Newsletter XLIX 2022 |
December 08-14
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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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14. December
Last Generation | lobbyists | To Survive | Climate movement
Democracy Dilemma: The "Last Generation" and the (un)healthy feeling of the people
Their methods may be difficult to convey to the masses. The only problem is that no one has yet found a panacea for persuading those in government to protect our livelihoods. And time is running out.
The environmental and climate movement has long been asking Bertrand Russell's succinct question of how humanity can be persuaded to "agree to its own survival".
Another problem is that mankind as such is not allowed to vote democratically on this - what is democratically decided in rich industrialized countries does not remain in the rich industrialized countries when it comes to economic and energy policy. Others feel the consequences first. And here, too, lobbyists actually have more influence than ordinary voters - while those who have to pay for it the longest are not even allowed to vote ...
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Poland | Westinghouse | Lubiatowo-Kopalino
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania against Polish nuclear power plant plans
Resistance in Germany to the planned construction of a nuclear power plant in Poland is growing. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - along with other federal states - has also spoken out against it.
Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony and Berlin are calling on Poland to stop the project. In view of the devastating nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima, plans for the further use of nuclear energy should be abandoned in the interests of the population and the environment of all Baltic Sea countries, according to a statement by the Brandenburg Ministry of Consumer Protection. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania forwarded the objections, which also exist on the part of the Brandenburg Ministry of Consumer Protection, to Warsaw...
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Nuclear fusion | LLNL | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Comment: Nuclear fusion consumes billions without providing energy
US scientists have just made a breakthrough in the field of nuclear fusion - and some media are doing somersaults: Finally, the rescue! Cheap, clean energy! Indeed?
When nuclear nuclei were fused, for the first time more energy was produced than was consumed, said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in Washington. "Put simply, this is one of the most impressive scientific achievements of the 21st century," said the democratic politician. This was all over the news yesterday, with some TV journalists indulging in blind glee that for once there is good news amidst all the war and corruption stories. Critical inquiries would have apparently only disturbed.
[...]
Regarding the costs of ITER: The EU alone pumped 6,6 billion euros into the project up to 2020 and approved another 6 billion euros for the period up to 2027. Similar sums flow in from other states. Between 2008 (when ITER activities started) and 2016, the European ITER organization Fusion for Energy awarded 839 contracts and grants worth around €3,8 billion to beneficiaries across Europe.
By way of comparison: since 2010 there has only been 923 million US dollars for the climate adaptation fund for poor countries ...
When fusion research began 60 years ago, it was said that the technology would provide electricity in 20 years. Since then it has been said again and again that it will be in 20 years time.
The fact is: In order to achieve the 2,05 megajoules of heating energy with an output of 3,15 megajoules, the lasers consumed 500 megajoules. (scinexx)
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South Korea | Reactor | commercial operation | Shin Hanul
Shin Hanul 1 nuclear reactor connected to the grid
The Shin Hanul 1 reactor, the 27th nuclear reactor in South Korea, went into full operation twelve years after construction began in 2010.
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy held the inauguration ceremony in Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province on Wednesday.
The Shin Hanul 1 reactor is Korea's next-generation APR1400 reactor type, developed using domestic technology.
The reactor was originally scheduled to be completed and connected to the grid in 2017. However, the date was delayed mainly due to a security check of the site after a severe earthquake in Gyeongju ...
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13. December
Plutonium | weapons energy nuclear research | Nobel prize
82 years ago today
The discovery of element 94
"Application" is a buzzword in research funding. After the discovery of a chemical element, its potential application was reason to withhold publication.
On December 14, 1940, a research team led by Glenn Seaborg at the University of California at Berkeley undertook an experiment with which they helped pave the way for the peaceful use of nuclear fission to generate energy - and for military use as a weapon of mass destruction.
[...]
Seaborg's team did not attempt nuclear fission. It bombarded uranium in a particle accelerator with heavy hydrogen nuclei, which consisted not just of a proton but of a proton and a neutron. The nuclear reaction turns uranium into neptunium, which quickly decays into plutonium...
