Newsletter XLVIII 2022 |
December 01-07
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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:
02 December 1949 (INES 4 NAMS 3,8) Nuclear factory Hanford, USA
05 December 1965 (Broken Arrow) Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, USA
06 December 1972 (INES 3 NAMS 1,6) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
07 December 1975 (INES 3) Greifswald, GDR
10 December 1994 (INES 2) Pickering, ON, CAN
21 December 1972 (INES ? Class.?) Pawling, USA
31 December 1978 (INES 4) Beloyarsk, 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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07. December
Lingen fuel assemblies | Nuclear phase-out
Production of fuel elements:
Ministry of Uranium Factories
Otherwise the nuclear phase-out would be implausible, writes the environment department. A quick closure is not in sight.
GOETTINGEN taz | It is an announcement that has no consequences for the time being, but it is still an announcement: The Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) expressly advocates an end to the production of fuel elements for nuclear power plants in Germany: "From the BMUV's point of view, it is general with regard to the credibility of the German nuclear phase-out necessary to end nuclear fuel production," writes the ministry to the action alliance Münsterland against nuclear plants in a letter that is available to the taz. However, it goes on to say that this would require a change in the legal situation ...
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Researchers convert carbon dioxide from the air back into solid carbon
When fossil fuels are burned, undesirable carbon dioxide is produced, which is then regularly released into the atmosphere. Researchers are going the opposite way in a test facility and can flexibly configure and produce a stable carbon with the CO2 from the air. The process is now to be scaled.
In the Necoc research project, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KI) and industrial partners have developed a process that combines negative emissions with the production of a high-tech raw material. In the next step, the method is to be optimized in terms of energy and the system is to be scaled ...
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Lingen fuel assemblies | Rosatom | Framatome
But fuel element cooperation Rosatom-Framatome
The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reports this morning (December 7.12.2022th, XNUMX) that the French nuclear company Framatome is planning a joint venture for fuel element production with the Kremlin group Rosatom. Of course, this also has an impact on the fuel element factory operated by Framatome in Lingen/Emsland.
The joint venture is now not to be registered in Germany – as was planned a year ago – but in France. Anti-nuclear organizations are appalled that France is trying to push ahead with the nuclear partnership with Russia in the middle of the illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. The Lingen fuel element factory will inevitably come under the Kremlin's sphere of influence, regardless of whether the joint venture is registered in France or Germany. An increase in uranium deliveries from Russia is also to be expected ...
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Climate change | Temperature | Global Warming
Where did Germany warm the most in 2022?
The mean annual temperature has been increasing for years due to climate change - also in Germany. But there are big regional differences.
2022 - a year of extremes with summer droughts and forest fires. According to the records of the German Weather Service (DWD), the summer of 2022 in Germany was one of the warmest and driest - and above all the sunniest - since weather records began in 1881. "In times of climate change, we should have experienced a summer that will soon be typical." , says Uwe Kirsche from the DWD ...
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Raid | Reichsbürger | terrorist group
Armed citizens of the Reich
Raid over planned coup d'etat
According to the ARD capital studio and SWR, an armed group of Reichsbürger and lateral thinkers are said to have planned a coup. Among the 52 accused are ex-elite soldiers and a former AfD member of the Bundestag.
In the early hours of the morning, the investigators struck: special police forces stormed the suspects' apartments, executed 25 arrest warrants and began extensive search measures...
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Biodiversity | Species extinction | protected areas
Will the UN Biodiversity Summit stop the rapid loss of nature?
The UN conference is about nothing less than halting the mass extinction of species and ecosystems. To this end, 30 percent of the global land and sea areas are to be placed under protection.
Human-caused loss of biodiversity is one of the main causes of the sixth mass extinction on earth. Three quarters of animal and plant species could disappear in just a few centuries. This loss also exacerbates climate change, as the planet is deprived of its natural carbon stores, for example through disappearing moors or forests.
Currently, less than 17 percent of land and eight percent of oceans are protected areas worldwide. Here, biological diversity is at least theoretically safe from exploitation, pollution or deforestation - but not from the effects of climate change, which devastates the biosphere through droughts, floods and forest fires ...
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Japan | protests | old reactors
Fight against the energy crisis Japan relies on aged nuclear power plants
Ironically, Japan could be the country with the oldest nuclear power plants in the world in a few years. In the energy crisis, the government wants to get old reactors back on the grid. They were shut down after the Fukushima disaster.
Chanting tears through the Sunday quiet in the center of Osaka, Japan's second largest city. About 1000 demonstrators surround the headquarters of the regional energy supplier KEPCO, an operator of nuclear power plants in the west of the country. "Fukushima is not over!" they shout, "Start again - we are against it!" It's about the old reactors that Japan's government is reconnecting to the power grid. The resistance to this comes mainly from the rural population ...
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Climate change | Glacier | Alps
The Alps are thawing
The summer has really hit the alpine glaciers. With the disappearance of the eternal ice, the risk of natural disasters increases. Newly emerging, unstable glacial lakes are particularly dangerous.
Never since weather records have the Alps lost so much glacier ice as it did last summer. "This year was really extreme," said glaciologist Wilfried Haeberli, professor emeritus at the University of Zurich. "We can already say that the loss of mass from the glaciers was significantly higher than in the previous record year of 2003." ...
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Slovakia | Mochovce | Cooling water leak
Found during test run
Leak in Slovakia's Mochovce nuclear power plant
The third reactor block of Slovakia's Mochovce nuclear power plant is scheduled to go online in mid-January. A leak is discovered when the load tests are carried out. The schedule is not in danger because of the necessary repairs, the operator reports.
A defective seal was discovered during load tests in the new third block of the Slovakian nuclear power plant Mochovce. The gradual commissioning of the reactor, which has been ongoing since September, was therefore interrupted, as the operating company announced. The leak in one part of the reactor was noticed during pressure tests, a spokeswoman said. Once the waterproofing has been repaired, testing would continue next week...
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07 December 1975 (INES 3) NPP Greifswald, GDR
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Greifswald
When an electrician at the Greifswald nuclear power plant wanted to show an apprentice how to bridge electrical circuits, he triggered a short circuit on the primary side of the Unit 1 transformer. The resulting arc caused a cable fire to break out. The fire in the main cable duct destroyed the power supply and control lines of 5 main coolant pumps (6 are operational for one block). A meltdown could have threatened because reactor 1 could no longer be properly cooled. However, the fire was quickly brought under control by the company fire brigade and the power supply to the pumps was provisionally restored. The case was only made public on television after the fall of communism in 1989. Soviet authorities informed the IAEA just a few hours after the incident, which later classified it as INES 3 (precursor to an accident, here a "station blackout" melting scenario) ...
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Nuclear power accidents by country#Germany
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Greifswald/Lubmin_(Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
"It was "like a miracle", according to a safety engineer deployed at the time, that "large parts of northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden" were not radioactively contaminated." Due to an operating error, a cable network caught fire. All protection systems failed: the emergency power supply, the emergency cooling system and the display devices in the control room. 11 pumps were no longer running, and just because the twelfth pump happened to be connected to the power supply of the functional reactor 2, there was enough cooling water available and a core meltdown could be avoided ...
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06. December
Brazil liberalizes uranium mining
The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies has approved a constitutional reform that should allow private companies to enter the uranium sector. The largest country in South America could soon be exporting uranium - but it is in competition with former heavyweight Canada, which is aiming for a comeback ...
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Fossil | excess profit | Renewables | revenue skimming
Taxes on fossil fuels, revenue skimming on renewables?
Involving the energy companies in financing the electricity price brake is correct. However, the federal government's plan to skim off the proceeds from renewables is unconstitutional - and it is slowing down the energy transition.
[...]
Legally, the federal government is exposing itself to the risk of a wave of lawsuits. Instead of making risky interventions in the value chain of renewables, the state should additionally tax the actual profits of plant operators, which have increased as a result of the crisis. Just as it is planned for the fossil industry.
Tax financing of the electricity price brake would be based on solidarity, would be legally secure and would not affect the energy transition.
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Anti nuclear power plant activist | Protection of the Constitution | castor-stop
Secret file occupied
Protection of the Constitution spies on anti-nuclear activist
Herbert Würth from Ludwigsburg organized the resistance against Castor transports for years. Now he finds out: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has observed him.
[...]
"The file was mostly blacked out - the protection of the constitution relies on the non-disclosure clause." Accordingly, citizens are not allowed to find out everything that the state protection officers collect about them in files, because otherwise working methods and informants would be known. Würth and his lawyer Udo Kauss speak specifically of spies and take a critical view of it. "This can only be explained by the authorities' fear of having to put their stored data to the test of public and judicial control," says Kauss. And Würth even sees the protection of the constitution "as a foreign body in a democratic constitutional state"...
