Newsletter XLVI 2022 |
16. to 23. November
***
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
***
Nuclear Power Accidents
This PDF file contains a list of known incidents from the various areas of the civil and military nuclear industry. Some of this information only came to the public in a roundabout way...
Excerpt for this month:
4 November 2004 (INES ? Class.?) Balakovo, RUS
11 November 1983 (INES 3) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
16 November 2001 (INES ? Class.?) High flux reactor, Petten, NLD
19 November 2003 (INES 2) nuclear factory La Hague, FRA
19 November 1975 (INES ? Class.?) Gundremmingen, DEU
20 November 1959 (INES 4) nuclear factory Oak ridge, USA
22 November 2002 (INES 2) Tihange, BEL
29 November 1970 (INES 3 NAMS 2,5) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
29 November 1955 (INES 4) Research reactor EBR-I, USA
30 November 1975 (INES 5) Leningrad, USSR
*
We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
**
23. November
Neckarwestheim | Lingen nuclear power plant | COP 27 | Lützerath
Dear friends,
some important dates and developments:
1. Now at the weekend there will be a "warning blockade" against the runtime extensions at the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant. All information about this very important anti-nuclear campaign:
2a. A few days ago, the head of the nuclear power plant in Lingen, Kahlert, was quoted as astonishing: nuclear power has no future in Lingen! Very correct - but then why not simply shut down the nuclear power plant and the fuel element factory and that's it! We want the nuclear-free future to start today!
2b. research of New Osnabrück newspaper have shown that the fuel rods that left Lingen for Kazakhstan on November 14 are being processed there into fuel elements for Chinese nuclear power plants. A possible customer: the French EPR Taishan in China.
Even if the fuel rods do not appear to end up in Russian nuclear power plants, Russia is directly involved simply through ship and rail transit - and Kazakhstan as a whole has very close nuclear and political ties to Russia. At the beginning of the year, Russian troops were still in the country to put down anti-government protests - great business partner!
3. In the meantime, however, the Federal Government is also pursuing the topic abroad. In Egypt, during COP 27, our friends from "Don't nuke the climate" spoke to Ministers Lemke and Baerbock about the irresponsible nuclear deals with Russia. At least Minister Lemke promised a statement - we are curious.
At COP 27, however, the international nuclear industry was also on a massive publicity tour - fired up by the IAEA, which continues to promote nuclear energy and itself repeatedly downplays the extremely dangerous situation around Zaporizhia and does not want to hold Russia responsible.
Overall, the results are very disappointing. The UN Secretary-General warns we're on the highway to climate hell, but many big polluters still pretend we have a reserve planet. The federal government is also totally hypocritical because it continues to rely heavily on coal and gas. Even great speeches in Egypt don't help.
4. And then there was Thomas Gottschalk and the Lützi bet on Saturday. 50 euros for the resistance, won at "Wetten, dass", crazy times. The Greens want to demolish Lützi, Gottschalk has money to save...
The Aachen police announced today that the demolition will allegedly not take place this year. You need at least eight weeks to prepare.
However, we caution against relying on such statements. The past shows that the public is often deceived through targeted demobilization so that the police ultimately have an easier time of it.
So stay alert and support Lützerath: www.alle-doerfer-bleiben.de
Nuclear-free climate greetings
SOFA (Sofortiger Atomausstieg) Münster, action alliance Münsterland against nuclear facilities
www.sofa-ms.de, www.urantransport.de
*
Russia war | Ukraine nuclear power off the grid
Nuclear power plants taken off the grid
As a result of the Russian airstrikes, several nuclear power plants in Ukraine were shut down. The water supply failed in Kyiv.
Several nuclear power plants off the grid
The Rivne nuclear power plant in north-western Ukraine was shut down. This is announced by the state nuclear power plant operator Energoatom. The reactors were put into emergency mode after disruptions to the nationwide energy system. Several units of the nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine are also shut down because of the power failure. The reason for this is the Russian air raids on large parts of Ukraine. Everything is fine with the power plant, says a spokesman for Energoatom. Electricity is not generated. In addition, the Khmelnytskyi nuclear plant in the west of the country was taken off the grid, according to the regional governor there. Large parts of the region are without power and water supply, says Governor Serhij Hamalij on the short message service Telegram.
Half of Moldova and Kyiv without electricity
Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure lead to massive power outages in neighboring Moldova...
*
LNG liquefied natural gas | Energy policy | LNG terminal
LNG: Long-term supply contracts sold out until 2026
Competition for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has increased globally due to growing interest from Europe. According to Japan, the market cannot keep up.
Europe's skyrocketing interest in liquefied natural gas (LNG) is apparently sweeping the supply market empty worldwide. Now the Japanese Ministry of Commerce has released a market analysis that says all long-term contracts at a stable price - linked to oil prices - are sold out by 2026...
*
Finland | Westinghouse | Fuel rods
Two Finnish nuclear reactors are to receive fuel rods from the USA
Finnish energy company Fortum, which is 51 percent state-owned, has signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Company to develop, license and supply a new type of fuel to replace Russian fuel rods.
The two Russian-built reactors on the country's southern coast at Loviisa began operating in 1977 and 1980, accounting for around 10 percent of the country's electricity generation.
