EU effect: Exporting emission standards for vehicles through the global market economy.

Emission data from EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research), rather than economic data, are used to estimate the effect of policies and of the global exports of policy-regulated goods, such as vehicles, on global emissions. The results clearly show that the adoption of emission standards for the road transport sector in the two main global markets (Europe and North America) has led to the global proliferation of emission-regulated vehicles through exports, regardless the domestic regulation in the country of destination. It is in fact more economically convenient for vehicle manufacturers to produce and sell a standard product to the widest possible market and in the greatest possible amounts. The EU effect (European Union effect) is introduced as a global counterpart to the California effect. The former is a direct consequence of the penetration of the EURO standards in the global markets by European and Japanese manufacturers, which effectively export the standard worldwide. We analyze the effect on PM2.5 emissions by comparing a scenario of non-EURO standards against the current estimates provided by EDGAR. We find that PM2.5 emissions were reduced by more than 60% since the 1990s worldwide. Similar investigations on other pollutants confirm the hypothesis that the combined effect of technological regulations and their diffusion through global markets can also produce a positive effect on the global environment. While we acknowledge the positive feedback, we also demonstrate that current efforts and standards will be totally insufficient should the passenger car fleets in emerging markets reach Western per capita figures. If emerging countries reach the per capita vehicle number of the USA and Europe under current technological conditions, then the world will suffer pre-1990 emission levels.

Contributing to shipping container security: can passive sensors bring a solution?

Illicit trafficking of fissionable material in container cargoes is recognized as a potential weakness in Nuclear Security. Triggered by the attacks of 11 September 2001, measures were undertaken to enhance maritime security in extension to the Safety Of Life At Sea Convention and in line with the US Container Security Initiatives. Effective detection techniques are needed that allow the inspector to intercept illicit trafficking of nuclear weapons components or components of other nuclear explosive devices. Many security measures focus on active interrogation of the container content by X-ray scan, which might be extended with the newly developed tagged neutron inspection system. Both active interrogation techniques can, with the current huge volume of container traffic, only be applied to a limited number of selected containers. The question arises whether a passive detection technique can offer an alternative solution. This study investigates if containers equipped with a small passive detector will register during transport the neutron irradiation by fissionable material such as plutonium in a measurable way. In practice, 4/5 of the containers are about 1/8 filled with hydrogenous material and undergo a typical 2 months route. For this reference case, it was found that the most compatible passive detector would be an activation foil of iridium. Monte-Carlo simulations showed that for the reference case the activity of a 250 microm thin foil with 6 cm(2) cross-section would register 1.2 Bq when it is irradiated by a significant quantity of Reactor-Grade PuO(2). However this activity drops with almost two orders of magnitude for other fillings and other isotopic compositions and forms of the Pu-source. The procedure of selecting the target material for Pu detection is detailed with the theoretical methods, in order to be useful for other applications. Moreover the value of such additional passive sensors for securing maritime container transport is situated within the global framework of the First, Second and Third Line of Defense against illicit trafficking.

An alternative description of the interfacial energy of a liquid in contact with a solid.

Aqueous solutions and liquid metals in contact with other phases or components experience strong Coulomb forces at their interfaces. The interfacial energy of such liquids facing solid walls is given by the sum of the free surface energy of the liquid and the electrostatic energy of the diffusive electric double layer due to the wall surface charge density. As a consequence, the interfacial stress of the liquid at the wall appears to be an anisotropic stress tensor, which has a stress component of opposite sign normal to the surface, compared with its two components parallel to the surface. This alternative description of the interfacial energy makes it possible to predict static contact angles, once the wall surface charge density is known. This paper investigates the relationship between the long-range Coulomb effects in the ionic solution and the interfacial energy, and concentrates on experiments in which other surface effects are minimized and in which chemical reactions at the surface are absent or frozen. Data for water and mercury, as an example, fit well if the same surface charge density of the wall is assumed in both cases. As an application to micro fluid dynamics, the electroosmotic mobility, the streaming current, or the pressure drop of a flow through a microchannel can be predicted only from contact angle measurements done.