Risk-control and life in society

 
A - The proceedings of the 2010 seminar organized by the group “Les puissances publiques: Efficacité, contrôle et regulation”
Gustave Defrance and André-Claude Lacoste

The Association Amicale des Ingénieurs des Mines organized on 2 June 2010 a seminar devoted to “Risk-control and life in society”. This seminar, which brought together fourteen work groups, fit into the bicentennial of the law and decree of 1810 that are considered to be at the origin of the Conseil Général des Mines, now known as the Conseil Général de l’Industrie, de l’Énergie et des Technologies (CGIET). The principal topics were: the evaluation and prevention of risks, the role of engineers in the French Administration, arrangements for regulating risks, processes of consultation and the application of the principle of precaution.

B -  Miscellany :The renown of the French Ingénieurs des Mines as measured via the Web
Robert Mahl

Various indicators can be used to measure the reputation of deceased members of the French public Corps des Mines. The one chosen herein is visits to their biographies on Wikipedia. Archives related to the Ingénieurs des Mines have been uploaded in full to the Web: more than four hundred biographies, images, and documents about the Corps des Minesand engineering schools. A website has thus been created that serves as a reference. To what extent will it augment the renown of these former corpsards?

C - Energy: Facts and figures in 2010

Bernard Nanot

What characterized 2009 was a decrease in the demand for energy owing to a sharp drop in industrial production (-15% on the manufacturing index) and in truckage (-12%). The consumption of most forms of energy in France no longer fell in line with the general trend during recent years toward stabilization; the overall reduction amounted to 5.2%. On the supply side, nuclear power declined whereas renewable sources continued growing despite a decrease in hydroelectricity owing to lesser precipitation. The production of refineries and the petrochemical industry was also lower. The CO₂ emitted due to combustion decreased 5.7%.