.
“In addition, the efforts of German Economy Minister Robert Haberk to promote renewable energy will create a greater demand for balancing our electricity supply, and hydrogen energy can play a role, as sunlight and windy weather enable the electrolysis equipment to produce hydrogen and store it in large quantities for use in winter and cloudy weather, ” said Felix Mats.
Germany is under pressure to stop paying large sums to Russia to import Russian energy, but this is a complicated process.
Many people are pinning their hopes on hydrogen energy, hoping that this time hydrogen will really reach its potential and make it easier for Germany to transform.

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Content: Skip to main content

Nuclear Power Plant Life Management in a Changing Business World

Workshop Proceedings, Washington DC, United States 26-27 June 2000
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Nuclear Development

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OECD/NEA (2001), Nuclear Power Plant Life Management in a Changing Business World: Workshop Proceedings, Washington DC, United States 26-27 June 2000, Nuclear Development, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264188600-en.
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Content: POLITICO Playbook: Can a wider war be prevented?

Presented by

DRIVING THE DAY

UKRAINE LATEST, DAY NINE — “Ukrainian firefighters on Friday extinguished a blaze at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant that was ignited by a Russian attack and no radiation was released, U.N. and Ukrainian officials said, as Russian forces seized control of the site and pressed their campaign to cripple the country despite global condemnation,” reports the AP.

“The head of the United Nations’ atomic agency said that a Russian ‘projectile’ hit a training center at the plant. Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator earlier said that no changes in radiation levels have been recorded so far after the Zaporizhzhia plant came under attack.”

— In a televised address, Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY said the Russian attack on the nuclear plant could have caused destruction equal to “six Chernobyls,” per the BBC. “People of Ukraine! We survived the night that could have stopped the course of history — history of Ukraine, history of Europe,” Zelenskyy said, calling the shelling campaign an act of “terror on an unheard-of level.”

— The White House said Thursday night that President JOE BIDEN had spoken with Zelenskyy and top U.S. nuclear security officials about the Russian shelling of the nuclear plant.

— Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN’s actions “could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe,” said British PM BORIS JOHNSON, per the BBC. The U.K. announced it would seek an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the matter.

HOW TO PREVENT A WIDER WAR — Biden has been adamant that he will protect every inch of NATO territory and that no American troops will step foot in Ukraine. The discipline to prevent escalation that leads to a NATO-Russian war and to remain firm about his no-boots-on-the-ground pledge is being tested every day. The pressure on Biden to intervene is increasing.

Biden’s first test is the no-fly zone. The unified opposition to an NFZ — “World War III,” Russia hawk Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) recently called it — has started to crack. Illinois Rep. ADAM KINZINGER, every liberal’s favorite Republican, has loudly called for Biden to defend the skies above Ukraine from Russian planes. “I fear if this continues, we will have to intervene in a bigger way,” he said Thursday night after a day of heightened Russian attacks on civilian areas. Sen. ROGER WICKER (R-Miss.) is also on board, as are some big-name Democratic policymakers from the Obama years, such as EVELYN FARKAS, the top official for Ukraine in the Obama Pentagon.

Zelenskyy reiterated his call for a no-fly zone on Thursday. “How long do you need? How many arms and legs and heads should be severed so that you understand?” he said at a press conference in Kyiv. “If you don’t have the strength to provide a no-fly zone, then give me planes. Would that not be fair?”

As the refugee crisis worsens and Russian artillery decimates Ukraine’s largest cities, the pro-NFZ voices will get louder.

This week on our Playbook Deep Dive podcast, we talk to two top experts about what escalation would mean.

— From Ukraine, MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN’s man in Kyiv who has filed some of the most memorable reporting since the invasion started, takes us behind the scenes of what happened when he found himself in the middle of a firefight and inside the presidential bunker where he interviewed Zelenskyy.

You’ll be riveted by Chance’s stories about what it’s like on the ground in Kyiv, where one day he stumbles upon a column of burned-out tanks filled with dead soldiers and another he’s caught in a firefight after sticking around too long talking to a Russian soldier he mistook for a Ukrainian.

But we also discussed what it’s like to report on the human suffering of war knowing that a single viral video from him can drastically affect world opinion and the decisions of policymakers inside the Situation Room.

— In Washington, we talk to TOM DONILON, BARACK OBAMA’s national security adviser from 2010-2013, when he was in the Situation Room as world opinion shaped Obama’s decisions on the revolution in Egypt, and the conflicts in Syria and Libya.

Some highlights from the interviews:

— Chance on whether he thinks about how his own reporting can shape policy:

“I do think about it. Yes. But, you know, you’ve got to be careful what you wish for, particularly with Russia. You can stand up there on your high horse all you like and say, ‘We should be putting boots on the ground. We should be imposing a no-fly zone over this country to stop the civilian deaths.’ But that action is going to provoke a reaction from Russia. Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other country in the world. I grew up in the Cold War. I remember as a kid crying myself to sleep, thinking that I wasn’t going to make it to adulthood. The ‘mutual assured destruction’ idea that if we get into a confrontation that could escalate was something that is really a deep-seated fear in people of my age.”

“And so I do understand the calls for a no-fly zone here. I do understand the debate about whether there should be boots on the ground and whether NATO countries should join in or whether Ukraine should be quickly embraced into the community of the Western military alliance. I’m not sure that I would advocate for that. In the end, you can’t predict … what Putin might do. There are all sorts of rumors about the Russian military doctrine allowing them to use tactical battlefield nuclear weapons. Again, a week ago, I would have been like, ‘Putin is a rational actor.’ Is that now true? Or are we talking about somebody who’s been isolated for the past two years during this Covid pandemic and has been getting advice from a very limited circle of advisers, with no one really telling him the reality of the situation?”

— Donilon on what worries him the most as the crisis drags on:

“The first concern, obviously, is that Putin, in terms of his decision-making, is a very isolated leader. I even saw in my dealing[s] with him during the Obama administration increasing isolation and an increasing dismissal of his aides. … He had been kind of moving in that direction and towards kind of an isolated czar-like existence. … I think that’s become exacerbated during the course of Covid, where the advisers that he’s talking to are small in number and all come basically the same kind of KGB, FSB kind of background that will reinforce a lot of the grievance and paranoia that he has. I also think you’re in a situation where it doesn’t really — in those circumstances, it doesn’t pay to be the truth teller. I don’t think he really regards any of his advisers as having anywhere near the strategic sense that he has. …You worry [about] someone who is that isolated, operates the way that he operates.” You can listen to both interviews here

Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

BIDEN’S FRIDAY:

— 10 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.

— 12:25 p.m.: Biden will make an announcement billed as “delivering on his Made in America commitments.”

— 2:30 p.m.: Biden will have a bilateral meeting with Finnish President SAULI NIINISTÖ in the Oval Office.

