State Of Supply Research Articles

Facilitating deployment of transportable nuclear power plants through a new regime of mutual recognition

Abstract Further developments towards future deployment of transportable nuclear power plants (TNPPs) are recently under way in several States. Major advantages have been identified with respect to potential deployment of TNPPs in the future. The availability of a TNPP may provide benefits of both secure and economical energy. Also, opting for a TNPP may eliminate the long-term commitment of the host State to the management of radioactive waste. Lastly, choosing the export scenario may reduce the potential national investment required to benefit from nuclear power. At the same time, a high level of nuclear safety must be guaranteed with respect to the prospective deployment of TNPPs. Thus, each TNPP must be duly licenced by the competent regulatory authority. The future legal framework must balance both interest for speedy deployment of this new technology and the need to maintain a high level of nuclear safety. This article argues that new licensing regimes, as established by bilateral agreements between the supplier States and the host States, may represent a legal tool for facilitating deployment of these promising technologies. This article also argues that concluding such bilateral agreements on mutual recognition would be in line with the incentive character of the Convention on Nuclear Safety.

Konfidencialumo užtikrinimo ir skaidrumo principo santykis viešuosiuose pirkimuose

Straipsnyje nagrinėjami konfidencialumo viešuosiuose pirkimuose teoriniai aspektai: konfidencialios informacijos samprata, konfidencialios informacijos apsaugos teisinis pagrindas (reguliavimas) ir iš jo kylanti perkančiųjų organizacijų pareiga neatskleisti tiekėjų pasiūlymuose nurodytos konfidencialios informacijos tretiesiems asmenims, taip pat tiekėjų, siekiančių jiems priklausančios informacijos apsaugos, teisės ir pareigos. Išanalizavus konfidencialumo teorinius aspektus, keliamas klausimas, kokios yra konfidencialumo užtikrinimo viešuosiuose pirkimuose ribos. Siekiant atsakyti į iškeltą klausimą, analizuojamas viešųjų pirkimų skaidrumo principas ir iš jo kylančios tiekėjų teisės susipažinti su kitų tiekėjų pasiūlymais įgyvendinimo reikalavimai. Tiekėjams siekiant susipažinti su kitų tiekėjų pasiūlymus sudarančia informacija ir tokiu būdu įvertinti, įskaitant, bet neapsiribojant, perkančiosios organizacijos priimtų sprendimų pagrįstumą bei teisėtumą, susiduria dvi Lietuvos Respublikos viešųjų pirkimų įstatymo saugomos vertybės – teisė į pakankamą informaciją, kaip skaidrumo principo išraiškos forma, ir teisė į konfidencialios informacijos apsaugą. Todėl straipsnyje siekiama atskleisti konfidencialios informacijos apsaugos užtikrinimo ir viešųjų pirkimų skaidrumo principo įgyvendinimo santykį bei tinkamą balansą tarp šių dviejų vertybių, nepaneigiant nei vienos iš jų. Išanalizavus tiek Europos Sąjungos, tiek nacionalinį teisinį reguliavimą, Europos Sąjungos bei nacionalinių teismų praktiką, jos tendencijas bei mokslinę teisinę literatūrą, straipsnio pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados, įrodančios, jog viešųjų pirkimų skaidrumas, pasireiškiantis inter alia pirkimų viešumu, o kartu ir viešasis interesas, jog pirkimai būtų vykdomi teisėtai, vis dėl to neretai yra pripažįstamas didesne vertybe nei privačių subjektų informacijos apsauga.

Shooting for the Stars: Introducing the National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset

To what extent have space and ballistic missile capabilities proliferated globally and what impact have they had on global politics? To date, scholars have lacked a comprehensive data source on states’ global space capabilities and only limited data on their ballistic missile arsenals. The National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset provides a new collection of data on states’ civilian and military rocketry programs and their presence in outer space, including information on states’ space launch capabilities, satellite capabilities, and human spaceflight. This data has potential applications for study of international security, international cooperation, and international political economy, especially as the importance of space assets continues to grow and greater numbers of countries gain access to space. This study illustrates a number of the important trends in the proliferation of space and missile capabilities revealed by our dataset. We also employ our new data to evaluate the role that supplier states have played in influencing the global proliferation of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs). We find that supplier states appear to be strategically motivated in preferentially helping their defense pact allies obtain SRBMs.

