Newsletter XLVII 2022 |
24. to 30. November
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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
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
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30. November
excess profit | green power | complain
BSW Solar: Skimming off the proceeds of operators of green power plants is unconstitutional
Skimming off fictitious proceeds from solar systems is not compatible with the Basic Law and EU law. That was the result of a legal opinion. BSW Solar warns of a wave of lawsuits.
In order to ensure investment security for operators of solar systems and to prevent a wave of lawsuits, the German Solar Industry Association (BSW Solar) is calling on the federal government to refrain from skimming off fictitious chance profits from photovoltaic systems. He substantiates this claim with a legal opinion by Anna von Bremen from the Berlin law firm Raue, which specializes in commercial law...
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Dependence | LPG | Qatar
Because of "great":
The federal government is creating new dependencies with the Qatar deal
Qatar obviously wants to make itself indispensable for German energy security with liquid gas. And that's where the deal gets difficult.
Small amounts, big plans: The Qatari Ministry of Energy has announced a gas deal with Germany. Up to two million tons per year are to be delivered to the LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel over a period of 15 years.
That covers just three percent of the gas consumption - but it should be even more. Qatar obviously wants to make itself indispensable for German energy security. And that's where it gets difficult with the deal ...
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Poland | Press freedom | Solitary confinement
How critical journalists are silenced in Europe
In addition to the case of Julian Assange, the case of the Basque Pablo González has stood out for almost a year now. Poland wants to keep him in solitary confinement for at least a year without presenting evidence of the allegations of alleged espionage for Russia. His crime is evident in having done research in eastern Ukraine, which has put him in the crosshairs of Ukrainian and Polish intelligence services.
The Basque journalist Pablo González will also spend Christmas behind bars in the Polish prison Radom - about an hour and a half drive south of the capital Warsaw (Does Poland want to break the will of journalist Pablo Gonzales, who has been imprisoned for three months without charge?). So he will probably have to spend the next three months in solitary confinement, because last weekend the Polish judiciary extended the pre-trial detention for the journalist, who has Spanish and Russian citizenship, by another three months. No reasons were given by the Polish judiciary. Previously, the risk of absconding was often cited because of the long prison sentence to be expected, otherwise the reasons are kept secret and no charges are filed ...
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fossil energy | energy crisis | Gas power plants
Luxury gas without a future: Solar up to ten times cheaper
Gas analyst Rystad Energy announces the "beginning of the end for gas power plants in Europe". They are simply no longer competitive with renewable energies. It is the economy, stupid.
A new study by Rystad Energy - an independent energy consultancy and leader in the oil and gas sector - has found that at current gas prices, it would be ten times more expensive to run gas-fired power plants in the long term than to build new solar plants in Europe.
Rystad Energy entitled the study: "Energy Crisis: the beginning of the end for gas-fired power in Europe"...
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30 November 1975 (INES 5) NPP Leningrad, USSR
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Leningrad
In 1975 there was a partial destruction of the reactor core in Unit 1 of the Leningrad NPP. The reactor was shut down. The next day the core was cleaned by pumping through an emergency reserve of nitrogen and venting through the exhaust stack. Approximately 1,5 megacuries (55 PBq) of radioactive substances were released into the environment. (INES level 5)
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Nuclear power accidents by country#Russia
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Leningrad_(Russland)
In 1975, the core of the reactor was partially destroyed, after which 1,5 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the environment ...
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29. November
Lubmin | LNG terminal | Approval
Deutsche ReGas: Commissioning of the LNG terminal has been postponed
The start of the planned LNG terminal of Deutsche ReGas in Lubmin has been postponed by several weeks. According to the company, commissioning is still realistic in December. Meanwhile, more than 1.000 objections to the project have been raised.
The plant was originally scheduled to go into operation on December 1st. Apparently, Deutsche ReGas does not expect that all the necessary permits will be available by then. So far, the company has lacked the approval for the commissioning of the regasification ship in the industrial port of Lubmin.
[...]
The German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) sees the terminal as currently not eligible for approval. The state association announced that the investigations presented were not sufficient to rule out damage to the bird sanctuary and herring spawning area in the Greifswalder Bodden. The environmental protection organization pointed out possible impairments as a result of heat propagation through cooling water. The daily traffic of the 136 meter long tankers, which transport the LNG from a larger ship on the Baltic Sea through the shallow bay, was not sufficiently taken into account. In addition, there are risks for industrial plants such as the nuclear interim storage facility in Lubmin due to the risk of explosion ...