— 5:35 p.m.: Biden will leave the White House for New Castle, Del., arriving at 6:40 p.m.

VP KAMALA HARRIS’ FRIDAY — The VP will have a bilateral meeting with Bahraini Crown Prince/PM SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA at 1:10 p.m.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 1:15 p.m.

THE SENATE is in. THE HOUSE is out.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PLAYBOOK READS

ALL POLITICS

SCOTT FIRES BACK AT MCCONNELL — Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) penned a defiant op-ed in the WSJ on Thursday evening defending his move to release a high-profile policy platform against Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’s wishes — including the proposal to make low-income people pay federal income taxes. “If we have no bigger plan than to be a speed bump on the road to socialism, we don’t deserve to govern,” he wrote.

Speaking of headaches for McConnell …

TRUMP WARMS TO GREITENS — Missouri GOP Senate candidate ERIC GREITENS has been rising in former President DONALD TRUMP’s estimation, and that’s got party leaders worrying, Alex Isenstadt writes.

“Greitens has staunchly aligned himself with the former president, become a favorite of the pro-Trump media universe, and distinguished himself as one of the few Republican Senate candidates willing to speak out against McConnell. Now, Trump, who in the past has privately criticized the former governor over the scandal that led to his downfall, is telling people he’s open to endorsing Greitens — despite fears among other powerful Republicans that the Missouri Republican is the only GOP candidate who could potentially lose the seat in November.”

A DYING BREED — Democrats’ brand has become so toxic in rural America that the thousands of Biden voters in any given Trump county “feel somehow as if they’re under siege,” Chris Cadelago reports in a big POLITICO Magazine feature this morning from DuBois, Pa. The party “can’t afford to disengage,” he writes, even with voters who sometimes refuse to listen. “There’s evidence, though, that Democratic leadership isn’t any better at communicating right now than its traumatized voters, who are more likely to retreat into safe bubbles than evangelize for a president with an approval rating stuck in the low 40-percent range.”

DEMS’ FAVORITE REPUBLICANS — Outside Democratic operatives want to make far-right Reps. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.) and MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) the faces of the opposition in this year's midterms, NYT’s Jonathan Weisman reports.

THE WHITE HOUSE

PAGING ROSA DELAURO — The White House publicized an online widget to help low-income people collect their child tax credit payments. But now, out of concerns that the wrong people will use it during an overloaded tax filing season at the IRS, the administration is putting the tool on hold until after April 18, Brian Faler reports this morning. Some advocates worry the about-face “will mean some will face long waits for assistance or miss out on the payments altogether.”

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — WaPo’s Seung Min Kim rounds up the early Republican/conservative arguments emerging against Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON’s Supreme Court nomination. The main narratives: (1) calling her a radically liberal pick, (2) warning that her public defender years would make her soft on crime, (3) fingering the “dark money” groups that support her nomination and (4) pressing her on committing not to expand the high court.

WAR IN UKRAINE

LATEST ON THE GROUND …

— Russian forces continued to blast Ukrainian cities Thursday and made particular advances in the south of the country, where they’re seeking to choke Ukraine’s Black Sea coastal access. The port city Mariupol came under siege. Putin gave no indication of backing down, saying Thursday that his war was going according to plan.

— “The Ukrainian Navy purposely sank the flagship of its Black Sea fleet on Thursday to prevent the warship from being seized by the Russian military,” reports the NYT.

— France warned that after his call with Putin, President EMMANUEL MACRON was convinced the Russian leader seeks to take over all of Ukraine, per WaPo.

— But Russian troops appeared to have advanced more slowly in the 40-mile-long convoy headed for Kyiv, amid fierce Ukrainian resistance. NYT map tracking the invasion

— The second round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations yielded no agreement on a cease-fire, but the two sides did agree Thursday on creating “humanitarian corridors” so civilians can evacuate from the hardest-hit areas. More from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

More developments: The last holdouts of an independent press in Russia collapsed Thursday … Zelenskyy has reportedly survived three assassination attempts.

LATEST IN THE WEST …

— Some Democrats see Biden’s handling of this international crisis as a solid political opportunity to demonstrate leadership and highlight threats to democracy. Others are urging him to get more aggressive on drawing a contrast with the GOP, Chris Cadelago and Laura Barrón-López report in a look at the party’s Ukraine messaging. Biden’s been reluctant to hammer Republicans on the crisis, even as they’ve been more than happy to torch him. The White House wants to limit partisanship in foreign policy, and it’s cautious about the highly fluid situation.

Quite the line: “‘We’re Zelenskyy Democrats. And they’re Putin Republicans’ would be my bumper sticker,” DCCC Chair SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-N.Y.) said.

— Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) called for the assassination of Putin on Thursday night: "Is there a BRUTUS in Russia? Is there a more successful COLONEL STAUFFENBERG in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.”

— The White House doesn’t support the bipartisan congressional effort to ban Russian oil imports. “We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy,” said White House press secretary JEN PSAKI, “and that would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people.”

— Even so, the bill is gaining momentum, Josh Siegel reports, and there’s “a potential standoff” looming between Biden and Congress on the issue. Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) called Psaki’s stance “irresponsible.”

Speaking of gas prices: “We are raising our forecast for the yearly national average to $3.99/gal from $3.41/gal, with the average household to spend $2,745 on gasoline, up from $1,977 in 2021,” PATRICK DE HAAN, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, tweeted Thursday.

— DHS gave Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians in the U.S. on Thursday for the next 18 months. That will allow about 75,000 people to stay without fear of deportation while the war back home is ongoing. More from CBS

— Treasury on Thursday announced a new round of sanctions aimed at Russian oligarchs and nearly a dozen outlets the administration said were spreading FSB-directed disinformation. More from Reuters The announcement

— But some administration officials are worried that the crush of sanctions could backfire, as U.S. intelligence sends worrisome signals about Putin’s mental state and his tendencies to double down and lash out when trapped, NYT’s David Sanger, Eric Schmitt and Julian Barnes report. Still, the administration isn’t planning to dial it back.

— RT America, the Russian state media’s outlet in the U.S., is essentially shutting down, CNN’s Oliver Darcy scooped. The network told its staff Thursday that most of them would be permanently laid off.

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

TOP-ED — “When I Confronted Trump About Election Fraud,” by former A.G. BILL BARR in the WSJ, excerpted from his new book.

THE LATEST COMMITTEE TARGET — The House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE on Thursday after she backed out of a scheduled interview last week and announced she wouldn’t cooperate. More from ProPublica

THE PANDEMIC

THE POLITICS OF COVID — The Senate voted 48-47 on Thursday to end the national public health emergency for the coronavirus. (The resolution isn’t going anywhere: House Dems won’t let it advance, and Biden would veto it anyway.) More from The Hill

TRUMP CARDS

THE INVESTIGATIONS — The Trump family and New York A.G. TISH JAMES’ office have reached an agreement on their depositions in the civil investigation into the Trump Organization, NBC’s Tom Winter reports. The depositions had been scheduled for Thursday at the latest, but the agreement holds off on them until an expedited appeal can be heard in court.

TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Leigh Ann Caldwell, Weijia Jiang, Nick Schifrin and Jeff Zeleny.

SUNDAY SO FAR …

FOX “Fox News Sunday,” guest-anchored by Shannon Bream: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Panel: Katie Pavlich, Jonathan Swan, Catherine Lucey and Mo Elleithee.

Gray TV “Full Court Press”: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) … Nina Khrushcheva.

ABC “This Week”: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Panel: Jonathan Karl, Donna Brazile, Chris Christie and Julie Pace.

CBS “Face the Nation”: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) … Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova … IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

CNN “Inside Politics”: Panel: Tarini Parti, Kaitlan Collins, Alexander Burns, Greg Ip and Beth Sanner.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Panel: Eddie Glaude Jr., Stephen Hayes, Hallie Jackson and Robin Wright.

PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED: Jared Kushner and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) having breakfast together Thursday at the Four Seasons at the Surf Club near Miami, dining on the Lido Restaurant terrace.

Jamarcus Purley, a former aide to Dianne Feinstein, talks about the time he took mushrooms and hung out in Feinstein’s personal office smoking a joint and blasting DeBarge’s “I Like It.” He also made a video.

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s then-11-year-old daughter Leila asked Barack Obama to put her mom on the Supreme Court in 2016.

Joe Biden said of Lindsey Graham on Thursday, “Lindsey used to be a really close friend. I’m gonna work on it again.”

Joe Manchin walked across Constitution Avenue against a red light to get away from Arthur Delaney.

ON THE ROAD — The Republican Main Street Partnership is bringing several congressional Republicans to Del Rio, Texas, today for a fact-finding border tour led by Rep. Tony Gonzales (Texas). Also on the trip: Reps. Cliff Bentz (Ore.), Ken Calvert (Calif.), John Curtis (Utah), Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (Fla.), Bill Huizenga (Mich.), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.), Young Kim (Calif.), Peter Meijer (Mich.), Carol Miller (W.Va.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), John Rutherford (Fla.) and David Valadao (Calif.).

OUT AND ABOUT — The Meridian International Center hosted a “Welcome to Washington” reception Thursday night for newly arrived foreign ambassadors. SPOTTED: Chief of Protocol Rufus Gifford, Stuart and Gwen Holliday, Ed and Marie Royce, Megan Beyer, Reta Jo Lewis, Jennifer Hall Godfrey, Amanda Mansour, Asel Roberts, Jonathan Spalter, Roxanne Roberts, Maryland Secretary of State John Wobensmith, Steve Clemons, Suzanne Kianpour, Raquel Krähenbühl, Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, Kathleen Doherty, Vinai Thummalapally and the ambassadors of Algeria, Armenia, Italy, Liechtenstein and Peru.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Michael Gruber is joining the Household & Commercial Products Association’s executive leadership team as SVP of government relations and public policy. He previously was VP of public policy at the Consumer Brands Association, and is a Hill alum.

MEDIA MOVE — Katty Kay is returning to the BBC as U.S. special correspondent, per Axios’ Sara Fischer. She left for (and then resigned from) Ozy Media last year.

STAFFING UP — The Interior Department announced a slate of new appointees: David Baler as advance representative, Laura Bloomer as adviser in the Office of the Solicitor, Michael Brain as deputy commissioner at the Bureau of Reclamation, Katherine Pustay Currie as deputy infrastructure coordinator, Gary Gold as deputy assistant secretary for water and science, Catherine Ming as scheduler and Joan Mooney as principal deputy assistant secretary for policy, management and budget.

TRANSITIONS — Scott Farnin will be legal counsel at Better Markets. He previously was financial services counsel for Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio). … Sebastian Roa is now comms director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He previously was digital director for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. … Jayce Genco is now comms director for Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.). He most recently was comms director for the Democratic Party of Virginia, and is a Biden campaign alum. …

Shipt is adding Chasseny Lewis as director of federal affairs and Justin Hyer as head of the state and local government affairs for the Western region. Lewis most recently was chief of staff for Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). Hyer previously was SVP of government relations for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. … Lot Sixteen has added Geof Koss and Alissa Ohl Koay as VPs, Ayla O’Scannell Solorio as a director, and Maggie Delaney, KateChuirazzi and Olivia Medina as associates.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Jeffrey Rapp, senior adviser in the office of financial markets at Treasury and a Biden and Obama White House alum, and Amanda Rapp, legal counsel at Palantir and an Obama alum, welcomed Holland Judith Rapp last Friday. Instapic ... Another pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) … Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) … Doug HoelscherShirley Henry … UNICEF’s Cathy RussellMaria RecioJesse Solis … NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard Emily Bazelon … POLITICO’s Mark McQuillan, Amanda Bertholf and Seth Washington Allison Putala … CNN’s Kate Bennett Stephanie Gidigbi Jenkins Abby Jagoda … Fenton’s Valerie Jean-CharlesSean SimonsJennifer Loraine Larkin Parker of Rep. Haley Stevens’ (D-Mich.) office … Scott CunninghamGary WhidbySimone Ward … former Energy Secretary Rick Perry Callista Gingrich

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Global energy crisis spurs revival of nuclear power in Asia

Governments in Japan and South Korea are removing anti-nuclear policies, while China and India are looking to build more reactors to avoid future supply shortages and curb emissions

August 27, 2022 / 06:17 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Asia is giving the once-shunned nuclear power industry a second lease on life, thanks to the global energy crisis.

Governments in Japan and South Korea are removing anti-nuclear policies, while China and India are looking to build more reactors to avoid future supply shortages and curb emissions. Even developing nations across Southeast Asia are exploring atomic technology.

The embracing of nuclear energy comes after the prices of natural gas and coal, the two fossil fuels used to generate most of Asia’s power, shot to records this year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended markets. As the world shifts away from Russia, a major fuel exporter, supply will remain tight and prices high well into the future.

That’s making clean and reliable nuclear power very attractive for policymakers and utilities eager to rein in inflation, achieve green goals and curb dependence on overseas energy suppliers.

“Old resistances are crumbling surprisingly fast,” said David Hess, a policy analyst at the World Nuclear Association. “Existing nuclear plants produce some of the cheapest electricity. The skyrocketing natural gas price has made these obvious economic advantages all the more obvious.”

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It’s a dramatic turnaround for the nuclear industry, which spent the last few decades beset by cost overruns, competition from cheaper fossil fuels and stricter regulations. Delays to major nuclear projects resulted in the bankruptcy of industry pioneer Westinghouse Electric.