For the duration of the operating licenses, which expire in 2027 and 2030, the operator Fortum is committed to the fuel contract with the Russian nuclear power company TVEL. Until then, and subject to regulatory approvals, the new fuel rods from the US will be used along with the fuel supplied by Russia...
*
California | PFAS | toxin
California is suing PFAS makers 3M and DuPont
PFAS manufacturers to pay for removal of "eternal chemicals". It could be the most expensive series of lawsuits in the United States.
It is not the first lawsuit, but it is the largest to date: California is suing 18 manufacturers of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), including the 3M and DuPont corporations.
The US state claims that the 18 defendant PFAS manufacturers knew for decades about the dangers of the "eternal chemicals" without doing anything about it. Now they have to pay for the removal of toxins from the water and soil...
*
The CIA, the FBI and the Untouchable
Investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy - The blind spots of the Warren Report (part 3 and conclusion).
When John F. Kennedy gave his famous peace speech in June 1963, provoking the conservative elites, he warned, like Eisenhower, about "secret societies". Perhaps he was thinking of the string pullers in Texas, of the Rockefeller clique, of his circle of enemies in the Pentagon, but certainly also of the high-handed men in the intelligence community with whom he had fallen out.
Kennedy's declared enemies included a number of CIA people who accused the President of betraying the Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and were largely dismissed by Kennedy after the debacle.
Judge Warren was able to save himself from investigating in CIA circles, since Allen Dulles was the man on his team who had built up both the oil and defense industries and the US secret services...
**
22. November
Electricity price brake | excess profit | profit skimming
Electricity price brake bill
Additional profits are to be skimmed off retrospectively from September
The Ministry of Economics has presented a 150-page draft bill on the controversial electricity price brake. The paper available to Climate Reporter° caps electricity prices for households and industry from January, financed by chance profits from electricity producers since September. The renewables industry speaks of a mistake.
The strong protests, especially from the green electricity industry, have not been of much use. As the present draft of the "Law on the Introduction of an Electricity Price Brake" shows as of today's Tuesday, the Ministry of Economics is sticking to measuring the profit skimming according to the sales achieved. There should not be a tax solution, as demanded by the green electricity industry.
The draft law from Habeck follows the guidelines of the EU Commission, for example in the selection of the technologies to be skimmed off. This applies to electricity from lignite, nuclear fuel, waste, petroleum and renewable sources...
*
Transport policy | Climate protection | Cars
Effective climate protection is only possible with fewer cars
In Upper Bavaria, two referendums voted against bypass roads. Parts of the population are more advanced in transport policy than the Free State.
Traffic researchers have been preaching for years that new bypass roads will only relieve the respective municipalities to a very small extent, if at all. Instead, as a rule, they attract more cars to the region, transport the area and destroy the landscape. Therefore, the vote of the citizens of Holzkirchen in Upper Bavaria against a new bypass for their market can be understood as a hopeful sign that this insight has now reached at least parts of the population. The election result, with which the citizens of Weilheim, also in Upper Bavaria, buried the plans for a bypass around their district town a few weeks ago, can be interpreted as such a signal...
*
Nuclear waste repository | Site Selection Act | retrieval
Nuclear energy legacy
Can a nuclear waste repository really defy the forces of nature?
The search for a repository for German nuclear waste will take longer than planned. The Federal Ministry for the Environment explains this with the "high requirements for the selection of the location". But can that even exist in view of climate change and extreme weather events?
The earth trembles, flash floods tear villages away, thick layers of ice deform the world: It's hard to believe that in the face of powerful forces of nature there should be a place where 1900 containers with German nuclear waste can be safely stored for a million years...
*
Climate change | climate activist | preventive custody
Preventive detention for climate activists:
The Bavarian way
Bavaria is cracking down: Anyone who sticks to the streets here often ends up in jail. A law that is still controversial makes it possible.
MUNICH taz | It's a sticky affair. In the recent past, climate activists in Bavaria have repeatedly stuck to busy roads or carried out high-profile attacks on works of art. In this respect, the Free State is not particularly different from other federal states, but dealing with the mostly young demonstrators is different.
[...]
But even with the current preventive detention of up to two months, which can be imposed for impending administrative offences, Bavaria is still alone, criticizes Schulze. No other state has comparable regulations. The fact that Berlin's social-democratic Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger, is now calling for Bavaria to be followed and preventive detention extended is what the Greens politician thinks is "nonsense"...
*
Drinking water | withdrawal rights | Climate change
fight for water
These companies are allowed to withdraw water for decades
Energy companies, sausage factories and beer producers extract many millions of cubic meters of water from rivers and groundwater every year. According to CORRECTIV research, these companies often have licenses for decades.
What will happen if water becomes scarce for everyone, but large industries can draw as much of it for decades to come as it does today? According to research by CORRECTIV, this is exactly the case: The major users of water, such as opencast mines, chemical and car factories, have often secured abstraction rights from rivers, lakes and groundwater for decades. These rights could jeopardize the supply of citizens in the future, because the world in 2050 will look different than today: water will be distributed differently and in many places will also be of poorer quality.
Experts are therefore calling for a "stress test" to be carried out quickly for water-intensive industries ...