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fossil energy | Global Warming | LPG
Liquid gas deliveries from Qatar: Habeck is not credible
In view of the climate crisis, we must phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible. But when deals like the current one are signed with Qatar, the opposite happens.
Qatar has announced that it intends to supply Germany with liquid gas on a large scale - from 2026 for a period of 15 years. That is not good news. This is by no means about alleviating the current energy crisis with this agreement. Exactly what is happening here is what critics of liquid gas, the so-called LNG, have always warned about: In the slipstream of the current energy crisis, an absurdly expensive and, above all, very climate-damaging new infrastructure is being built that will last for many years.
This is fatal. In view of the rapidly progressing global warming, it must not be about switching from Russian gas to LNG from Qatar, the USA, Australia or other countries. Instead, we must phase out fossil fuels as quickly as possible. But the opposite happens when deals like the current one are signed with Qatar...
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Chinese state-owned company ousted: London is pumping hundreds of millions of pounds into new nuclear power plants
A Chinese state-owned company was actually supposed to be involved in the construction of a nuclear power plant in England. But now the British government has changed its mind. London is pumping £700m into the project, crowding out Chinese investors.
Britain is pushing a Chinese state-owned company out of the construction of a new nuclear power plant in exchange for a payment of millions. The government in London announced on Tuesday that it would invest around 700 million pounds (811 million euros) in the Sizewell C project in the eastern English county of Suffolk.
It has not been announced how much of this will go to the Chinese group CGN as an advance payment...
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renewable | Wind turbines | Air traffic control
Air traffic control clears the way for more wind turbines
The blocking radius for wind power around the rotary radio beacons of air traffic control will be reduced from 15 to seven kilometers.
It has been apparent for a long time, but now it's official: In the future, more wind turbines will be able to be built around the four so-called DVOR systems, commonly known as rotary radio beacons, of German air traffic control - at least in principle. To the annoyance of politicians and potential operators, air traffic control has often vetoed the idea because wind turbines can disrupt the radio signal that aircraft need for navigation.
Now the restricted radius of most of the 41 German facilities will be reduced from 15 to seven kilometers...
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forest protection | ecosystem | Forests are renewable
Forest protection - That's how important trees are for us and our climate
The loss of forests is a problem that the global community urgently needs to address – as does each and every one of us. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, an area of 420 million hectares of forest has been lost to deforestation in the past decade. This corresponds to an area comparable to that of the EU. Here you can find out what you can do personally to protect the forest and why it is so important.
The forest as an ecosystem has long been vital not only for our climate. Our forests are real all-rounders: they filter rainwater and provide us with valuable drinking water. In addition, they protect us from floods. The forest is also an irreplaceable basis of life for a large number of animals and thus also for us humans.
[...]
Projects to save the forest worldwide
So how can you do your part for forest protection and the climate? A direct and particularly sustainable way to do something for the forest is to plant trees yourself or to support organizations that are involved in reforestation projects against the climate crisis...
Giving away some trees for Christmas?! Here it goes: Primaklima
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United States | Uranium mining | Nevada Test Side | Church Rock
Nuclear contamination on the Navajo reservation: "Why has no one been interested in our fate for decades?"
First the Americans mined uranium in Navajo territory, then they tested nuclear weapons. Finally, in 1979, the largest nuclear accident in US history occurred on the reservation. The Native Americans are still suffering from the effects of the radiation today.
“The Americans won World War II thanks to two things: the atomic bomb and the encryption codes. Both came from the Navajo Reservation here,” says David Lee Neztsosie. The 70-year-old is a Navajo himself, so he belongs to the Native Americans. He is sitting at his sister Lula's table in a remote wooden house near Cameron, on the edge of the Painted Desert.
Uranium mining, atomic bomb testing and the Church Rock accident
What sounds absurd at first glance is entirely plausible. From 1944 onwards, the American government mined uranium on the Navajo Reservation in the state of Nevada as part of the military Manhattan Project. Sole purpose: the development and construction of the atomic bomb. Mining continued during the Cold War. Almost 500 million tons of uranium ore were mined in the 30 mines. The workers were mostly Navajo; there was not the slightest protection against radioactivity ...
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Great Britain | Sellafield | Nuclear factory
29 November 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,5) Sellafield Nuclear factory, GBR
The chimney of building B230 released approx. 1,6 TBq of plutonium.
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This accident, as well as several other releases of radioactivity originating from Sellafield, are no longer in the German Wikipedia a DAK Bungalow.
Wikipedia de
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield
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Wikipedia en
Sellafield - Radiological Releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
According to the operator Sellafield Ltd., since April 2016 a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on behalf of the British government, reprocessing work at Sellafield will be completed in 2020. A transformation program has been initiated which aims to decontaminate Sellafield, reduce the hazard situation and reduce costs.
According to an October 2018 report, the decommissioning of Sellafield is scheduled to be completed by 2120. Estimated to cost £121bn...
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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...
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United States | Idaho | Atomic research
29 November 1955 (INES 4) EBR-I Research Reactor, USA
Partial meltdown during a coolant flow test.
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
Idaho Falls, USA - 1955: Partial meltdown at EBR-1
The first accident occurred in the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-1). After two years of construction, the fast breeder went into operation in 1951 and had an output of 0,2 MW. According to a 1953 calculation, he created only one new atom for each split atom.
When the EBR-1 was subjected to a performance upgrade test on November 29, 1955, a technician made a fatal error. Using a button, he accidentally pushed a slow-moving control rod (instead of a fast-moving one) into the reactor core. The technician noticed the error immediately, but after just a few seconds half of the radioactive core had melted. The EBR-1 was decommissioned in 1964.
The partial meltdown was rated level 4 (accident) on the INES scale...
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Wikipedia de
In this Wikipedia article on the INL, the INES 4 incident of November 29, 1955 is not mentioned at all and the fatal accident of January 4, 03, which was also rated INES 1961, is only touched upon briefly. Two INES 4 incidents should actually be enough to include a separate category for incidents.
Apparently, however, slowly but surely all important information about accidents in the nuclear industry is being removed from Wikipedia!
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List of accidents in nuclear facilities
November 29, 1955 - At the National Reactor Testing Station Idaho, the EBR-I research reactor suffered a partial meltdown. The core, made of enriched uranium combined with 2% zirconium, melted in tests that called for a rapid increase in power due to fuel tubes warping. Evaporation of the coolant NaK transported the melting fuel into the cooling system tubes and dropped below criticality, causing the reactor to shut itself down...
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Wikipedia en
The English Wikipedia doesn't look any better either...
Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States
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28. November
Excavation of a Chinese underground laboratory begins
A large tunnel boring machine has started boring the inclined spiral ramp of the Beishan Underground Research Laboratory near the city of Jiuquan in China's Gansu Province. Located in the Gobi Desert, the laboratory will include the spiral ramp, three vertical shafts and horizontal drifts.
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced that the world's first hard rock spiral tunneling machine, the Beishan No.1, started drilling work for the laboratory's underground ramp on Nov. 18.
The machine Beishan No. 1 is about 100 meters long and a little over 200 meters in diameter. It can achieve a horizontal turning radius of 380 meters and a vertical turning radius of XNUMX meters.
"This marks the beginning of the construction phase of the world's first spiral ramp to be built with the continuous, full-surface, small-curve, large-slope hard rock tunnel boring machine, providing the technology for the high-quality construction of an internationally advanced and world-class underground laboratory," according to CNNC .
Beishan's underground research laboratory, which will be buried up to 560 meters underground in granite, is designed to test the area's suitability for long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Poland | nuclear power | Lubiatowo-Kopalino
wind power? No thank you
So far, the country has mainly generated its energy from coal. That should change, but instead of promoting renewable energies, Poland is getting into nuclear power.
Walking along the beach and swimming in the Baltic Sea, you will be able to see it clearly - Poland's first nuclear power plant. In the town of Lubiatowo-Kopalino, the first of a total of six reactors is scheduled to go online in 2033.
[...]
The construction will cost many billions of euros, and the output of the reactors cannot replace that of the coal-fired power plants. It takes more than that. However, from the point of view of economist Aleksandra Gawlikowska-Fyk from the think tank Forum Energii, this is missing. "The quickest and cheapest way is to expand renewable energy sources," she says on the phone. But from their point of view, there is not enough progress. "The current government has never been particularly interested in renewable energy." ...
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war crimes | Ukraine War | Criminal Court
Learning from history: How to deal with war criminals?
The justice ministers of the most important industrial nations are discussing bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. There are numerous historical models for this: from the Nuremberg trials to the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals to the International Criminal Court founded in 2002.
The determination in the West to sanction war crimes of the kind that are the order of the day in the war of aggression against Ukraine and to bring war criminals to justice remains undiminished. "We will have staying power," announced Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) in the run-up to the meeting with his counterparts from the seven most important industrialized nations (G7) ...