While the nuclear power comeback is global, gaining proponents from the UK to Egypt, the shift is perhaps most surprising in Asia, considering it had the closest view of the catastrophe that struck Japan more than a decade ago.

The future of nuclear was still looking bright until March 2011, when a massive tsunami hit the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in Japan, resulting in the worst meltdown in decades. The incident convinced some governments that nuclear power’s risks far outweighed its benefits, with Germany and Taiwan deciding to set deadlines to close down their fleets of plants. Mammoth costs of building new facilities, and frequent delays, also served as deterrents.

Now, as power bills surge and nations deal with fossil fuel-induced inflation, governments are again looking to nuclear. It requires little uranium to operate, which is currently abundant, and it produces power around the clock, unlike intermittent renewable energy projects such as wind and solar.

Also boosting the industry are advances in producing smaller and cheaper nuclear technology, including small modular reactors -- or SMRs -- which may become attractive alternatives as tools to tackle climate change.

“Fear-based objections that grew from Fukushima have faded, as the extent of that accident was tempered by a decade of scientific research, and Asian countries face more acute – and deadly – threats from energy shortages,” said Brandon Munro, chief executive officer of Bannerman Energy Ltd., an Australian-listed uranium development company.

That explains why Japan, which depends on imported fuel to produce most of its electricity, said this week that it will explore development and construction of next-generation reactors, while also pushing for the restart of more idled nuclear reactors. It’s a complete turnaround for Japan, which for the last decade said it wouldn’t build new units or replace old one.

Can Japan Learn to Love Nuclear Power Again?: Gearoid Reidy

“Russia’s invasion changed the global energy situation,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday.  “Nuclear power and renewables are essential to proceed with a green transformation.”

Japan’s public is even warming up to nuclear. Some 58% of residents favored restarting nuclear power in a Yomiuri poll conducted earlier this month, representing the first time support has outweighed opposition since the newspaper began the survey in 2017.

A similar shift is taking place in South Korea. Voters this year elected a pro-nuclear president who wants atomic energy to account for 30% of total energy generation, reversing the previous government’s plan to ditch reactors. He also vowed to make the nation a major exporter of nuclear equipment and technology, and integrate atomic power and renewable energy to push for carbon neutrality.

China, which is currently grappling with a historic heat wave that’s resulted in power shortages in parts of the country, said this week that it will accelerate nuclear power and hydro projects.

The nation is in the midst of the largest build-out of reactors in the nuclear industry’s history to meet its insatiable energy demand, while also curbing dependence on dirty coal-fired power plants. China currently has nearly 24 gigawatts worth of nuclear power capacity under construction, and another 34 gigawatts planned, according to WNA data. If all of that comes to fruition, China will become the world’s top nuclear power producer.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expansion into atomic energy is also gaining momentum as India’s largest power producer looks to develop two massive nuclear power projects. The country currently generates about 70% of its electricity using coal and around 3% from nuclear, but Modi is aiming to more than triple its nuclear fleet over the next decade.

Even cash-strapped nations across Southeast Asia are looking at nuclear power. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Congress last month that he will explore nuclear plants to bring down power costs and boost energy sufficiency. Indonesia plans to start its first nuclear plant in 2045, part of an ambitious goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

The island state of Singapore said earlier this year that next-generation nuclear or geothermal technology could make up 10% of its energy mix by 2050. While the details are hazy, that’s a shift from a decade ago when the country concluded that conventional reactors weren’t suitable.

Not all governments in Asia are convinced. Taiwan hasn’t changed its position to phase out nuclear power. It plans to shut its reactors at the end of their 40-year lifetimes through 2025, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said earlier this week, according to the Taipei Times.

And Europe has shown that even having an enormous fleet of reactors doesn’t always ensure power supply. France, one of the world’s top nuclear power producers, is grappling with record-high electricity prices due in part to a litany of reactor outages.

Meanwhile, next-generation projects such as SMRs are still years or even decades away, and don’t present an immediate fix to the current energy crunch. But governments and companies are moving to endorse the technology now to avoid the crises of tomorrow.

South Korean conglomerate SK Group said this month it will invest $250 million in Bill Gates-backed TerraPower LLC. In March, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation invested $110 million in Nuscale Power, which is developing SMRs.

“Each country faces its own individual challenges in implementing its nuclear program,” said WNA’s Hess. “But recent events have seen these obstacles disappear or shrink considerably.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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first published: Aug 27, 2022 06:17 am
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**Environmental Safety**: Eliminating nuclear power reduces the risk of nuclear accidents and long-term radioactive waste management issues.

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Content: Europe has been rewiring itself in impressive ways in the four months since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine

The coming weeks will show whether that work of building a more resolute European Union for a future of new geopolitical challenges will continue—or, instead, if the rewiring will short-circuit before the job is done in the face of rising economic headwinds and Putin’s grinding war of attrition.

Thus far, the European Union (EU) has remained unified with the United States and others behind an unprecedented set of sanctions on Russia. Further, it has begun to strengthen its hard power through increased defense spending, and it has moved swiftly to reduce its shameful energy dependence on Moscow. Most recently the Group of Seven (G7) appears poised to announce an import ban on Russian gold.

In ways Putin never envisioned when he hatched his war, the EU has committed itself to ensuring Ukraine’s future as a democratic, independent, and European country through billions of euros of economic supportunprecedented arms deliveries, and now an offer of membership candidacy to Ukraine and Moldova.

As NATO prepares to open its summit in Madrid this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced Moscow’s growing concern about EU unity of purpose alongside the alliance. He said the EU and NATO were building a coalition to engage in a war with Moscow that he compared to “Hitler during World War II.” As laughable as Lavrov sounds to reasonable ears—this era’s tyrannical dictator sits in Moscow and not Berlin—it underscores Putin’s worries about Western common cause and his warped view of history.

Yet as impressive as the EU rewiring project has been thus far, it’s likely to short-circuit in the months ahead unless the political conviction grows even stronger around this historic moment. That will demand faster implementation of new defense and energy policies—and greater support for Ukraine.

As Putin gains ground in Ukraine, with new strikes on Kyiv today almost certainly timed to coincide with the G7 meeting in Germany, it will take all the political will European leaders can muster. They will face greater public pressures to end the war with benchmark gas prices climbing an additional 15 percent in the last week amidst the double shocks of Russian cuts and a fire at Freeport LNG in Texas, with inflation reaching 8.1 percent in the euro area in May, and with economic recession dangers rising rapidly, given the threat of Russian gas cutoffs this winter.

On another front, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde summoned her colleagues to an emergency session last week in Frankfurt that was designed to generate solidarity around steps to preempt any danger of a new Eurozone debt crisis reaching Italy from the dual shocks of rising inflation and slowing growth.