*
energy transition costs | greenhouse gas emissions | Climate change
How many emissions does the energy transition cause?
A delayed switch could drastically increase additional CO2 emissions
It's all about the speed: How many raw materials, energy and CO2 emissions the global energy transition requires depends crucially on the speed of its implementation. Because the slower the generation of electricity from the sun, wind and co. is expanded, the more expensive and dirtier it becomes. Specifically, a delayed energy transition would cause twice as many CO2 emissions as a decarbonization of the energy sector by 2080 and even nine times more than a rapid energy transition by 2030, as researchers have calculated.
In order to slow down climate change, it is necessary to phase out fossil fuels. However, such an energy transition generates additional CO2 emissions, because raw materials have to be mined and transported for the construction and installation of new wind turbines, solar systems and the like, and the production of concrete, steel and semiconductor components also costs energy and generates emissions. As long as there is not enough "green" electricity, at least part of this energy demand will have to be covered by fossil sources - and that generates additional greenhouse gas emissions ...
*
22 November 2002 (INES 2) NPP Tihange, BEL
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Tihange
Although the reactor was shut down and no longer critical at that time, the reactor was still producing heat due to decay heat, which is dissipated by circulating the coolant in the primary circuit, as in power operation. A test opened a safety valve on the pressurizer by mistake, causing the pressure in the primary circuit to drop from 155 bar to 85 bar in a very short time. The high pressure in the primary circuit during operation means that the water does not boil even at high temperatures, but remains in the liquid state...
-
Nuclear power accidents by country#Belgium
- -
AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Tihange_(Belgien)
Due to an accidentally opened valve, there was a pressure drop in the primary circuit in the Tihange nuclear power plant and cooling water evaporated ...
Cracks in the reactor vessel
In February 2015, it became known that there are not just 3 but 2 cracks on the reactor pressure vessels of the Doel-10.000 and Tihange-16.000 units, probably due to material fatigue ...
**
21. November
Repository advisory committee is indignant
The members first learned from the press about the time difference in the search for a storage site for the nuclear waste
The search for a repository for the highly radioactive nuclear waste should be science-based, fair and transparent, and the public should be involved in the process at an early stage - this is what the Site Selection Act of 2017 stipulates. At least some of these criteria have now been violated. Because the National Support Committee (NBG), which is supposed to mediate the process, only learned from the press that the search will probably be delayed by decades.
Despite regular talks with all the institutions involved, the NBG complained that the flow of information about the extension of the search for a repository by several decades was not involved ...
*
United States | Subsidies | trade war
Conflict over subsidies: USA not yet ready to compromise with EU
A trade war among "friends" no longer seems impossible. German push for a new free trade agreement with little success. One way out would be European subsidies.
There are just under six weeks left to avoid a trade conflict between the European Union and the United States. But the Europeans are increasingly realizing that the government in Washington has so far been unwilling to compromise.
This is also putting pressure on the German government: so far it has not found a way to counter the rigid stance of the US government. Last week they had agreed to try again for a free trade agreement...
*
Austria | energy charter | investment protection
Austria is considering withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty
Austria's federal government is considering withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) - a controversial agreement protecting energy investments - after a reform launched by the European Commission collapsed on Friday (18 November).
The ECT came into force in the late 1990s and was intended to encourage investment in post-Soviet states. He has since come under fire from activists as companies invoke him to sue governments over fossil fuel phase-out.
On Friday, the EU countries should agree to the reform proposal negotiated by the European Commission, which provides for a relaxation of the ECT. After Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands abstained, the reform could not be passed before the 53-party conference on the TCE on Tuesday (November 22) ...
*
Military-industrial complex | America's Wars
How the US military declares the world a battlefield
The US is waging secret wars in a great many countries, a new report shows. Congress and the public are mostly ignorant of military operations. There is even a threat of covert operations against nuclear states.
US forces are engaged in unauthorized hostilities in many more countries than the Pentagon is telling US Congress, let alone the public. That's according to a major new report released recently by the New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice.
The report "Secret War: How the US Uses Partnerships and Proxy Forces to Wage War Under the Radar" states:
Afghanistan, Iraq, maybe Libya. If you were to ask the average American where the United States has been at war over the past two decades, you would probably get this short list. But that list is wrong -- it is off by at least 17 countries in which the United States has fought an armed conflict through ground forces, proxies, or airstrikes.
"The escalation of secret wars is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it is undemocratic and dangerous," writes report author Katherine Yon Ebright in the introduction...
**
20. November
United States | Subsidies | Competition
Fear of the "investment vacuum cleaner" USA is spreading
German Chancellor Scholz and French President Macron feared US subsidy competition with unfair means.
When Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron met in Paris on October 26 for a working meeting, one of their topics was developments in the USA. Both agreed on the concern that US President Joe Biden, with his Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in August, triggered a highly worrying development that could harm Europe. Two people familiar with the talks reported this to the Reuters news agency.
The IRA is a $370 billion stimulus package for energy security and tackling climate change. Both Scholz and Macron feared US subsidy competition with unfair means. However, it is unclear between the two how Europe should react to this ...
*
Big Oil: The Oil Barons of Texas
Clarification of the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy. JFK and the Dallas Cowboys: The Blind Spots of the Warren Report (Part 2).