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Belgium | Nuclear phase-out | lifetime extension
Energy Crisis: Minimum Runtime Extension for Two More Nuclear Reactors?
In order to be able to forestall an electricity supply crisis in the winter months of 2025 and 2026, the Green majority parties in Belgium are proposing to leave the two nuclear reactors Doel 4 and Tihange 3 on the grid for a few months longer. This is the best practice for Groen and Ecolo in order not to jeopardize stock security.
The Doel 4 and Tihange 3 reactors were actually supposed to be shut down by mid-2025, according to the Belgian nuclear phase-out law. But instead of taking them off the grid at this point, they could continue to turn at reduced power in the summer, and then be used with higher production in the winter of 2025-2026. An extension until winter 2026-2027 is also an option for the Greens...
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Climate protection | climate terrorists | freedom heroes
About freedom heroes and climate terrorists
Energy and climate – compact: Three decades were wasted for climate protection. But instead of taking action, the interior ministers bring out the very thick stick against climate protectors. About the persecution of protesters in the spirit of the German Empire.
Sometimes the distorted standards of our politicians are so obvious that one can only marvel at the equanimity of the local public, who accept them without grumbling.
Demonstrators who - out of justified anger - besiege government buildings and get into arguments with the police are seen by local politicians as freedom heroes, of course only as long as the whole thing is taking place far away and not at a NATO partner, but in the Chinese provinces.
The young and older climate activists of the last generation, on the other hand, who - driven by their fears for the future of humanity - fight in this country and in a number of other countries with their explicitly non-violent, albeit annoying forms of protest for attention to our burning problems, are treated as lepers , defamed as criminals and potential terrorists ...
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Great Britain | Sellafield | Nuclear factory
06 December 1972 (INES 3 | NAMS 1,6) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
The processing of fuel assemblies that were stored for too short a period of time resulted in high iodine content and released 2,2 Tbq.
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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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05. December
Namibia | Green hydrogen | Ammonia
Investment in green hydrogen:
Good for the neighboring continent
Green hydrogen from Namibia will not help to achieve green growth in this country. It is still needed - for Africa's climate neutrality.
Nothing can be said against the project: Germany will invest 10 billion euros in Namibia to produce green hydrogen there. Because the African country has a lot of sun and wind, so it can generate green electricity more cheaply, which is then used to produce the hydrogen. However, one should beware of overly high hopes. This green hydrogen will not be cheap, especially not in Germany...
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Last Generation | Climate policy | Expansion of renewable energies
Last Generation: If Government Meets These Conditions, 'Let's Get Off the Streets'
[...]
What are the demands of the “last generation”?
We demand action that cannot wait any longer. The 9 euro ticket must be continued. In addition, the state must introduce a speed limit of 100 km/h on motorways. This allows us to save massive amounts of CO2 and enable the first step from switching to the train. Basically it's really simple. If CO2 is to be saved in order to protect our livelihoods, you can't race around on the freeway. Germany is one of the few countries in the world where this is still possible, despite the emergency...
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scientists climate | climate active | Scientists' Rebellion
Scientists: "Politics ignore knowledge about the climate"
Seven scientists - from physics to international law - demonstrated for consistent climate protection. The occasion this time was the conference of interior ministers, which was held in a Munich hotel. Politicians and activists never met.
The two women and five men would have liked to hand over their statements to a representative of the conference of interior ministers. But that didn't happen: Instead of paying a visit to the researchers on the street during the lunch break, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior offered Jörg Alt, the chairman of the meeting, to hand over the short presentations to his office manager the next day. The Jesuit priest shakes his head angrily: "That's out of the question - we won't all come back tomorrow." ...
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Protection environment climate | anti-nuclear | climate activist
Why nuclear opponents do not reach the climate youth
The 72-year-old environmentalist says: "I find it too dangerous to stick on a highway." – "Such actions show how desperate we are," replies the 18-year-old climate activist
Two generations of Zurich climate protectors in conversation.
Jean-Jacques Fasnacht and Sarina Forestier meet for the first time on this sunny November day. Both fight for the environment, but in very different ways.
Ms. Forestier, have you ever demonstrated against a nuclear power plant repository?
Sarina Forestier: No never.
Why not?
I have not got the time. I only found out about some of the rallies afterwards. The fight against nuclear power is important, but other climate issues concern me more.
Mr. Fasnacht, how is it that young, politically committed people no longer demonstrate against nuclear waste storage?
Jean Jacques Fasnacht: Difficult to say. The fact is that the anti-nuclear movement is outdated and we have lost the thread of the young ...
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China | SMR | Linglong One
China begins installing small modular nuclear reactor
CCTV reported on Sunday that construction of the world's first commercial modular small-scale reactor on land ("Linglong One") has officially started in southern China's Hainan province. "Linglong One" is a multifunctional modular small pressurized water reactor built by China National Nuclear Corporation based on independent research and with full intellectual property rights...
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Military | SIPRI | armament expenses
SIPRI report on global armaments
That's how much revenue the largest arms companies make
Sales revenues of US defense companies are shrinking. Chinese companies, on the other hand, are growing and Russian ones are stagnating. And the war in Ukraine could exacerbate many of the industry's problems.
With the sale of weapons and military services, the top 592 arms companies will have sales of $2021 billion in 1,9. This emerges from data that the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research Sipri has now published. The researchers recorded an increase in sales of XNUMX percent compared to the previous year.
According to the institute, the arms companies' business grew for the seventh time in a row...
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05 December 1965 (Broken Arrow) Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, USA
Wikipedia en
1965 A-4 Philippine Sea incident
The A-4 incident in the Philippine Sea was a Broken Arrow incident in which a US Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft of Attack Squadron 56 (VA-56) with a nuclear weapon on board from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga entered the sea fell. On December 5, 1965, 31 days after the Ticonderoga departed from US Naval Base Subic Bay, Philippines, the attack jet fell overboard during a training exercise while being taxied from the hangar bay to the launch pad. The pilot, Lt. (Junior Grade) Douglas M. Webster; the aircraft, Douglas A-4E BuNo 151022 of the VA-56; and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_Philippine_Sea_A-4_incident
translations with https://www.deepl.com/translator
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Accidents involving nuclear weapons
Between 1950 and 1980, 32 accidents involving American nuclear weapons alone were reported. According to research by Eric Schlosser, between 1950 and 1968 the US government recorded at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving around 1250 nuclear weapons. In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, many weapons had to be dropped from bombers during forced landings. Some of the weapons were never recovered because they were dropped (but not detonated) in the oceans. Greenpeace estimates that around 50 nuclear bombs were lost. The US officially misses eleven bombs. Radioactive contamination was detected in several cases...
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernwaffe#Unf%C3%A4lle_mit_Kernwaffen
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04. December
Ukraine war | negotiations | NATO eastward expansion
Reactions to Macron initiative
Security guarantees for Putin?
French President Emmanuel Macron has caused irritation with his initiative to give Russia security guarantees if Moscow returns to the negotiating table to end the war against Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron met with great incomprehension from the Union, SPD, FDP and Greens and approval from the left among German politicians with his initiative to meet Russia with security guarantees. "There is no alternative to Ukraine's military success other than a ceasefire and Russia's troop withdrawal, at least as long as Putin is in charge in Moscow," said the foreign expert for the Union faction in Berlin, Jürgen Hardt. And the Greens foreign policy officer in the European Parliament, Reinhard Bütikofer, asked Macron to “first concentrate on the most important thing: that Russia loses this war. And then think again." ...
The most urgent goal should actually be to end the dying in Ukraine.
But the "Friends of MiC" have other goals:
Ukraine shall buy weapons, Russia shall lose the war and Putin shall be shrunk! For this the fights should go on, if necessary up to the last Ukrainian.
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Belgium | Tihange | Security of supply
Reactor at Tihange nuclear power plant failed, but power supply not endangered
Reactor 1 of the Tihange nuclear power plant in the province of Liège unexpectedly failed on Sunday morning, as confirmed by the operator Engie Electrabel. It went into automatic standby mode just before 11 a.m. due to a problem with one of the two steam turbines. The network operator Elia rules out any risk to the security of supply.
The shutdown is due to a safety mechanism that is activated in the event of a technical problem with one of the two turbines, said a spokesman for Engie. The source of this problem has yet to be found...
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Canada | Climate targets | forest ecosystem
fight against climate change
Canada pays indigenous people to protect its ancient forests
Canada's coniferous forests are one of the largest CO₂ stores in the world. In order to preserve the important ecosystem, the government is now relying on indigenous communities.
[...]