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Squirrel | Nuclear Free Future Foundation | Honorary award
Honorary Award Cécile Lecomte, France
Honorary award category
"Without the commitment of Cécile Lecomte, the anti-nuclear movement in Germany would be much weaker and the international dimension of uranium processing in Germany would be far less known," the NFFF jury judged, "Her work is all the more remarkable because she has been seriously ill for years and dependent on a wheelchair. Your commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons is exemplary in a number of ways.”
With her spectacular abseiling actions, especially against nuclear transports, including uranium transports from Gronau to Russia and France, Cecile Lecomte has repeatedly managed to draw public attention to the little-known business of the uranium enrichment company Urenco in Gronau. With actions against the Lingen fuel element factory, she – also known as the “squirrel” because of her extraordinary climbing skills – attracted a lot of attention in the fight against the further use of nuclear energy in Germany. This also includes raising public awareness of the diverse international relationships that result from uranium enrichment in Gronau and fuel element production in Lingen...
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Last Generation | climate crisis | criminal | global warming
Last Generation Raids:
climate of criminalization
It is unspeakable to treat the climate movement even remotely like the "Reichsbürger" terror group. Meanwhile, the climate crisis continues to worsen.
[...]
Suspicion of forming or supporting a criminal organization. Mere membership of such a group can lead to imprisonment, even mere endorsement or solicitation.
This inevitably brings back memories of the past week, of the raids on the alleged "Reichsbürger" terrorist group. The police found weapons, lists of enemies and elaborate plans for a coup among the far-right conspiracy ideologues.
[...]
Meanwhile, the actual climate crisis is getting worse. Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased again this year. They should have gone down a long time ago. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, they must reach their absolute peak before 2025 and then halve by 2030. By 2050, the world as a whole must then be carbon neutral. Otherwise, the goal of limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees is out of reach...
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Lobby | European Union | Transparency | Whistleblower
Which lobby rules apply in the EU? Does it need a reform?
Calls for a reform of lobbying rules for European Union institutions are growing louder as Brussels is rocked by a corruption scandal involving the European Parliament.
[...]
What is lobbying?
Lobbying is currently defined by the EU as “any activity (…) carried out with the aim of influencing, directly or indirectly, the formulation or implementation of policy and the decision-making processes of the EU institutions, regardless of where they are carried out and of the communication channel or medium used".
[...]
Meanwhile, Transparency International published a list of ten claims about the scandal on Monday. The anti-corruption organization calls on non-EU governments that lobby Brussels institutions to be included in the transparency register. At the same time, Transparency International calls on the European Parliament to reform its internal whistleblower rules.
The organization is also calling for the establishment of a new independent external body to replace the Advisory Committee on Members' Conduct, which it says is "toothless", and for the immediate introduction of "strict financial control rules" in relation to all MP allowances...
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nuclear waste battery | americium | Space
Esa: This is how nuclear waste is supposed to provide electricity and heat in space
Batteries made from nuclear waste are said to provide electricity in space when there is no sunlight. ESA has now approved the development of the new method.
The Council of Ministers of the European Space Agency (ESA) has approved a 29 million euro research program for the European Devices Using Radioisotope Energy (Endure). At the latest for the Esa moon missions in the early 2030s, long-lived heat and power generation units based on the radioactive element americium-241 are to be developed ...
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Species extinction | species protection | world conference on nature
World Nature Summit "Montréal 2022": The great extinction and the climate
Energy and climate compact: Declaring almost a third of the world a protected area could serve climate protection and biodiversity. Why Indigenous Peoples Are Concerned.
In Montreal, Canada, the 15th World Conference on Nature has entered the second week of negotiations. What is being negotiated is nothing less than measures to preserve biodiversity on this planet, as we are in the midst of a mass extinction.
Around a million animal and plant species could become extinct within the next few decades - that would be one eighth of all species on earth. A quarter of mammal species, one in eight bird species and 40 percent of amphibian species are threatened, according to the environmental organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
According to a report by the World Biodiversity Council IPBES, the current extinction of species is ten to one hundred times faster than the average for the last ten million years - and it is accelerating ...
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12. December
Nuclear fusion | LLNL | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
USA speak of "net energy gain"
Is this the breakthrough in nuclear fusion?
Energy from nuclear fusion is considered safe and clean, but the process has so far required more energy than is actually produced. According to a report, that could change soon.
