Author Topic: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)  (Read 1941 times)

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Offline Markus

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For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« on: April 11, 2022, 08:00:04 PM »


Addressed to the Altonan ambassador in Petrograd
From: Her Excellency, Minister of External Affairs Maria Mikhailov



I would like to begin by your nation’s achievements in the field of nuclear energy have left an impression on us in Samantra’s secular government. What you have achieved is impressive by in and of itself but to have done it outside MAEA and without much connections to the large regional blocks that dominate Mundus is outstanding. Yet despite your achievements in the field we feel that your exports aboard have been if not modest then at least below their potential.

The Holy Kingdom of Samantra seeks to create bridges with the developing countries of Mundus and I believe your nuclear expertise could help us achieve that. So I would like to invite your or a representative of your government together with one of your experts on nuclear energy to the Oak Palace (ooc: HQ of the secular movement) for an informal and discreet exploratory meeting about building affordable nuclear power plants in developing countries. Our government in a partnership with the private sector is willing to fund construction of such nuclear power plants in the developing world provided that we can find a suitable and flexible partner that meets our needs and a feasible plan so that they can become profitable and recover our investment in the long term.

Should you be interested, please let us know so that we can have our staffs arrange the meeting.   

Respectfully yours,
Maria Mikhailov
Minister of External Affairs


Offline Altona

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2022, 08:49:26 PM »

To:- Minister Mikhailov

We are grateful for your kind words on our scientists and engineers achievements. As a Kingdom we are proud of the work they are doing and hope that one day the whole of Mundus could benefit from the work.

Having forwarded your request to my government arrangements have been made for Prince Lukas to arrive at your convenience with Professor Jozef Thibaun of the Altonan Electrical Syndicate (AES) who are the nations largest operator of nuclear energy and have been conducting experiments into nuclear fusion. Joining them shall also be Professor Klaus Ragner of the  Illumic Shores Technological Institute (ISTI), a prestigious University in our nation which has been undertaking some of the more unique experiments with nuclear energy in recent months.

It is our hope that the two Professors will be able to answer any technical questions you have while Prince Lukas represents the royal family who have a 25% stake in both AES and ISTI.

We look forward to hearing a positive outcome of your meeting.

All the Best

Ambassador Joachim Mitte


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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2022, 06:59:12 PM »
Maria had to admit that she didn’t expect that Altona would send a prince over for the informal talks. She interpreted the gesture as a sign of respect for Samantra and a show of commitment for the talks.

The talks would take place in the Oak Palace, the building of the Samantran secular government in one of the most exquisite rooms. Maria was joined by Talya Samarin, the CEO of Umarov Real Estate Trust, which today would act as an informal economic advisor to Maria. The two in fact served the same interests, that of the Umarovs,  it was only that Talya was more open about it.


The room where the meeting took place.

Maria and Talya both stood up when the guests were entered the room. They approached them, greeted them, presented themselves and invited the guests to take a seat.

Once they were all settled, Maria began by saying:

“Your Highness, had I known the government would sent such an important representative we would have scheduled the meeting at a much later date and organized a state visit with military honors included as appropriate for Your Highness’ military background” even though in reality she was glad that was not the case since state visits took a lot of time to organize.

“I am aware of the irony of the situation. Samantra is a nation with no nuclear background and it wants to expand its use aboard. So first allow me to explain how we have come to this point. I am sure you might have heard of the Great War Era and the nuclear bomb dropped by the Achkaerin on our greatest friends and allies at that time, the Ardian Empire. What the Allies could not defeat by the strength of their men they defeated with the merciless and coward act of the nuclear bomb. I will not bore you with our nation’s history but ever since then the Samantran public is reluctant to accept nuclear energy. While opposition was subsided significantly it’s too late for us to develop our own domestic nuclear energy providers and the Samantran public is still reluctant to accept nuclear plants near their communities.
 