The richest men in the world met in the posh "Dallas Petroleum Club". As early as the 1930s, Texas entrepreneurs and politicians had set up a discreet lodge in a Houston hotel called the "Suite 8F Group" to coordinate their influence on politics, business and the elite. For example, they sponsored Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election campaign.
The super-rich owed their wealth not least to the Oil Depletion Allowance, which enabled them to write off more money than they had invested for dwindling oil wells. The oil lobby had already successfully defended the law, considered the biggest tax hole in the USA, against Truman...
*
fossil lobby | Energy company lobbyists | COP27
Sobering climate conference COP27
The saboteurs operate in the background
The climate conference in Sharm al-Sheikh ends in disappointment - and there are reasons for that. It's time to clearly name the saboteurs. Especially since it can be proven how they act.
The climate conference in Egypt is over and the result is mixed. After around two weeks of tough negotiations, the delegates agreed on their own financial pot from which poor countries should receive compensation for the losses and damage caused by climate change. But the success comes at a high price: there has been little progress in climate protection, i.e. the phasing out of fossil fuels and the reduction of emissions.
Once again, China, now the largest CO₂ emitter on the planet, played a crucial role at this conference. But blaming the country alone would be another win for those who actually bear most of the blame.
An indication of the actual situation: In Sharm al-Sheikh there were 636 lobbyists from oil, gas and coal companies
accredited ...
*
Climate protection | Climate summit | Energy companies
Harald Lesch after the climate conference: "1,5 degree target is achieved"
Far too little has happened to protect the climate, criticizes physicist and moderator Harald Lesch at the BR Sunday round table of the most recent UN climate summit. It shows the selfishness of those who earn a lot of money from fossil resources.
Harald Lesch is pessimistic about the climate: the goal of limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times has been achieved, said the physicist and science presenter at the Sunday regulars' table on BR television: "You can long forget that, that's unacceptable for Europe."
Instead, according to Lesch, after the UN climate summit in Egypt, the selfishness of those who made a lot of money from fossil resources became evident. In particular, Saudi Arabia, but also other oil-producing countries, made Lesch responsible: "You can see how the profits of the big oil companies have quintupled, i.e. increased by 500 percent - it's crazy!" ...
*
Climate protection | energy charter | Energy companies
Tricky protection rules for energy companies before the end
The controversial Energy Charter Treaty allows companies to sue for high compensation if they phase out coal or nuclear power. The EU Commission wanted to improve the agreement in favor of climate protection. But that failed.
It's going to be a journey into the cold. This Tuesday, the 53 governments that signed the controversial Energy Charter treaty will meet in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Temperatures there are between minus 17 and minus four degrees Celsius; November is not exactly the best time to travel to the Asian country. The reward for the effort should actually be that the states decide on a comprehensive reform of the agreement. But that will not happen because EU governments are refusing to support it. This threatens the end of the contract, which secures investments by energy companies: much to the delight of climate protectors.
[...]
The Swedish energy supplier Vattenfall demanded 4,7 billion euros from Germany because of the nuclear phase-out. In the end, Berlin agreed with the nuclear companies on compensation payments. When the Netherlands decided to shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2030, RWE and Uniper filed lawsuits worth 2,4 billion euros. Uniper withdrew this after nationalization under pressure from Berlin ...
*
Climate summit | Climate Crisis | 1,5 degree target
Climate summit saved, climate not
Opinions differ among climate activists. Was the Sharm el-Sheikh summit a success or a failure? That depends above all on whether the 1,5 degree target or overcoming the climate damage is more important to you.
Are there simple climate summits? no The climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh was not easy in a particular way. This was indicated long before it began. The Ukraine war was not only a turning point for politics, but also for the energy supply.
Within a few months, the availability of cheap natural gas ended - in Europe, but also around the world, because Europeans now went on a global shopping spree.
The crazy gas prices in turn revived fossil undead like coal. The economic recovery after the pandemic also increased oil demand.
At the same time, war and the energy crisis pushed the climate crisis aside. Of course, the governments, and especially the German one, protested that the energy crisis was also an opportunity to accelerate the energy transition. In fact, however, people first went on a gas shopping spree, so that a fossil renaissance is now looming...
*
Peace | disarmament | vigil
Strong sign for peace and disarmament
Actions in numerous cities nationwide
In over 30 cities - from Hamburg to Munich and Bonn to Berlin - there were peace campaigns against the war in Ukraine and the build-up of the military on Saturday. The organizers are satisfied.
A coalition of peace and anti-militarist groups had organized November 19 under the motto “Stop the killing in Ukraine! - Rearmament is not the solution” called for nationwide decentralized actions and numerous local initiatives became active: In Berlin, activists built a lifeboat in front of the Federal Chancellery and demanded “100 billion euros for sea rescue instead of rearmament”. In addition, there was a vigil in front of the Russian embassy in the capital: "We demand an immediate ceasefire with a withdrawal of the Russian military from Ukraine" - it said in the call for the day of action ...
*
20 November 1959 (INES 4) Oak ridge Nuclear Factory, USA
Were caused by a chemical explosion 15 grams of plutonium-239 released.
