El viaje del uranio español en los años sesenta: significados y materialidades de un objeto híbrido / The journey of Spanish uranium in the sixties meanings and materialities of a hybrid object

En 1966, 137 toneladas de mineral de uranio español llegaron al puerto de Nueva Orleans procedentes del puerto de Cádiz. En este artículo quiero utilizar este viaje que conectó agentes políticos, industriales y empresariales con capacidades y experiencias técnicas, para explorar el uranio como un objeto híbrido —físico, técnico y diplomático—. El uranio conectó los intereses de las autoridades franquistas con los de los científicos y empresarios de la industria eléctrica. Sirvió al régimen de Franco para formar investigadores en nuevos métodos y prácticas experimentales y también para popularizar las políticas e ideologías atómicas de Estados Unidos. Al tiempo que alimentó los reactores nucleares, el uranio generó nuevos espacios disciplinares, modificó paisajes y diseñó nuevas cartografías industriales y administrativas. Además de ser una pieza clave en la política exterior del régimen franquista —le sirvió al régimen español para alinearse con el pensamiento occidental imperante sobre los usos civiles de la energía nuclear—, internamente sirvió para abandonar los discursos autárquicos y reforzar el poder de los tecnócratas, que utilizaron la energía atómica para transformar la producción eléctrica española. Este viaje cambió la materialidad del mineral de uranio, su física y su química, y también sus significados. (AU)

In 1966, 137 tons of Spanish uranium ore arrived at the port of New Orleans from the port of Cádiz. In this paper, I want to use this trip, which involved political, industrial, and business agents as well as technical capabilities, to explore the uranium as a hybrid object - physical, technical and diplomatic. This material connected the interests of the Franco authorities, scientists, and businessmen from the electrical industry. It served the Franco regime in training researchers, in buying and importing technologies, methods and experimental practices, and in introducing ways to popularize atomic policies and ideologies from the United States. Uranium was a fuel that not only powered nuclear reactor but also fed new disciplinary spaces, modified landscapes, and sketched new industrial and administrative cartographies. Besides being a key piece of the Franco regime’s foreign policy —it was useful to the Spanish regime to align itself with prevailing Western thought on the civil uses of nuclear energy— it served internally to effectively abandon autarchic discourses and strengthen the power of the technocrats, who used atomic energy to transform Spanish electrical production. The materiality of uranium ore changed with travel and also its meanings. (AU)

Impact of affluence and fossil energy on China carbon emissions using STIRPAT model.

Using the extended STIRPAT model, this research examines the influence of various factors on China carbon emission from 1971 to 2014, including total nuclear and alternative energy, total fossil energy, GDP per capita, total population, total urban population, merchandise trade of GDP, and services value added of GDP. Ridge regression was employed to perform the study. The research results show the positivity and significance of all factors on carbon emission. The estimated elastic coefficients reveal the most important factor influencing carbon emission is GDP per capita. Total fossil energy, total urban population, and nuclear energy of total energy use are also prominent influencing factors, while other factors such as value-added services of GDP and merchandise trade of GDP have less significant impacts on carbon emission in China. These findings of the research will be of great significance for China to control its carbon emission in the future and to mitigate global warming to some extent.

Modelling of nuclear power plant decommissioning financing.

Costs related to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants create a significant financial burden for nuclear power plant operators. This article discusses the various methodologies employed by selected European countries for financing of the liabilities related to the nuclear power plant decommissioning. The article also presents methodology of allocation of future decommissioning costs to the running costs of nuclear power plant in the form of fee imposed on each megawatt hour generated. The application of the methodology is presented in the form of a case study on a new nuclear power plant with installed capacity 1000 MW.

Potential for worldwide displacement of fossil-fuel electricity by nuclear energy in three decades based on extrapolation of regional deployment data.

There is an ongoing debate about the deployment rates and composition of alternative energy plans that could feasibly displace fossil fuels globally by mid-century, as required to avoid the more extreme impacts of climate change. Here we demonstrate the potential for a large-scale expansion of global nuclear power to replace fossil-fuel electricity production, based on empirical data from the Swedish and French light water reactor programs of the 1960s to 1990s. Analysis of these historical deployments show that if the world built nuclear power at no more than the per capita rate of these exemplar nations during their national expansion, then coal- and gas-fired electricity could be replaced worldwide in less than a decade. Under more conservative projections that take into account probable constraints and uncertainties such as differing relative economic output across regions, current and past unit construction time and costs, future electricity demand growth forecasts and the retiring of existing aging nuclear plants, our modelling estimates that the global share of fossil-fuel-derived electricity could be replaced within 25-34 years. This would allow the world to meet the most stringent greenhouse-gas mitigation targets.

Key role for nuclear energy in global biodiversity conservation.

Modern society uses massive amounts of energy. Usage rises as population and affluence increase, and energy production and use often have an impact on biodiversity or natural areas. To avoid a business-as-usual dependence on coal, oil, and gas over the coming decades, society must map out a future energy mix that incorporates alternative sources. This exercise can lead to radically different opinions on what a sustainable energy portfolio might entail, so an objective assessment of the relative costs and benefits of different energy sources is required. We evaluated the land use, emissions, climate, and cost implications of 3 published but divergent storylines for future energy production, none of which was optimal for all environmental and economic indicators. Using multicriteria decision-making analysis, we ranked 7 major electricity-generation sources (coal, gas, nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind, and solar) based on costs and benefits and tested the sensitivity of the rankings to biases stemming from contrasting philosophical ideals. Irrespective of weightings, nuclear and wind energy had the highest benefit-to-cost ratio. Although the environmental movement has historically rejected the nuclear energy option, new-generation reactor technologies that fully recycle waste and incorporate passive safety systems might resolve their concerns and ought to be more widely understood. Because there is no perfect energy source however, conservation professionals ultimately need to take an evidence-based approach to consider carefully the integrated effects of energy mixes on biodiversity conservation. Trade-offs and compromises are inevitable and require advocating energy mixes that minimize net environmental damage. Society cannot afford to risk wholesale failure to address energy-related biodiversity impacts because of preconceived notions and ideals.

Quickening nature’s pulse: atomic agriculture at the International Atomic Energy Agency

Mutation breeders in the 1960s seemed poised to use atomic energy to speed up mutation rates in plants in order to develop new crop varieties, for the benefit of all people. Although skepticism had slowed this work in the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nurtured the scientific field, its community of experts, and an imagined version of the future that put humans in control of their destiny. The IAEA acted as a center of dissemination and support for experts and ideas even when they had fallen from favor elsewhere. Through the lens of the IAEA, plant breeding bore the appearance of a socially progressive, ultra-modern science destined to alleviate population pressures. Administrators at the IAEA also were desperate for success stories, hoping to highlight mutation plant breeding as a potential solution to the world’s ills. The community of mutation plant breeders gained a lifeline from the consistent clarion call from the Vienna-based agency to use atomic energy to understand the natural world and quicken its pulse with radioisotopes (AU)

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Expert judgments about RD&D and the future of nuclear energy.

Probabilistic estimates of the cost and performance of future nuclear energy systems under different scenarios of government research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) spending were obtained from 30 U.S. and 30 European nuclear technology experts. We used a novel elicitation approach which combined individual and group elicitation. With no change from current RD&D funding levels, experts on average expected current (Gen. III/III+) designs to be somewhat more expensive in 2030 than they were in 2010, and they expected the next generation of designs (Gen. IV) to be more expensive still as of 2030. Projected costs of proposed small modular reactors (SMRs) were similar to those of Gen. IV systems. The experts almost unanimously recommended large increases in government support for nuclear RD&D (generally 2-3 times current spending). The majority expected that such RD&D would have only a modest effect on cost, but would improve performance in other areas, such as safety, waste management, and uranium resource utilization. The U.S. and E.U. experts were in relative agreement regarding how government RD&D funds should be allocated, placing particular focus on very high temperature reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, fuels and materials, and fuel cycle technologies.

The nuclear energy outlook--a new book from the OECD nuclear energy agency.

