Newsletter I 2023 |
January 1th to 7th
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| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the incidents were never published through official channels, so this information could only be made available to the public in a roundabout way. The list of incidents in the PDF file is therefore not 100 % identical with "INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities", but represents an addition...
1 January 1977 (INES 5) Beloyarsk, USSR
2 January 1958 (INES ? Class.?) Nuclear factory Mayak, USSR
3 January 1961 (INES 4 | NAMS 2,9) NRTS Idaho Falls, USA
5 January 1976 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Jaslovke Bohunice, SVK
6 January 1981 (INES 3) Nuclear factory La Hague, FRA
6 January 1986 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Cimarron, USA
6 January 2016 (North Korea's 5th nuclear weapons test) Punggye-ri, PRK
13 January 1977 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Gundremmingen, DEU
17 January 1966 (Broken Arrow) Palomares, USA
18 January 2012 (INES 2) NPP Cattenom, FRA
20 January 1965 (INES 4 | NAMS 3,7) LLNL, Livermore, USA
21 January 1968 (Broken Arrow) Thule Airport, Greenland, USA
21 January 1969 (INES 5 | NAMS 1,6) VAKL Lucens, CHE
21 January 2002 (INES 2) NPP Flamanville, FRA
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nukleare-welt@reaktorpleite.de
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07. January
Study: Lützerath Excavation unnecessary - Has RWE "ripped the greens" off the table?
The brown coal mine Garzweiler II is to be expanded. For this purpose, the energy company RWE would like to excavate the town of Lützerath, under which there are further coal reserves. Although there was widespread protest from society, even the Greens agreed to the compromise, which has been criticized as lazy. The excavation is justified with an alleged energy policy necessity. However, more recent study results show that the coal under Lützerath is not necessary to secure the energy supply, but even endangers the 1,5 degree target. Nevertheless, protest camps in Lützerath are being cleared these days. The police and RWE create facts on the spot. And thus not only jeopardize the safety of the activists, but also take our climate goals ad absurdum, as they criticize ...
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Blackout | EDF | France | Great Britain
Blackout dangers are increasing in France and Great Britain
EDF shuts down nuclear reactors in France to conserve fuel and threatens to blackout Britain over taxing chance profits. Macron makes a fool of himself with statements about the climate crisis.
We recently pointed out that Great Britain is also threatened with a blackout because of its dependence on French nuclear power, since France has switched from being an electricity exporter to an importer.
Because nuclear power is very expensive and unprofitable without massive subsidies, French power giant EDF is threatening to shut down two of Britain's nuclear power plants early if the British government sticks to taxing windfall profits on "low-carbon" power generation.
The "windfall tax" is intended to tax "falling from heaven" excess profits that arise from the absurd tariff system (merit order). According to this, the electricity price is always determined by the most expensive form of its generation...
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Citizen Energy | Expansion of renewables
Traffic light improves renewables funding
A candy for citizen energy
Wind power projects have become too expensive for civil society in recent years. The Federal Ministry of Economics wants to change that with a funding program that has just started. The traffic light is also trying to improve its relationship with the eco-energy scene with other political sweets.
At the end of 2022, the relationship between the traffic light government and the green energy sectors was severely clouded. It wasn't just the monstrous skimming of proceeds that caused trouble. The expansion of wind power languished throughout the year, and nine out of ten wind and solar tenders were not exhausted and were "signed" in official German.
The promised boom in renewables is still a long time coming. However, the steady complaints from the green energy industry made an impression. According to information from the industry, only around 200 of the 9.500 biogas plants in Germany will be affected by the much-criticized skimming of proceeds...
