Towards Resilience to Nuclear Accidents:Financing Nuclear Liabilities via Catastrophe Risk Bonds

In light of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, recent discussion has focused on finding the best nuclear storage options, maximizing the oversight power of global institutions, and strengthening safety measures. In addition to these, the development of dependable liability coverage that can be tapped in an emergency is also needed and should be considered thoughtfully. To succeed, financing is essential using special-purpose instruments from the global bond market, which is as big as US$175 trillion. Thus, in this paper, for the first time, a two-coverage-type trigger nuclear catastrophe (N-CAT) risk bond for potentially supplementing the covering of U.S. commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) beyond the coverage per the Price Anderson Act as amended, and potentially other plants are proposed and designed worldwide. The N-CAT peril is categorized by three risk layers: incident, accident, and major accident. The pricing formula is derived by using a semi-Markovian dependence structure in continuous time. A numerical application illustrates the main findings of the paper.</jats:p

Energy, transport and waste management : a review of Maltese policies to combat climate change

As the year 2020 draws closer, European Member States strive harder to reach their individual mandatory targets for the share of renewable energy in their total final energy consumption. Malta has joined the European Union in May 2004 and has since then, worked towards achieving the required compliance of national energy policies to the relevant EU Directives. Malta has also prepared a number of documents dealing with the main three sectors affecting climate change namely, energy, transport and waste management. Besides, Malta has to achieve 10% share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2020, as well as 10% share of bio fuels in the transport sector. Moreover, Malta should also reduce its electricity consumption in public buildings by 9% by 2016. Within the scope of climate change, Malta has no obligations within the Kyoto Protocol but this could change when Malta applies to become an Annex 1 Member at the Conference of Parties meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, within the European Union Emission Trading System (EU-ETS), only the emissions from Malta’s two power stations fall under this system. The Commission has decided that Malta’s emissions for the period 2008-2012 should not exceed 2.1 Million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (European Allowance Units EAUs) per year. This is already proving to be a hard challenge to meet, given the projected increase in electricity demand. This paper outlines the current efforts that would contribute towards achieving the renewable energy targets and curbing of carbon dioxide emissions, mainly focusing on energy, transport and waste management. Three different scenarios are also presented for the plausible contribution of different renewable energy sources in the energy mix. It is noted that a number of important plans and policies have been drafted during 2009 and have still to be transposed to national legislation. However, the race against time has already started and it would clearly require a strong political will to drive Malta towards a cleaner energy mix, achieve the RE binding targets and avoid paying non-compliance penalties.peer-reviewe

A Review of Dietary Zinc Recommendations

Background. Large discrepancies exist among the dietary zinc recommendations set by expert groups. Objective. To understand the basis for the differences in the dietary zinc recommendations set by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, the International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group, and the European Food Safety Agency. Methods. We compared the sources of the data, the concepts, and methods used by the four expert groups to set the physiological requirements for absorbed zinc, the dietary zinc requirements (termed estimated and/or average requirements), recommended dietary allowances (or recommended nutrient intakes or population reference intakes), and tolerable upper intake levels for selected age, sex, and life-stage groups. Results. All four expert groups used the factorial approach to estimate the physiological requirements for zinc. These are based on the estimates of absorbed zinc required to offset all obligatory zinc losses plus any additional requirements for absorbed zinc for growth, pregnancy, or lactation. However, discrepancies exist in the reference body weights used, studies selected, approaches to estimate endogenous zinc losses, the adjustments applied to derive dietary zinc requirements that take into account zinc bioavailability in the habitual diets, number of dietary zinc recommendations set, and the nomenclature used to describe them. Conclusions. Estimates for the physiological and dietary requirements varied across the four expert groups. The European Food Safety Agency was the only expert group that set dietary zinc recommendations at four different levels of dietary phytate for adults (but not for children) and as yet no tolerable upper intake level for any life-stage group

Moving radiation protection on from the limitations of empirical concentration ratios

