[en] From an administrative and economical perspective the present method of allocation in the European emissions trading system for greenhouse gases is discussed. In particular, attention is paid to the distribution of the emission rights over the businesses and the related current and future legal and economical problems

[en] This contribution discusses inspection with regard to emissions trading. It focuses on the EU greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme. The core rule of emissions trading is that industries need to cover their emissions with tradable emission rights. There are several options for the government to distribute those rights, basically through a free allocation or an auction. The need to cover emissions with a tradable right gives a financial incentive to firms to choose for the reduction of emissions, of course related to the market price of the tradable right. This price-incentive at the same time urges governments to put in place a sound enforcement approach. One of the characteristics of current emissions trading schemes is that they heavily rely on self-monitoring duties. Nevertheless, the ultimate responsibility to inspect rests on the government. However, with the introduction of emissions trading a remarkable shift takes place: instead of the more traditional control of the actual behaviour of industries, inspection by the government ranges under the greenhouse gas emissions-trading instrument much more towards the control of self-monitoring activities. The use of verifiers within the EU greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme is in this respect a unique new provision, but at the same time raises many practical and fundamental questions.

[en] The irradiation programme EXOTIC (EXtraction Of Tritium In Ceramics) is carried out within the European framework for the development of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed concept. The EXOTIC-9/1 is the latest experiment in the series of EXOTICs, that are irradiated in the High Flux Reactor, Petten. Tritium release and inventory in lithium containing ceramic pebbles are key properties in the design of a TBM. New production routes of pebbles are developed, leading to different thermomechanical and tritium release properties. The objective of the EXOTIC-9/1 is to study in-pile tritium release behaviour of the latest developed lithium titanate pebbles (Li₂TiO₃). The pebbles are produced by a sol gel process at CEA. The new pebbles differ with respect to porosity from the Lithium titanate materials tested in the previous EXOTIC 8 programme. The pebbles have diameter in the range from 0.6 to 0.8 mm. Irradiation of EXOTC-9/1 started at 24 March 2005, and will continue until the end of 2006, in total about 400 irradiation days. The temperature is varied between 340 and 580 ^oC. Begin of Life (BOL) tritium production rate is 0.56 mCi/min. In this paper the in-pile tritium behaviour will be reported during normal operation and during transients in temperature, purge gas chemistry and gas flow. The collected data is compared to tritium release data from ceramics irradiated in previous EXOTIC experiments with respect to tritium inventory, residence time and porosity. (author)

[en] The study on the intention to introduce emissions trading on a European Union level was conducted on the basis of the following three questions: Which methods can be used (by the Member States) to distribute the tradable emissions rights en which legal preconditions should be observed considering the EU-Treaty and the relevant directive proposal? Whenever necessary and possible international agreements on climate change and international trade law will be mentioned. Which safeguards are available for fair competition and which system of emissions trading is advisable in this perspective? How should the PSR (performance standard rate) system, which is preferred by industry, be valued? The structure of this study is as follows: in chapter 2 insight is given into the various methods that can be used to start an emissions trading system, i.e. the way tradable pollution rights are distributed (initial allocation). Chapter 3 will further examine the system of the initial allocation of pollution rights as it has been chosen in the proposal for the European directive. The aim is to give an exact qualification of the method of emissions trading, especially the method of initial allocation, that is used in the directive proposal. Chapter 4 examines whether safeguards are available to prevent competition distortions between firms that fall under the scope of the emissions trading scheme. Special attention will be given to conditions that result from the EU-Treaty in this context, such as the prohibition of state aid. In this chapter the international trade law will be dealt with as well. Chapter 5 will present an executive summary and the specific question whether the PSR-system is legally acceptable or maybe even recommendable, will be answered

[en] In the framework of developing the European Helium Cooled Pebble-Bed (HCPB) blanket an irradiation test of pebble-bed assemblies is performed in the HFR Petten. The experiment is focused on the thermo-mechanical behavior of the HCPB type breeder pebble-bed at DEMO representative levels of temperature and defined thermal-mechanical loads. To achieve representative conditions a section of the HCPB is simulated by EUROFER-97 cylinders with a horizontal bed of ceramic breeder pebbles sandwiched between two beryllium beds. Floating Eurofer-97 steel plates separate the pebble-beds. The structural integrity of the ceramic breeder materials is an issue for the design of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed concept. Therefore the objective of the post irradiation examination is to study deformation of pebbles and the pebble beds and to investigate the microstructure of the ceramic pebbles from the Pebble Bed Assemblies. This paper concentrates on the Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) of the four ceramic pebble beds that have been irradiated in the Pebble Bed Assembly experiment for the HCPB blanket concept. Two assemblies with Li₄SiO₄ pebble-beds are operated at different maximum temperatures of approximately 600 ^oC and 800 ^oC. Post irradiation computational analysis has shown that both have different creep deformation. Two other assemblies have been loaded with a ceramic breeder bed of two types of Li₂TiO₃ beds having different sintering temperatures and consequently different creep behavior. The irradiation maximum temperature of the Li₂TiO₃ was 800^_oC. To support the first PIE result, the post irradiation thermal analysis will be discussed because thermal gradients have influence on the pebble-bed thermo-mechanical behavior and as a result it may have impact on the structural integrity of the ceramic breeder materials. (author)

[en] The development of laws to control the climate change problem has only just begun. The Netherlands, too, has legal measures for controlling this problem and first jurisprudence has developed. The working group 'Climate change and development of laws', which was set up by the Dutch Society for Environmental Law, has thoroughly examined the legal side of climate change. This resulted in a preliminary advice in which international and European legislative developments, various aspects of emission trading and its international variant are discussed. Moreover, national and international water management in relation to the consequences of climate change are also examined. (mk)