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Press freedom | Assange | Criminal prosecution
Open letter from the New York Times, Guardian, Le Monde, SPIEGEL and El País
Journalism is not a crime
The US government should stop prosecuting Julian Assange for publishing classified documents.
Twelve years ago today, November 28, 2010, our five editorial offices, in partnership with WikiLeaks, published a series of investigative stories that made headlines around the world. The diplomatic cables, a collection of 251.000 classified US State Department messages, exposed corruption, diplomatic scandals and espionage affairs of international proportions. In the words of The New York Times, the documents "show unvarnished how the US government makes its most important decisions, decisions that cost the country many lives and a lot of money." And journalists and historians are still publishing new revelations based on this unique treasure trove of documents...
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Japan | lifetime extension | energy crisis
Japan is considering extending the lifespan of old nuclear power plants
Due to the war against Ukraine, energy prices have also risen in Japan. The government sees a solution in particular in nuclear power - according to a report, reactors should be allowed to stay longer on the grid.
Many countries are currently discussing how to meet – and pay for – the energy demand. Japan is considering running some nuclear reactors longer than the current 60-year limit, according to Bloomberg news agency. The country is increasingly focusing on nuclear power as an energy solution.
According to a document from the Department of Commerce, the agency is now considering a plan to exempt shut down reactors from existing lifetime limitations...
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Noam Chomsky | Ukraine War | escalation
Chomsky: Chances for diplomacy diminish with Russian escalation
Putin bombs infrastructure in Ukraine. At the same time: The anti-negotiation course of the USA is being questioned by parts of the establishment and in Europe. What other ways out of the impasse of war are there?
[...]
Now, Putin has proceeded to the expected escalation, "over the past few weeks targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure and stepping up his attacks in the east of the country." Putin's escalation, modeled after the US, Britain and Israel, has been rightly condemned for its brutality - condemned by those who continue to accept the Western original with little or no objection, as well as the war-gambling that laid the groundwork for the escalation , which has been warned about all along. Nobody will be held accountable for this. But we should learn some lessons from this...
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27. November
Big Oil causes three times more greenhouse gases than stated
Oil and gas producers don't fully report emissions, an organization evaluating satellite data found.
Our knowledge of how much greenhouse gas is produced where currently depends largely on what countries and their industries voluntarily report. But many underestimate their emissions, according to Climate Trace, an organization that monitors and categorizes greenhouse gases.
In a recently published analysis, the non-governmental organization comes to the conclusion that oil and gas producers in particular produce three times more greenhouse gases than they themselves have stated ...
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How To: How to deactivate and delete your Twitter account
Since Elon Musk took over the reigns at Twitter, things have been going downhill. Therefore, more and more people are leaving the platform. That's why we're going to show you how to delete and deactivate your Twitter account in today's How To Guide.
It's been just under a month since Elon Musk pulled off the takeover of Twitter for around $44 billion...
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Japan | energy suppliers | Kartell
Record penalty and cease and desist
Large Japanese energy suppliers have to pay antitrust fines
Japan's trade regulator has slapped record-high antitrust fines on several major utilities for forming a cartel and obstructing the liberalization of Japan's electricity market.
Utilities include Chugoku Electric Power, Kyushu Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, among others. The Trade Inspectorate accuses them of violating the antimonopoly law and has imposed fines of 10 billion yen (about 69 million euros) ...
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26. November
Terrorist Manhunt | ZDF | Magazine Royale
»ZDF Magazine Royale«
Böhmermann causes excitement with a comparison between the FDP and the RAF
In his satirical show, ZDF presenter Jan Böhmermann declared the FDP to be the new RAF. A fictitious terror search poster had already heated up the tweeting minds in the run-up to the broadcast.
The style is reminiscent of an RAF wanted poster from the 24s – only there is no Andreas Baader here, but a Christian Lindner. In addition to the Federal Minister of Finance, this fictitious wanted poster also shows a youth photo of the former SPIEGEL editor-in-chief and current "WeltNXNUMX" publisher Stefan Aust or the virologist Hendrik Streeck.
[...]
"If everyone goes one turn too far because they always count on applause in their own camp, there is a loser," wrote Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society: "democratic culture." Beck continued to tweet about the hashtags “rafdp” and “KlimaRAF”: “Both are crazy”.
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The difference is »KlimaRAF« is not funny.