[...]
According to the newspaper report, citing three people involved in the research, experts at the federal laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have for the first time succeeded in using an experimental fusion reactor to generate more energy than was consumed during the process. A "net energy gain" of 120 percent was achieved
[...]
"While this is positive news, this result is still a long way from the actual energy harvesting required to generate electricity," said Tony Roulstone of the University of Cambridge, according to a statement. The energy of the lasers used was not taken into account in the net profit. However, they would have eaten many times the amount of energy gained...
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Energy transition | green electricity | biomass power plant | Stendal NPP
Stendal and its biomass power plant:
It stinks, but the power plant is running
Industrial plants use far too little green electricity. Except in Stendal. Germany's largest biomass power plant now stands where a nuclear power plant was once planned.
If the energy mix in industry were a school subject, all 294 German districts would have detention except for one. Only in Stendal does industry use predominantly renewable energy. Otherwise, in Germany it is primarily powered by natural gas and draws an average of 4 percent from renewable energies. Stendal stands out from the crowd: Here it is 73 percent ...
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Poland | Westinghouse | high risk
Nuclear power plant construction in Poland: dangerous, uneconomical and without a future
The German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) warns of major security risks for all of Europe in view of the progressive planning of a new nuclear power plant (NPP) in Poland. The planned nuclear power plant is around 250 kilometers from the German border. Hardly any operating experience is available for the planned reactor design. Nuclear power plants are extremely risky and expensive. There is then no money for forward-looking renewable energies.
[...]
Poland has already tried unsuccessfully to get into nuclear power several times. Numerous plans were discarded, a nuclear power plant construction was canceled and at least two billion US dollars were wasted. Significant delays, cost explosions and safety problems are always inevitable with nuclear power plant projects.
By Broock. “There is now an opportunity to switch directly to renewable energies. With at least 20 billion dollars for the new nuclear power plants, a lot could be done with wind and solar energy...
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Anxiety and "Bad Mood"
Neighboring district does not want the nuclear waste from Biblis
In Büttelborn there is a heated debate about the disposal of the waste from the closed plant. It's about 3200 tons of rubble from the dismantling of the former nuclear power plant.
Biblis/Büttelborn. Building rubble from Biblis: First of all, nationwide cancellations from landfills, no one wants the slightly contaminated freight. Now the authorities want to take action and determine where 3200 tons of rubble from the dismantling of the former nuclear power plant in the Bergstrasse district are to be disposed of. A landfill is planned in Büttelborn in the neighboring district of Groß-Gerau. But there and also in the district parliament there is fierce resistance.
An argument from the state, the responsible regional council in Darmstadt and the operator, the energy company RWE, that it is harmless waste, is not believed there. At a special meeting of the district council, the decision to store the waste in the landfill in the 15.000-inhabitant community was unanimously rejected across party lines, with reference to a health risk for local employees. There is also a clear stance on the part of the citizens ...
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Greece | Energy transition | biogas
The failure of the energy transition: How a community is prevented from climate protection
A Greek city has been pushing the energy transition for years, using EU funds to renovate buildings and build a power plant. Why a wind power law could derail the plan.
The countries of the European Union have many rules that stand in the way of a speedy energy transition. The ARD satirical magazine Extra 3 reported on one of them on Friday Operators of older biogas plants forced to flare some of the gas they produce.
[...]
Despite the current energy crisis, the federal government has scored an own goal. A case from Greece shows that things can get worse.
The small town of Argos Orestiko is located on the upper reaches of the Aliakmonas in western Macedonia. It is the second largest city in the Kastoria Regional Unit, known for its cold climate. It is heated from mid-September to May. The city has around 11.000 inhabitants.
Mayor Panos Kepaptsoglou is just as concerned about the fight against the climate catastrophe as the financial survival of his citizens ...
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11. December
Neckarwestheim | Lingen fuel assemblies | Lützerath
Dear friends,
another eventful week is behind us and the next one will also be very exciting: Next Wednesday, December 14.12, there will be another vigil in front of the fuel element factory in Lingen at 14 p.m., because the Russian nuclear ship Mikhail Dudin is setting course for Rotterdam again. And on the same day, the Mannheim Administrative Court will hear a case on the continued operation of the Neckarwestheim 2 crack reactor:
https://www.ausgestrahlt.de/presse/uebersicht/mi-1412-vgh-mannheim-verhandelt-klage-auf-widerruf/
1. East expansion of Framatome Lingen
This week it turned out that Framatome Lingen in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria would like to build "Russian" fuel elements for Russian reactors in the future. But that's only possible if Rosatom helps. That is why Framatome is still planning a joint venture with Rosatom in the middle of the Ukraine war, only now in France and no longer in Lingen. The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported extensively on this. There is nothing to be seen of "energy independence", on the contrary: the Kremlin should continue to have access to the Western European nuclear market and to fuel element production in Emsland.
In addition, the Lingen fuel rods for the Kazakh fuel element factory Ulba are to be transported away this week with the Mikhail Dudin. The ultimate goal is reactors in China, possible candidates are Daya Bay and Taishan. We are currently researching this intensively because Framatome is starting a chain supply of Chinese nuclear power plants from Lingen for the first time. This is worrying, especially since Russia is definitely on board as a transit country.
Here is all the background and various media reports on this hot nuclear business:
2. BMUV: closure of Lingen and Gronau?
And in the midst of these plans for a drastic eastward expansion of Framatome, we received a letter from the Federal Ministry for the Environment that the BMUV now thinks that "nuclear fuel production" should actually be ended in Germany, "in view of the credibility of the German nuclear phase-out".
We can only agree to that, but then the BMUV must now urgently submit a corresponding draft law - also for reasons of credibility.
3. Struggle for Lützerath
It's just incomprehensible: The green "climate" ministers of NRW and Berlin, together with RWE and CDU police minister Reul, are mercilessly pushing through the evacuation of Lützerath, while the local CDU mayor is putting up amazing resistance:
https://taz.de/Gepante-Raeumung-von-Luetzerath/!5898883/
Where is the outcry in the green climate party? Where is the protest against the plans of your own ministers? How are NRW and Germany supposed to achieve the climate goals if we continue to excavate villages for coal and simply throw our climate down the throat of RWE???
We therefore continue to call for solidarity with Lützi - the 1,5 ° limit from Paris runs BEFORE Lützerath!!
https://www.alle-doerfer-bleiben.de/
So there is not much to see from the quiet pre-Christmas period at the moment - and in the new year it will continue immediately:
Come to Lützerath in January - and on Saturday, January 21.1, 13, at XNUMX p.m. there will be a rally at the Lingen nuclear power plant - for the immediate shutdown of the useless and dangerous nuclear power plant and against further fuel element exports from Lingen to Russia and China - and also as a solidarity campaign for Lützi - from one RWE location to another!
Nuclear-free climate greetings
SOFA (Sofortiger Atomausstieg) Münster, action alliance Münsterland against nuclear facilities
www.sofa-ms.de, www.urantransport.de
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EU Parliament | Corruption | Qatar
Suspicion of corruption in the EU Parliament:
Own goal in Brussels
The corruption allegations are just the tip of the iceberg. Stricter transparency rules are needed - to remain credible against Orbán.
A Greek and several Italian MEPs are suspected of corruption. The "evil" Qatar has apparently been the donor. This is how the European Parliament begins the last week of the World Cup in Qatar. In this mood, the European Union is dealing with the already postponed decision to freeze billions of euros in EU money for corrupt Orbán-Hungary, which should be made this week at the latest. A difficult time for Brussels to do persuasion work in an exemplary democracy – own goal in Brussels.
[...]
It should be compulsory to publish meetings between MPs and lobbyists in the lobby register - only about half are now doing it voluntarily - and third countries should be included in the list, so far they have been excluded. An upper limit on additional earnings would also have been long overdue - a third of the MPs receive regular other income.
Otherwise, European democracy will be further weakened, vulnerable to corruption, and future power games will be won by populists like the Hungarian prime minister.
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Wismut | Uranium mining | Erzgebirge
Radiation Remediation in the Erzgebirge: Wismut takes stock
Aue - The fact that Russia can threaten to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war has a history in Saxony.
Since 1947, Wismut, which was initially run by the Soviets, has been digging for uranium in half of the Erzgebirge. The consequences above and below ground are still with us today, and the cleanup continues to cost millions. Now a balance sheet is available.
[...]
Overall, the clean-up of the Russian legacies has cost German taxpayers more than seven billion euros since 1990, and by 2035 it will be 7,45 billion...
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10. December
Netherlands | Borssele or Rotterdam
The Netherlands are building nuclear power plants - but not in Eemshaven
The Netherlands wants to have two new nuclear power plants (NPP) built by 2035. The government has now identified the province of Zeeland as the preferred location, as the Ministry of Energy announced. The final decision should be made by the end of 2024. Rotterdam is also being discussed as a possible location. According to the information, Eemshaven on the Ems estuary not far from Lower Saxony is out of the race.
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United States | Uranium mining | Arizona/New Mexico
Uranium mining for weapons and nuclear power plants: "Why were there so many widows?"
The nuclear industry has permanently destroyed her home in the southwest of the USA, says the activist Anna Rondon.
“The spoil heaps were not secured. Eighty percent of the rock lying there is still radioactive, the wind spreads the dust over large distances." This is reported by Anna Rondon from the Navajo Indian Reservation in the US state of New Mexico. And yet the mines there have been closed since 2005.
The Navajo area was particularly attractive to the energy companies because the uranium was close to the surface. Initially, it was mined in open pits. You only had to remove the surface of the ground and the uranium ore could be exposed with little effort. But this mining has contaminated huge areas and contaminated the groundwater ...
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United States | offshore wind | Call for tender
California leases seabed for development of floating offshore wind farms
After Scotland, the USA has now also awarded contracts for large commercial floating offshore wind farms. Areas allow 8,1 gigawatts.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) awarded tentative leases for five acres off the California coast for the development of floating offshore wind farms. The bids went to bidders, who in turn each offered high amounts in the millions for their development rights. The state raised a total of US$757 million from the five winning bidders...
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Last Generation | Climate catastrophe
First or last generation?
"Climate terrorists" - "Green RAF" - "eco-fascists" - "putschists against the rule of law" these days there is no lack of verbal and political excitement about the "last generation" and their actions.
Incidentally, this name does not mean that the radical youngsters see themselves as the last generation of the survivors of the climate catastrophe, but addresses an important one Speech by former US President Barack Obama who said in 2015: "We are the first generation to feel climate change first hand and the last generation to do something about it...we only have one planet...and there is no plan B".
[...]
The movement was and is successful. Greta was invited to the UN, spoke at international congresses and with the German Chancellor. Even the Federal Constitutional Court was inspired by her.
But what really helps the climate?
So there is no lack of knowledge about climate change. Admittedly, the necessary measures for climate protection are still not being implemented. Politics up to the world climate conferences is still far too dependent on the old fossil-nuclear energy economy. In 1990 the world emitted around 100 million tons of greenhouse gases every day, today it is around 180 million tons - every day. And every day we exterminate around 180 animal and plant species. The planet cannot stand this in the long run. We are on the way to global ecological bankruptcy. An enlightened civil society must defend itself against this...
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United States | Disaster | pipeline leak
US pipeline apparently loses more than two million liters of oil
Large amounts of crude oil have spilled in the state of Kansas, including into a river. Activists speak of the largest disaster of its kind in the United States since 2013.
A leak in a pipeline in the United States apparently spilled more than two million liters of oil. The Canadian operator TC Energy announced on Friday that the oil leak from the Keystone pipeline in the US state of Kansas had been contained. According to activists, if estimates of up to 2,2 million liters of crude oil are confirmed, it would be the largest such disaster in the United States since 2013 ...
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09. December
Corruption | EU Parliament | Qatar
Searches in Brussels
Suspicion of corruption shakes the EU Parliament - Vice President Kaili in the sights of the investigators
The police are investigating suspected corruption in the EU Parliament, there have been searches and arrests. Apparently, Greek Vice President Eva Kaili is also involved – her party has already reacted.
In the course of the investigation into alleged corruption by Qatar, the Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, has also been targeted by the Belgian police. The AFP news agency reported on Friday evening, citing information from the public prosecutor's office, that Kaili had been arrested. Other media reported that Kaili was being questioned by the police...