-
Wikipedia
List of accidents in nuclear facilities
A chemical explosion occurred at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory radiological chemical plant in Tennessee during the decontamination of work facilities. A total of 15 grams of plutonium-239 was released. During the explosion, this caused significant contamination of the building, the adjacent streets and the facades of adjacent buildings. The explosion is believed to have been triggered by contact of nitric acid with phenolic decontamination fluids. A technician had forgotten to flush an evaporator with water to make it free of decontamination liquids. Areas that could not be decontaminated were marked with a conspicuous warning color or concreted in. Oak Ridge authorities began using containment when handling radioactive chemical materials. (INES level 4)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Ridge_National_Laboratory
-
In the Wikipedia article linked from here "Oak Ridge National Laboratory" this INES 4 rated accident is not even mentioned anymore.
Apparently, slowly but surely, all important information about accidents in the nuclear industry is being removed from Wikipedia!
**
19. November
renewable | peace future | Climate catastrophe
The future belongs to renewables
When it comes to peace today, it is not only about military disarmament, but also about peace with nature - because we are already waging the third world war against nature and thus against ourselves and against our children.
We are part of nature. Every day today we wipe out 180 animal and plant species, lose 80.000 tons of fertile soil, add 50.000 hectares to the deserts and release 150 million tons of greenhouse gases into the air. Daily!
The planet can't stand it in the long run...
*
solar promotion | Energy price
Funding for Solar 2022: These reliefs are available this year
Energy prices are currently skyrocketing and alternatives to conventional energy production are in greater demand than ever before. Like PV systems for self-sufficiency. Putting a system on the roof is expensive, but there are various subsidies. EFAHRER.com shows you what relief there will be in 2022 and how you can get information.
Whatever solar system you want, there are subsidies that you can definitely use for your project. However, many European companies and private individuals are currently trying to install solar systems as quickly as possible in order to avoid exorbitant energy costs. Ever since Russia began its attack on neighboring Ukraine, gas and electricity prices appear to have been on a never-ending upward spiral.
The rush to manufacturers and solar installers is growing from month to month. At first glance, receiving the funding to which you are entitled sounds like a lot of bureaucracy. However, by exhausting all possibilities, the price of a system can be significantly reduced. We'll tell you what subsidies and remuneration you can currently count on...
*
France | La Hague | remanufacturing
19 November 2003 (INES 2) La Hague Nuclear Factory, FRA
? Workers were contaminated with plutonium during cleaning work.
-
Wikipedia
The highly active substances treated in this reprocessing plant constantly release explosive hydrogen, which threatens the tightness of the building when it reacts with oxygen. To avoid an explosion, the air in the building is freed from hydrogen by continuous circulation. For 3,5 hours, this circulation only worked in normal operation, both reserve air lines were not operational due to defects or maintenance work. (Source: ASN)
Greenpeace, under the supervision of a chartered engineer, found that a four-mile long pipe was flushing 400 cubic meters of radioactive sewage per day into the Alderney Strait via Herqueville. This operation is legal, since only the dumping of barrels with nuclear waste in the sea is prohibited, but direct discharge is not ...
- -
AtomkraftwerkePlag
World's largest reprocessing plant
There have been a number of incidents in La Hague since it went into operation.
A study published by the European Parliament in 2001 lists events from 1989 to 2011 that were reported by the operator. Eight accidents were described in more detail ...
-
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused...
*
19 November 1975 (INES ?) NPP Gundremmingen, DEU
This accident was not assigned an INES level!?
-
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Gundremmingen
In the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant there is an accident in which two people die (Spiegel). When working on an ancillary system of the primary circuit, 2 locksmiths loosen the mounting of a stuffing box and a radioactive steam-water mixture with a temperature of 280 ° C explodes. The younger of the two, a Master at the age of 34, was hit directly by the beam and died instantly. It was only 15 minutes after the accident that other power plant employees wearing heavy radiation protection suits recovered him. The other was 46 years old and was initially able to escape the confined space despite severe burns. He was taken to the nearby Lauingen hospital for emergency care. He was then taken by helicopter to a burn injury clinic where he died in the early hours of the next day.
- -
AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Gundremmingen_A_(Bayern)
-
'Gar Nix' provides further information
**
18. November
France | Energy policy | Winter
What do I care about winter?
In France, few are worried about the threat of blackouts - although many heat with electricity. Dependence on foreign countries has never been as great as it is today.
The gas network in Obergailbach will decide how hard the French winter will be this year. In the rural community directly on the border with Germany, many people live from animal husbandry, they produce crystal glasses or cook and serve in famous restaurants. Since October, however, France's energy supply has depended on the village of 300: Here the gas pipes have been converted so that France can supply Germany with fossil energy - and in return receives electricity from the neighboring country. Because in order to avoid power outages and thus cold apartments, France will have to import a lot of electricity in the coming months.
In contrast to Germany, the Ukraine war is not to blame for this domestic shortage, but the problematic nuclear monopoly in France. Because the neighboring country can neither hope for its ailing nuclear power plants nor for renewable energies, it now has to buy abroad. And that's why a three-way deal has been in place since September: Paris buys liquid gas - mainly from the USA and Algeria - and then sells it on to Germany. This is "European solidarity", according to the French gas network operator GRTgaz ...