The Canadian government is now relying on the knowledge, experience and determination of the indigenous people to protect the forest. They are increasingly being given control of the forest areas. The Cree have been negotiating with the Quebec government for years to establish more areas as official protected areas. In 2020, the regional government agreed to designate 23 percent of Cree's historic territory as a protected area — an area the size of Switzerland.
According to information from the »New York Times«, 340 million dollars were pledged to support indigenous regions and networks in Canada last year. Under the program, more than 50 indigenous communities have received money to monitor protected areas. »On the one hand, it is about achieving the climate goals«, according to the »New York Times«, »on the other hand, it is also about further reconciliation with Canada's indigenous communities.« ...
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Solar plant | Expansion of renewable energies | Berlin fair
Messe Berlin becomes the largest solar system in the city
15.000 photovoltaic modules are to be installed on the roofs of the Berlin exhibition center in the coming years. These are to be put into use by 2025, and will then be the largest solar system in Berlin. The trade fair and the Berliner Stadtwerke stated that the area stretched over the equivalent of about seven football pitches.
By 2035, Berlin wants to generate a quarter of its electricity from solar energy. According to the governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD), the planned project would make a significant contribution to achieving this goal. The independent Economics Senator Stephan Schwarz spoke of the "beginning of a revolution in terms of the expansion of renewable energies" ...
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Solar systems | Agriculture | Agri photovoltaics
Are solar systems on farmland around Bremen a good idea?
In the past year and a half there have been more than 80 inquiries about solar systems on farmland in the district of Cuxhaven. There is a gold rush mood in the industry – but at what price?
If all inquiries in the district of Cuxhaven were approved, an area of 1.300 hectares would be developed with solar power – that corresponds to 1.800 soccer fields. But not only in the district of Cuxhaven do the municipalities take a very close look at which solar systems are located where. Municipalities want to prevent too much arable land from being lost for growing food. Nonetheless, there is always heated debate at municipal council meetings. And sometimes there is one argument right at the front: wanting to keep up with the energy transition as quickly as possible.
[...]
Research on solar systems shows interesting results
However, research into various solar systems in agriculture is in full swing: the University of Hohenheim and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg are at the forefront. For example, they are researching whether so-called agri-photovoltaic systems could be a solution in agriculture. These are high-elevation systems, under which tractors and combine harvesters can drive through and so the land can be cultivated ...
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Energy supply | Power grid | Blackout
Missing Link: The Security and Future of Energy Supply
As a "last measure" it could be necessary for loads in the power grid to be switched off in an orderly process, according to a large operator.
[...]
The blackout danger is currently being triggered by the media, although there is no real evidence of it. There is talk of the possibility that there could be temporary load shedding in individual regions in the event of a prolonged dark doldrums in connection with very low temperatures in connection with a lack of electricity imports from neighboring countries in connection with a lack of fuel deliveries for coal-fired power plants. As I said: could...
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03. December
Iran begins construction of new nuclear power plant
Construction of a nuclear power plant that has been planned for decades is beginning in southern Iran. The reactor in the province of Khusestan is to have an output of 300 megawatts. Iran recently announced that it would enrich uranium to 60 percent. The uranium content would then not be far from sufficient for the construction of an atomic bomb.
In Iran, the construction of a decades-planned nuclear power plant is beginning in the south-west. Nuclear chief Mohammed Eslami accompanied a delegation to the Darchowein site on the border with Iraq, as the Iranian news agency Isna reported on Saturday. According to the report, the pressurized water reactor in the province of Khusestan should have an output of 300 megawatts.
Darkhowein's thoughts on the project go back to the time before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The construction near the great river Karun was announced 14 years ago. In the past, Iran had solicited foreign partners for the construction. The nuclear power plant is now to be built by Iranian companies within eight years. According to Isna, the costs are the equivalent of around two billion dollars ...
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NATO | fascist... | Oskar Lafontaine
"We need a NATO without the USA"
Oskar Lafontaine on the North Atlantic alliance, the Ukraine war, an idiotic logic in the media and a "fascist atmosphere".
The former chancellor candidate and finance minister of the SPD, later a famous dropout from the Social Democrats and leading representative of the left, Oskar Lafontaine, is likely to have written the most controversial book of this winter.
Even the title "Ami, it's time to go!" transcends the usual political tone used in political arguments, in commentaries and reports in a milieu that sees itself as authoritative. The fact that Lafontaine has his own views, especially when it comes to leading Western ideas, is nothing new, but at the moment the political situation is particularly tense due to the Ukraine war, the economic situation and the fighting in the political camps ...
