Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech,Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech Transcript

TrendPK.com Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech,Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech Transcript:It was one of the lowest moments in 2009 for American celebrity. Taylor Swift was accepting her MTV Music Video Award for best female artist, but Kanye West thought he knew better.

TrendPK.com Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech,Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech Transcript:It was one of the lowest moments in 2009 for American celebrity. Taylor Swift was accepting her MTV Music Video Award for best female artist, but Kanye West thought he knew better. He leapt on stage, nicked the microphone, and offered this [...]

China struggles to fuel its nuclear energy boom

BEIJING: China is driving ahead with an ambitious programme to expand its atomic energy capacity over the next decade, raising questions about its ability to find the uranium it will need, at home or abroad.

Total capacity reached 9.1 gigawatts by the end of 2008, and the government fully expects to hit its official 40 gigawatt target well before the 2020 deadline.

China currently operates 11 reactors and has 17 under construction, but has 124 more on the drawing boards, according to industry group the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

The expansion programme will cause its demand for uranium to rocket 10-fold by 2030, making it the world’s second biggest consumer of the radioactive metal following the United States, according the WNA forecasts.

Zhang Guobao, the country’s senior energy official, has repeatedly stated that China intends to raise the bar “by a large margin”, and those in the know believe it should easily smash its existing targets.

Pan Zhiqiang, director of science and technology at the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), one of the country’s two major state-owned nuclear developers, said last month that “reaching 70 GW before 2020 will not be a big problem.”

“There are also estimates that by 2030, total capacity will reach 200 gigawatts, and by 2050, 1,000 gigawatts,” he said.

Concerns have been raised about the availability of sufficient fuel to feed the growing demand in China and elsewhere, but Pan discounted any immediate problems.

He claimed there was “absolutely no problem” finding the uranium to run 40 gigawatts of capacity, either within China’s borders or through overseas acquisitions.

Over the longer term, however, others concede that acquiring enough of the key ingredient in nuclear power generation could be a big challenge.

“The uranium market in the future faces a lot of uncertainties with not a small supply shortage,” said Zhou Zhenxing, who heads the uranium development unit at the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC), the second of China’s big nuclear firms.

RAISING THE BAR

When China announced in a 2006 policy document that it would aim for 40 GW of nuclear capacity by 2020, sceptics noted this meant finding the wherewithal to bring at least two reactors into operation every year. They also pointed out plans were already behind schedule, with no new projects due until 2011, and bureaucratic problems had already delayed others.

But momentum was quickly regained. China had 11 reactors in operation by the end of last year, using a variety of “second-generation” designs from Russia, Canada and France as well as its own research institutes, and there are now another 24 — with 25.4 GW of capacity — approved or under construction.

U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric, now owned by Toshiba is building four of its new AP1000 reactors in coastal Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, securing a much-needed showcase for its untested “third-generation” designs. In exchange, China was granted a generous technology transfer agreement that would make the AP1000 the model for its own “localised” reactors.

Meanwhile, France’s Areva agreed to build two of its European Pressurised Reactors for the Taishan nuclear project in southeast China’s Guangdong.

China’s own nuclear contractors are already looking well beyond the 40 GW target, with Zhou of CGNPC saying his company was already planning to increase capacity to 34 GW by 2020, up from the current level of 3.94 GW.

For a FACTBOX on China’s nuclear power plants and plans, click on

With every province and region keen to grab a stake in the lucrative nuclear sector, both CGNPC and CNNC have been scouring the country for potential projects. Every province along the eastern coast is building new reactors, and a multitude of cities in China’s interior are also lobbying to become the country’s first inland nuclear plant.

URANIUM SCRAMBLE

The need to feed such growing capacity has required the two state-owned giants to hunt the globe for new sources of fuel — with CGNPC chasing uranium reserves in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Australia and Namibia, and CNNC signing deals to explore and develop in Mongolia and Niger.

China has been developing its own uranium mines since the 1950s, mainly in the remote northwest. But total output is a state secret, and it is unclear whether it will be enough to power the dozens of reactors due to go online before 2020.

According to figures from the China Nuclear Industry Association, China has currently developed only a third of the uranium required to fuel 40 gigawatts of capacity by 2020, and exploration needs to be stepped up if China wishes to avoid being exposed to the volatile foreign market.

“The exploitation rate of Chinese uranium mines is actually very low right now, so there is room to improve the supply volume,” said He Kun, a professor at the Nuclear and New Energy Technology Research Institute at Tsinghua University.

Zhou of CGNPC said his company alone would need more than 10,000 tonnes of uranium per year by 2020.

With CGNPC likely to control about half of China’s nuclear capacity by then, that would put total annual demand at around 20,000 tonnes, a massive increase on the 769 tonnes produced in 2008, according to World Nuclear Association estimates.

Pan of CNNC conceded that there was an urgent need to develop new mines for the longer term.

“Uranium supplies don’t constitute an obstacle to the development of nuclear power in China, but we must strengthen our prospecting work, and our research into prospecting technologies. This is absolutely crucial.”

Pan said the supply problem has been overstated, however, noting that both Japan and South Korea have managed to keep their reactors running despite having no uranium of their own.

“Uranium is a commodity and we can import it, and also participate in international uranium mining projects. People say that uranium isn’t very plentiful, but I don’t agree.”

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China struggles to fuel its nuclear energy boom was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 8:24 pm.

Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech:- OSLO: President United States Barrack Hussain Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize here at a prize distribution ceremony on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, the U.S. President said, “I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage.”

FULL TEXT OF OBAMA’S REMARKS:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning. After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, “Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo’s birthday!” And then Sasha added, “Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.” So it’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build — a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

These challenges can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that’s why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek. We cannot tolerate a world in which nuclear weapons spread to more nations and in which the terror of a nuclear holocaust endangers more people. And that’s why we’ve begun to take concrete steps to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, because all nations have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but all nations have the responsibility to demonstrate their peaceful intentions.

We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children — sowing conflict and famine; destroying coastlines and emptying cities. And that’s why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.

We can’t allow the differences between peoples to define the way that we see one another, and that’s why we must pursue a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

And we must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years, and that effort must include an unwavering commitment that finally realizes that the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.

We can’t accept a world in which more people are denied opportunity and dignity that all people yearn for — the ability to get an education and make a decent living; the security that you won’t have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future.

And even as we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today. I am the Commander-in-Chief of a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. I’m also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work. These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people.

Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration — it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that’s why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity — for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometime their lives for the cause of peace.

That has always been the cause of America. That’s why the world has always looked to America. And that’s why I believe America will continue to lead.

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Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 8:35 pm.

Nasa Moon Bombing Time

Nasa Moon Bombing Time, All is set for one of the biggest missions for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) this year as it prepares on a mission to discover whether its earlier findings of water on the moon is true. Earlier, three different space probes have found the chemical signature of water all over the moon. Thus by bombing the South pole, NASA hopes to expose what it expects to be huge deposits of ice hidden beneath the surface. The LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission will send a missile to blast a hole in the lunar surface near the moon’s South pole. According to NASA, the impact will produce a
plume which an orbiting satellite will then analyze.