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Last Generation | climate active | Civil disobedience
"Last Generation" is taking a break
The group has announced that there will be no new campaigns in the coming week. But after that she wants to compete "with even more people".
Even climate activists apparently need a break. In any case, the group "Last Generation" has announced that it will not hold any more protest actions until the end of next week...
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Stress test | Runtime | continued operation
Extension of the AKW term
Union demands third stress test from the federal government
The CDU is not satisfied with the temporary continued operation of three German nuclear power plants until next spring. She fears that another extension will be necessary to ensure energy security in this country - and sees a need for action.
The Union parties CDU and CSU are demanding another stress test for the power supply in Germany from the federal government. "The federal government still believes that the energy crisis will be over next year. That is a fatal misjudgment," said environmental policy spokeswoman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Anja Weisgerber, of the "Augsburger Allgemeine"...
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The nuclear lobby will continue to stress(test) until the result "fits"!
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sit-in | Neckarwestheim | lifetime extension
Lifetime extension for nuclear power plants until April
Opponents of nuclear power want to block Neckarwestheim 2
Opponents of nuclear power have announced a sit-in at the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant for Saturday.
On Friday, the Federal Council approved the extension of the operating times for the three remaining nuclear power plants in Germany until mid-April. Today, opponents of nuclear power want to express their displeasure on site in Neckarwestheim (Heilbronn district) - with a protest action. The nationwide campaignRunterfahren" criticizes the stretching operation of Neckarwestheim 2 and the nuclear power plant Lingen in Lower Saxony and Isar 2 in Bavaria until April 15...
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25. November
Electricity price brake | gas price | fossil energies
»So that our country gets through the winter well«
Traffic light decides gas and electricity price brake
The federal government wants to relieve consumers of high energy costs in the coming year. When the cabinet decided on this, there were changes to the financing plans: the skimming off of excess profits was further restricted.
The government wants to mitigate the sharply rising costs for gas and electricity for private households and the economy: the cabinet decided on gas and electricity price brakes on Friday. From January 2023 to the end of April 2024, capped prices will apply to most consumption – the state will pay the difference. Parliament should decide on the price brakes before Christmas. The Federal Council meeting is on December 16th.
[...]
There was praise for the price brakes from the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) and the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH). Energy-intensive smaller craft businesses could also benefit from the electricity price brake, emphasized ZDH President Hans Peter Wollseifer. Due to the fact that the electricity price brake for January and February will only be granted retrospectively from March, it could become financially tight for many companies. Wollseifer therefore called for a »hardship bridge«.
Greenpeace criticized the plans. "These resolutions make energy cheaper with many billions of taxpayers' money, but they fail to ensure that dependence on fossil fuels decreases in the future," explained Bastian Neuwirth from the environmental organization.
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Radical | climate protests | climate activist
Radical climate protests:
Much needed troublemakers
The actions of the last generation polarize: they force us out of the comfort zone. It hurts, but this is the only way to protect the climate.
[...]
One can argue how sensible and effective the actions of the last generation are. Blockages bring a lot of trouble and risk. The concern can disappear behind the action. For weeks there has been no debate about the goals of the last generation, only about their means. They also do not block the big climate killers such as coal-fired power plants or gas pipelines, but private transport.
But the demands of climate activists are less radical, radical is a future of 2,7 degrees in the climate crisis that we are currently heading for ...
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Atomic research | highly enriched | Garching | FRM II
Garching reactor in future with low-enriched uranium
The research reactor of the Technical University of Munich in Garching can be converted to low-enriched uranium. The TU announced this. A major conversion is not necessary for this. The approval process for the new fuel is scheduled to start by 2025.
The research reactor in Garching can be converted to low-enriched uranium. The TU Munich announced this in the morning. Researchers at the TUM have calculated that the conversion that is often required is now theoretically possible and that the required neutron flux can also be generated without highly enriched material (HEU). The whole thing was confirmed by experts from the USA. According to the TU, a major conversion is not necessary. The approval process for the new fuel is to be initiated by 2025...
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Hear hear! For years, research reactors around the world have been converted to low-enriched uranium, and now it is actually possible in Munich. The proponents of a nuclear armament policy ala Franz Josef Strauss gasped.
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Punish | Last Generation | climate glue
Airport blocked: Completely exaggerated reactions
"Last Generation" temporarily paralyzes BER. The response of conservative and social-democratic politicians raises fears of harsh repression for everyone who does not put up with inaction on climate protection. A comment
The excitement is great again. Yesterday, Thursday, members of the Last Generation temporarily blocked Berlin Airport, where some sat on the runways far from taxiing airplanes and others rode bicycles around them. After an hour and a half it was all over.