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06. January
Charcoal against climate
The North Rhine-Westphalian village of Lützerath is about to be evicted. Despite massive protests, the Greens are also in favor of clearing the place
Now it is imminent: the evacuation of Lützerath. The village, in which 100 people once lived, is said to fall victim to opencast lignite mining. At a time when the USA has experienced the most severe winter storms in the last two decades and the thermometer showed over 2023 degrees Celsius in parts of Germany on New Year's Day 20, this is an ominous sign at best. Because the police began preparing for the evacuation at the beginning of the year, the local activists announced Day X in the middle of the week. The major protests are scheduled to begin next weekend.
[...]
From January 10, the police want to cordon off the village with a fence. Then it can be cleared. With an urgent application against this order, the climate activists failed on Thursday before the Aachen administrative court, but they want to continue to sue.
A broad alliance of environmental organizations, climate groups and local initiatives is therefore calling for a large-scale demonstration in the village on January 14th. The activists want to hold on to the demonstration despite the current ban on staying in the place, even if the evacuation should have taken place by then.
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Runtime debate | Climate protection | Wissing
Nuclear fission, second part? The running time dispute is being extended
The term debate becomes a long-term debate: Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) provokes a new nuclear dispute in the traffic light coalition.
Not working again, Germany missed its climate target again. At least that's what the think tank Agora Energiewende predicts, which presented its report on Germany's CO2 emissions on Wednesday. Director Simon Müller spoke of an "alarm signal" if CO2 emissions stagnated "at a high level" - and "despite significantly lower energy consumption by households and industry". So what's the problem?
Among other things, in the transport sector, which lags "significantly" behind its climate targets. On the one hand, this is due to the renewed increase in traffic after the corona decline, and on the other hand to the "lack of political measures to reduce emissions," says the report. In other words: Volker Wissing has to deliver.
Last year, the Federal Minister of Transport presented an "immediate program" from the FDP that was intended to ensure compliance with the climate targets in his sector - and was rejected by the Expert Council for Climate Issues as "already unsatisfactory to begin with". Since then he has not made any substantial proposals to reduce greenhouse gases, although the Climate Protection Act also obliges Wissing to do so. The German Environmental Aid even accused the minister of "refusal to work"...
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Chomsky | war escalation | Climate Crisis | doomsday clock
Noam Chomsky: From Patriot missiles to Orwellian propaganda to economic democracy
Chomsky says: War escalation and climate crisis are not destiny. Unions and movements have power. You can't just reshape the economy. what must happen
Political scientist CJ Polychroniou conducts the interview with Noam Chomsky. It is published in cooperation with the US magazine Truthout, where you can find the English version .
Noam, as we start the new year, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing our world today? Would you agree that human progress, while real and significant in some respects, is neither uniform nor inevitable?
Noam Chomsky: The easiest way to reply is with the Doomsday Clock, which is now at 100 seconds to midnight and is likely to be moving further toward doom when it resets in a few weeks.
She should too, considering what happened last year. The issues pointed out by the doomsday clock last January remain high on the agenda: nuclear war, global warming and other environmental devastation, and the collapse of the rational discourse arena. However, this arena offers the only hope for overcoming the existential challenges. There are others, but let's focus on those mentioned.
Washington just voted to equip Ukraine with Patriot missiles. Whether they work or not is an open question, but Russia will assume a worst-case analysis and target them as a possible target. We have few details, but it is likely that US trainers will be sent to Ukraine with the missiles and are therefore targets for Russian attacks, which could take us a few notches up the escalation ladder...
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6 January 1981 (INES 3) Nuclear factory La Hague, FRA
In La Hague there was a catastrophic fire in a waste storage facility with graphite elements and uranium metal, workers were exposed to increased radiation.
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
A study published by the European Parliament in 2001 lists events from 1989 to 2011 that were reported by the operator. Eight accidents were described in more detail ...
Graphite elements had been burning in a waste silo for 24 hours. The maximum level of measured air contamination, 700 Bq/m3, was reached 10 hours after the fire started. The released activity is mainly due to caesium-137 and -134 (137Cs and 134Cs) and is between 740 GBq and 1.850 GBq, i.e. 10 times the annual limit value. The annual limit for the entire La Hague site is 74 GBq for cesium-137.