Putin is counting on the usual fatigue and political divisions that set in among Western democracies when they must weigh growing domestic concerns against international dangers. He’s seen enough to encourage him, including newly re-elected Emmanuel Macron’s failure to win a majority in the National Assembly, the first time in thirty years that’s been denied the French president.

And for all the impressive arms shipments and economic support the Biden administration has delivered Ukraine, the weaponry firing range of some fifty miles remains insufficient to stop the Russian carpet-bombing, for fear of expanding the war.

Beyond that, Putin knows US midterm elections are likely to weaken Biden further amid domestic disputes over the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe v. Wade abortion protections and the country’s continuing disputes over gun laws. Even as Putin’s war grows uglier, Americans are seeing less of it on their TV screens.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also looking weaker than in his first days in office, as he hosts the G7 leaders in the Bavarian Alps this weekend.

Scholtz faced such a storm of criticism that he’s been dragging his feet on heavy weapons deliveries to Ukraine that his Defense Ministry was compelled to publish a full list of completed and planned deliveries, including seven self-propelled Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers that at long last have arrived in Ukraine.

It’s worth remembering that Europe’s greatest moments of forward progress typically come at times of crisis, as has been the case again following Putin’s war in Ukraine. It’s at such times that member states better manage their divisions and work more effectively around the EU’s mind-bending bureaucracy.

The problem is that the current European divide that looks hardest to fix is a fundamental disagreement over how important a Ukrainian victory is and what it would take to bring it about.

The closer you live to Russia as an EU citizen, the more you argue, as I did in this space on June 5, that Putin doesn’t need the diplomatic off-ramp that Macron is offering but rather the dead-end that can only be brought by tougher sanctions and a more effective Ukrainian counter-offensive backed by longer-range weapons.

Russia’s closest neighbors know that a bad peace in which Ukraine gives up new territory will only provide a respite before Putin resumes his imperial efforts to take all of Ukraine and ultimately other former Soviet areas.

In Western Europe, the desire is greater for a peace that would end the war now, even if the outcome leaves Putin in power and, as Macron has said, avoids humiliating him.

“Despite the celebratory rhetoric in Brussels about the European Union’s surprisingly robust response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…” writes Eoin Drea this week in Foreign Policy, “the war has not united the bloc in any unprecedented or transformative way. In fact, it’s having exactly the opposite effect: Beneath the soaring vista of Ukraine as a catalyst for a more muscular and geopolitically effective EU like deep divisions, shifting allegiances, and a much more complex reality.”

Counterbalancing that gloom, Macron, Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis visited Kyiv on June 16 to hammer home their support for Ukrainian security and European ambitions.

Shortly after they returned, the European Parliament voted with 529 votes to 45 against and 14 abstentions to adopt a resolution calling on the heads of state or government to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, which they have now done.

That symbolism must now be complemented by even greater substance. The rewiring of the EU has only just begun to strengthen its defenses, diversify its energy sources, tighten its transatlantic links, and ensure Ukraine’s survival as a sovereign, free European state.

To stay the course, European leaders and citizens must understand what they are doing isn’t just for Ukraine but even more for themselves. The lessons from two devastating World Wars and a Cold War are that staying unified is a prerequisite for victory and that appeasing despots is always self-defeating.

This article originally appeared on CNBC.com

Frederick Kempe is president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council. You can follow him on Twitter @FredKempe.

THE WEEK’S TOP READS

#1 How Far Do Putin’s Imperial Ambitions Go?
Yaroslav Trofimov | WALL STREET JOURNAL

In this chilling analysis, Yaroslav Trofimov lays out in frightening detail just how far Putin’s imperial ambitions might take him.

Trofimov opens with a bizarre and telling scene, in which Putin, long before his Ukraine invasion, makes a spectacle out of contradicting a nine-year-old on the question of where Russia’s borders end.

“’At the Bering Strait with the United States,’ the nine-year-old boy ventured hesitantly.  Putin, who chairs the board of the Russian Geographic Society, contradicted the boy to triumphant applause ‘The borders of Russia,’ he pronounced, ‘never end.'”

“Earlier this month,” writes Trofimov, “Putin said that he views Ukraine as just the first step, with many other territories potential targets.” Just this month in St. Petersburg, while honoring the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great, he said that when Peter conquered Sweden “he was merely returning what is ours, and strengthening it.” Read more →

#2 What If Russia Uses Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine?
Eric Schlosser | THE ATLANTIC

As Putin’s war in Ukraine bogs down into a battle of attrition, the danger that Vladimir Putin will deploy battlefield nuclear weapons persists. In this richly reported piece, Eric Schlosser interviews nuclear weapons exports to explore what could happen—and how the United States could respond.

“The risk of nuclear war,” Schlosser warns, “is greater today than at any other time since the Cuban missile crisis. And the decisions that would have to be made after a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine are unprecedented. In 1945, when the United States destroyed two Japanese cities with atomic bombs, it was the world’s sole nuclear power. Nine countries now possess nuclear weapons, others may soon obtain them, and the potential for things going terribly wrong has vastly increased.” Read more →

#3 What Makes a Power Great
Michael J. Mazarr | FOREIGN AFFAIRS

In this smart, in-depth analysis, Michael Mazarr draws from a RAND corporation study on what makes great powers—and how they can fall.

Over the course of fifteen months, Mazarr led a RAND Corporation study for the US Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment, supported by analysis from outside historians. The study isolated a number of national characteristics that throughout history have underpinned national competitive success—”including a strong national ambition, a culture of learning and adaptation, and significant diversity and pluralism.”

“These domestic strengths are the building blocks of international power. But,” Mazarr warns, “to enable a country to succeed, they must reinforce and support one another. And they must not fall out of balance. Too much national ambition, for instance, can lead to overreach, imperiling the country that overcommits itself. But countries with too little ambition, diversity, or willingness to learn and adapt risk starting a negative cycle that can spiral into national decline.”

Read this study to learn why it is that the United States, if it is to prevail in the years ahead in contests with China and Russia, “will have to do more than just outspend its rivals on defense or advanced military technologies. It will have to nurture the qualities that make great powers dynamic, innovative, and adaptive. Read more →

#4 After a Pivotal Period in Ukraine, US Officials Predict the War’s Path
Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes| NEW YORK TIMES

Based on analyses by a number of US defense officials, including Atlantic Council military fellows, this New York Times article provides a useful examination of how the US defense establishment expects the war in Ukraine to unfold.

Now that four to six weeks have passed since Russia shifted its main focus to eastern Ukraine, Cooper, Schmitt, and Barnes write, “officials say the picture is increasingly clear: Russia is likely to end up with more territory, they said, but neither side will gain full control of the region as a depleted Russian military faces an opponent armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons.”

