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Iranians mull new nuclear power stations

Iran’s top atomic energy official, Ali Akbar Salehi , said he asked the federal government to make room in next year’s budget for new nuclear power plants. Salehi said he issued a request for funding to President Hassan Rouhani after lawmakers called on the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to lay the groundwork for more nuclear power. “Our new nuclear plants will be built at the site of the Bushehr nuclear [power] plant,” he was quoted as saying Sunday by Iranian broadcaster Press TV. Russia supplies fuel for the Bushehr plant, which went into service last year. Salehi said additions to the nuclear power sector could add another 20,000 megawatts of electricity to the Iranian grid. Salehi gave no indication of the funding needed to build the new facilities. Under the terms of the nuclear deal reached with Western powers last month, Iran can […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Company security forces thwart Iran pipeline attack plot

The governor of Iran’s southern Abadan province said an oil company’s security forces halted a plot to bomb a pipeline. The security forces “vigilantly discovered and thwarted a bombing plot against Abadan-Mahshahr oil pipeline on Saturday evening,” Gov. Bahram Ilkhaszadeh told the semiofficial Fars News Agency. Fars provided no further details about the incident in its report Sunday. A refinery associated with the pipeline was the target of an insurgent attack in 2005, Fars said. Abadan province is near the Persian Gulf. Zumba instructor Alexis Wright gets out of jail early Exploding whale video goes viral on Internet Josh Romney lifts accident victims to safety [PHOTO] Man arrested after woman catches him masturbating in Walmart bathroom Giada De Laurentiis slices finger on live Food Network broadcast Zumba instructor Alexis Wright gets out of jail early Exploding whale video goes viral on Internet Katherine Webb […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shanghai suffers another morning of heavy air pollution

Shanghai continued to suffer smoggy weather this morning with the air quality index stayed at 246 by 9am today. The city’s air has been in the several polluted zone since yesterday, the worst day for air pollution since the index was launched last December. PM2.5 density stayed above 160 micrograms per cubic meter by 8am, double the national limit of 75. PM2.5 refers to airborne particles which are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. They are the main cause of urban smog and are harmful to human health. Pedestrians put on masks to avoid the particles that can cause lung or cardiopulmonary health problems. The Shanghai Education Commission issued a directive to schools before classes began that they should reduce outdoor activities. A second notice in the morning ordered a halt to outdoor activities. Students who were late or absent yesterday and today would […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Says Can Export Extra 1 Million Bpd Next Year

Iraq is planning to lift oil output by more than a million barrels a day to over 4 million bpd in 2014, in what would be the country’s biggest oil supply increase since the fall of Saddam Hussein a decade ago. Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said Iraq planned to lift exports to 3.4 million barrels daily, including 400,000 bpd from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. With domestic consumption running at about 700,000 bpd that would take total Iraqi supply above 4 million bpd, up from just below 3 million bpd now. That scale of production increase would raise the pressure on others in OPEC, chiefly Saudi Arabia, to curb supply to prevent oil prices falling. But industry experts and oil company executives working on Iraqi oilfield development say a 4 million bpd output target looks very unlikely to be achieved next year. They […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds Forge a Risky Oil Deal With Turkey

The autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said it agreed to supply Turkey with oil through a pipeline in a landmark deal that raised tensions with Baghdad, which fears the move could spark independence drives by other Iraqi governorates. But the Monday announcement here, in the region’s capital, was tempered by Baghdad’s refusal to approve the deal, which it considers illegal. As a result, Kurdish officials didn’t begin shipping pipeline oil, as observers had expected, and Turkey pledged to organize trilateral talks between Erbil, Baghdad and Ankara to resolve the issue. The tensions go to the heart of the disagreement between Kurdistan, a relatively prosperous and stable province, and Baghdad, where sectarian violence has soared in recent months as the central government strives to maintain control over restless regions. Iraq’s ties with Turkey have also frayed, as Shiite Muslim-led Baghdad accused Ankara of meddling in its internal affairs by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Attackers target Syrian natural gas infrastructure

Attacks on natural gas facilities in Syria caused a substantial loss in daily energy supplies, a petroleum ministry official said. The official in the Syrian Petroleum Ministry told the Syrian Arab News Agency terrorists attacked a natural gas pipeline that links Homs, a city in western Syria, to Deir Ezzor province, in the east. SANA said Sunday the attack cut off the supply of 194 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. A separate attack on a natural gas field in Palmyra, in central Syria, led to the loss of 70 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The ministry source said the government restricted the use of electricity to cope with the natural gas shortage. SANA reported work was under way to repair damage from the attacks “as soon as possible.” Last week, city officials in Homs said terrorists attacked […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple