Big Power Research Articles

Utilisation of straw and similar agricultural residues

Considerable straw resources and the wish for a reduction of the CO 2 emission by substitution of fossil fuels with biomass are the basis for a still growing European interest in production of power based on straw or co-firing of straw and fossil fuels. However, straw is an expensive fuel, and 15 years of experience have shown that straw is rather problematic as a fuel for heat- and power production. To obtain reasonable power efficiencies, stable operational and environmental conditions, as well as an acceptable economy, it is important to know more about the characteristics of the straw and straw ash in relation to energy, to develop better firing and combustion technologies, and to optimise the logistics system for gathering and delivery of straw. Compared with the coal firing technology, the extent of research and development within power production based on straw, is modest so far. Political agreements on straw-based power production at big power plant units in Denmark and the UK will during the years to come contribute essentially to a higher degree of know-how on utilisation of straw for energy purposes.

Arsenic as long distance tracer of air pollution

The fly ash of small size generated in the combustion of coal can be transported over long distances from the stack. This paniculate matter contains trace elements which can be used as tracers of air pollution. Previous work showed that Arsenic is a good tracer of one of the biggest Power Stations in Spain. 38 soil samples were collected in one area where the plume from the Power Plant touches the ground. The analysis of As were carried out by hydride‐generation/Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. The results show a strong influence of the Power Station in several uninhabited places situated at approximately 80 Km from the stack.

Disposal of radioactive waste - a completing overview / Endlagerung radioaktiver Abfälle - ein abrundender Überblick

An overview of the activities for disposal of radioactive waste is provided on a worldwide basis. The focus is on countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Specific information is provided on countries operating nuclear power plants, which generate the major amounts of radioactive waste. The approximate amounts of radioactive waste generated annually by the operation of a big nuclear power plant are provided in connection with the installed nuclear electricity generating capacities

Radioactive waste management-the international approach / Die Entsorgung radioaktiver Abfälle - der internationale Ansatz

This paper gives an overview of actual developments in radioactive waste management. The trends in waste generation show that the specific amounts of waste are decreasing. A big nuclear power plant generates the comparably small waste package volume of about 237 m 3 per year, including all wastes from fuel production to decommissioning of the reactor. The scientific and ethical issues of radioactive waste management are well addressed in the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection and the ongoing development of international consensus documents in the Radioactive Waste Safety Standards Programme of the IAEA. Short- lived low and intermediate level waste is usually disposed of in near-surface facilities

Unidimensional modules: uniqueness of maximal non-modular submodels

We characterize the non-modular models of a unidimensional first-order theory of modules as the elementary submodels of its prime pure-injective model. We show that in case the maximal non-modular submodel of a given model splits off this is true for every such submodel, and we thus obtain a cancellation result for this situation. Although the theories in question always have models (in every big enough power) whose maximal non-modular submodel do split off, they may as well have others where they don't. We present a corresponding example.

An Economics Agenda for Neorealists

Economists, argues Samuel Huntington in the debate with Christopher Layne.and Robert Jervis about for the United States, are blind to the fact that economic activity is a source of power as well as well-being. It is, indeed, probably the most important source of power, and in a world in which military conflict between major states is unlikely, economic power will be increasingly important in determining the or subordination of states.1 What economic policies will in fact foster the pursuit of American primacy that Samuel Huntington seeks? What economic policies would, in contrast, lead to the redistribution of power in favor of America's rivals, complete with the hostility and antagonism of earlier big power struggles, that Christopher Layne fears? What, in short, is the economics agenda best suited for neorealists? Is there a special policy path, perhaps built around strategic trade theory, for those who wish to pursue relative gains at the expense of mutual gains, or political power at the expense of economic welfare? An economics agenda for neorealists should address three principal dangers to America's position in the international political system that emerge directly from U.S. economic policy: a persistent imbalance in trade and capital accounts, which mortgages the assets of future generations or turns over the assets of the current generation to foreigners; a lagging competitiveness of firms and workers, which undermines the growth rate and skill level of the nation's industrial base (and other sectors) in comparison to rival states; and a growing dependence on outsiders for critical products or technologies, which leaves the nation vulnerable to denial or manipulation by external suppliers.

The Strategic Triangle and Regional Conflicts: Lessons from the Indochina Wars.