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China | Pebble bed reactor | HTR PM | Shidaowan
China's demonstration HTR-PM reaches full power
The high-temperature gas-cooled pebble bed demonstration reactor (HTR-PM) at the Shidaowan site in Shandong Province, China, has achieved its first full performance with stable operation in 'two reactors with one machine' mode.
The power plant consists of two small reactors driving a single 210 MWe turbine.
[...]
The Huaneng Shidaowan High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Demonstration Project is the world's first high-temperature pebble bed modular gas-cooled reactor. After the first full-load operation of the two reactors was achieved and the ability to control operations in the "two reactors with one machine" mode was tested, the operators call this "laying the foundation for future commercial operation" ...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Iran | enrichment | Monitoring
Iran continues to enrich nuclear-grade uranium
New enrichment, no monitoring
Iran is violating the 2015 international agreement and is enriching significantly more nuclear-weapons-grade uranium.
The protests in Iran continue, while Western governments have imposed some sanctions on the mullahs' regime, which can at best be understood as symbolic politics. Meanwhile, an embarrassed silence prevails on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015. This agreement between the Islamic Republic and a group of six states, which included the US, Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain and France, limited uranium enrichment in Iran, which was intended to make it more difficult to develop nuclear weapons. In return, sanctions against Iran were lifted. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump terminated the treaty and imposed new sanctions. The diplomats of the countries that signed the JCPOA now have a draft for the reactivation of the nuclear agreement, which was drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and is generally considered to be acceptable. But do you want to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with a regime that massacres its own people? ...
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France | renewable energy | gas import
Delay in renewables costs France billions
France loses between €6 billion and €9 billion worth of gas imports every year because the country fails to meet its European-level agreed renewable energy targets, according to a new study by a think-tank presented on Thursday (8 December).
France's share of renewable energy is 19 percent of the country's energy consumption, well below the 23 percent target that Paris aimed to achieve by 2020 under the EU's Renewable Energy Directive
According to the study by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the Jacques Delors Institute, the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE) and the French Observatory for Economic Interrelationships (OFCE), this gap must be made up by other energy sources.
The costs of France falling behind in achieving its target would amount to 100 to 150 billion euros per year at a gas price of 6 to 9 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), according to Andreas Rüdinger from IDDRI ...
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Bureaucracy | Renewable energies
Bureaucratic madness: 66 folders submitted for approval
The innovation project Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt with wind farm, electrolyser and H2 storage started a year ago. The project is still fighting numerous hurdles, mainly bureaucratic, but there have also been successes.
A good year after the start of the innovation project Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt, there are first important successes in the technical project implementation. Nevertheless, hurdles have to be overcome together with politics and administration. The main issue here: there is a lack of regulatory framework conditions to also be able to realize the economic side of the project.
[...]
Basically, the consortium sees the following hurdle in procedures of this type:
1. Staff shortages at authorities
2. Still little experience with projects of this kind
3. Very bureaucratic procedure - application documents had to be submitted in full as printed copies, which resulted in a total of 66 folders and each document submitted later had to be submitted in parallel as a printed copy ...
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Renewable energies | energy agency
Renewable energies: Global breakthrough in five years
The International Energy Agency expects global renewable electricity generation to increase by 2027 gigawatts by 2.400. Germany and the EU could lose touch.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its "Renewables 2022" report, which contains forecasts for the global expansion of renewable energies in the areas of electricity, transport and heat up to 2027. According to the report, capacity growth will almost double in the next five years, replacing coal as the largest source of electricity generation.
[...]
It is also much more urgent than many are still tackling it at the moment to improve the framework conditions so that Germany and the EU do not lose touch with the top group in the industrial policy race for climate technologies. The focus should now be much more than already planned on accelerating planning and approval procedures, network expansion and rapid expansion of hydrogen production and the corresponding infrastructure.
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Expansion of renewable energies | Morocco | Denmark
"Idea import"
How to expand renewable energies?
In Germany, the expansion of renewable energies is faltering - especially the construction of new wind turbines is paralyzed. Other countries are much further along. The "Import of Ideas" podcast shows what Morocco and Denmark are doing differently.
[...]