Still we in the government understand the opportunity of nuclear energy and we want to make use of it in our approach with the developing countries of Mundus. This is why we have invited you here, to see what solutions we have to build affordable nuclear reactors in developing countries such as Zimalia, how much they cost and if they could break even and how we can supply them with uranium. 

But before we begin getting into the details, I would like to first address the elephant in the room. Samantra does not trust the empires of Achkaerin and Rokkenjima, we believe they honor their names are imperialistic to the core and jealously guard their privileged place under the sun. This is one of the reasons why we have no intention to join MAEA and we seek partners that also do not seek to join. So Your Highness, does Altona intent to join MAEA?”

Maria waited to see what the guests would reply. She didn’t really expect Altona to have intentions about joining MAEA and she just being diplomatic. Her message for the guests was to make clear from day one where Samantra stood on the two imperialistic powers and have Altona understand the risks.


Offline Altona

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2022, 09:10:09 PM »
Lukas hadn't really expected his brother to dispatch him on such an errand but the family had a quarter of each enterprises shares and so King Rutger was probably correct in the fact that someone should attend. "There is no need for any pomp or ceremony" Lukas responded to Maria. "My duties in the military are merely shuffling some papers and throwing young men out of airplanes." He hoped that his hosts were aware of his position as commanding officer for training in the Parachute Regiment or he'd just made himself sound insane, this itself probably explained why he was not suited to technology. "My role today is merely to sit in the background and let the two Professors here tell you what they can do or could do and then nod approvingly if its in my families interests. What I can tell you is this, we discussed as a government the MAEA, its an organisation that wants things done on the terms of current members not neccessarily what's best for the industry. Its nations who wet their knickers over the thought of someone getting what they felt they were entitled to. We see nuclear power and uranium as no different to a fossil fuel, except its cleaner." Klaus hoped he'd reassured his host, "Now someday Altona may join but only when the organisation has improved both his reputation, its PR and its procedures to a point that allow a real balanced and fair way of keeping nuclear energy safe. I believe that will either never happen or when it does you'd probably be happy to join as well. So with that its best that I let the Professors handle your other questions."

 Professor Klaus Ragner of the  Illumic Shores Technological Institute (ISTI) was more focused on his surroundings, as an academic he often didn't get to visit anywhere as nice as the Oak Palace so it was left to Professor Jozef Thibaun of the Altonan Electrical Syndicate (AES) to begin. "Let me start by echoing the words of the Prince. I understand your nations hesitancy in nuclear energy but I can assure you its not some fearful monster some of your people may imagine. I have a wife and two children who live just five miles from a plant back home where I work, if it wasn't safe I'd never dream of them being there. My son Pieter is ten and regularly rides his bike near the plant. Perhaps though the idea you have of us helping you spread the use of it across Mundus can help your own people see the benefits. Now as for your questions it really is a case of us matching a programme to your needs. If you wanted for example to power Petrograd you'd be looking at a large plant generally costing $10billion or more. A station that size would produce 3.2 Gigawatts. If sold at the price per Kwh it is in Altona that would amount to earning just over $450,000 an hour. It is therefore possible to pay off the cost if you're able to sell the electricity, I'd guess maybe 10 years to make your money back, a power plants life span is usually 20-30 years before it needs a total refurb. So plenty of time for profit. Now there are of course other options. If we took Novyy Rim for example the power plant could be much smaller and so would the price. Now these are assuming nations with all the modern infastructure you have. I believe that my friend here may have alternatives beyond just these."

Professor Klaus had his attention snapped back from looking at some of the wooden carvings, "Erm...yes...We've designs for portable nuclear power stations that we'd like to look at producing and you could give us an oppurtunity. It would be a barge that would use the reactor for propulsion in much the same way a nuclear powered aircraft carrier does. When it reaches a point in need of energy it can in a way be plugged into the network and rather than sail across the seas power an area." He handed over a sketch of the proposal. It has two reactors that could provide a total of 64MegaWatts, this would power 52,000 homes in a nation like ours. Plug it into somewhere like say Waddan and it could probably power most of the country." he chuckled. "These floating plants would cost in the region of $700million and have a life span of around 40 years so would again make money back easily."