Focusing on the period during the 1964-1980 Indochina wars, this book examines the big power triangular relationship involving China, the Soviet Union and the United States. The author challenges the myth that, during the Nixon years, this strategic triangle was efficient in its efforts to halt the Vietnam War, and argues that, on the contrary, the triangle was restrictive, or at best had limited capability to manipulate the situation. This analysis, including a discussion of smaller triangles at work within the larger, is not only a history of the Indochina wars, but also can be applied to other triangular relationships, such as the emerging economic triangle incorporating Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

Revolution on the mind: Cuba, between fact and fable

[First paragraph]To make a world safe for revolution: Cuba's foreign policy. JORGE I. DOMÏNGUEZ. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. viii + 365 pp. (Cloth US$ 35.00)U.S. - Cuba relations in the 1990s. JORGE I. DoMfNGUEZ & RAFAEL HERNANDEZ (eds.). Boulder CO: Westview, 1989. ix + 324 pp. (Cloth US$ 42.00, Paper US$ 15.95)Transformation and struggle: Cuba faces the 1990s. SANDOR HALEBSKY & JOHN M. KIRK (eds.). with the assistance of Rafael Hernéndez. New York: Praeger, 1990. xxvi + 291 pp. (Cloth US$ 45.00, Paper US$ 17.95)"A masterpiece of political intrigue" was one description of Jorge Dominguez' earlier book, Cuba: order and revolution; and it is a fitting comment for its sequel foreign policy volume. Dominguez himself opens with: "This is not a book of fiction, yet much of the story seems a fantasy." The story is how, from 1959 to 1988, Cuban leaders sought "to make a world safe for revolution" and, in the process, that small country Cuba came to have "the foreign policy of a big power." In his thorough, methodical fashion, Dominguez marshalls a wealth of documentary evidence from varied and conflicting sources, backed with extensive interview material, to paint a "behind the scènes" story of policymakers and their policy.

Corporate Crime and Violence. Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust. Russell Mokhiber

Previous articleNext article No AccessNew Biological BooksCorporate Crime and Violence. Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust. Russell Mokhiber Theodore D. GoldfarbTheodore D. Goldfarb Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 64, Number 2Jun., 1989 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/416245 Views: 2Total views on this site Copyright 1989 The Stony Brook Foundation, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Chinese Arms Sales and U.S.-China Military Relations

Until its suspension in the wake of the Chinese government's violent suppression of the Democracy Movement in June 1989, the nine-year military relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China had been redefined several times. It had moved from the strategic alliance expectations of the initial years, through the complete inactivity of the subsequent two years, to four years of steady development, and then one year of minimum momentum. Each twist and turn was affected by events in the general bilateral relationship. Before the use of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on June 4, 1989, in Tienanmen Square, the issue that most affected relations was Chinese arms sales abroad. This article contends that China, because of financial, geostrategic, and big power status reasons, will maintain its arms sales, thereby continuing certain interest conflicts with the United States. Both countries, therefore-after a possible resumption of the military relationshipshould be prepared to deal with these circumstances for some time to come. Following a brief review of the history of U.S.-PRC military relations, data on Chinese arms sales are presented. China's motivations for its arms sales are examined in some detail in order to assess the implications for U.S.-China military relations.

Corporate crime and violence: big business power and the abuse of the public trust

Corporate crime and violence: big business power and the abuse of the public trust

Observations of cooling tower and stack plumes and their comparison with plume model “ALINA”

Aircraft observations of stack and cooling tower plumes taken at a big power plant are compared with corresponding outputs of one-dimensional plume model ALINA, yielding certain improvements to the entrainment parametrization and dynamics of the model. Some observations of plume-plume and plume-environment interactions are reported.

Computer Assisted Energy Policy Analysis in the Parliament of Finland

A decision aid developed for members of the Parliament was used to evaluate the desirability of a new big nuclear power plant in Finland. The decision analytic approach was positively received by the politicians. It also helped to structure the public debate on nuclear power in the media. The project showed that decision aids can be very useful in public policy issues if they are introduced early into the decision-making process.