This paper summarizes the key points of a report titled Nuclear Energy Outlook, published in 2008 by the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has 30 member nations. The report discusses the commitment of many nations to increase nuclear power generating capacity and the potential rate of building new electricity-generating nuclear plants by 2030 to 2050. The resulting decrease in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion resulting from an increase in nuclear power sources is described. Other topics that are discussed include the need to develop non-proliferative nuclear fuels, the importance of developing geological disposal facilities or reprocessing capabilities for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste materials, and the requirements for a larger nuclear workforce and greater cost competitiveness for nuclear power generation.

Nuclear energy in Europe: uranium flow modeling and fuel cycle scenario trade-offs from a sustainability perspective.

The European nuclear fuel cycle (covering the EU-27, Switzerland and Ukraine) was modeled using material flow analysis (MFA).The analysis was based on publicly available data from nuclear energy agencies and industries, national trade offices, and nongovernmental organizations. Military uranium was not considered due to lack of accessible data. Nuclear fuel cycle scenarios varying spent fuel reprocessing, depleted uranium re-enrichment, enrichment assays, and use of fast neutron reactors, were established. They were then assessed according to environmental, economic and social criteria such as resource depletion, waste production, chemical and radiation emissions, costs, and proliferation risks. The most preferable scenario in the short term is a combination of reduced tails assay and enrichment grade, allowing a 17.9% reduction of uranium demand without significantly increasing environmental, economic, or social risks. In the long term, fast reactors could theoretically achieve a 99.4% decrease in uranium demand and nuclear waste production. However, this involves important costs and proliferation risks. Increasing material efficiency is not systematically correlated with the reduction of other risks. This suggests that an overall optimization of the nuclear fuel cycle is difficult to obtain. Therefore, criteria must be weighted according to stakeholder interests in order to determine the most sustainable solution. This paper models the flows of uranium and associated materials in Europe, and provides a decision support tool for identifying the trade-offs of the alternative nuclear fuel cycles considered.

Radioisotopes "economy of promises": on the limits of biomedicine in public legitimization of nuclear activities.

This paper aims to examine the rise and the fall of biomedicine in the public legitimization of the development of nuclear energy. Until the late 1950s, biological and medical applications of radioisotopes were presented as the most important successes of the peaceful uses of atomic energy. I will argue that despite the major financial investment, the development of the uses of radioisotopes and their important impact on biology and clinical practices, the assessment of medical uses remained relatively limited. As consequence, the place of biomedicine in the public legitimization of financial investment and civilian uses of nuclear energy began to decline from the late 1950s.

Imaginary Savior: the image of the nuclear bomb in Korea, 1945-1960.

Two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 brought the unexpected liberation of Korea from the 35-year Japanese occupation. Koreans therefore had a very favorable and positive image of the nuclear bomb and nuclear energy from the beginning. The image of the nuclear bomb as "savior" was strengthened during the Korean War when the United States openly mentioned the possible use of the nuclear bomb against North Korean and Chinese military. After the end of the Korean War in July 1953 South Koreans strongly supported the development of the nuclear bomb in order to deter another North Korean invasion. When the US government provided South Korea with a research nuclear reactor in the late 1950s, most South Koreans hailed it as the first step to developing their own nuclear bomb. This paper will analyze how and why the savior image of the nuclear bomb originated and spread in Korea during the 1950s.

The image of the atomic bomb in Japan before Hiroshima.

This paper traces the roots of the image of the atomic bomb in Japan by investigating the various discourses on atomic energy and atomic weapons in Japanese literature prior to the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. Japan is a country that suffered an atomic attack and, at the same time, one of the countries that was engaged in atomic weapons research during the Second World War. During the war, the discourses on atomic weapons were not limited to the military or scientific communities, but included the general public, thus facilitating the creation of a shared image of the atomic bomb as an ultimate weapon. This paper examines how this image was created. This special issue deals with the comparison among different countries, but the purpose of my paper is to deepen this subject by illustrating the differences within a single country in different periods. This research aims to extend the historical perspective concerning the atomic bomb in Japan, and offers another way of looking at this both historical and contemporary issue.