‘It isn’t over until the fuel cell sings’: A reassessment of the US and French pledges of nuclear assistance in the 1970s

ABSTRACTBased on newly declassified archival documents, the aim of this study is to contribute to an improved understanding of the evolution of the non-proliferation regime through an examination of US and French nuclear cooperation agreements in the latter half of the 1970s. The four pledges of nuclear assistance examined – US assistance to Egypt and Israel, and French assistance to Pakistan and South Korea – failed to materialise by the end of the decade. Why did that happen? What caused the four pledges to fail? We find that the 1974 Indian nuclear explosion and the emergence of opposing domestic factions on the nuclear front in the supplier states generated major changes in US and French nuclear export policies, and also contributed to the development of a collaborative partnership between the two competing nuclear exporters, on the other.

Endangering alliance or risking proliferation?: US–Japan and US–Korea nuclear energy cooperation agreements

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to understand why the United States treated Japan and Korea differently in the revisions of bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements. On the sensitive issue of grating its allies the rights of developing enrichment and reprocessing (ENR), the United States did so for Japan in the 1977 and 1987 revisions, but did not for Korea during the 2015 revision. For the great power as a supplier state, there are two factors affecting the decision: policy-makers’ concern about alliance management prior to the calculation of security outcome, and firms’ commercial interests. In order to avoid damage to the US–Japan alliance and to maintain Japan's complementation for the US nuclear industry, Washington granted the rights of ENR to Tokyo. In contrast, because of its confidence of managing the US–Korea alliance and partly because of incompatibility of commercial interests between the two, Washington did not grant the rights to Seoul at the 2015 revision. Based on the comparison of the two cases, this paper underscores a need to alter the power projection theory regarding nuclear proliferation by explicating the alliance management as the ex ante element of power projection and by accounting for commercial interests such as fuel sale and technological partnership.

Feasibility Analysis of Establishing Multilateral Nuclear Approaches (MNAs) in the Asian Region and the Middle East

To establish frameworks for multilateral nuclear approaches (MNAs), we identified challenges and their possible solutions through case studies proposing to establish three different MNAs, comprising existing states in the Asian region and the Middle East, in accordance with twelve features deemed necessary for establishing MNAs. In all case studies, political instability of MNA member states and the region, as well as political conflicts between MNA member states and other states were seen as challenges hindering the establishment of MNAs. There are no simple measures to overcome such challenges, but additional case-by-case measures, including the direct involvement of international organizations, supplier states and nuclear weapon states, in MNAs, as well as the application of regional safeguards and regional systems of accounting for and control of nuclear material (RSAC) within MNAs, may contribute toward mitigating the political challenges.

Economic Competition and Nuclear Cooperation

The number of bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements surged during the “nuclear renaissance” of the past decade. This proliferation is only partially explained by the prevailing approaches that focus on strategic imperatives. To supplement these explanations, this study draws on neoliberal models of economic competition to posit that bilateral agreement negotiations also exhibit conditions of “uncoordinated interdependence” and maneuvering to gain market share. Case evidence suggests the contours of supplier state bids for civilian assistance are determined at least as much by considerations about economic competition as they are by positive strategic goals. In addition, this study identifies several cases of cooperation where there appears to be little or no strategic motive for export agreements. The study concludes that patterns of economic competition and the influence of peers in defined competitive spaces alter material payoffs and impact policies. It also identifies a surprising role for principled restraint in dampening strategic and economic competition in some dyads.

Harmonization between a Framework of Multilateral Approaches to Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities and Bilateral Nuclear Cooperation Agreements