*
United States | uranium deposits | Cole's Hill
Consolidated Uranium acquires uranium project in Virginia
Consolidated Uranium Inc. has agreed to purchase Virginia Energy Resources, owner of Coles Hill - the largest undeveloped uranium project in the United States - in a transaction valued at approximately $32,2 million. The Company hopes to break Virginia's 40-year moratorium on uranium mining.
The Coles Hill uranium deposit is located in Pittsylvania County, South Central Virginia and was first discovered in 1978. It was previously estimated to have Indicated Mineral Resources of 132,9 million pounds U3O8 (51.120 tU) and Inferred Resources of 30,4 million pounds U3O8, although this is a "historical" NI43-101 estimate that is not is considered current.
Virginia Energy has previously drilled the 3000 acre property which has enabled the preparation of resource estimates and a preliminary economic assessment. However, development activity was halted in 2013 after the then-state governor decided to veto an amendment to Virginia's uranium mining moratorium...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
*
Climate policy | Bavaria | peaceful demo | climate protest | preventive detention
Cologne CCC member in custody without charge
Police have taken into custody a member of the Chaos Computer Club from Cologne, Bavaria. This happens without trial - with the help of the new police law.
A member of the Chaos Computer Club Cologne (C4) was preventively arrested in Bavaria at the beginning of November 2022. On November 17, the association addressed the public with a press release and criticized the preventive detention. Since the amendment of the new police task law, this has been a police tool in Bavaria.
"Unfortunately, we currently have to assume that this more than questionable deprivation of liberty will be continued by the Bavarian police until the beginning of December," wrote club representatives in their press release. They explained that the arrest "preceded participation in a peaceful climate protest by the Last Generation group" and was the reason for the detention ...
*
Berlin 2030 climate neutral | climate restart | referendum
Climate success in Berlin: The capital gets the referendum
Berlin could become a climate pioneer and beacon. An initiative is committed to decarbonizing the capital in a few years. What is behind the won referendum?
After the many sobering climate policy developments at German and international level, there was a real success on Tuesday: The civil society alliance "Berlin 2030 klimaneutral" managed to collect 261.968 signatures for the referendum - enough for a democratic vote in February to decide whether Berlin is put on the path to climate neutrality by 2030!
First of all, I would like to thank all activists around the alliance, especially from the civil society movement "Klimaneustart", for their tireless commitment that has made this success possible. By collecting, you have revealed that large parts of the Berlin population have understood that the current climate policy of the Berlin government is far from stopping the climate crisis...
*
Russia war | Ukraine | Winter
Russia's war against Ukraine
Ukraine news: Ten million Ukrainians without electricity
The IAEA passes a new resolution against Russia. It calls on Moscow to stop all operations at nuclear facilities. Artist Banksy is committed to street art in Ukraine. An overview.
According to Ukrainian sources, there were massive power outages in Ukraine after renewed Russian shelling on Thursday. "At the moment, more than ten million Ukrainians are without electricity," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in a video message distributed in the evening. In particular, the regions of Odessa, Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Sumy were affected by the power outages, he explained. Energy infrastructure is under constant fire from Russian missiles and drones from the capital Kyiv in the north to Dnipro in central Ukraine and Odessa in the south, the military said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the first snow fell in Kyiv. The local governor warned that the situation could become "difficult" with temperatures as low as minus ten degrees and power outages. Winters in Ukraine are mostly long, cold, snowy and windy...
**
17. November
Habeck: The nuclear debate is done for this coalition
The debate about a term of the German nuclear power plants beyond spring 2023 is over, at least for Economics Minister Robert Habeck: He refers to the Chancellor's power word - and also sees Germany in a good position for the winter of 2023/24.
According to the Federal Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck, the decision to phase out nuclear energy next spring will be final. "In my view, the nuclear debate is finished for this coalition with the announcement by Olaf Scholz...
*
Morsleben | Nuclear waste | Repository
More radiant garbage for Morsleben
The delayed phase-out of nuclear power also extends the use of the repository in Saxony-Anhalt
With the votes of the traffic light coalition, on November 11, the Bundestag allowed the Neckarwestheim-2, Emsland and Isar-2 nuclear power plants to continue operating until mid-April. The nuclear phase-out is therefore in serious danger. The FDP, CDU/CSU and AfD have already declared that their goal is to extend the lifetime of the nuclear power plants for years. If the reactors were to be loaded with new fuel rods, more nuclear waste would also be produced. The debate about the storage of radioactive waste, which was initially pacified, is likely to flare up again ...
*
Energy consumption | primary energy | Renewables
Energy consumption in Germany is falling far too slowly
Energy and climate – compact: More fossil fuels are being burned in the transport sector, in industry and in power plants than a year ago. Meanwhile, energy use is falling. But more would be possible.
Germany's energy consumption is expected to decrease somewhat in 2022 and be 2,7 percent lower than in the previous year. The Working Group on Energy Balances (AGEB) came to this conclusion in its latest quarterly report, which also provides an overview of the first nine months of 2022.
[...]
Conservative and liberal politicians - not to mention right-wing extremists - like to downplay the contribution of renewable energy sources by pointing to their relatively small share in primary energy use. On closer inspection, however, this is primarily a statistics trick...