It was time for Lukas to sit forward and intervene. "One key ingredient is of course the Uranium, we have arrangements with Waddan to get that. Its an arrangement that is with some of the tribes who do not permit slavery as I know that is likely to be a question perspective customers will ask. We are also hoping the source fuel from other places in the coming months. Now of course if Samantra has access to fuel sources we'd be interested in utilising those too. My brother is keen to point out to that we would consider a variety of finance options, be that Samantra buying them outright, a kind of co-ownership arrangement or even any other ideas you have. What I think Klaus and Jozef would appreciate though is that should you be making deals with our reactors as the proverbial carrot that we get something other than just money in return. For example you know both their organisations have been carrying out experiments on new technology, getting permission to utilise some of these stations for tests and research would be a necessity, as would Altonan involvement in the long term future. When the plant needs refurbishing it will be best if we do it, or when it needs training for staff. After all we hope that Altonan Nuclear Energy becomes the gold standard in the industry and we wouldn't want for example a Lijiangian technician screwing up our reputation because they'd not been trained properly."

Offline Markus

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #4 on: April 13, 2022, 05:18:29 PM »
“You are being too modest Your Highness” replied Maria. “I do hope Your Highness will accept the invitation, that after the meeting, we go see the Samantran National Museum of Art. I think it’s worth it since it gives a glimpse into the soul of Samantra” she said smiling to the prince. (ooc: if he agrees, the museum visit will not be RPed).

“Thank you for the details” said Talya “If I may, you gave a fine example but the reactors are not meant for Samantra or for countries as developed as that. So my question to you is would they be profitable in a country like Zimalia where I assume the price of energy is lower? And what could we do to lower the initial cost of the nuclear reactors? Like for example would if help much if the land to build it would be given for free?
Since you mentioned Lijiang. Tell us a bit about your customers aboard. Who uses your nuclear plants and how many are there in use aboard of your design(s)?”

“I am more concerned  about these nuclear plants on barges. How safe are they security wise compared to a regular one? I do not just mean the elements but also in case of say a potential Borelander attack” Maria said Borelander but she thought Achkaerin.

Maria then moved on how the potential deal would be structured:

“Before we talk details let me tell you what we need. Altona would be building them, maintaining them with the refurbishing also being done by Altona. On our part we expect the right to audit/inspect them at any time and for as long as we want in order to make sure there are no problems. Since we do not actually have any expertise on the matter I imagine the inspections will be done by a third party but will be paid by us, of course. I think I am not exaggerating when I say that the deal has the potential to make the Altonan Nuclear Energy the gold standard in the industry if our plans are successful.

Aside for the monetary aspect which we will discuss I also want to touch on the other aspects of the deal. Just as you want the Altonan Nuclear Energy to become the gold standard in the industry, we want the Petrograd Stock Exchange (PSE) to become the premier stock exchange of the Rus’ countries. So as part of the deal we want Altonan Electrical Syndicate to go public on PSE, to be listed here. If the company is already public in Altona we don’t mind having PSE as a secondary exchange but we want it on PSE. Such a prestigious company on the exchange would increase Petrograd’s standing in the Rus’ would and beyond.

There is a lot to discuss so I will limit to one more thing before I leave you to it. We want the company that owns the future reactors to be registered in Samantra, to be listed on PSE of course and to be majority Samantran owned. Other than that we would love to have you as partners in it. But allow me to be frank, the company although private, will work in the interest of the Samantran government and alongside it. So if during talks with a foreign country it makes sense to sell them energy cheaper for a while to get their goodwill we will do it even if the company’s profits are affected. The company will also consider who Samantra’s friends and allies are so it might deal with a country that perhaps Altona would not get along. That is why we want control of the company. If you are ok with this, as I said we would love to have you as shareholders. “

Neither Maria nor Talya addressed the supply of uranium topic since they already approached too many subjects and left it to be addressed later.