One of primary challenges for ensuring effective and efficient functions of the multilateral nuclear approaches (MNA) to nuclear fuel cycle facilities is harmonization between a MNA framework and existing nuclear cooperation agreements (NCA). A method to achieve such harmonization is to construct a MNA framework with robust non-proliferation characteristics, in order to obtain supplier states’, especially the US’s prior consents for non-supplier states’ certain activities including spent fuel reprocessing, plutonium storages and retransfers of plutonium originated in NCAs. Such robust characteristics can be accomplished by MNA member states’ compliances with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards, regional safeguards agreements, international conventions, guidelines and recommendations on nuclear non-proliferation, nuclear security, safety, and export control. Those provisions are to be incorporated into an MNA founding agreement, as requirements to be MNA members in relation to NCAs. Furthermore, if an MNA facility is, (1) owned and operated jointly by all MNA member states, (2) able to conclude bilateral NCAs with non-MNA/supplier states as a single legal entity representing its all member states like an international organization, and (3) able to obtain necessary prior consents, stable, smooth, and timely supplies of nuclear fuel and services can be assured among MNA member states. In this paper, the authors will set out a general MNA framework and then apply it to a specific example of Europe Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and then consider its applicability to the Asian region, where an establishment of an MNA framework is expected to be explored.

Natural gas supply stability and foreign policy

This article studies factors that affect stability of supply of natural gas. It examines the relative influence of political relations between the involved states on the stability of supply. The article identifies the factors that affect the propensity of a state to use disruption of natural gas supply in order to promote foreign policy goals. The article is based on the study of thirty five supply relations and two case studies. The article claims that disruption of supplies can be initiated not only by supplier states, but transit and consumer states. It claims that natural gas supply relations generally take three forms: neither side is dependent on the gas trade, one side is dependent on the gas trade, or the sides are interdependent in the gas trade. Cases of significant asymmetry of the degree of dependence in the gas trade are most likely to be exploited by the less dependent party for foreign policy gain. The article claims that the prevailing political relations between gas trading states are only one of the factors affecting the stability of supply.

An Emergent Trans-Asian Energy Nexus: Likely Costs and Possible Benefits

In this article, I state that the IEA predicts that global energy usage will continue to increase over the next twenty years by as much as 45%, driven largely by the emerging economies of North and South Asia. This assessment is most pertinent in relation to oil, which currently accounts for the largest share of global energy use due to the oil dependence of the transport sector. I point out that the major supplier of oil to the global market, West Asia’s Arabian/Persian Gulf, is also experiencing relatively high energy consumption growth, and the Gulf states have thus found themselves confronted with the paradox of needing to develop alternative energy sources for their own domestic use while requiring the world’s traditional dependence on oil to continue so that they can maintain their export revenues. To the extent that alternative energy sources are developed, the commerciality of the oil reserves of supplier states is made less secure. The article explains how the growth in oil consumption has also raised questions about the medium to long-term security of supply for Asian oil-importing states which have invested substantially in supply contracts and in acquiring equity in upstream production in the Gulf. I examine both the potential threats and benefits that might arise from this emerging trans-Asian oil nexus including the increasing dependence by Asian oil importers on supplies from an inherently unstable region, and the pursuit of alternate technologies by
 suppliers and consumers.

Contributors

Contributors

NC State's Supply Chain Resource Cooperative Educates in the Real World

North Carolina State University's Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) is a unique university-industry initiative that provides MBA and undergraduate students with opportunities to apply supply chain (SC) theory and concepts to field-based projects over a semester. We integrate field-based student course projects with real problems that companies are facing. The projects are led by SCRC directors, faculty at the Poole College of Management, and SC managers that financially support the SCRC. The SCRC focuses on improving the caliber of students entering the SC management profession. It accomplishes this by bringing the classroom into industry and involving students in finding viable solutions to real business problems, thus facilitating interactions between students and companies. Since 2000, 1,251 students have completed 331 projects with 39 companies. The SCRC is a self-funded small business that is supported by donor companies. Its organizational structure enables us to develop and maintain long-term relationships with donor companies, which are critical for a successful student-based outreach initiative with industry. In this paper, we describe the SCRC's evolution and benefits, and provide insights that may help other institutions interested in establishing similar organizations.

It Takes Two to Proliferate: Nuclear Supply and the Grand Bargain

Questions and concerns regarding nuclear proliferation have engaged security scholars for decades. Why do some states proliferate, while others decide not to? What roles do international institutions, norms, and the balancing of power play in such decisions? These questions and many others address proliferation from the demand-side. In this article, we approach proliferation from the opposite angle - the supply-side. Why do nuclear states decide to help nonnuclear states proliferate? Why do these supplier states decide to help these particular recipient states, and not any others? To answer these questions we propose a bargaining theory of nuclear assistance, where relational factors, domestic players, critical bargaining chips, and international constraints interact to explain the success or failure of the nuclear collaboration.