The reactions to this could hardly be more excited, and a comparison with the silence that usually accompanies most right-wing extremist arson attacks and murders, for example in the Berlin district of Neukölln, which is immediately adjacent to the airport, gives a glimpse into the abyss of the German bourgeoisie.
At the CSU, for example, one almost overturns: the former Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer, who always held his protective hand over the diesel fraud of the German automotive industry, how his predecessors and successors let the railway go to waste, built motorways and also spent hundreds of millions of euros in the Toll disaster, calls the activists "climate criminals" on Twitter who should be "locked away" ...
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Nuclear program or human rights - The dilemma of Iran policy
The Human Rights Council in Geneva is not considered the most powerful body within the United Nations. But the condemnation of Iran over the violent crackdown by the Tehran leadership against the protest movement marks a turning point. The majority of the committee followed a motion by Germany and Iceland to set up an independent commission to investigate the human rights situation in Iran and, in particular, the rights of women and girls.
The resolution, promoted by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, is the most visible sign of a new, more confrontational attitude on the part of the German government towards the leadership in Tehran ...
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Nuclear phase-out | continued operation
Federal Council approves postponement of nuclear phase-out
The Federal Council has now approved the continued operation of the three remaining reactors. The end of nuclear power in Germany is expected to come in mid-April.
It has been decided that the last three German nuclear power plants will continue to operate until April 15 next year. The Federal Council refrained from appealing to the mediation committee for this law. With that, it can come into effect...
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Electricity price | gas price | Merit order
wave of price increases for electricity
More than seven million electricity customers have recently been informed about massive price increases. It does vary regionally. But it is likely to be expensive everywhere in the coming years.
Numerous consumers in Germany recently received price increases from their electricity suppliers. Some of the increases at the turn of the year are drastic. For example, the Cologne-based company Rheinenergie will be charging more than twice as much per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the basic supply as of January: around 55 cents will be due there in the future - an increase of almost 130 percent ...
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24. November
nuclear waste storage | Neckarwestheim
Decades to final storage
Nuclear waste: Neckarwestheim probably longer intermediate storage
Neckarwestheim will probably remain an interim storage facility for radioactive waste for much longer than previously feared. The search for a repository has been massively delayed. That's worrying.
The determination of a repository site for high-level radioactive waste has been delayed by at least 15 years. This was announced by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment. This also affects the city of Neckarwestheim (Heilbronn district). 135 castors are stored there in the interim storage facility. They will therefore remain there for many decades to come...
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Expansion of renewables | Photovoltaics | Tenant electricity
Politicians are preparing relief for tenant electricity
The Federal Ministry of Economics is currently working on accelerating the expansion of photovoltaics and is also targeting the flow of tenants. It probably comes down to a balance sheet model, reported Rüdiger Winkler, Managing Director of the Edna Federal Energy Market and Communication Association at the Edna conference on November 24th.
He is a member of a corresponding working group in the Federal Ministry of Economics. The operator of a tenant electricity system would then physically feed all of its electricity into the grid and this would only be passed on to the tenants on the balance sheet, explained Winkler. Further simplification: The sales tax for such photovoltaic systems should drop to zero ...
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Austria | Czechia | Small Modular Reactor
Joining forces against small nuclear reactors (SMR) in the Czech Republic
National Councilors and NGOs from the Mühlviertel and Waldviertel together - Motion for a resolution in Parliament
After it became known that the state energy supplier CEZ plans to build small modular reactors, "Small Modular Reactors" (SMRs), or "mini nuclear power plants" by 2032, Martin Litschauer, National Councilor from the Waldviertel, and Johanna Jachs, National Councilor from the Mühlviertel introduced a joint motion for a resolution in Parliament that the Federal Government, Foreign Minister and Minister for the Environment should use all legal means to oppose these plans. This motion for a resolution is also supported by Julia Herr, SPÖ, by Renate Brandner-Weiß, from the Waldviertler Energiestammtisch and Manfred Doppler from the Anti-Nuclear Committee in Freistadt.
[...]
The nuclear lobby is aware that nuclear power has no future anywhere in the world, so proponents are trying to present these Small Modular Reactors (SMR) as a new achievement.
"But these reactors are neither new, nor small, nor safer, and there is no experience of the costs, because not a single one has been built anywhere in the world"...