In this situation, they add, “other analysts predict a back and forth that could stretch for months or even years. ‘This is likely to keep going, with each side trading territory on the margins,’ [director of Russian studies at CNA Michael] Kofman said. ‘It’s going to be a dynamic situation. There are unlikely to be significant collapses or major surrenders.’”Read more →

#5 A Ukrainian Refugee’s Fight To Save The Family She Left Behind
Ed Caesar | NEW YORKER

This week’s must-read is Ed Caesar’s riveting, heartbreaking New Yorker piece about a Ukrainian family separated by the war and navigating life as refugees from Putin’s war.

Follow Inna Blahonravina and her daughters Sasha and Oliviia as they depart Ukraine in midst of Russian air-raids on Kiev, leaving Inna’s husband Maksym behind. It is a chronicle of resilience and separation, fear, and hope, and it shows a portion of the vast human cost of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“Once,” Caesar writes, “Oliviia looked over Inna’s shoulder as she read on her phone about an attack on Kyiv. The report was accompanied by an image of a building on fire, with rescuers at the scene. Oliviia asked who the people in the photograph were—whether they were Russian or Ukrainian, and if one of them was Vladimir Putin. Then she said, ‘Mommy, I’m so glad we’re not killed.’ Every day, the kids had video calls with their father. Maksym tried to keep the conversations lighthearted, but even banal topics could be laced with sadness.

“‘Do you miss the cats?’” he’d ask.” Read more →

Atlantic Council top reads

Image: Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Olaf Scholz, President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic Mario Draghi and President of Romania Klaus Iohannis (L to R) are pictured during the official welcome ceremony outside the Mariinskyi Palace, Kyiv, capital of Ukraine.

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Content: Can Africa replace Russian gas and fill Europe ’ s needs? | Politics and economics | In-depth analysis with a broader perspective than DW | DW | 26.03.2022
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Can Africa replace Russian gas and meet Europe ’ s needs?
As the fighting in Ukraine intensifies, the European Union intends to dispense with Russian gas.
In his search for alternative sources, Africa is being talked about.
But experts say it is not easy despite the continent ’ s vast oil and gas reserves.
Despite Africa ’ s vast oil and gas reserves, it is not easy for it to increase its production and meet Europe ’ s needs.
EU countries are to stop importing oil and gas from Russia in response to its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In order to avoid harming EU economies, the bloc is considering moving forward with medium- and long-term solutions to replace 380 million cubic meters per day of Russian gas, which amounts to 140 billion cubic meters, or 45 percent of the EU ’ s total annual gas consumption.
In an effort to meet short-term energy needs, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck took a different path, leading leading German energy companies to conclude agreements with the UAE during his visit there, while the price of Brent crude, used as a key benchmark for oil prices around the world, continued to rise.
watch the video 00: 59
Germany reaches deal with Qatar to reduce dependence on Russian gas
Are you helping Africa?
With its abundant oil and gas reserves, the African continent may be an alternative to replacing Russian gas, as in 2017 Africa was reported to have proven gas reserves of 148.6 trillion cubic meters, representing more than 7 percent of the world ’ s gas reserves.
In 2019, the EU imported about 108 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Africa, mainly from Nigeria, which supplied the bloc with more than 12 billion cubic meters.
Khadi Kamara, an official with the German-African Business Federation, said: “African producers have more reserves than they need in domestic markets, so they want to increase exports. ”
Nigeria ranked first in Africa in 2019 in the volume of crude oil exports from the continent at a rate of more than 2 million barrels per day of oil on the global market.
The same year, Africa ’ s total oil and gas production exceeded more than 327.3 million metric tons of oil and the continent ’ s share of global oil exports was nearly 9 percent as of 2020.
An energy broker in Nigeria, who asked not to be identified and called himself Shinido Olayinka, said that in order for African countries to fill the gap, “they have to provide a surplus of at least 7.4 million barrels per day. ”
“These countries don ’ t have the capacity to do it, they ’ re not even close to achieving it! ”
Limited production capacity
“Angola and Nigeria, the two largest oil producers in Africa, have not been able to meet their commitments under OPEC.
How can we save a lot of oil? ”
Nigeria only managed to pump 94 percent of its 1.7 million bpd quota, while Angola pumped only 78 percent of its 1.4 million bpd quota, he said.
"If major African producers cannot meet their quotas, there will be no way they can fill the gap that Russia may cause in the short term," he said.
But it is not just the inability of African oil producers to meet their commitments, it goes beyond that: “These countries are finding it difficult to attract new investments in the oil production sector.
So it may not be able to contribute to filling the (gas and oil) gap in the medium term, ” Olanka noted.
conflict in Ukraine.
Where does Africa stand?
With regard to the war in Ukraine, African countries have diverged on the Russian invasion, which has sent gas and oil prices soaring to record highs.
This was demonstrated during the March 2 vote of the UN General Assembly on a resolution condemning Russian military operations and demanding the immediate, unconditional and comprehensive withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Although 28 of the 54 African countries voted in favor of the resolution, other African countries abstained or did not participate in the session except Eritrea, which sided with Russia and voted against the resolution along with Syria and North Korea.
This has revealed the emergence of political differences among the African Union countries that prevent the continent from speaking with one voice at the United Nations.
A German-African business group asked Germany ’ s economy minister last week to reach out to his African counterparts to discuss the possibility of increasing oil and gas supplies from the continent.
Weak infrastructure
Experts believe that the reluctance of African countries to commit to pumping more oil and gas may be due to weak oil and energy infrastructure, especially gas and oil pipelines to Europe.
According to statistics from the South African branch of auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the weak infrastructure crisis in the oil sector led to a decline in oil production on the continent by 19 percent in 2019 from the previous year, representing 7.8 percent of global output.
Gas production in Africa also saw a slight decline of 5 percent over the same period.
Weak energy infrastructure makes increasing Africa ’ s oil production difficult
“Oil companies can have much better financial terms and an easier operating environment if they invest in new oil production lines from outside Africa, ” Olayenka said.
He stressed that African oil-producing countries must take measures to attract foreign investment in this vital sector.
“In order for Nigeria, Angola and other African oil-producing countries to attract investment, they must lure oil companies with financial incentives to inject investment while facilitating business processes, ” he said.
Attracting Investments
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Algeria, Africa ’ s largest gas exporter to the European Union, has shown a willingness to increase exports of natural gas and liquefied gas.
Currently, there are four direct pipelines to transport gas from Africa to Europe, but all are in North African countries.
The challenge is to build new infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa to connect it to the North African pipeline.
Oil and energy expert Olyanka says that in order to find short-term solutions, African countries need to adjust their financial systems to allow oil companies to make financial gains from their investments in the continent.
Not only that, Olayenka points out, but African countries must eradicate corruption, crude oil theft and bureaucracy.
Abu Bakr Ghalwa / UNV

**Public Acceptance**: The phase-out aligns with strong public opposition to nuclear energy, particularly after Fukushima.

