Sunday, July 05, 2009

Iran update

Useful BBC review of the current Iran situation. It is all down now to internal politicking in Iran's elite. By no means all Iranian politicos accept that AhmadiNajad's election was fair. We shall see what emerges.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has given Israel the nod in case they need to use Saudi airspace in an attack on Iran's nuclear facility. Apparently the Syrians also would not be displeased if the Iranian nuclear weapons effort met with an accident.

Nuclear is more trouble than it is worth. Always remember that if every Iranian were to be given 1 square meter of photovoltaic panel, it would create as much energy as their civil nuclear power effort.

4 comments:

RobB said...

Isn't it hypocritical to attack the Iranian civil Huclear project (there is as far as I know no proof of a nuclear weapons program) when Israel and most of the nuclear powers have so far shown no inclination to reduce their arsenal with the US and the rest of the west seeming keen to promote nuclear power for themselves and their friends eg Egypt http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/19/2602744.htm .I totally agree with your earlier post making the point that we are not going to reduce the danger of nuclear arms proliferation without reducing and finally banning all nuclear facilities both civil and military( except maybe non military research and fusion .) Perhaps the most sensible way and peaceful way to deal with Israel's fear of possible Iranian development of nuclear weapons would be for the world to support a nuclear free Middle East already suggested by some Middle Eastern leaders. Rob

DocRichard said...

Hi Rob
I think hypocrisy is one of the mildest epithets we could apply to the situation. And attack by Israel on a perceived Iranian nuclear weapons facility would not only be hypocritical but also , violent, probably murderous, polluting, undiplomatic, destructive of progressive international relationships, and quite a lot of other things too which I have sadly failed to mention.

Nuclear free zones are definitely the way to go. It is not beyond the wit of man. It's not rocket science. All it needs is the political will.

Iran shows the problem with civil nuclear power - it has a fuzzy blurred margin with respect to nuclear weapons. Our local source of electrical energy "too cheap to meter", Hinkley Point NPS, was for many years run on a short burn to make it more valuable for weapons making.

Iran can supply its energy needs far more efficiently with solar energy. Concentrated Solar Power is a quantum leap for the renewable energy solution, especially for hot countries.

RobB said...

Yes I am very interested in CSP.Combined with a European and surrounding areas electricity high voltage DC grid to take advantage of all the available renewables seems so obviously the way to go I find it hard to understand the underwhelming support for it. I suppose it is for the same reasons as the underwhelming enthusiasm for well insulated buildings and combating climate change, there is not so much money in it for the corporations yet. I really like the idea of the solar dishes such as this http://uanews.org/node/19701 and this http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/articles/REF/ref0904_pg52_55.pdf as it would seem possible for individual and cooperative "sunfarmers" to make their livelihood from building and maintaining dishes to provide power to a euro-asian-african electric grid or for their local area.

DocRichard said...

Hi Rob
The great thing about solar dishes is that they could be made on an Intermediate Technology level out of aluminium kitchen foil on pottery dishes or plates, and a parabolic bamboo frame.

I conceived this in a trip to Mozambique in the 80s, as a better way of firing pottery than using wood.

CSP and the Supergrid are the final peices in the jigsaw. With them we can meet our energy needs without carbon and without nuclear.