Radionuclide activity concentrations in food crops and wildlife are most often predicted using empirical concentration ratios (CRs). The CR approach is simple to apply and some data exist with which to parameterise models. However, the parameter is highly variable leading to considerable uncertainty in predictions. Furthermore, for both crops and wildlife we have no, or few, data for many radionuclides and realistically, we are never going to have specific data for every radionuclide - wildlife/crop combination. In this paper, we present an alternative approach using residual maximum likelihood (REML) fitting of a linear mixed effects model; the model output is an estimate of the rank-order of relative values. This methodology gives a less uncertain approach than the CR approach, as it takes into account the effect of site; it also gives a scientifically based extrapolation approach. We demonstrate the approach using the examples of Cs for plants and Pb for terrestrial wildlife. This is the first published application of the REML approach to terrestrial wildlife (previous applications being limited to the consideration of plants). The model presented gives reasonable predictions for a blind test dataset

Gas generation and wind power: A review of unlikely allies in the United Kingdom and Ireland

No single solution currently exists to achieve the utopian desire of zero fossil fuel electricity generation. Until such time, it is evident that the energy mix will contain a large variation in stochastic and intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind power. The increasing prominence of wind power in pursuit of legally binding European energy targets enables policy makers and conventional generating companies to plan for the unique challenges such a natural resource presents. This drive for wind has been highly beneficial in terms of security of energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it has created an unusual ally in natural gas. This paper outlines the suitability and challenges faced by gas generating units in their utilisation as key assets for renewable energy integration and the transition to a low carbon future. The Single Electricity Market of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the British Electricity Transmission Trading Agreement Market are the backdrop to this analysis. Both of these energy markets have a reliance on gas generation matching the proliferation of wind power. The unlikely and mostly ignored relationship between natural gas generation and wind power due to policy decisions and market forces is the necessity of gas to act as a bridging fuel. This review finds gas generation to be crucially important to the continued growth of renewable energy. Additionally, it is suggested that power market design should adequately reward the flexibility required to securely operate a power system with high penetrations of renewable energy, which in most cases is provided by gas generation

Firm-level technology transfer and technology cooperation for wind energy between Europe, China and India: From North–South to South–North cooperation?

For several decades the leading wind energy nations were European, while China and India were mainly the recipients of technology transfer. This paper aims to explore the role technology transfer/cooperation from Europe played in shaping firm-level wind energy technologies in China and India and to discuss whether the recent technology cooperation between the Chinese, Indian, and European wind firms challenges the classical North–South technology cooperation paradigm. The research finds that firm-level technology transfer/cooperation shaped the leading wind energy technologies in China and to a lesser extent in India. The paper also finds that several trends towards South–North technology cooperation have been observed between China, India and Europe, such as South–North flows of capital, drivers for market access, and R&amp;D leadership, while the origins of innovation (e.g. patents) seem to remain predominantly in the global North. The paper concludes that the technology cooperation between China, India, and Europe has become more multi-faceted and increasingly Southern-led

Taming the 'masculine pioneers'? Changing attitudes towards energy efficiency amongst private landlords and tenants in New Zealand: A case study of Dunedin

New Zealand's housing is some of the poorest quality and hardest to heat in the developed world. The private rented sector in particular offers the worst quality accommodation to the country's poorest and most vulnerable tenants. Previous research has established a range of economic and socio-cultural explanations for the prevalence of poor conditions in private rented accommodation with the 'principal-agent problem' dominating the debate. This paper reports the findings from research in Dunedin, a city with some of the coldest conditions and least energy efficient properties in the country. The study was undertaken in 2015 and involved 30 in-depth interviews with landlords exploring their attitudes towards improving the thermal performance and energy efficiency of their properties. The results revealed a shift in attitudes amongst landlords over a period of about 5 years, with many becoming more amenable to investing in insulation and low energy heat sources. This shift has ostensibly been driven by pressure from tenants who appear to be departing from established cultural norms and becoming intolerant of cold homes and high bills. The study highlights how socio-cultural factors, such as growing expectations regarding warmth and comfort in the home, can disrupt established cultural norms and economic rationales to bring about change