ACQUIRING FOREIGN NUCLEAR ASSISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has laid out an ambitious plan to become the first Arab country to possess a civilian nuclear energy program. Central to that effort has been the Emirati government's ability to obtain foreign nuclear assistance. This article traces the UAE's strategies for overcoming the obstacles that stood in the way of nuclear suppliers providing assistance. It examines the approach taken by the UAE to assuage the safety and security concerns of nuclear suppliers, how the UAE leveraged its alliances with France and the United States to obtain their cooperation, and its strategies for engaging domestic interest groups in supplier states. The generalizable elements of the UAE's strategies are discussed and used to provide insight into the prospects for other Middle Eastern states' bids to obtain similar assistance. The article concludes with a discussion of the potentially transformative aspects of the strategies employed by the UAE in shaping other countries' pursuit of nuclear energy in the region.

Multilateral nuclear fuel supply guarantees & spent fuel management: what are the priorities?

devices. To cope with this problem, some have advocated that enrichment and reprocessing facilities be constructed and operated under multilateral arrangements. Such an approach is generally viewed as effective in ensuring safe and reliable access to nuclear fuel and services at competitive market prices while strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime by removing incentives for countries to develop indigenous fuel cycle capabilities. It is interesting to note that all proposals for multinational fuel cycle facilities have thus far originated from “supplier states.” If multilateral fuel cycle arrangements have attracted only limited interest from “consumer states,” it must be in part because the existing market for enrichment services has been operating reliably. Otherwise, potential buyers would have explored more actively new ideas for ensuring fuel supply. Clearly, something more than market reliability is at issue here. If some consumer states fear that fuel supply could be disrupted for purely political reasons, others seem to fear that multilateral supply arrangements could serve as a pretext for depriving them of their rights to construct and operate fuel cycle facilities domestically. This paper posits that further improving the reliability of fuel supply is best achieved by giving priority to fuel leasing contracts, coupled with long-term generic export licenses, and last resort multilateral fuel supply arrangements. These arrangements are easier to implement in the short term, rather than much more complex multinational enrichment facilities. For neighboring countries starting nuclear power programs, setting up a fuel procurement consortium would provide safer and better fuel supplies than their individual participation in a multinational enrichment facility.

Illicit Activity and Proliferation: North Korean Smuggling Networks

Since public disclosure by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) of its uranium enrichment program in 2002 and the subsequent restarting of its plutonium reactor, policymakers and academics have expressed concern that the DPRK will one day export nuclear material or components. An examination of North Korea's involvement in nonnuclear criminal activities shows that the DPRK has established sophisticated transnational smuggling networks, some of which involve terrorist groups and others that have been able to distribute counterfeit currency and goods on U.S. territory. These networks provide North Korea with a significant amount of much-needed hard currency, but the DPRK regime's control over them has decreased over time. These developments suggest that North Korea has both the means and motivation for exporting nuclear material, and that concerns over nuclear export from the DPRK, authorized or not, are well founded. When placed in the context of the global nuclear black market, the North Korea case suggests that criminal networks are likely to play an increased role in future proliferation. In addition, it raises the concern that proliferation conducted through illicit networks will not always be well controlled by the supplier state. It is therefore imperative to track and curtail illicit networks not only because of the costs they impose, but also because of the deterrent value of countersmuggling efforts. New strategies that integrate law enforcement, counterproliferation, and nonproliferation tools are likely to have the greatest success in addressing the risks posed by illicit proliferation networks.

State Nursing Shortages and Patient Satisfaction

This study of 827,430 patients, 733 hospitals, and 25 states compares state performance in patient satisfaction with the supply of registered nurses. A significant, positive relationship exists between a state's supply of registered nurses and patients' evaluations of their care experiences. Hospitals in states with nursing shortages may be challenged by national comparisons of patient satisfaction and should take these results into account when devising their quality improvement strategy.

