Economic risks of Jordan's nuclear program
Abstract Jordan has recently embarked on establishing a nuclear program in the hope that it would resolve its energy security problems, meet its increasing demand of electricity and promote economic growth through localization. This paper examines the economic risks and challenges associated with Jordan's nuclear program. It is based on a comparative cost analysis and interviews conducted with current and former Jordanian policy makers. Economically, nuclear power represents a high-risk option for Jordan as it involves three potentially costly scenarios of varying impact: project cancellation, unplanned outages and the declining costs of renewable technologies, particularly solar power. The paper also highlights other challenges facing Jordan in its pursuit of nuclear power such as opaque decision-making process and the need for an independent and competent nuclear regulatory body.
Iran and multinational enrichment in the Middle East
ABSTRACT As implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal begins, five other states in the Middle East are moving forward with civilian nuclear power programs. While most of these programs involve contracts with foreign vendors to provide reactors and the low-enriched uranium to fuel them, some states may want to follow Iran’s example and develop their own uranium enrichment programs, giving them a potential nuclear weapons capability. The authors assess the uranium enrichment capacity needed to fuel planned nuclear programs in the Middle East and support the idea of using the next decade to convert Iran’s Natanz national enrichment plant to a multinational one – in partnership with one or more of the international parties to the Iran nuclear deal and some of Iran’s neighbors. Such an arrangement could help maintain the transparency of Iran’s program after restrictions on it expire, thereby easing tensions between Iran and other regional powers. This confidence-building measure could create a political context within which other Middle Eastern states forgo acquiring their own national enrichment programs and begin a worldwide movement away from such programs in favor of more proliferation-resistant multinational arrangements.
Mechanics of deformable directed surfaces
Abstract The paper develops a simple, yet complete and consistent non-linear dynamic thermo-elastic shell theory based on the concepts of a two-dimensional directed continuum. The constitutive equations are postulated in a general form. Stress-strain relations are derived using the equation of energy balance and the two entropy production inequalities, which are rewritten in a special form. The linear theory is discussed in detail. The structure of the stress-strain relations is presented in the most general form and then specialized to concrete examples, in particular, to the classical shell theory, using their invariance properties with respective to certain symmetry groups. The elastic moduli are determined by demanding the coincidence of the frequency dispersion surfaces obtained using the two-dimensional theory with the lowest foils of the corresponding surfaces resulting from the three-dimensional theory of elasticity.