A Revisit to Social and Cultural Preconditions of Top Level Sport

No achievement in high performance sport can be understood without reference to extraordinary personal motivation and effort. The basis of motivation and effort lies, however, in the culture and other social preconditions of sporting life. The data based on the Olympic success of different nations strongly support this kind of hypothesis. The role of the countries with the heritage of Western civilization - for which the idea of progress is highly characteristic—has been dominant in Olympic history. Since the 1930's when the importance of the Olympic Games and other great sports events was fully realized, international sport success has become one of the primary weapons in the struggle for hegemony between the big power blocs. Especially the success of the Soviet Union and its allies has been conspicious during the past two decades. The growing dominance of socialist countries apparently has its roots both in the high achievement ethics characteristic of Western civilization in general, and in the special preconditions provided for such more or less technical activities as sports and performing arts. On the other hand, the high achievement potential of the market economy countries of the western camp is more pluralistic and less goal oriented, dispersing achievements rather than focusing them on a certain type of activity such as Olympic success.

Challenges to the United States in the South Pacific

IMPORTANT CHANGES IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH PACIFIC, including Australia and New Zealand, are challenging the old order and affecting the security of the United States and its allies in the region. The three most notable changes have been the recent impact of anti-nuclear sentiment, the trend toward greater self-reliant defence policies, and the penetration of external powers into the region. The anti-nuclear sentiment has recently resulted in the breakdown of the defence cooperation between the United States and its ally, New Zealand, and produced the world's third nuclearfree zone in the South Pacific. The trend toward greater self-reliant defence policies has put national and regional priorities ahead of traditional cooperation with the big power ally, the United States. It is evident in the new defence white papers and planned force structures of Australia, New Zealand, and the smaller island states. External powers such as Japan, the Soviet Union, and China have shown new political as well as economic interest in penetrating the South Pacific region, thus providing new alternatives for the small island states which have had numerous disputes with the United States recently. While the hegemony of the United States and its allies in the Central and South Pacific does not seem to be much diminished, it is clearly a region increasingly open to new influences which could affect the status of the American nuclear deterrent, the character of Western alliances, and regional security. It is also a region which, thus far, has not been an arena of military competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition, it is one of the rare examples of a region outside Western Europe and North America where moderate democratic regimes are the norm. The latter conditions have also resulted in some new initiatives on nuclear policies which may eventually affect the rest of the world.

Book Review: Nuclear Disarmament: The Six-Nation Initiative and the Big Power Response

Book Review: Nuclear Disarmament: The Six-Nation Initiative and the Big Power Response

Teaching the Revisionist Interpretation of the Cold War

There is a school of history, however, which argues that the United States was primarily responsible for the Cold War. It may not be very popular, but the revisionist interpretation of the origins of the Cold War ought to be pre sented to high school students precisely because most students will not agree with it. It will challenge them and thus make them think about the issue more deeply. Presenting two interpretations of the Cold War is an ideal way to build critical thinking skills. Before the students are given the interpretations, preliminary work needs to be done. The teacher could ask why the U.S. and the USSR are such ene mies. A discussion of Marxist-Leninist ideology should ensue followed by some background on the 1917 Revolution, the American intervention in Rus sia in 1918, the United States-Soviet alliance against Hitler, the issue of the second front, and the Yalta Conference. The students should also learn the countries and some of the capital cities in Europe. Finally, the students need to understand that the American foreign policy concept of self-determination (each country should decide its own policies free from outside interference) and the Soviet concept of spheres of influence (the big powers each have an area of dominance) were in basic conflict (a little country does not have self determination when it is being dominated by a big power). The students should now read the section of their text on the beginning of the Cold War and discuss which country was responsible for the Cold War and why. At this point I pass out the following reading and instruct the stu dents to write their reaction to it on the back. (The reading is adapted from O'Reilly, pp. 80-86. This reading was shortened considerably and leaves out many important issues such as the dispute over Poland and the wording of the Yalta Agreements.)

Indian Ocean: An Area of Tension and Big Power Pressures

The Indian Ocean has become an area of acute tension—a peril zone with conventional and nuclear naval vessels of the major powers staging a permanent presence in the area. Naval task forces, because of their inherent mobility, can constitute a powerful projection of military might. That is why the non-aligned countries of the Indian Ocean are exercised over the threat posed to their national security from the high seas. They can hardly forget that the powers that dominated and colonised them for centuries came to the area via the high seas. They also remember that, even in the decades since the Second World War there have been several glaring instances of naval might being used by the Big Powers to exert military pressure in almost every ocean. The concern expressed by nations who do not want a return to gun-boat diplomacy and domination by military forces is, therefore, indisputably legitimate. Rivalry and competition are not new trends in international affairs or in the Indian Ocean. They were imported into this ocean by the colonial powers, when they sought to oust one another from enjoying the fruits of colonisation. Today, they exist in the Indian Ocean area for a variety of stated and unstated reasons. When the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 1971 a resolution proclaiming the Indian Ocean ‘a zone of peace for all times,’ people in many countries heaved a sigh of relief. Those countries whose merchant vessels plied the Indian Ocean hoped that a zone of peace would guarantee their security and enable them to develop economic contacts with different countries of the world. For champions of peace throughout the world demilitarisation of the Indian Ocean would mean elimination of one of the world's most dangerous hot-beds of tension. This however, did not happen. The safeguarding of vital interests of the Big Powers provided to them enough justification for an unprecedented escalation of military presence in the area. There was a time when the ‘vacuum theory’ was universally peddled by the western powers and their mass-media. It postulated that the withdrawal of British naval power from the Indian Ocean would create a void which if not filled by the United States and its allies would invite Soviet presence. The non-aligned countries felt very strongly that if at all there was a vacuum, it should be filled by the littoral states, who alone would be responsible for the security of their waters. Though the vacuum theory is seldom mentioned now, the quantum of the Big Power naval forces in the Indian Ocean has steadily increased.

Divergence and Convergence of American-Soviet Interests in the Middle East: An Israeli Viewpoint

The Middle East has been an area of big power contests from time immemorial. Its written history and archeological discoveries bear ample witness to the wars between the empires of the North and the South. The prophets of Israel were not only imbued with ethical pathos, but no less with political wisdom. They exhorted the rulers and the nation to beware of big power entanglement. Out of the North evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land, predicted Jeremiah (Jer. 1:14) in a warning still worth heeding. The contemporary geostrategic facts in the Middle East are not much different. Israel continues to lie on that narrow strip of land along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean that had always been the only landbridge between Asia and Africa, at times facilitating the peaceful flow of people, commerce, and ideas, and at other times serving as a battleground for contending armies. Egypt continues to live by the great river, the lifeline of the country's multimillenarian civilization. Ancient Babylon and Persia, both superpowers in their time, fought over the control of the Euphrates valley, as do Iraq and Iran today. Gone are the great empires of antiquity. Disintegration befell the Ottoman regime. The rule of France and Britain, its successor in the Middle East, was short-lived. But longlasting are the region's endemic rivalries.

Chad: From Civil Strife to Big Power Rivalry

Beginning from 1980 when Libyan tanks first rolled into Chad, international interest and involvement in its 18-year old civil war has been mounting. As the sputtering war erupted with renewed ferocity in summer 1983, the scope and intensity of external involvement became bewildering. France, the erstwhile gendarme of Francophone Africa and Chad's former (?) colonial master despatched hundreds of paratroopers with sophisticated weapons to N'Djamena.1 Apparently disturbed by what looked like an initial foot-dragging in Paris, the Reagan Administration, in a tough move directly committed the United States into the war. Apart from the offer of a $10m military aid package, it also sent its Redeye anti-aircraft missiles, F-15 fighters and two AWACS radar planes to back the forces of President Hissene Habre. As a corrolary, the United States aircraft carrier Eisenhower also steamed around the Mediterranean just off the coast of Libya.2 In its reaction, the Soviet Union described the American posturing as a “proof that NATO powers are openly interfering in Chad's sovereign affairs” while the Chinese Foreign Minister called on the local war lords to “prevent super power meddling and sabotage.”3 From these accounts therefore, what until recently, was a smouldering civil strife with international implications “has become a cosmopolitan war with local complications” and Chad, carrying the unenviable distinction of being the “poorest country of the poorest continent” has emerged as a potential hotbed of super power rivalry in the continent. The present developments have, in effect, confirmed the fears expressed in 1977 by Major Wadel Kamougue, then Chad's Foreign Minister, about the possibility of the country becoming a “strategic-region” that “could easily lead to big power rivalry.”4 In spite of the recent developments, the genesis, development and the external complications of the Chadian conflict remain obscure and unappreciated. What then, is the trouble with Chad? How and why did external forces get involved? What efforts have been made to resolve the conflicts and what are the implications of all these for the country. These are some of the issues discussed in this paper with a view to contributing to the greater awareness of the nature of the conflicts in Chad and the external interests and issues that have now come to overlay them.