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Climate policy | Climate summit | COP27
After the COP 27 climate summit
"It takes an alliance of the willing"
Climate researcher Mojib Latif on the need to restart international climate policy after the disappointing UN summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and Germany's role in it.
Klimareporter°: Mr. Latif, after the recent climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, do you still have hope that the 1,5-degree limit for global warming will remain within reach? The summit declaration adheres to the goal.
Mojib Latif: No, but I didn't have any hope before the summit either. The current global warming is the result of the accumulated historical global CO2 emissions. This results in the permissible global CO2 budget in order not to exceed a certain level of global warming. And that is already more than 1,5 percent used up for the 80 degree limit.
Are at least the two degrees still realistic?
Yes, but even that is a Herculean task. The world should be carbon neutral in a few decades. However, global CO2 emissions are still increasing. The world is going in the wrong direction even now...
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industry lobby | fossil | COP27
The 636 fossil industry lobbyists were underestimated
In addition to China, those who earn a lot of money with fossil fuels slowed down the COP27 climate conference.
The latest climate conference in Egypt ended without any progress on climate protection. In his Spiegel column “The saboteurs are acting in the background”, columnist Christian Stöcker tracks down those responsible. In addition to China, which produces the most coal per inhabitant after Australia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Russia and Poland, Stöcker looks at the following figure: 636 lobbyists from oil, gas and coal companies took part in Sharm el-Sheikh. That was 25 percent more than in the previous year, as calculated by the environmental organization Global Witness. She criticized COP27 becoming a lobbying event this year. This means that the fossil lobby was represented by more people at the climate conference than the ten countries most affected by climate change combined.
Some of them were even part of the official delegations of the states, so they had access rights to premises that remained closed to the media or NGOs. For example, the CEO of the oil company BP, Bernard Looney, traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh as part of the Mauritanian delegation. A total of around 4500 people attended the conference ...
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Operation from the end of January 2023 at the earliest
Finnish nuclear power plant Olkiluoto 3 fails again
Helsinki, Finland - After years of delays, Finland's new Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant was supposed to officially start operating in December 2022. Damage to the feedwater pumps now ruins this plan.
The Finnish power plant operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) has announced that the investigation into the damage to the feedwater pumps of the EPR Olkiluoto 3, which was discovered in October, will continue for a few more weeks. The impact on the schedule cannot yet be estimated. According to the Areva-Siemens operator consortium, electricity production will not resume until December 11, 2022 at the earliest, so that regular electricity production will not begin until the end of January 2023 at the earliest. The damage found to the pumps would not have any impact on nuclear safety, according to TVO ...
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excess profit tax | traffic light coalition | energy company
SPD leader Esken: Excess profit tax must not be "diluted".
After the Greens, the SPD also has doubts as to whether the plans of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) are sufficient. He wants to collect a third of the extra profits as tax.
The traffic light coalition in Berlin is arguing about the extent to which extra profits from the oil and gas industry caused by the crisis should be skimmed off. After the Greens, the SPD is now raising doubts as to whether the plans of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) are sufficient. He wants to collect a third of the extra profits as tax. That would be the minimum set by the EU. SPD leader Saskia Esken told our newspaper: "We siphon off excess profits from energy companies and invest the money in the cohesion of our country." She added: "We will make sure that this idea is not diluted when implementing our project." ...
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renewable | Energy policy | LNG terminal
Lots of money for LNG, little ambition for wind and solar energy
Energy and climate - compact: While the federal government is investing billions in new LNG terminals for natural gas, there is no sign of the accelerated expansion of renewable energies. Anatomy of a failed energy policy.
Doubled costs for the new floating LNG terminals were reported on Telepolis. Instead of the originally planned 2,94 billion euros, these should now cost 6,56 billion euros, i.e. around 3,6 billion euros more.
If only the originally estimated almost 3 billion euros had been invested in the expansion of renewables at an early stage, then the LNG terminals might not have been necessary at all. But you're always smarter afterwards, or not...
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Current news+
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Nuclear waste | Würgassen | Grafenrheinfeld
More garbage to Grafenrheinfeld: The Schweinfurt action alliance against nuclear power is concerned
The Schweinfurt action alliance against nuclear power (SWAB) is reacting with concern to the announcement of the planned storage of external low-level and medium-level radioactive nuclear waste in the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear waste storage facility BeHa.
According to the permit, 20 percent of the approved inventory may consist of third-party waste, which means that 20 percent more of this nuclear waste can be stored than was produced during nuclear power plant operation. This additional radiation exposure is expected of the population and the affected workers.