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02. December
Pollutants | air pollution | stillbirths
One million stillbirths a year are linked to air pollution
For the first time, a study has quantified how many stillbirths around the world are linked to toxic airborne pollutants. Where the fight against air pollution has been successful, the number of stillbirths is falling, for example in China
Almost a million stillbirths a year can be attributed to air pollution, according to a first global study on the subject. She estimates that nearly half of stillbirths are due to exposure to particulate matter less than 2,5 microns (PM2,5) in size, mainly produced by burning fossil fuels.
The study looked at 137 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where 98 percent of stillbirths occur. It was already known that dirty air increases the risk of stillbirth, but the study is the first to estimate the number of fetal deaths. The work is based on data from more than 45.000 stillbirths and live births ...
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France | Blackout | contingency plan
Emergency energy plan in France
When to turn off the electricity
In view of the problems with the nuclear power plants, the French network operator RTE fears power shortages. The government has drawn up an emergency plan - with specific times when the lights could go out.
No light, no electric heating, no trains, no telephone and no internet - prepare for a crisis. The French government is taking the warnings from the power grid operator RTE seriously: Depending on the weather, there could be power shortages in January. "In the event of an overload of the power grid," explains French government spokesman Olivier Véran, "we want to be able to act. It's about avoiding a total blackout. And that's why the government is currently preparing all kinds of scenarios together with the regions, municipalities and grid operators. " ...
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France | uranium delivery | Russia
Delivery from Russia
Greenpeace uncovered secret nuclear transport
Despite the war in Ukraine, Russia is secretly shipping uranium shipments to France. Greenpeace has now uncovered a particularly explosive nuclear transport in the port of Dunkirk!
Dozens of barrels of enriched uranium and ten containers of natural uranium have now been unloaded from the Russian freighter Mikhail Dudin at the port of Dunkirk. The highly explosive and highly flammable nuclear goods were immediately loaded onto trucks and trains. Possible destinations: the processing plants in Pierrelatte in France or Lingen in Germany.
Greenpeace: "nuclear lobby tied to Russia"
Greenpeace went undercover in the right place at the right time to uncover the "nuclear From Russia With Love" and believes that was just the tip of the iceberg of hundreds of such shipments. "Our nation's nuclear lobby is tied hand and foot to Russia along the entire nuclear journey, from mining to waste," warns Paris activist Pauline Boyer. The environmental fighters had already uncovered the secret and previously banned resumption of the export of nuclear waste to Russia in 2021. Apparently, this also continues unhindered ...
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Chomsky: US sanctions hurt Iranians and don't help protests
Noam Chomsky: The sanctions are hurting the Iranian economy and causing tremendous suffering. But that has been the goal of the US for over 40 years. What is actually behind the American Iran policy.
Protests have been going on in Iran since mid-September over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in a Tehran hospital after being arrested by Iran's vice squad a few days earlier for allegedly violating the the dress code of the Islamic theocratic regime for women.
[...]
The protests have swept across much of the country and are now being supported by workers in all sectors, professionals such as doctors and lawyers, artists and shopkeepers. In response, the regime is escalating its crackdown on protesters, and scores of artists, filmmakers and journalists have been arrested or banned from working for their support of the anti-government protests.
Is a revolution brewing here?
Political scientist CJ Polychroniou conducts the interview with Noam Chomsky ...
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United States | Experiment | Atomic research
02 December 1949 (INES 4 | NAMS 3,8) Nuclear factory Hanford, USA
Those responsible deliberately released, among other things, 8.000 curie (289 Tbq) of iodine-131; this experiment became known much later as the "Green Run."
At the time, few knew what had happened at Hanford, Washington, on December 02, 1949. But by now we have all heard about it, or to put it another way, we have all gotten something out of it!
What remains next to the radioactivity is the question:
What have we learned from this?
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Wikipedia
The Green Run experiment saw the release of a radioactive cloud from the Hanford Site military nuclear complex. Estimates are in the range of several 100 TBq of iodine-131 and even more cesium-133. The iodine-131 portion alone was 5500 curie; this corresponds to roughly 250 times the amount that, according to official figures, was released into the area in the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg. The dangers of iodine 131 for the thyroid gland had not yet been recognized in the 1940s; iodine 131 could escape unfiltered from the Hanford site even when it was used as intended. During normal operation, several 10 TBq of medium- and long-lived nuclides were released into the Columbia River every day. Hanford is considered to be the most severely radioactive place in the western hemisphere.
