Nuclear, Oil-Rich Venezuela?

2008 Sep 29
Submitted by Timmahh
Tags:
What possible energy-related reason could nations like Iran and Venezuela have for going nuclear? They are two of the world's largest producers of oil, yet insist that they "need" nuclear power for peaceful energy purposes. Color me skeptical.

And they're doing it with help from an old adversary: the not-dead-yet Soviet remnants in Moscow. Something must be done to push back the Russian bear and curtail the growing nuclear threat. Chavez may have lost the referendum to become president-for-life but that doesn't mean the Castro-admiring strongman doesn't still intend to become just that.

Comments

    Chavez will go bankrupt?

    On October 13th, 2008 Borman says:
    Saw an item today that explains how Chavez may well have set up his country for massive economic failure in the very near future. He's been "bartering" oil to nations he prefers (read: not the US) in exchange for returns that are way below value, with the balance to be paid in low-interest payments over the next 32 years. The only nation buying lots of oil from him at market price is (irony of ironies) the U.S. Now that the price per barrel has dropped so far he's not getting as much per barrel from the U.S. and hasn't been getting much from other countries to begin with. The diminished returns is compounded by a drop in productivity, due to new and increasing corruption and inefficiency, from 3.2 million barrels per year when he took power in 1998 to 2.4 million today.

    So... reduced output, very poor management, dropping prices, and populist Marxist economic policies... it all adds up to a looming financial disaster in a country far less able to absorb it than the U.S.