Morocco as a pioneer in Africa
When it comes to renewable energies, Morocco is considered a pioneer on the African continent: the kingdom has not only invested heavily in wind energy, but also built the world's largest solar power plant in the desert of Ouarzazate pass.
[...]
Regardless of natural gas - through crap
Denmark could soon be completely independent of natural gas - thanks to its cows and pigs! The idea: Farmers sell their animals' excrement to a biogas plant. Manure, manure and leftover food are mixed into a paste in tanks as high as a building. The fermentation produces methane, a biogas that can be used for heating...
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08. December
Neckarwestheim | continued operation | TÜV examination
Continued operation of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant
Nuclear reactor needs new Tüv test
The Neckarwestheim II reactor could continue to run until April 2023. But the TÜV, according to internal documents, is only valid until the end of 2022. The Ministry of the Environment confirms that the safety would have to be checked again...
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traffic light coalition | Climate policy
The torn climate team Germany
Many climate buzzwords adorned the new federal government when it took over the helm a year ago: A climate coalition with a climate chancellor should make Germany a climate champion again. So far that hasn't worked. The traffic light is divided and torn when it comes to climate protection.
How is climate protection working together with six different federal ministries? The state minister sighs. It's not easy, he replies curtly. Nothing more can be elicited from him.
The message can be heard all over the country in a similar way: This federal government is torn when it comes to the climate and is therefore at least partially blocked.
The first finding is obvious. Believe it or not, six departments are supposed to take care of the climate in the traffic light government: economy, environment, development, transport, construction and the foreign office. And actually also the chancellery, where the "climate chancellor" resides...
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Minister of transport | highway rail | Public transport
Expansion of the motorways:
Wissing's confused acceleration plans
Traffic is one of the decisive factors in the transformation. Expanding motorways and trunk roads now instead of investing in public transport is absurd.
Traffic is the problem child when it comes to meeting the federal government's climate targets by 2030. And Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to push ahead with the expansion of motorways and federal trunk roads. In times of a planet that continues to heat up, this is an absurd signal. With his draft of a “law to speed up approval procedures”, Wissing wants to quickly take with him what is actually intended for a completely different goal.
In order to expand renewable energies, planning and approval procedures are to be simplified and accelerated. Wissing also wants to enforce this for his ministry in order to have new motorways and trunk roads built more quickly. Wissing is thus continuing a decades-long misguided practice of the Federal Ministry of Transport: more asphalt for everything that drives fast on four wheels...
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excess profit | Renewables | revenue skimming
"Billions" of capital blocked for wind power and photovoltaics in the far north
Schleswig-Holstein's renewables sector is sounding the alarm. The planned skimming off of profits from green electricity producers jeopardizes the necessary investments.
The regional wind energy association, a bank board member and three entrepreneurs who set up and operate wind energy, photovoltaic and bioenergy systems in Schleswig-Holstein jointly referred on Tuesday to the impending “immense negative effects” of the planned excess revenue tax for green electricity companies. The "law to introduce an electricity price brake and to change other energy law provisions" planned by the federal government is already leading to the suspension of investment projects "in the billions", explained the state representative of the Federal Wind Energy Association (BWE) in its written communication. The three government factions SPD, FDP and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen introduced the bill to the Bundestag on December 1st.
BWE state managing director Marcus Hrach, who also acts as managing director of the LEE state association for the entire renewable energy industry, complained: “These proposals do not skim off additional profits, but the additional sales generated by the crisis.” Ignore the skimming in this way, the "partly immensely increased production costs" of the renewable energy plant operators since the end of 2021 at the latest. According to its draft version, it would intervene "massively in the profitability of the projects" ...
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Raid | Reichsbürger | terrorist group
After raid on "Reichsbürger"
Authorities expect further arrests
The security authorities are convinced that a "real danger" emanated from the coup plans of a group of so-called Reich citizens. After the major raid on Wednesday, further arrests and searches are possible.
After a major raid against a "Reichsbürger" group because of alleged coup plans, German security authorities expect further searches to be carried out against the scene and suspects.
On Wednesday, a total of 25 people were arrested in eleven federal states as well as in Italy and Austria. Around 3000 officers were involved in the raids. The federal prosecutor's office accuses 22 suspects of being members of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system in Germany. 19 of the accused are already in custody...