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Japan's government wants to bring more reactors back online in a policy reversalImage: Kyodo News/imago images
PoliticsJapan

Japan plans reversal of post-Fukushima nuclear phase-out

46 minutes ago

The global energy crisis has caused Japan to turn away from a temporary nuclear phase-out and promote atomic energy. The government wants old reactors to be kept operating and new ones built to replace them over time.

https://p.dw.com/p/4LJX2

The Japanese government on Thursday passed a directive promoting nuclear energy to maintain its power supply while reducing CO2 emissions.

The new policy is a major turnaround after the country closed its nuclear facilities in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

What does the new directive foresee?

Under the directive, prompted by the global fuel crisis, existing nuclear reactors in Japan would see their lifespan extended beyond the previous limit of 60 years and next-generation reactors would be built to replace the old ones in the long term.

After the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami, Japan shut down all its reactors and introduced new safety standards.

Authorities also put in place a limit of 40 years on the operating life of nuclear power plants, with an additional 20 years possible if strict safety measures were observed.

Since then, operators of 27 plants have applied for permission to restart. Seventeen reactors have fulfilled the safety requirements, with only 10 of these already reconnected to the grid in line with  Japan's earlier plan to phase out nuclear energy by 2030.

Kishida: 'Full use' of nuclear energy needed

Under the new policy, the country is to restart as many reactors as possible, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently saying: "We have to make full use of nuclear energy."

Nuclear energy accounts for less than 7% of Japan's energy supply, but the government now wants to raise its share to 20-22% by the 2030 fiscal year.

The new policy reflects the country's twin goals of reducing its dependence on oil and gas imports and avoiding power shortages while achieving the climate goal of reducing CO2 emissions to zero by 2050.

tj/wd (dpa, AP)

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**Renewable Investment**: The move has accelerated investment in renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