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2022, 08:59:21 PM »
Prince Lukas wasn't to bothered about the art visit but it would be rude not to attend and so he graciously accepted before the two science types could get on with their discussion that Lukas was suddenly a little bit more concerned about.

Professor Jozef Thibaun of the Altonan Electrical Syndicate was the more business minded of the two and so took the lead on this "What you may find is that things like the cost of land, the cost of the general labouring to prepare the site, pour concrete etc will likely be less too in places like Zimalia and while the cost of selling the electric may be lower the long life span of the systems means they'll always be profitable the extent will differ of course, now should you be able to get the land for free then of course it'll help. Currently we've the station in Lijiang due to come online by the end of this year  we hope, meanwhile we're in talks with several others about projects including Heyra, Heimney and Chistopol. Its our hope to soon get many more onboard, especially with the small scale systems we're hoping to bring online. As for the ones on barges they are no different to the ones on land and terrorism security concerns are just as big an issue. The basis of the barge ones are in a way simply the nuclear reactors on say something like a naval nuclear sub channeling its energy into the power grid rather than propulsion. To my knowledge we've never had an issue with the nuclear safety of military vessels and of course picking the correct location for mooring would mean they can be protected from terrorist attacks in the same way you'd protect one on land. These though have the added benefit that should you believe someone is planning an attack on them you can simply move them, you can't do that with a land based one now can you." He shrugged. "Now in terms of audit and inspection, you would in AES' mind be the customer in this arrangement, that being the case we'd always welcome the customer to take an interest in whats going on. We'd have no issue making it a condition of our partnership that a representative picked by your nation is permently attached to the safety teams that would need to be in place. Why have surprise inspections when you can have daily ones? We are totally confident in our operations." As things began to turn towards the stock market this would be the tricky part. "As for where stocks are traded we would be open to a dual listing."

Lukas then was going to be forced to say his part. "The matter of ownership of the reactors is a rather unique one because of your proposal. Perhaps the establishment of a company for this purpose is going to be a complex issue. You see while I firmly believe it is every nations right to make friends with who they wish it is also our right to ensure our interests are not harmed by those we make connections with. At present I don't see any geo-political issues on the horizon that would see us going to clash heads but sadly who knows what would happen in the future. What I suggest then is that this new company is also dual listed, lets say initially with 10million shares, we in Altona take 2.5million and you the rest. The 2.5million is up to us how we distribute them so long as we meet the agreed price, you do the same with the remaining shares, we though need an agreement that we will sell for the same share price. This gives you the ability to ensure if you wish that your government maintain a 51% controlling stake. Meanwhile a contract will be in place saying all the nuclear equipment and services used by this company must be sourced from AES or ISTI. You get a shiny new business on your PSE, you get the controlling stake but we also get to have some influence on the situation. We would also require safeguards that the intellectual property connected with the projects however remains in the hands of AES and ISTI. They have both worked extremely hard to ensure their technology is the best in the world and that has seen significant investment by their organisations, my own family and the Altonan people."

Offline Markus

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2022, 02:22:10 PM »
OOC: Sorry for the delay. I will move this fast as to not drag the thread more than I have.

Maria discreetly motioned to Talya to stop asking more questions and spoke:

“I think we have enough info to make a decision. After all we do not need to have all the details right now. We can handle things as we go along. Your conditions are fair and reasonable and we agree to them.
So on the future joint company we would like to make a firm order of three portable nuclear power stations. We also intend in the next 12 months to find buyers for two nuclear reactors the size to meet the needs of Novyy Rim.

So I would need to know the price for those three, what is the price per unit for the land based nuclear reactor and if there are any penalties in the case that we are not able to find buyers for the two (land based) nuclear reactors and our order remains only for the three portable nuclear power stations. “

OOC: Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2022, 05:46:44 PM »
The various representatives got their head together and had a quick chat.

