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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bull_dozer who wrote (199882)	6/27/2023 10:28:28 PM
From: TobagoJack	1 Recommendation Recommended By marcher Respond to of 217732

Re <<"Because of large deficits the U.S. Treasury will have to sell a lot of debt and it appears there will not be adequate demand for it. If that happens, it will lead to either much higher interest rates or the Fed printing a lot of money." ->> Yellen shall soon land in Beijing let us hope she is far more successful than Blinken was a few days ago in Beijing

To: bull_dozer who wrote (199882)	6/28/2023 7:58:18 AM
From: Julius Wong	1 Recommendation Recommended By marcher Respond to of 217732

To: bull_dozer who wrote (199882)	6/28/2023 8:51:59 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217732

Bullish uranium and uranium processing, and given playing arena, am guessing inflation coming no matter what, of the structural sort, which means bullish gold, even as perhaps bullish interest rate OTOH / OTOH (scroll way below for OTTH) t.me economist.com America aims for nuclear-power renaissance The Biden administration is pouring billions into the industry. The payoff isn’t certain Jun 25th 2023 AFTER THE second world war, America’s newly created Atomic Energy Commission was on the hunt for a remote site where engineers could work out how to turn the raw, world-altering power contained in a nuclear bomb into electricity. They settled on the desert shrubland of south-eastern Idaho. Towns in the area fell over themselves to compete for the headquarters of the reactor test site, viewing it as a catalyst for growth. Idaho Falls, then a city of 19,000, launched what it called “the party plan”. Locals wooed officials at lunches, cocktail parties and tours of the city. The guest lists always included women who were “as winsome as possible” to make the town seem attractive to the (male) engineer in charge of choosing. The party plan worked. Nearly 75 years later, Idaho Falls (with a population of 67,000) remains home to the test site’s successor and the centre of nuclear-power research in the United States: the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Today, America’s nuclear-power industry is partying again. Nuclear is a carbon-free alternative to other sources of steady baseload power, such as coal and natural gas. Nuclear reactors are much smaller than wind or solar farms, which sprawl across landscapes and attract legal challenges from groups with different visions of how the land should be used. The need to decarbonise electric grids to limit greenhouse-gas emissions has spurred liberals, historically wary of nuclear power’s toxic-waste problem, to rethink their stance. In America, 46% of Democrats favour using nuclear energy for electricity, the highest proportion in a decade. Republicans have long approved of the technology. But the biggest reason the nuclear sector is popping champagne is the billions of dollars the Biden administration is pumping into nuclear development via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which made nuclear power eligible for the same tax credits as renewables like wind and solar; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which created a $6bn fund to help keep existing plants running. The Biden administration is even offering developers a bonus tax break if they build reactors in fossil-fuel areas, such as a coal-mining town, to funnel workers into green jobs, a core tenet of Joe Biden’s industrial policy. Nuclear’s green makeover, and all of the federal cash on offer, have its boosters predicting an atomic renaissance after decades in the dark ages. Nuclear power currently provides about 19% of America’s electricity generation, but at least 13 reactors have been shut down since 2013 alone. California had planned to shutter its last remaining nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, which provides 9% of the state’s power. It is now using a $1.1bn grant from the infrastructure law to try to extend the plant’s life. West Virginia repealed a ban on new reactors. Bill Gates, who founded TerraPower, a nuclear startup, has expressed interest in building a plant there. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), a lobby group, counts 12 states that passed laws in 2022 to help keep existing plants running, and attract new ones. The Department of Energy (DoE) is praying that the party turns into a fully fledged rager. A recent report from the DoE suggests that America could triple its nuclear-power generation, to 300 gigawatts, by 2050, the year by which the Biden administration has pledged to reach net-zero emissions. This push would be driven by the development of new advanced reactors that the DoE is helping to fund. But three massive difficulties could dampen the mood. The first is cost. Because their designs are so technical and take years to get approved, nuclear plants are extremely expensive to build. The DoE reckons that nuclear reactors need to cost about $3,600 per kilowatt to be built quickly around the country. But first-of-their-kind reactors are costing anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 per kilowatt. NuScale, a startup building a small modular reactor on INL’s campus, recently said the cost of its project would surge by 75%, to $9.3bn, due to inflation and higher interest rates. The second question bedevilling some nuclear startups is where they are going to get fuel. Before the uranium from mines can be plugged into a reactor, it needs to be processed. Russia dominates uranium processing, and is the world’s only commercial supplier of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU). Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, American lawmakers and executives have felt queasy about continuing to buy Russian uranium. Republicans in Congress have introduced several bills to reduce imports. But TerraPower needs HALEU for the reactor it is planning to build in a coal town in Wyoming. In December the firm said the plant would be delayed by at least two years for lack of fuel. The DoE is scrambling to provide firms with an alternative, and plans to release a national uranium strategy this year. Add to that the dilemma over what to do about spent fuel. Nevadans remain wary that the federal government will force them to accept the country’s uranium waste at Yucca Mountain, where an underground repository was long planned. Instead Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, said this month that the agency will spend $26m to search for communities willing to host the waste until the government can find a permanent solution. But even a temporary home could take up to 15 years to build. Third, officials are worried about finding enough workers to build and operate new nuclear plants. The DoE reckons that America will need an extra 375,000 workers to meet its 2050 target. “The very near term is going to require the skilled trades: electricians, metal workers, fabricators, construction,” says Kathryn Huff, the head of the DoE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. The need for reactor operators and nuclear engineers will come later. It’s an exciting prospect for a president hell bent on reviving American manufacturing. “Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back…This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” said Mr Biden in his most recent state-of-the-union speech. But in a tight labour market it’s unclear where all those workers will come from. Ask officials and industry people, and the success of American nuclear energy is not just crucial for tackling climate change, but also for national security. America is competing with Russia and China to be the world’s supplier of advanced nuclear technology. Of the 40 reactors under construction since 2015 that use Russian technology, 27 are outside Russia’s borders, according to NEI. China has more reactors under construction than any other country (see chart). America’s State Department has partnered with more than a dozen countries to help them fund and develop nuclear-energy programmes, and, eventually, small modular reactors. Let’s get this party started The next decade is crucial: four small modular reactors are scheduled to come online by 2030. That may seem far away, but cost overruns, delays in permitting and fuel shortages can easily halt construction. The fate of NuScale’s Idaho plant may be decided this year. The electricity wholesaler in Utah that is developing the reactor with the startup wants its customers, which are small towns in the region, lined up to buy 80% of the plant’s power by the end of the year. It is currently at 26%. If it can’t hit the target, says Mason Baker, the wholesaler’s chief executive, “we’re able to terminate the project”. There hasn’t been this much excitement around nuclear energy since Idaho’s towns were competing for the country’s first reactor test site in 1949. But sceptics have heard industry leaders crow about a nuclear renaissance before, only for it never to materialise. “We’re now on the fourth or fifth nuclear renaissance,” warns David Schlissel, of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The party planning isn’t premature; there might yet be reason to celebrate. But the bubbly should probably be kept on ice.¦ OTTH china russia nuclear cooperation

