Energy Blast – Jan 4, 2011

Iran has confirmed that it has invited International Atomic Energy Agency ambassadors to tour nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic.  Tehran reportedly dispatched invites to Russia, China and a handful of EU member states, leaving the US ‘pointedly snubbed’.  Apparently Chinese scientists have harnessed the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, which could increase the country’s supply of carbon-free electricity.  ‘All our actions and decisions are informed by the principle of sustainability’, says Siemens in its 2010 report, though, as a New York Times article points out, the wind energy sector is also a profitable one it would seem.  Anna Applebaum has an incisive piece on the major reason why Medvedev’s language of political reform has fallen by the wayside of late: Russia’s abundance of crude oil.