*
hydrogen production | Energy transition
Orange is the new green
A key building block for the energy transition lies dormant in the earth's crust: natural hydrogen. It could be promoted and CO₂ stored at the same time.
Hydrogen is naturally produced deep underground. The gas everyone is talking about in the climate debate. It can be used to replace fossil fuels and achieve climate targets. As an energy carrier, storage medium or for the production of synthetic fuels for industry, shipping or aircraft. However, green, climate-neutral hydrogen in particular is scarce and, according to forecasts, will probably remain so until 2040 (Nature Energy: Odenweller et al., 2022). In some places on earth, however, hydrogen is produced by the weathering of certain rocks. It's called white hydrogen. According to experts, this weathering could be proactively promoted in order to develop new, sustainable sources of hydrogen. They also impart a color to their hypothetical product: orange hydrogen...
*
Climate conference | Greenhouse effect | responsible
Climate: A tenth causes almost half of the greenhouse gases
The richest hundredth in the world is responsible for one eighth of climate pollution. This is shown by the “Global Carbon Inequality” report.
At the climate conference in Egypt, one crucial topic is not discussed at all, let alone negotiated: the causes of the constant fueling of the greenhouse effect. When naming those who have caused the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere to rise by a good 100 percent and the average temperature by 50 degrees Celsius over the past 1,15 years, the focus is on the national perspective. Historically, it is North America and Europe that caused the climate crisis. This calculation is not wrong.
So it's not right yet. Because there is another approach that opens up a completely different perspective. It does not stop at the borders of the national states, but looks at the social distribution. Lucas Chancel, a researcher in the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics, published a paper in February that took exactly this perspective: “Global Carbon Inequality, 1990 – 2019”. We worked with data from the years 1990 to 2019.
Accordingly, in 1990 the richest hundredth caused almost a sixth (exactly 14%) of greenhouse gas emissions. The poorest half of the people, on the other hand, cause less than a sixth (exactly: 12%), and the richest tenth is responsible for 48% of greenhouse gases ...
**
16. November
Climate RAF | populist | peaceful demo
"Anyone who speaks of the 'Climate RAF' wants to lock away peaceful demonstrators"
Union politicians in particular refer to the radical climate activists of the “last generation” as “Climate RAF”. In an interview, propaganda researcher Till explains what is behind it when politicians equate radical climate activism and terrorism.
Dietmar Till is a professor of general rhetoric in Tübingen and a propaganda researcher. The editorial network Germany (RND) spoke to Till about how he assesses the debate about the "Climate RAF".
Mr. Till, with a view to the climate protests of the "last generation", the term "Climate RAF" appeared. Many consider this excessively exaggerated, but some point out that the "Red Army Faction" in the 1970s did not start its terror with kidnappings and murders either. As a rhetoric researcher, how do you classify this whole debate?
Dietmar Till: I'm interested in: who puts the term into circulation and why? These were mainly conservative politicians from the CDU and CSU. I think their concern is to legitimize political actions.
What do you mean?
Dietmar Till: It works on the “fight off the horns” model. A historical parallel is constructed to ultimately argue for jailing climate activists. We see that in Bavaria, but the CDU politician Christoph Ploß has already brought it up for discussion for the whole republic...
*
Drinking water | seawater desalination | Dryness
With high pressure against the lack of water
A lack of drinking water is threatening more and more regions of the world. Desalination plants should provide supplies from the oceans. New and improved technologies help with this.
... According to experts, increasing global warming and increasingly frequent droughts will mean that by 2030 there will be a 40 percent deficit between the demand for and the supply of drinking water. The same experts see seawater desalination as the only technology currently available to immediately counteract such an imminent serious shortage. But the technology comes with disadvantages – in addition to the environmental impact, there are also costs and efficiency. Scientists are trying to find a remedy.
[...]
In 2021, Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with its neighbor Jordan, according to which Jordan will export 600 megawatts of solar energy to Israel in exchange for 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water. Water and energy shortages also allow political competitors to cooperate with one another. Climate crises and wars could thus accelerate the establishment of new technologies on the rather conservative desalination market.
*
Netherlands | Caps | High flux reactor
16 November 2001 (INES ?) High Flux Reactor Caps, NLD
Wikipedia
As part of the EURATOM treaty, the Netherlands and the then EURATOM Commission signed the treaty establishing the European research center in 1961, which was opened in Petten in 1962. It took over the high-flux reactor for materials research that had gone into operation the previous year and is now used primarily for the production of medical isotopes...
According to the report of the former IE director Frans Saris, on November 16, 2001 there was an officially concealed incident (Station Blackout = total power failure) at the High Flux Reactor, in which one was only just about to meltdown. Due to a failure of the external power supply, the pumps that are used to cool the reactor were suddenly without power. After that, the emergency power supply also failed, and due to the inadequate power supply, the operators had great difficulty opening a valve that is used for passive emergency cooling ...
- -
AtomkraftwerkePlag
In 1955 the construction of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten was started, with which one wanted to gain experience with atomic energy ...
In December 2021, the new government announced that it would build two new nuclear power plants and provide five billion euros for them. In addition, the term of the Borssele nuclear power plant is to be extended. The reasons given were climate change and an increase in the security of supply with energy ...
