“If the gas pipeline would be built, we lose”: transcript of Reagan's speech at the US National Security Council Meeting on the Sanctions against Soviet Union

The object of this research is the declassified transcript of the US National Security Council Meeting of July 9, 1981, dedicated to introduction of the economic and political restrictions on building of the Soviet gas main pipeline. The subject of this research is the analysis information-bearing capabilities of the office documentation of the US National Security Council Meetings for conducting the scientific assessment of sanctions policy of the US government against the Soviet Union in the 1980s as part of directives on restricting the access of the Soviet Union to foreign markets. The article examines the published protocol the US National Security Council Meeting and related documents that contain information on creating the regime to impede the construction of the gas main pipeline to Europe. The novelty of lies in the fact that this article is first within the framework of historiographical analysis to study the plans of the US President R. Reagan on interruption of the active efforts of the Soviet Union to supply Western Europe with energy. Publication of the document clearly demonstrates that the ideas of restarting the trade-economic development of the Soviet Union were later implemented in other countries in the XXI century, when the Russian Nord Stream pipeline became one of the crucial vanguards within the system of control of the US national security interests in Europe. Based on the newly introduced documents from the foreign archives of the CIA, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, materials of the US periodical press, and memoirs, the author explores the options prepared by the US agencies aimed at complete shutdown, and restriction of access of the participants of the Soviet-German gas pipeline deal to foreign markets and resources, as well as the response of business community to trade embargo with the USSR.

The ALMaQUEST Survey: VI. The molecular gas main sequence of ‘retired’ regions in galaxies.

In order to investigate the role of gas in the demise of star formation on kpc-scales, we compare the resolved molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS: $\Sigma _{\rm H_2}$ vs Σ⋆) of star-forming regions to the sequence of ‘retired’ regions that have ceased to form new stars. Using data from the ALMaQUEST survey, we find that retired spaxels form a rMGMS that is distinct from that of star-forming spaxels, offset to lower $\Sigma _{\rm H_2}$ at fixed Σ⋆ by a factor of ∼5. We study the rMGMS of star-forming and retired spaxels on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis for eight individual ALMaQUEST galaxies. Six of these galaxies have their retired spaxels concentrated within the central few kpc. Molecular gas is detected in 40-100% of retired spaxels in the eight galaxies in our sample. Both the star-forming and retired rMGMS show a diversity in normalization from galaxy-to-galaxy. However, in any given galaxy, the rMGMS for retired regions is found to be distinct from the star-forming sequence and gas fractions of retired spaxels are up to an order of magnitude lower than the star-forming spaxels. We conclude that quenching is associated with a depletion (but not absence) of molecular gas via a mechanism that typically begins in the centre of the galaxy.

The ALMaQUEST Survey: V. The non-universality of kpc-scale star formation relations and the factors that drive them

Using a sample of ∼15,000 kpc-scale star-forming spaxels in 28 galaxies drawn from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the galaxy-to-galaxy variation of the ‘resolved’ Schmidt-Kennicutt relation (rSK; $\Sigma _{\rm H_2}$ - ΣSFR), the ‘resolved’ star forming main sequence (rSFMS; Σ⋆ - ΣSFR) and the ‘resolved’ molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS; Σ⋆ - $\Sigma _{\rm H_2}$). The rSK relation, rSFMS and rMGMS all show significant galaxy-to-galaxy variation in both shape and normalization, indicating that none of these relations is universal between galaxies. The rSFMS shows the largest galaxy-to-galaxy variation and the rMGMS the least. By defining an ‘offset’ from the average relations, we compute a ΔrSK, ΔrSFMS, ΔrMGMS for each galaxy, to investigate correlations with global properties. We find the following correlations with at least 2σ significance: the rSK is lower (i.e. lower star formation efficiency) in galaxies with higher M⋆, larger Sersic index and lower specific SFR (sSFR); the rSFMS is lower (i.e. lower sSFR) in galaxies with higher M⋆ and larger Sersic index; the rMGMS is lower (i.e. lower gas fraction) in galaxies with lower sSFR. In the ensemble of all 15,000 data points, the rSK relation and rMGMS show equally tight scatters and strong correlation coefficients, compared with a larger scatter and weaker correlation in the rSFMS. Moreover, whilst there is no correlation between ΔrSK and ΔrMGMS in the sample, the offset of a galaxy’s rSFMS does correlate with both of the other two offsets. Our results therefore indicate that the rSK and rMGMS are independent relations, whereas the rSFMS is a result of their combination.

Risk-oriented approach to the issue of industrial safety and energy resource efficiency gas transport enterprises

Any gas-main pipeline presents a technological complex of objects that functions as a single system, where all objects of the gas-main pipeline are classified as hazardous facilities, for which most of the existing risks are typical. In order to maintain a gas-transport system in operational, standard and safe condition, it is necessary to perform repair (routine) work assuming replacement or repair of defective sections of the pipe (or other equipment). The methods which an operator of a gas-transport system uses today for ensuring safety of such repair (routine) work are either environmentally harmful (“bleed” of gas), or hazardous and inefficient by energy and/or resource (“bleed” of gas, gas utilization, increasing of pipeline bearing capacity, "overlaying-welding" of defects under pressure, etc.). With this scheme of technological process, level of working and environmental safety and energy-resource efficiency of gas-transport enterprises sharply decreases. The purpose of our research was to propose a risk-oriented approach to the problem of working safety and energy resource efficiency of the gas-transport enterprises. The only type of repair, with which operational (safe) state and resource of the pipeline system can be fully restored is replacement of defective pipe or its section. Therefore, at the stage of preparatory work, the most acute problem is discharge of natural gas from the local section of pipelines by means of its pumping-over (accumulation) instead of "bleeding" or "utilization". We propose a rational, effective and risk-oriented approach to the use of mobile compressor units for pumping over (evacuating) of natural gas as a method for improving working safety and energy efficiency of the gas-transport enterprises. The proposed approach allows the gas-transport companies to create quickly an automated risk management system and reduce the risk level and, as a result, to improve working safety and energy efficiency of the processes of gas transportation.

Corrosion-mechanical behavior of gas main steel in saline soils

The study of the deformation behavior of the pipeline material in conditions of loads and influences simulating the operation allows better estimation of the residual life of the pipelines and more accurate forecasting of the operating costs. The kinetics of deformation in 6 model environments simulating soil electrolytes was studied. Corrosion-mechanical tests were performed and the impact of the soil electrolyte chemical composition and the applied mechanical stresses on the corrosion behavior of the pipeline steel was studied. Significant increase in the corrosion activity of the soil electrolyte due to the synergistic effect of the corrosion-active components was found in the specified ratios of the ionic molar concentrations of sulphate and chloride ions (0.05 M: 0.1 M).