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Content: 7 november 2021, Sunday, 16: 25
This is Charter 97!
Rubrics
The shooting of “Bayraktar ” hit the Kremlin ’ s plans
4
Positional war begins to be waged by high-tech means.
Do you think the guided bomb fired by our Bayraktar drone hit only the howitzer of Donbass militants?
Would it be too simple: Expensive modern iron destroyed the old but still dangerous scrap metal?
No, the shot of the Ukrainian-Turkish drone at the same time fell into the Kremlin ’ s plans to put pressure on Ukraine, remaining in a vile position as if a peacemaker.
And it is right that our demonstratively used the drone: if you do not snarl, they will move without noticing, like a mongrel in a parking lot.
And for sure, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will use drones more.
That is, the positional war begins to be waged by high-tech means.
And Russia, in order to comply, will have to transfer to the Donbass not only the army reserves of the times of the Union.
And with relatively new weapons, the militants will no longer cope, they will have to transfer Russian regulators.
And this will be so obvious that neither hypocritical Germany with France nor the OSCE, decorative enough that its representative office can paralyze a dozen stoned Donbass activists, will be able to ignore the aggression.
But European officials, together with Russian colleagues, have already calculated all the benefits from the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 and the supply of energy to Europe bypassing Ukraine.
But the shot of the Bayraktar, insignificant in purely military terms, is politically similar to thunder.
Because it makes Europeans decide who they are with.
As it turned out, hydrocarbons are not only the Kremlin ’ s energy weapon, they are also a means to clarify geopolitical vision.
Europeans who depend on the energy ration are forced to demonstrate that they are closer to a non-empire that ignores international law.
Because when howitzers are fired at Ukrainian positions, European concern does not arise, but when we respond...
But what is happening does not mean that we, with the help of the United States and Turkey, solving exclusively their tasks, have defeated or at least put in place Putin ’ s underempire.
No, the Kremlin will try to strangle us with an energy noose.
Already now there is a situation that money alone is not enough to confront the energy crisis.
Because Russia is ready to supply gas and thermal coal not just for a lot of money, but also for political concessions on the Donbas and Crimea.
At the same time, the loophole for the supply of energy coal from ORDLO to Ukraine through Russia has been closed.
Could our government have foreseen such a development?
I had to!
It was necessary to provide for alternative energy purchases.
And also a real, not fictitious, only on paper, reverse of the gas transportation system.
And for this, it was necessary to create an anti-crisis group in the Cabinet of Ministers in advance, in which those who understand the energy industry should be involved with serious powers.
And not those who say that in Bessarabka - the most expensive market in the country - you can buy meat for 20 hryvnia per kilogram.
It is possible that the Cabinet of Ministers will resort to fan blackouts, which Ukraine has forgotten since 1997.
And if it comes to that, then the rating of power will suffer for real.
Because without electricity, you will not scroll through an optimistic vidosik, you will not release a crowd of your bots to the Internet, you will not even declare anything resonant with a pleasant velvety baritone.
But, I remember, Maidan did without electricity and gas!
He kept on hating power and alternative solutions like bourgeois!
I mean, because of the difficulties with light and warmth, people will be outraged en masse.
And protest.
On the streets, where fires will be hotter than in cold houses.
If it comes to protests, how will the authorities of Vladimir Zelensky react?
She will try to act as hard as possible.
And such an algorithm tells her not only the successful dispersal of protesters in neighboring Belarus.
And the success of the current turbo vaccination.
If someone thinks that our government is seriously concerned about the health of Ukrainians, and that is why he is pushing vaccination so hard, then he is thinking in the wrong direction.
In fact, our Western partners believe that if a multi-million dollar Ukraine in the center of Europe remains unvaccinated, the epidemic will never stop.
Therefore, they give us vaccines for free, but they demand that Ukrainians be vaccinated quickly and universally.
Well, that's our power and zealous.
By the way, those who praise the Maidan, but are fighting with antivaxs, you will finally decide.
With a cross and underpants.
Because the exit to an unauthorized protest and the reluctance to inoculate on command are one-root phenomena arising from total distrust of the authorities.
Now, after the crowd rushed to vaccinations, in the leadership circles of the Servants began to seriously argue that it is impossible to be good with the people.
Nothing, they say, with the idols of the ceremony to breed.
It ’ s time to bring back the presidential republic.
Although Vladimir Zelensky now in fact not even presidential, but imperial powers.
Napoleon, whom he portrayed in the movie, would have chewed his triangle with envy.
As a result, the most likely scenario, as it seems to me: first there will be horrors with utility bills, and then interruptions with light and heat.
The people will begin to murmur and resent.
But attempts to protest will be severely suppressed by the security forces - after all, the lockdown is the same!
Despite all the vaccinations!
And even a pack of vaccination certificates will not be enough to go to the protest.
Which is dangerous to health.
The health of power, of course!
And somewhere here, quite suddenly and unexpectedly – Viktor Yanukovych can share his memories – people ’ s patience can burst.
After 2014, the security forces will not fight with the people.
And the constitutional reform with the strengthening of the powers of President Zelensky is unlikely to work as a safety valve to drain steam.
And with the change of power, even mild, in the form of early elections, as it were, under the control of the presidential office, a lot of shocking facts about the unseemly deeds of the Servants will be revealed.
The previous ones were smarter.
Careful.
And the "new faces" of the rod in search of digging, leaving behind not just a trace, but a tank track.
Therefore, not the very top, but many in the change of power can still sit down, thereby avoiding lynching.
But not everyone will be so lucky.
Again, this is one of the likely scenarios.
Not the best for the country.
The best would be to unite all professional and thinkers, regardless of the political situation, to prevent crisis scenarios.
Let me remind you that the Great October Revolution, as it was proclaimed earlier, or the October coup, as they say now, began with the shot of the cruiser Aurora.
Times are changing, and signaling devices are changing.
Let's see what the Bayraktar drone shot will do.
Alexander Kochetkov, Glavred
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An atom instead of a gas.
Europe is looking for an alternative to Russian fuel
Several EU countries demand to recognize nuclear energy "green" by the end of the year
Representatives of ten EU countries called for the development of nuclear energy amid rising gas prices.
They noted that this will reduce energy dependence on other states, primarily from Russia.
Nuclear power plants can be ordered in Moscow, but it is unlikely that the leading EU countries will go for it, experts say.
In addition, the construction of the nuclear power plant is a long and complex process that will not help the region in the near future.
The Prime Ministers, Ministers of Energy and Economy of France, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Croatia and the Czech Republic made a joint statement on the importance of nuclear energy development.
They believe it is necessary to recognize nuclear energy "green" before the end of the year - this can help to cope with the crisis in the European energy market.
“The increase in energy prices shows how important it is to reduce our energy dependence on foreign countries as soon as possible.
Tensions in the supply of energy will become more frequent.
We have no choice but to diversify our sources of supply, trying not to increase energy imports, ” the joint statement said.
At the same time, the parties believe that when using nuclear energy, there are no large emissions of carbon dioxide, which is important in the context of the fight against climate change.
“It is very important to consider all low-carbon energy production technologies equally, ” the report said.
There is no unity
Meanwhile, there is a split in Europe on this issue, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, an expert of the National Energy Security Fund, a senior researcher at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Gazeta.Ru.
Some European countries categorically do not accept nuclear energy.
For example, Germany (the last nuclear power plants are due to close in 2022) and Belgium.
Italy has completely abandoned the peaceful atom, closing all nuclear power plants.
Switzerland was also opposed, but there were reports that they were thinking about using it.
But there are also European countries that either already have nuclear power, or they want to get it.
These are, in particular, France (more than 70% in the energy balance), the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands.
Sweden also has nuclear power.
If the country has a large share of the energy balance is occupied by renewable energy sources, then they may not cover the necessary basic volume, Mitrahovich says.
Nuclear power is convenient for everyday consumption: the stations operate in a smooth cycle, that is, equally day and night, every day.
“When some European countries decided to abandon the atom, they created a huge problem for themselves.
Renewable sources are not reliable enough, and industrial batteries, "green" hydrogen is still unknown when they will be. "
According to Mitrahovich.
In nuclear energy, there are now prospects for those countries that have invested in it, in particular, Russia, he added.
Rosatom implements projects not only in our country, but also abroad.
European countries and the United States have lost a bit of competence in this area, as they focused on “green ” energy, said Mitrahovich.
For nuclear energy to develop, at the level of the European Union must recognize that it is carbon-free, said in an interview with Gazeta.Ru Director of the Energy Development Fund Sergei Pikin.
According to him, nuclear energy does not harm the climate, since there are no emissions from it.
As for safety, the modern reactors that are now being produced have the highest class in this indicator: they are not compared with projects such as Chernobyl or Fukushima, the expert says.
The main competitor countries that have technologies and are engaged in the construction of stations are now Russia, the United States, France, China.
However, no one will focus on nuclear energy, Pikin is sure.
In Europe, in particular, there is talk about at least preserving what is – this type of energy will not receive mass distribution.
In addition, in order for the situation to change in principle, the corresponding course of European policy must change.
Why the atom is not turned to Russia
European countries are unlikely to order “turnkey ” facilities from Russia or ask for a partial partnership in the construction of nuclear power plants, Vasily Koltashov, head of the Center for Political and Economic Research at the Institute of the New Society, believes.
The exception may be only some countries of Eastern Europe, for example, Hungary, which rely primarily on their economic interests, he added.
"However, so far such countries in Europe do not dominate," Koltashov said.
However, the policy of nuclear electrification will continue to adhere to France, he believes.
For Germany, according to Koltashov, this is now an open question, but, most likely, they will go the way of increasing supplies from Gazprom and increasing gas consumption.
At the same time, the expert noted that the construction of nuclear facilities is an “extremely complex matter ”, and to a large extent it is a“ political act ”.
“It is extremely difficult to build many stations, because it is a difficult technological process.
The same Rosatom has always had more construction agreements than facilities in operation.
And this is logical: you can not take and dramatically increase the production of nuclear power plants, ” said Koltashov.
What projects does Rosatom deal with
Rosatom ranks first in the world in terms of orders for the construction of nuclear power plants, according to the website of the state corporation.
It accounts for 17% of the global nuclear fuel market.
Now at different stages of preparation are 35 power units in 12 countries, including Turkey (Akkuyu NPP), Belarus (Belarusian NPP), India (Kudankulam NPP), Hungary (Paksh-2 NPP), Bangladesh (Ruppur NPP), China (Xudapu NPP, Tianwan NPP), Finland (Hanhikivi-1 NPP), Egypt (El Dabaa NPP).
Three new power units are being built in Russia (Kursk NPP-2, BREST-OD-300 projects).
At the same time, Rosatom recently faced problems in the world market.
In April 2021, he was excluded from the tender for the construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic, the cost of which was estimated at about €6 billion.
The reason for this event was the explosion at the Czech ammunition depot in 2014, in which the Czech authorities suspect Russian special services (Moscow categorically denies these accusations).
Prior to that, the Chinese corporation China General Nuclear Power refused to participate in the tender.
Rosatom ’ s competitors have their own difficulties, says Stanislav Mitrakhovich of the National Energy Security Fund.
For example, France is building facilities in its country, but their position in the world market is weak, although in the past it had projects in China.
He also noted that the nuclear project in Finland was delayed.
In Pyhäjoki, they plan to build the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant.
The project involves the construction of a power unit with a capacity of 1.2 GW using Russian technology.
The customer is the Finnish company Fennovoima Oy.
The construction permit was planned to be obtained in 2017, but now the terms are postponed to the first half of 2022.
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