Top | |
| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
***
Current news+
Part 1 | Part 2
Russia Ukraine | lobbyists | Peace
"Now only the wisdom of the Peace of Westphalia can help"
Antje Vollmer on the need for international cooperation, hybrid political think tanks and the importance of doubting the published majority opinion. (part 2 and conclusion)
Antje Vollmer is a pastor and teacher. She also works as a publicist and became known as a federal politician. In 1983 she was a member of the first Greens parliamentary group and was Vice President of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2005.
In the first part of this conversation, she went into how, from her point of view, the "war in the minds" of the former party of the peace movement had begun.
Ms. Vollmer, in the first part of this conversation you criticized political foundations and think tanks because they spread “a fairly uniform agenda”. This also applies to former green colleagues of yours, specifically Ralf Fücks and Marieluise Beck. In 2017, the two founded a think tank called Zentrum Liberale Moderne. According to the federal government, around 2018 million euros went to this organization between 2021 and 4,5, which influences public opinion. How do you rate that?
Antje Vollmer: This so-called NGO is a particularly striking example of a hybrid political think tank. Two former top politicians use all the networks of the institutions in which they have long worked and then use state money to found an anti-Russian think tank, which they call "Non Government Organization" and which has no real practice in the country.
There are many committed city partnerships that would be happy if they received project funding from the state, even if only on a selective basis. But this think tank has enjoyed the highest level of political support from the start.
Why the Zentrum Liberale Moderne of all things, what makes this organization so special?
Antje Vollmer: I suspect it was supposed to be the central think tank for a black-green government option back then. But that would also mean that the postulate of independence was wrong from the start. It's not the right distance from the government, it's not the right rootedness. Instead, the Zentrum Liberale Moderne is an instrument of ideological lobbying.
In comparison, one has to give parliamentarians credit for the fact that they have to publicly account for their positions at all times and have to stand for re-election every four years.
In these think tanks, however, the prominent representatives have sometimes been in their posts for decades and are involved in networks. I find it rather naïve to then consider this to be independent scientific expertise in individual cases.
So what to do?
Antje Vollmer: We should generally be careful in assessing what is presented to us in the media as the majority opinion. Those were real questions that Harald Welzer and Richard David Precht have been asking lately. Sometimes something is passed off as the majority opinion of all people who work specifically to establish such majorities and benefit from them.
"Carried by a feeling of unassailable superiority"
But that also means that today you have to acquire a high dissident quality, the ability to doubt, even about your own certainties. Sometimes you have to be pretty lonely in a predominantly monocultural opinion environment. At the same time, the basic tone of western debates on the newly emerging problems in the world is usually carried by a feeling of unassailable superiority, of which there should not be the slightest doubt. But precisely this doubt is necessary.
Above all, you have to pay attention to the voices that have become very quiet here...
| Top | |
| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
***
Background knowledge
**
reaktorpleite.de
Map of the nuclear world:
Man made disasters...
*
The internal search for
brought the following results, among others:
July 21, 2022 - Chomsky Exclusive: "We Can Break Free From Cruel State Capitalism!"
*
December 01, 2021 - How many of our greenhouse gas emissions are we attributing to China?
*
March 30, 2021 - NASA researchers find direct evidence of human-caused climate change
**
YouTube
Keyword search: greenhouse gas and emission doku
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Treibhausgas und Emission doku
Videos:
Federal Environment Agency - 4:10
UBA explanatory film: Greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect
*
climate:neutral - 8:09
Carbon dioxide: What are the biggest climate killers?
*
ZDF - 43:35
Germany in climate change / With Harald Lesch
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
**
Ecosia
This search engine is planting trees!
Keyword search: global cooperation
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Globale Kooperation
**
Wikipedia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia or Westphalian Peace Agreement is based on a series of peace treaties concluded between May 15 and October 24, 1648 in Münster and Osnabrück. They ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire and the Eighty Years' War of Independence in the Netherlands.
Two complementary peace treaties were negotiated in accordance with the separate locations of the Peace Congress according to the negotiating parties. For the Kaiser and France this was the Münster Peace Treaty (Instrumentum Pacis Monasteriensis, IPM) and for the Kaiser and Reich on the one hand and Sweden on the other the Osnabrück Peace Treaty (Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugensis, IPO). Both treaties were finally signed in Munster on the same day, October 24, 1648, in the name of Emperor Ferdinand III. and King Louis XIV of France and Queen Christina of Sweden respectively.
This was preceded by a five-year peace congress of all warring parties, which met simultaneously in both cities. It was the first international congress at which almost all the major European powers were represented...
**
Back to:
Newsletter XLV 2022 - November 08th to 15th
***
| Top | |
| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
***
Donation appeal
- The THTR circular is published by the 'BI Environmental Protection Hamm' and is financed by donations.
- The THTR circular has meanwhile become a much-noticed information medium. However, there are ongoing costs due to the expansion of the website and the printing of additional information sheets.
- The THTR circular researches and reports in detail. In order for us to be able to do that, we depend on donations. We are happy about every donation!
Donations account:
BI Umweltschutz Hamm
Purpose: THTR circular
IBAN: DE31 4105 0095 0000 0394 79
BIC: WELADED1HAM
***
***