The nuclear waste is said to come from the Würgassen nuclear power plant, which is currently being dismantled. It is irritating that the Würgassen site has its own interim storage facility for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. Why isn't the nuclear waste stored there? Or: why shouldn't he stay there? Should it already be full? That would be an indication of blatant planning errors. Or is it in the way of the logistics center planned there by the BGZ and should it therefore be cleared?
Since no conditioning systems have been set up at the individual nuclear waste generation sites, a central receiving or provision storage facility is planned for the entire amount of low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste in order to condition it and transport it to the Konrad shaft for final long-term storage (should be operational by 2027). . Schacht Konrad is heavily criticized for having serious doubts about his suitability.
There is also criticism of the planned logistics center. This is also scheduled to go into operation in 2027, according to BGZ spokesman Hendrik Kranert, there is currently a delay of around a year. A TÜV report has certified that an incoming storage facility of this size and design is not absolutely necessary. The Federal Environment Ministry has not yet made a final decision on the Würgassen logistics center. There may be - as demanded by the critics - a transparent selection process - which would cancel the location determination.
From the point of view of the SWAB, it is urgently necessary to present the reasons publicly: why does PreussenElektra want to transport nuclear waste from Würgassen to Grafenrheinfeld and store it there?
There is no precise information on the planned transport route, but Bavarian radio pointed out two possible variants: road transport by truck to the nuclear power plant site or by rail to Gochsheim and then reloading onto trucks for the rest of the route.
This is reminiscent of the dangerous, unspeakable nuclear shipments at the Gochsheim train station - in the immediate vicinity of the residents - against which the Gochsheim citizens' initiative BIG has campaigned vehemently for years. The dispute with operators and authorities came to an end in 2001 - with the decision of the then red-green federal government to deposit the nuclear waste in nuclear power plant interim storage facilities ...
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Background knowledge
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reaktorpleite.de
Map of the nuclear world:
Nuclear waste is what remains...
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The internal search for
brought the following results, among others:
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April 06, 2020 - Nuclear waste rolls through NRW
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Feb 12, 2020 - Nuclear waste transports from Gronau via Hamm to Russia
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YouTube
Keyword search: nuclear waste doku
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Atommüll doku
Videos:
ARD daily news from 26.11.2019 - 05:32
Controversial supply of uranium to Russia
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ZDF Terra X - 9:03 p.m
What to do with the nuclear waste? | Harald Lesch
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Arte - 01:38:27
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
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Ecosia
This search engine is planting trees!
Keyword search: nuclear waste
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Atommüll
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nuclear waste report
Nuclear waste
background objects
There is a lot of talk about nuclear waste, but what is it actually? Every time radioactive substances are handled, radioactive waste is generated, from uranium mining to fuel production, from the operation of nuclear power plants and from reprocessing to the dismantling of nuclear power plants. But radioactive waste is also generated in the German armed forces, in research, medicine and teaching and even in the conventional extraction of raw materials and in the consumer goods industry. The quantities and the radiological and radiotoxic effects on humans vary greatly depending on the type of waste. Equally different are the classification and treatment of nuclear waste in different countries...
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Wikipedia
Radioactive waste
Radioactive waste, commonly known as nuclear waste, is radioactive material that cannot be used or that may no longer be used due to political regulations. Most nuclear waste is created through the use of nuclear energy. Smaller amounts arise in medicine and research; some states have significant legacies from the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons. Incidental radioactive substances and other material contaminated by them are always kept in interim storage facilities; the management of high-level radioactive waste through disposal, transmutation or reuse is an important task for mankind...
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Nuclear waste transport in Germany
take place for processing and interim storage. A concept for the so-called final storage does not yet exist. The transports are regularly accompanied by demonstrations.
Nuclear waste transports include in particular
- the transport of spent fuel elements from German nuclear power plants for reprocessing abroad (La Hague, France, or Sellafield, Great Britain). Since July 1, 2005, the Atomic Energy Act has prohibited the transport of nuclear fuels from the commercial generation of electricity to reprocessing;
- the return transport of the radioactive waste generated during reprocessing from the reprocessing plants to Germany for interim storage (e.g. to the Ahaus nuclear waste storage facility or to the Gorleben nuclear waste storage facility); these will continue to be carried out in accordance with the obligations under nuclear law;
- Transport of low and intermediate level waste to conditioning facilities and interim storage facilities
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Back to:
Newsletter XLVI 2022 - November 16th to 23rd
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