To: bull_dozer who wrote (199882)	6/29/2023 3:49:37 AM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 217732

Re <<"Because of large deficits the U.S. Treasury will have to sell a lot of debt and it appears there will not be adequate demand for it. If that happens, it will lead to either much higher interest rates or the Fed printing a lot of money." ->> geopolitics / politics aside, and human tragedies intolerable, the base metal mining looking bullish Advisably Nato, if honourable and responsible, should go all-out all-in and soonest, whilst there are still semblance of infrastructure to support all-out all-in, forbes.com Tokmachka Was Worst Than We Thought David Axe Forbes Staff I write about ships, planes, tanks, drones, missiles and satellites. Follow Jun 27, 2023,06:10pm EDT The aftermath of the June 8 assault south of Mala Tokmachka. VIA SOCIAL MEDIA An attempt by the Ukrainian army’s 47th Assault Brigade and 33rd Mechanized Brigade to cross a minefield in southern Ukraine on June 8 was even more disastrous than we knew. Analysts recently have tallied even more wrecked and abandoned 47th Brigade M-2 infantry fighting vehicles. At the same time, a Ukrainian photographer on or before Saturday got close enough to the site of the failed assault to snap photos of the Russian minefield that trapped the Ukrainian battlegroup, ultimately destroying dozens of 47th and 33rd Brigades’ best Western-made vehicles and killing or wounding many Ukrainians. Ukraine’s widely-anticipated 2023 counteroffensive was just four days old when the 47th-33rd battlegroup rolled south from Mala Tokmachka in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Their objective: the Russian strongpoint in the town of Robotyne, five miles to the south along the T0408 road and parallel dirt tracks. If the Ukrainians can break through Russian lines in Robotyne, they can advance on Tokmak, 12 miles farther south. If they can break through Russian lines in Tokmak, they can make a go at Melitopol, 25 miles away along the T0401. Liberating Melitopol would cut in half the Russian force in southern Ukraine. The Russians are well aware of the importance of the Robotyne-Tokmak-Melitopol axis. Two motor-rifle regiments, the 70th and 291st, have dug in north of Robotyne alongside a pair of Spetznaz special-forces brigades and some reservists. Russian air force helicopters patrol overhead. And then there are the mines, including hundreds or even thousands of TM-62s. The 21-pound TM-62 is your traditional mine: a big metal disk, packed with explosives and fitted with one of several fuze types. The pressure fuze might be the most popular. Engineers bury TM-62s by hand or speed up the operation by deploying a GMZ minelaying vehicle. There’s nothing fancy about a pressure-fuze TM-62. But there doesn’t have to be when you lay them as densely as Russian engineers clearly did south of Mala Tokmachka. The recent photos of the old battlefield depict unexploded TM-62s lying just a few feet apart in the minefield equivalent of a thick carpet. Russian scouts spotted the 47th-33rd Brigade battlegroup approaching Robotyne on June 8 and called in Kamov attack helicopters that plucked at the Ukrainian column with anti-tank missiles. But it was the mines that did in the 33rd and 47th Brigades. The 47th Brigade’s ex-Finnish Leopard 2R mineclearing vehicles led the way, assisted by at least one German-made Wisent mineclearer possibly belonging to the 33rd Brigade. The mineclearing vehicles plowed up some of the mines, clearing a few lanes partially through the minefield. 47th Brigade M-2s and MaxxPro armored trucks—all donated by the United States—followed close behind. But the British-made plows on the Leopard 2Rs and Wisent clearly missed more than a few mines. Three Leopard 2Rs and a Wisent struck mines, as did several M-2s. Trapped and under fire, the battlegroup fell apart. Crews bailed out of their disabled vehicles, dragging their dead and wounded with them. A rescue force riding in M-2s scooped up many of the survivors. 📷Destroyed Ukrainian Leopard 2A6, M2 Bradley and abandoned Leopard 2A6 in #Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The losses were already seen before, just not in this detail. The area seems to be under Ukrainian control now.#UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/h6RRHfOAoi — MilitaryLand.net (@Militarylandnet) June 24, 2023 In the hours after the retreat, 47th Brigade chief master sergeant Valerii Markus went on social media to tell critics to “shut your mouths.” The smoke cleared to reveal no fewer than 25 wrecked Ukrainian vehicles: 17 M-2s, four Leopard 2A6 tanks, three Leopard 2Rs and one Wisent. To outside observers, the losses initially seemed lighter. But over the next two weeks, analysts scrutinized drone videos and snapshots from the ground and steadily added to the list. Losing one Wisent isn’t that big of a deal for the Ukrainian army: it has dozens of the vehicles. But the Ukrainians initially received just a hundred of the versatile M-2s and 21 of the high-tech Leopard 2A6s with their far-firing 55-caliber cannons. And Finland gave Ukraine all six of the Leopard 2Rs. In a bloody hour or two, the 47th-33rd Brigade battlegroup lost nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s M-2s, a fifth of its Leopard 2A6s and half its Leopard 2Rs. The United States promptly pledged more than enough extra M-2s to make good the June 8 losses, but Ukraine’s European allies have yet to pony up more Leopard 2A6s. And there literally aren’t any more Leopard 2Rs. Despite losing the equivalent of an entire battalion in a single botched assault—that’s roughly 15 percent of the combined front-line strength of two brigades—the 33rd and 47th Brigades apparently remain intact ... and still are in the fight. On Monday, Markus posted a selfie from a recent firefight. The disaster of June 8 slowed but didn’t halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive along this sector. That a Ukrainian photographer safely could reach the site of the minefield debacle speaks to the slow progress Kyiv’s troops have made south of Mala Tokmachka. The analysts with the independent Conflict Intelligence Team speculated that some of the derelict Leopard 2s and M-2s in the area might not be total write-offs. “It is possible to evacuate these military vehicles,” CIT stated. But the recent photos underscore the extent of the damage. One abandoned Leopard 2A6s is scorched and rusting. At least one of the M-2s lost its turret. And many of the mines still are there. Ukrainian forces would have to secure the area, throw up an air-defense umbrella and clear the mines before they could begin towing away the wrecked vehicles. The effort, and risk, might not be worth the prize: a handful of damaged vehicles that would require weeks if not months of work to restore. There’s no denying the June 8 battle south of Mala Tokmachka was a disaster for the Ukrainian army.