[en] Evaluation of severe functional gastrointestinal motility disorders requires an investigation of the entire gastrointestinal tract. This should be possible with a single radionuclide imaging study. The purpose of this study was (1) to define normal values of small-bowel transit in men and women and (2) to assess a possible difference between gender or test meal, since it has been shown that women have slower gastric emptying than men, and gastric emptying of solids is slower than liquids. A standard gastric-emptying test for a solid (technetium-99m sulphur colloids, 230 Kcal) and liquid (indium-111 DTPA water) test meal was performed in 12 healthy male and 12 healthy female volunteers. After 135 min, the volunteer was place in the supine position for static imaging of the abdomen every 15 min for 6 h. Decay and crossover-corrected geometric mean gastric-emptying data were fit to a modified power exponential function to determine the 10% stomach emptying time for solids and liquids separately. An ROI was drawn around the caecum and ascending colon to determine the arrival time of at least 10% of the solid and liquid test meal. Ten percent small-bowel transit time (10% SBTT) and orocaecal transit time (OCTT) were calculated. The OCTT for males and females, respectively for solids and liquids, are 294.6±18.8; 301.3±24.5; 294.6±18.8 and 301.3±24.5 min. The 10% SBTT for males and females, respectively for solids and liquids, are 280.3±18.4; 280.6±24.0; 288.2±18.9 and 297.4±24.4 (means±SEM) min. We observed a simultaneous transfer of solids and liquids from the terminal ileum to caecum (correlation coefficient 0.90). There is no statistically significant difference in SBTT between gender or solids and liquids. In contrast to the gastric-emptying time, the SBTT of solids and liquids were not significantly different nor was a gender difference found. Determination of the OCTT seems to be the simplest and most accurate approach to measure SBTT. Since ileocaecal transfer occurs as a bolus phenomenon, a ¹¹¹In-labelled test meal can also be used for the determination of colon transit in a single imaging study protocol. (orig.)

[en] There is increasing evidence of gender-related differences in gastric emptying. The purpose of this study was first, to confirm the difference in gastric emptying for both solid and liquid test meals between healthy men and women, and secondly, to investigate the origin of this difference by studying regional gastric emptying and antral motility. A standard gastric emptying test with additional compartmental (proximal and distal) evaluation and dynamic imaging of the antrum was performed in 20 healthy women studied during the first 10 days of the menstrual cycle, and in 31 healthy age-matched men. In concordance with previous reports, women had a longer half-emptying time for solids as compared to men (86.2±5.1 vs 52.2±2.9 min, P<0.05). In our observations this seemed to be related to a significantly prolonged lag phase and a significant decrease in terminal slope. Dynamical antral scintigraphy did not show a significant difference. The distribution of the test meal within the stomach (proximal vs distal) showed more early proximal retention in women as compared to men. The terminal slope of the distal stomach was significantly lower in women. We did not observe a significant difference in gastric emptying of the liquid test meal between men and women. Gastric emptying of solids is significantly slower in healthy women as compared to men. These findings emphasise the importance of using different normal values for clinical and research purposes in gastric emptying scintigraphy in men and women. The difference could not be explained by antral motility alone. Increased proximal retention and a lower terminal emptying rate in women are observations to be further investigated. (orig.)

[en] Neither regional nor systemic chemotherapy significantly improve survival in the majority of patients presenting with liver metastases and their median survival is short. While the incidence of hepatocellular (HCC) is increasingly worldwide, the various treatment approaches that h ve been developed to treat non-resectable HCC have had minimal or moderate impact on overall survival. Sir-Spheres (Sirs) are commercially available 9^0Y-labelled resin microspheres that when selectively injected via the hepatic artery will become trapped in the tumor capillary bed and will selectively deliver radiation to the tumor whilst sparing normal tissue. In this manuscript, the available literature on the use of Sirs in the clinic is summarized. First, available, predominantly phase I and II studies, on Sirs treatment performed in patients suffering from liver metastases as well as in patients suffering from multi nodular asymptomatic unresectable HCC with a well preserved liver function have consistently reported a favourable safety profile for Sirs therapy; only a limited number of patients develop gastrointestinal ulceration or bleeding. Second, most of the studies also reported a high response rate to Sirs treatment resulting in increased life expectancy; median survival rates proved consistently higher when compared to historical controls. Finally, in two randomized controlled phase III trials, benefits were demonstrated for Sirs combined with chemotherapy when compared to the chemo-arm alone in patients suffering from colorectal liver metastasis. However, since these reports, novel, potentially more effective chemotherapeutics have been introduced for treating colorectal liver metastasis and the clinical value of 9^0Y-Sir spheres when compared to these novel chemotherapeutics warrants confirmation and validation.

[en] A dynamic load and stress analysis of a wind turbine is carried out using transient fluid-structure interaction simulations. On the structural side, the three 50 m long commercial glass-fiber epoxy blades are modelled using shell elements, accurately including the properties of the composite materials. On the fluid side, a hexahedral mesh is obtained for every blade and for the hub of the machine. These meshes are then overlaid to a structured background mesh through an overset technique. The displacements prescribed by the structural solver are imposed on top of the rigid rotation of the turbine. The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is included using the k-epsilon turbulence model. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational solid mechanics (CSM) solvers are strongly coupled using an in-house code. The transient evolution of loads, stresses and displacements on each blade is monitored throughout the simulated time. The ABL induces oscillating axial displacements in the outboard region of the blade. Furthermore, the influence of gravity on the structure is accounted for and investigated, showing that it largely affects the tangential displacement of the blade. The oscillating deformations lead to sensible differences in the torque provided by each blade during its rotation.