Strontium-90 (90Sr) was detected in stormwater and the allowable surface contamination limit was reached 6 km from the site. A worker received the annual permissible dose of 50 mSv in one day. An off-site health impact study has not been conducted...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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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. As far as the theory...
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A number of accidents and releases of radioactivity are in the Wikipedia can no longer be found or are only briefly mentioned in a single sentence. Apparently, slowly but surely, all important information about accidents in the nuclear industry is being removed from Wikipedia!
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiederaufarbeitungsanlage_La_Hague#Betriebsstörungen,_Unfälle
In 1981 there was a catastrophic fire in a waste storage facility for graphite elements and uranium metal (INES level 3), which worried many people ...
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Youtube
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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05. January
Greenland | Ammonia green | Wind farm
P2XFloaters
Ship to produce green ammonia off Greenland
- Greenland is to get its first commercial wind farm to generate electricity for the production of green ammonia
- The environmentally friendly ammonia is to be carried on board the converted gas tanker P2XFloaters to be produced
- The system is based on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Unit (FPSO).
- Production and storage unit from the petroleum industry and an electrolyser that produces ammonia using the Haber-Bosch process
Greenland is to receive the first commercial wind farm to produce electricity for the production of green ammonia on board a converted gas tanker.
Nuuk (Greenland). Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is required in fertilizer production, among other things. However, the frequently used chemical can also be used as a fuel for internal combustion engines and can be used in internal combustion engines. Currently, however, only a small proportion of the globally required ammonia is produced with renewable energies.
The Norwegian company H2Carrier and the Greenlandic wind energy company Anori have therefore published a communication, according to which the two companies want to produce green ammonia with a ship off Greenland. The energy required for this is to be generated by Greenland's first commercial wind farm...
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electricity export | German Federal Network Agency | Fossil
Electricity balance 2022:
Germany exports electricity worth almost 3 billion euros
Last year Germany consumed less electricity and produced more. This leads to a high export surplus.
Germany significantly increased its electricity exports last year. The Federal Network Agency announced on January 2021, 51,1 that net exports had increased by 4 percent compared to 2023. However, at EUR 2,88 billion, the export surplus was two and a half times as high as in 2021 because wholesale prices had risen accordingly.
Electricity consumption measured against the network load (net electricity) fell by 2022 percent in 4,0 to 484,2 terawatt hours (TWh). By contrast, net electricity generation increased by 0,4 percent to 506,8 TWh. Of these, 26,28 TWh net were exported. A total of 62,05 TWh was exported and 35,77 TWh imported. The network load differs from the gross electricity consumption, which also takes into account the power plant's own consumption and industrial networks ...
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Fossil Energy Crisis | Expansion of renewables | LNG
“The fossil energy crisis will be with us for a long time”
The energy expert Claudia Kemfert on the construction of LNG terminals, boosters for renewables and the race with China and the USA.
The first tanker with liquid gas arrived at the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven on Tuesday. The federal government is planning eleven such terminals on the North and Baltic Seas. That's far too many for energy expert Claudia Kemfert.
Ms. Kemfert, the natural gas storage facilities are full, although no more gas comes from Russia, and gas prices are falling again. Is Germany about to leave the energy crisis behind?
Claudia Kemmert: It's not that fast. The fossil energy crisis will be with us for a long time. We are now paying the price for the energy policy mistakes of the past and the delayed energy transition. Unfortunately, I have had to explain the same thing over and over again for years: it would be possible to cover our energy supplies even without Russia by obtaining gas from other countries, filling storage facilities, saving energy and expanding renewable energies more quickly. We just have to finally do this! This has actually been unmistakable since the start of the fossil fuel war by Russia. The fact that we got through this winter unscathed is precisely because the storage tanks were well filled and gas is being saved...