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The US pays over $200.000 billion annually to private corporations to decontaminate the facility; in addition, around 2014 cubic meters of radioactive waste must be disposed of. In early 2047, a decontamination project manager was fired for the third time after he or she raised concerns about the safety of operations and monitoring procedures. A preliminary plan called for the end of the work in 2014, since 2052 the Ministry of Energy has been assuming at least XNUMX ...
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Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
The Hanford Military Complex is located on the Columbia River north of the city of Richland in northwest Washington state and was used to produce plutonium for military use from 1943 ...
With Hanford, the US has the worst-radiated nuclear facility in the western world, which was shut down in 1988 and has been decontaminated ever since.
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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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YouTube - Reactor bankruptcy
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or anywhere in the world, all have the same problem: With every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced ...
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01. December
renewable | Power generation | Wind power
January to November 2022: Electricity from wind and solar in Germany increases by 14 percent to almost 170 billion kWh
Electricity generation from wind and solar energy in Germany in 2022 is still well above the level of the previous year after 11 months. Wind power generation climbs to over 110 billion kilowatt hours (billion kWh) and thus remains the most important energy source in Germany in the electricity sector.
From January to November 2022, wind and solar power plants in Germany fed a total of 167,9 billion kWh into the grid. Compared to the same period last year, this is an increase of almost 21 billion kWh or 14 percent (Jan-Nov 21: 147,3 billion kWh) ...
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Expansion of renewables | excess profit tax | PPA Power Purchase Agreements
Skimming off proceeds delays and makes wind and solar parks more expensive
Due to the planned skimming off of proceeds, eligible solar parks will collapse in the next year, predicts Robert Busch from the Federal Association of New Energy Industries. New investments would no longer pay off if the financing cannot continue to be secured through PPAs, as is customary in the market.
Green electricity is cheap. Power Purchase Agreements, PPAs for short, are now the means of choice for supplying this CO2-free electricity to customers such as industry and companies. This instrument is massively blocked by the type of revenue skimming, because financing is no longer possible in this way. New systems are becoming more expensive and green, cheaper electricity for industry and medium-sized companies is becoming significantly scarcer. Companies are increasingly relying on such direct long-term purchase agreements in order to become independent of price volatility on the stock exchange and at the same time achieve their decarbonization goals.
Multi-year electricity supply contracts are a prerequisite for financing EEG systems
Nowadays, operators of solar parks usually only aim for an award in an EEG tender in order to secure their investment. The actual financing usually takes place via multi-year power supply agreements – PPAs. These PPA earnings are therefore essential for bank financing and to absorb increased costs - including for material and interest. The tender surcharges for solar parks of between 5-6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) that were typical this year and last year are no longer cost-covering and new projects can hardly be financed ...
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Electricity price | Sweden | repair maintenance | Oskarshamn
Now also Sweden: Maintenance of important nuclear power plants could drive up electricity prices
Sweden's largest nuclear reactor, Oskarshamn 3, is scheduled to be shut down for nine days in December. The reason is an error in the generator. The failure of the power plant could have a significant impact on electricity prices.
The Oskarshamn 3 nuclear power reactor in Sweden is scheduled to be shut down from December 9th to 18th to carry out minor repair work. This is reported by the Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter. Accordingly, the maintenance could have a significant impact on electricity prices, as has already happened in France this year.
"If it gets cold and there is no wind, that can drive up the price very much," warns Magnus Genrup, professor of energy science at Lund University of Technology.
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Renewable energies | Climate targets | Scandinavia
Scandinavia makes a lot of wind
The Nordic countries of Europe want to further expand their capacity for renewable energies. With solar energy, wind power and hydrogen, the countries are considered protagonists for the decarbonization of their energy system - but include nuclear power.
Denmark, Sweden and Finland plan to significantly expand their renewable generation capacity in the coming years. In the new analysis by Norwegian research firm Rystad Energy, the study's authors predict that onshore wind and photovoltaic capacity in these countries will grow from a total of 30 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 74 GW by 2030...
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Current news+
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Media | Climate change | Deniers | Weather extremes
The New York Times and the new climate deniers
No one can claim anymore that climate change is not happening. Now the new deniers are arguing that we can adapt to climate chaos. The rapid energy transition is dismissed as "magical thinking".