Professor Jozef was probably in the best position to answer this question. "A floating power station I believe would cost in the region of $700million. For that you get the ship, you get the reactor capable of producing electricity for around 52,000 homes without much effort. You also get the shore based infrastructure. We could actually probably expand that easily, the ship is a large part of the cost and we could at a pinch put more reactors on-board. Now if we assume that Novyy Rim has a population with four people per household. Generally speaking we look at around $7million per MegaWatt. A MegaWatt can produce enough electricity for 1,400 people. As a result to run Novvy Rim you'll need at least 360Mw so we're looking at a starting cost of about $2billion. That though will mean extremely low production costs for electricity for the next 40 years providing a saving on non-renewable fuels. Now because we would be building the floating ones in a relatively large number we can perhaps find ways to bring those costs down. Now you say you are looking for buyers for land based nuclear reactors. What I propose is that we can begin the process of preparing the fuel for the two you hope to build and putting the components into manufacture. We have several other projects that can utilise them if you don't however I think some manner of compensation would be fair. Let me suggest then that if 12 months from now you haven't completed the arrangement with your potential buyers we would be free to do what we want with the materials and we would require say a 5% penalty fee. However should you find a buyer before we begin using the materials we would reduce that to 1%."


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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2022, 04:00:12 PM »
“I think we have a deal. We will have our staff prepare the documents in the coming days and weeks in order to make sure we don’t miss anything related to legal issues. Mundus in becoming more complicated each day and I am willing to admit that Samantra is doing its part in complicating things further. We have quite a few regulations that we have to meet.  But I think we have enough settle to announce to the world the deal.  As a matter of fact I forgot to tell you, since this deal will involve a public listed company and government funds for development we will need to make the financial details of the transaction public, at least the maximum expected value of the contract. I hope that is okay with you. We can ask the President of the Duma to invoke confidentially for the agreement based on your objection but we rather that didn’t happen. When something is deemed confidential it gives rise to rumors and speculations.

With your permission, we will also address the supply of uranium in the following weeks. We believe we can reach an agreement with a Vaguzian supplier (ooc: I understand that is actually a Heyran company). If we do not reach an agreement in a couple of months then we will inform you and see what solutions we can find. Does that sound ok?” said Maria.

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2022, 12:07:34 PM »
Prince Lukas was pleased that things were concluded with relative ease. "As for the transparency we agree that things should be as public as possible, we've nothing to hide and it will help to squash any rumours or mistrust. I think it would potentially also help share prices if investors see that they are dealing with a trustworthy company. As for the uranium supply we obviously have our own connections that can be of use if you require it but so long as its ethically sources we will have little issue." There were nods from Jozef and Klaus in agreement.

"I wonder while I am here" the Prince continued, "If we could perhaps expand our talks a little. If we are to be constructing these projects for you here in Samanthra there is every likelihood that we would need to be sending workers and materials, components and the like to your nation. In order to make this simpler I would like to suggest that we perhaps instigate a visa waiver system. Any individual, whether it is connected to the nuclear project or not, who is invited by a business in the other nation may travel for 60 days visa free, so long as they are not deemed a security risk obviously. In addition could we perhaps examine the idea of a gradual reduction in tariffs between us as the co-operation on these projects builds."

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Re: For a nuclear future (Samantra and Altona)
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2022, 03:16:23 PM »
"A visa waiver system is something we can definitely support. We want to see as much business and trade between us. We are hopeful that nuclear projects will only be the beginning and that business opportunities will continue to grow.

As far as tariffs goes, we are not a nation that applies heavy tariffs on imported goods because we import so much. That being said, we will support a gradual reduction in tariffs between us" said Maria happy to also agree to a visa waiver and a potential reduction in tariffs. The Litvin administration, which Maria was a member of, wanted to have Samantran businesses trade as easily as possible with most if not all nations of Mundus.