Linking Operations Management Students Directly to the Real World

AboutSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Go to Section HomeInterfacesVol. 31, No. 5 Linking Operations Management Students Directly to the Real WorldSanjay L. AhireSanjay L. AhirePublished Online:1 Oct 2001https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.31.5.104.9653AbstractLinking business students in operations management (OM) directly to real-world operations improvement experiences in manufacturing and service organizations resulted in 70 OM student field projects during the academic year 1998-1999 at Indiana University South Bend. The projects helped client organizations to identify strategies to improve quality, flexibility, and speed of operations, streamline processes, enhance customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and improve profits. Students gained valuable professional experience. The supervising faculty member and the institution enhanced their professional and community participation. The shared experiences should stimulate business schools and industries to implement this totally integrative experiential approach to OM course instruction. Previous Back to Top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedInformationCited byAdvising Student-Driven Analytics Projects: A Summary of Experiences and Lessons LearnedAaron Babier, Craig Fernandes, Ian Yihang Zhu26 August 2022 | INFORMS Transactions on Education, Vol. 23, No. 2It's not you, It's me: Can others learn from the challenges of teaching operations and supply chain management?The International Journal of Management Education, Vol. 20, No. 2Determining the causal relationship among the research streams of the operations management course16 October 2018 | Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 94, No. 3Multi-criteria analysis of professional education on supply chain management1 January 2019 | Production, Vol. 29A Survey of Research in Field-Based Education: A Summary of Process, Best Practices, and Lessons LearnedMichael F. Gorman20 November 2017 | INFORMS Transactions on Education, Vol. 18, No. 3Connecting industry and supply chain management education: exploring challenges faced in a SCM consultancy moduleSupply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 18, No. 4Metodología docente y evaluación por competencias: una experiencia en la materia Dirección de ProducciónInvestigaciones Europeas de Dirección y Economía de la Empresa, Vol. 18, No. 3Student Reactions to the Field Consulting Capstone Course in Operations Management at the University of DaytonMichael F. Gorman, 11 July 2011 | Interfaces, Vol. 41, No. 6NC State's Supply Chain Resource Cooperative Educates in the Real WorldRobert B. Handfield, Steven A. Edwards, Jeffrey S. Stonebraker, 1 December 2011 | Interfaces, Vol. 41, No. 6Project-Based ORMS Education15 October 2012Mejorando la formación en Dirección de Operaciones: la visión del estudiante y su respuesta ante diferentes metodologías docentesCuadernos de Economía y Dirección de la Empresa, Vol. 14, No. 1The University of Dayton Operations Management Capstone Course: Undergraduate Student Field Consulting Applies Theory to PracticeMichael F. Gorman, 1 December 2010 | Interfaces, Vol. 40, No. 6Practitioner Perceptions of the A3 Method for Process Improvement in Health CareDecision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Vol. 8, No. 1Graduate Student Project: Operations Management Product PlanJournal of Education for Business, Vol. 83, No. 2Application of POM to e‐business: B2C e‐shoppingInternational Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 23, No. 1 Volume 31, Issue 5September-October 2001Pages 1-143 Article Information Metrics Information Published Online:October 01, 2001 © 2001 INFORMSCite asSanjay L. Ahire, (2001) Linking Operations Management Students Directly to the Real World. Interfaces 31(5):104-120. https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.31.5.104.9653 KeywordsPROFESSIONAL—OR/MS EDUCATIONPROFESSIONAL—OR/MS IMPLEMENTATIONPDF download

Public health workforce information: a state-level study.

A two-stage sample survey was used to estimate the size of Texas' professional public health workforce and to describe its composition in terms of employment settings, job characteristics, and individual characteristics. The estimated 17,700 public health professionals employed in 1995 represented approximately three percent of the state's total health workforce. About 55 percent of all these professionals worked in agencies that provide population-based public health services. An estimated seven percent had formal public health education. These findings raise issues concerning the numerical adequacy of the state's supply of public health professionals, the adequacy of their educational preparation, and the human resources capacity of the state's official public health agencies.

Management of Social Forestry in Maharashtra

Maharashtra has a forest area of 63,920 sq km which is 20.76 per cent of its geographical area. Such a large area of forest in the third biggest State in the country is, however, able to supply only a part of the forest produce required by the industries and the public in the State. The remaining part is met through imports from the other States. With the rapid industrialization of the supplier States and the depletion of forests even in those States, their supplies to Maharashtra have begun to wane.