"Yes, Greenland's ice is melting..."
The headline for the New York Times op-ed piece by conservative columnist Bret Stephens overlays an image of the melting Greenland ice cap plunging into the slushy meltwater below. Scrolling further reveals the word "But..." above the ice, resembling a melting pile of slush in a parking lot.
Just looking at the headline made it clear where this article is headed. The 6.000-word article chronicles Stephens' trip to Greenland as a self-proclaimed global warming "agnostic." There, the dramatic effects of climate change "changed his mind" about the problem, but reinforced his "conviction that markets, not government, provide the cure."
Stephens' view represents a new kind of climate denial: no sane person can claim anymore that human causes are not accelerating climate change or that it is not causing harm. Instead, they argue, like Stephens, that the quick, decisive action the scientists believe is necessary is "magical thinking," that genuine existential fear is "alarmist," and most people will be able to adapt to climate catastrophe.
In short, the new climate deniers say:
Yes, the climate is changing at an alarming rate, but the solution lies in the status quo.
Same data, opposite headlines
That same week, the New York Times carried two contrasting headlines. "Climate Pledges Are Falling Short, and a Chaotic Future Looks More Like Reality" featured an image of a displaced Somali woman and her three young children playing amid cattle carcasses, killed by the region's drought this spring.
Reporter Max Bearak begins his front-page article as follows:
Countries around the world are failing to meet their commitments to tackle climate change, leaving the earth facing a future marked by increased floods, wildfires, droughts, heat waves and biodiversity loss, according to a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday.
The article goes on to say that by 2100 the planet will warm by 2,1 to 2,9 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement was 1,5 degrees, above which the risk of serious climate impacts increases, scientists warn.
But a day later, the Times' popular newsletter, read by millions every day, carried the subject line "The Climate's Improved Future." The data, quoted by Times reporter German Lopez in the newsletter, is no different from that in yesterday's news article: The Earth is likely to warm by 2100 to XNUMX degrees Celsius by XNUMX, well above the target which scientists have described as relatively safe...
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| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
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Background knowledge
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reaktorpleite.de
Map of the nuclear world:
Only those who deny man-made climate change or do not want to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation can seriously call for prison sentences for climate activists...
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The internal search for
brought the following results, among others:
November 06, 2022 - Penalties for activists: And what about the climate?
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August 28, 2022 - The arguments used by politicians and industry to slow down climate protection
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April 23, 2022 - Majority of social media platforms are failing in the fight against climate deniers
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November 01, 2021 - From now on, without delay
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YouTube
Keyword search: climate change denier doku
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Klimawandel Leugner doku
Videos:
Phoenix - 10.09.2010. Sept. 43 - 35:XNUMX
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1:05:57
Prof. Rahmstorf: Climate Change and Seas
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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: climate change deniers
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Klimawandel%20Leugner
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Wikipedia
Climate change
Climate change, also climate change, climate change or climate change, is a worldwide change in the climate on earth or earth-like planets or moons that have an atmosphere. The cooling or warming associated with climate change can take place over different lengths of time. An important distinction is made between those weather patterns that take place within the framework of a climatic condition or a climatic zone, and climate change itself, which increases or decreases the probability of certain weather conditions occurring.
The current (anthropogenic) global warming (see there), which is mainly caused by humans, is an example of a very rapid but not yet completed climate change. The term climate change is often used as a synonym for this in the public discussion (but then as "climate change"). The ecological and social crisis caused or predicted by the current climate change is also referred to as "climate crisis" ...
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climate change denial
Climate change denial (also sometimes referred to as climate change denial, climate science denial, or man-made global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, denying, contesting, or challenging the scientific consensus of climate research on global warming currently taking place. These include, in particular, trend denial, i.e. denying that the earth is currently warming, denial of causes, i.e. denying that the effect is man-made, and denial of consequences, i.e. denying that warming is causing major social and ecological problems. In addition to these three basic categories, consensus denial is often added, i.e. denying that the core statements in research have long been undisputed. Among other things, climate change skepticism, climate skepticism and climate skepticism are also used as a self-designation.
Despite the scientific consensus that has prevailed since the early 1990s at the latest, which is shared by all scientific academies of all major industrialized countries, parts of the public continue to reject the existence of man-made global warming to this day...
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Back to:
Newsletter XLVII 2022 - November 24th to 30th
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