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Throughout history, nuclear weapons have been considered to be the ultimate weapons. This understanding largely detached them from the portfolio of conventional military means and assigned them a symbolic meaning that influenced the identity and norms creation of nations. In most countries today, the development of nuclear weapons is considered morally prohibitive, incompatible with a country's identity and international outlook. In some states, however, these negative norms are overridden by a positive set of norms, causing nuclear weapons to become either symbols of invulnerability to perceived threats or the regalia of major power status. Main purpose of this paper is to explore on the conditions that cause most states to develop a moral aversion to nuclear weapons, yet effectively lead to their glorification in others. Many studies on the normative understanding of nuclear weapons consider the existence of a negative normative predisposition, often referred to as 'nuclear taboo', as a major factor in preventing their acquisition and use. Other studies acknowledge the existence of a nuclear taboo inhibiting the use of nuclear weapons, but point to the existence of the opposing effect of norms, frequently referred to as the 'nuclear myth', when it comes to the acquisition of nuclear weapons. This myth emerges when certain symbolic meanings are attached to nuclear weapons, such as a state's identity, self-image, and its desired position in the international system. With 180 odd countries in the world abstaining from the acquisition of nuclear weapons and 8 countries in possession of them (with two further countries assumed to have pursued their acquisition), one might consider the dominance of the nuclear taboo over the nuclear myth to be the rule. The core question is thus why and how this relationship reversed in the case of defectors.

The advance of renewable energy around the world has kindled hopes that coal-based energy is on the way out. Recent data, however, make it clear that growing coal consumption in India coupled with its continued use in China keeps coal-based energy at 40 percent of the world's heat and power generation. To address the consolidation of coal-based power in India, this article analyses an energy transition to, rather than away from, carbon-intensive energy over the past two decades. We term this transition India's new coal geography; the new coal geography comprises new ports and thermal power plants run by private-sector actors along the coastline and fuelled by imported coal. This geography runs parallel to, yet is distinct from, India's 'old' coal geography, which was based on domestic public-sector coal mining and thermal power generation. We understand the development of coastal thermal power as an outcome of long-term electrical energy shortages and significant public controversy within the old coal geography. By analysing the making of the new coal geography at a national level, and scrutinizing its localised manifestation and impact through a case study of Goa state, we outline the significant infrastructural investment and policy work of a dispersed network of public- and private-sector actors that slowly enabled this new coal energy avatar. We argue that the enormous effort to establish India's new coal geography further entrenches the country's reliance on coal. The result is that for India, energy security is a choice between domestic and imported coal. Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M

In this work we report how crucial is the correct design of the porphyrin sensitizers in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs). Only a single atom change switches-on the efficiency from 2–3% to over 10% under standard measurement conditions. We used the 2,1,3-benzothiadazole (BDT) group, as a p-conjugated linker, for the porphyrin LCVC01, a thiophene moiety for the porphyrin LCVC02 and also the furan group for the LCVC03 porphyrin, as molecular spacers between the BDT fragment and the molecule anchoring group, respectively. These three porphyrins were investigated for their application in DSSC devices. All the devices were characterized and found to achieve a record cell efficiency of 10.5% for LCVC02 but only 3.84% and 2.55% for LCVC01 and LCVC03 respectively. On one hand, the introduction of a thiophene, instead of a furan group, illustrates the importance of introducing a chemical group as a spacer, such as thiophene, between the BDT and the anchoring group. On the other hand, the selection of this group has to be correct because the change of a single atom increases the charge recombination rate and decreases the device performance. These changes can be rationalized by analyzing the dye dipoles and their interactions.

In this work, we assess the possible reasons for the differences observed in open circuit voltage (VOC) in mixed cation perovskite solar cells when comparing four different hole transport materials (HTMs), namely TAE‐1, TAE‐3, TAE‐4 and spiro‐OMeTAD. All these HTMs present close chemical and physical properties. Additionally to the evaluation of the HTM influence on recombination, we find that, upon deposition of the organic HTM on top of the perovskite, there is an important change in the energy levels position, and the impact on the device VOC is discussed. We consider that this experimental observation could be general for other organic HTMs and would justify the difficulties for finding molecules and materials that could improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells overcoming the solar‐to‐energy conversion efficiency of solar cells made using spiro‐OMeTAD as holes selective contact. EP and AVF thank MINECO (projects CTQ2013-47183 and CTQ2017- 89814-P). NM thanks the European Research Council (ERC-320441- Chirallcarbon), the CAM (Y2018/NMT-4783QUIMTRONIC-CM) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO (projects CTQ2014-52045-R, CTQ2015-71154-P, CTQ2016-80042-R, CTQ2017-83531-R and CTQ2016-81911-REDT). NM also thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Unidad de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2016-0686 is acknowledged. EP and AV are also grateful to ICIQ and ICREA for economical support. EB and CO thank the Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR668 and 2017 SGR669, the MINEICO projects MAT2016-77852-C2-1-R (AEI/FEDER, UE), MAT2015-68994-REDC and the ‘‘Severo Ochoa’’ Program for Centers of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0496). IG thanks Jesús Jiménez López for the fruitful discussions. Peer reviewed

We present the design, data and results from the NEXT prototype for Double Beta and Dark Matter (NEXT-DBDM) detector, a high-pressure gaseous natural xenon electroluminescent time projection chamber (TPC) that was built at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is a prototype of the planned NEXT-100 Xe-136 neutrino-less double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) experiment with the main objectives of demonstrating near-intrinsic energy resolution at energies up to 662 keV and of optimizing the NEXT-100 detector design and operating parameters. Energy resolutions of similar to 1% FWHM for 662 keV gamma rays were obtained at 10 and 15 atm and similar to 5% FWHM for 30 keV fluorescence xenon X-rays. These results demonstrate that 0.5% FWHM resolutions for the 2459 keV hypothetical neutrino-less double beta decay peak are realizable. This energy resolution is a factor 7-20 better than that of the current leading 0 nu beta beta experiments using liquid xenon and thus represents a significant advancement. We present also first results from a track imaging system consisting of 64 silicon photo-multipliers recently installed in NEXT-DBDM that, along with the excellent energy resolution, demonstrates the key functionalities required for the NEXT-100 0 nu beta beta search. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. We thank Adam Bernstein and Mike Heffner for the loan of the high pressure and storage vessels from LLNL (under LLNL loan 101-3026). This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This work used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). J. Renner (LBNL) acknowledges the support of a US DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship under contract no. DE-FC52-08NA28752. This work was also supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain under grants CONSOLIDER-Ingenio 2010 CSD2008-0037 (CUP) and FPA2009-13697-C04-04.

A novel family of six donor-acceptor type organic sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is reported. The dyes have been designed to have outstanding light absorption properties in the visible range and being able to achieve high photon-to-electrical current conversion for BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaic). Moreover, stability tests under illumination at 1 Sun and 65 degrees C showed a great stability for some of the devices, with less than 6% decrease of power conversion efficiency after 3000 hours. The differences in the performance of the six sensitizers under standard illumination conditions can be correlated with the observed differences in the photo-induced transient photovoltage and in charge extraction measurements. We report the use of one of the dyes for the fabrication of semi-transparent solar modules showing an active area of 1400 cm(2) and a power output of 10.5 W m(-2). International audience