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France due to ailing nuclear park before rolling power cuts or a blackout
In France, only 54 of 24 nuclear power plants are running. A blackout is imminent in winter, which is why rolling power cuts are planned, as in the Ukraine. Ralf Streck says that an open heart operation is being carried out with it, in an emergency up to 60% of the population could be affected by power cuts. And then there is Ukraine in the European network.
Florian Rotzer: In France, the situation has now reached the point where they want to repeat the Ukraine model and also start with power cuts. From when should that go? Is this already known?
Ralph Streck: Yes, of course, shutdowns come at the moment when the demand for electricity is too high and electricity production is too low or you can no longer buy enough from abroad. I looked earlier. France previously imported twelve gigawatts. The overhead lines that go from Germany to France or from Spain to France are practically glowing.
Florian Rotzer: So more is not possible?
Ralph Streck: You can also get a little something from Switzerland. But Switzerland is already planning emergency shutdowns. And above all, they are obviously already planning that electric cars can no longer be charged because Switzerland was often dependent on electricity from France in winter. Like the British, the Swiss know the problem very well. The Brits are also already fumbling because they don't know how to meet their electricity needs because they have always been dependent on electricity from France. Now everyone knows what's coming. Already in the summer, the French narrowly missed the blackout. There was the problem that they ran out of cooling water...
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Current news+
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Photovoltaics | Deutsche Umwelthilfe | Solar industry
Environmental aid makes proposals for the rapid development of European photovoltaic production
In order to set up a value chain in Europe, concrete requirements for the solar components are necessary in addition to subsidies. The DUH recommends further measures.
The lack of production of photovoltaic components in Europe is a huge hurdle to achieving the climate goals. That is why the German Environmental Aid (DUH) calls for the rapid development of a corresponding industry and presents recommendations for action. These were developed in a series of workshops with representatives from politics, business, science and citizens ...
The complete recommendations for action including a detailed explanation can be found on the DUH website.
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Background knowledge
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reaktorpleite.de
Map of the nuclear world:
If the politicians had not left the solar industry in Germany hanging XNUMX years ago, we would not even have to talk about coal, gas and hydrogen today ...
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The internal search for
brought the following results, among others:
September 30, 2022 - De-globalisation: How the signs point to a European solar industry
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July 30, 2022 - Habeck sees opportunities for a comeback in the solar industry
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YouTube
Keyword search: Photovoltaic solar industry doku
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photovoltaik+solarindustrie+doku
Videos:
Engineering - 6:19
The downfall of the German PV industry
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Delusion & Sense - 14:05
How the federal government destroyed the German solar industry
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: solar manufacturers worldwide
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Solar%20Hersteller%20weltweit
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Wikipedia
Solar industry
The solar industry refers to all industrial companies that supply parts for the production of systems for the direct use of solar energy, e.g. B. solar cells for photovoltaic systems, supply or are incorporated into the manufacturing process itself. There are manufacturers who have developed the entire value chain and others who only carry out sub-processes, such as wafer production. The solar industry also includes companies that supply systems and machines for the production of solar silicon. Solar thermal energy represents another branch. Here, the thermal energy is made usable. Craft businesses that install solar systems are not part of the solar industry.
Manufacturers from China now dominate the world market. As of 2020, China manufactured almost 70% of all solar modules, ahead of Vietnam (7,9%), South Korea (5,2%), Malaysia (4,2%) and the United States (3,2%). Only 1,8% of solar modules were manufactured in Europe. In contrast, European companies still had a market share of 2020% in the manufacture of solar inverters in 24...
Germany
In Germany, the solar industry owed its initial upswing since the year 2000 in particular to the legally guaranteed feed-in tariff, which is regulated by the Renewable Energy Sources Act. From 2000 to 2011, the energy generated with photovoltaics increased from 0,064 TWh to approx. 19 TWh and thus around three hundred times.
According to the German Solar Industry Association (BSW), there were around 2012 companies in the solar industry in Germany in 10.000, including around 350 producers. These employed a total of 120.000 people. Total sales in photovoltaics including mechanical engineering amounted to around 2011 billion euros in 19...
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Back to:
Newsletter XLVIII 2022 - December 01st to 07th
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