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Solar module production | tandem cell | perovskite
Meyer Burger is working on the industrialization of perovskite modules with high efficiency
The tandem of silicon solar cells and a layer of metal halide semiconductors has already achieved high levels of efficiency in the laboratory. This efficiency is now to be transferred to mass production.
The module manufacturer Meyer Burger, together with researchers from various institutes, is taking on the industrialization of the next generation of solar modules. These are based on the previous crystalline silicon technology. But to increase efficiency, the solar cells are supplemented with a layer of perovskites. These are metal halide semiconductors that are applied to the normal cell and use light across the visible and near-infrared spectrum to produce electricity.
Modules with over 30 percent efficiency
In order to further develop this so-called tandem technology through to mass production, the company has worked with the Center Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) in Switzerland, the Helmholtz Center Berlin (HZB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and the University of Stuttgart signed a cooperation agreement. The goal is to manufacture modules and solar cells with an efficiency of over 30 percent in industrial production ...
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solar power | space | SpaceX
Solar power from space: test setup successfully started
Is it possible to beam solar power from orbit to earth? The California Institute of Technology has now launched a test setup with the help of a SpaceX rocket.
- The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) launched a small spacecraft into orbit on January 3rd.
- The Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD) is intended to show how energy can be generated from space.
- A SpaceX model served as the launch vehicle for the test setup.
Solar power from space is considered the "mother of all energy sources" because it is available in almost inexhaustible quantities. Among others, the European Space Agency (ESA) is researching it. The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) is now announcing significant progress in this regard...
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Phasing out coal nuclear | secure energy supply | power consumption
Federal government prognosis: Energy supply secure even without nuclear power
According to a report, even the phase-out of coal could be brought forward without any problems. Instead, Berlin is relying more on natural gas and hydrogen. But the plan has its pitfalls.
Will Germany get through the energy crisis without nuclear power – this question is once again being debated. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWK) assured the German Press Agency (dpa) on Wednesday that the power supply in the Federal Republic is secure, even if the last nuclear reactors go offline.
The supply is secure even if the Germans decide to completely phase out coal-fired power generation by 2030. This also applies if electricity consumption increases significantly, for example if more heat pumps are used in buildings or if more electric cars are on the streets...
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04. January
Village before eviction because of lignite:
The RWE machines are advancing
The residents of the village of Lützerath in North Rhine-Westphalia have proclaimed "Day X". More and more people come to support.
AACHEN taz | "Runs without end," was the motto in Lützerath on Wednesday. More and more people came to save the village at the Garzweiler 2 lignite mine from being excavated at the last minute – or at least to sell the job as expensively as possible.
“Day X” has been in effect here since Tuesday afternoon. With this, the residents have started the call for supporters to rush to help as soon as possible. Surprisingly early, because day X was always announced for the actual first day of evacuation. Since Monday, however, a kind of pre-clearing of the terrain directly in front of the farmsteads and 30 tree houses has been underway. “Cops have been in Lützerath for over 24 hours, are setting up their structures and are attacking ours. Come NOW,” write the squatters.
Already on Tuesday itself there was no longer talk of 100, but of 300 people in the village...
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Century flood in Australia's Kimberley region: Entire villages cut off from the outside world
Western regions of Australia are completely flooded and entire towns are isolated. People have to be evacuated by helicopter.
The community of Fitzroy Crossing, which is now cut off from the outside world, is particularly badly affected, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported. According to the emergency services, it could take a week before the village can be reached again by land.
Australia floods: people rescued by helicopter
The nearby Great Northern Highway, which connects the metropolis of Perth with the northern port city of Wyndham, is also impassable in both directions, the Australian news agency AAP reported on Wednesday (January 04). That's why numerous residents were flown out of the city of Broome by helicopter...
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Temperatures | heat record | winter storm
Start the new year with a heat record
In Europe, the New Year is warmer than ever, and in North America, an arctic winter storm is breaking all records. The weather record year 2022 remains true to itself until the end.
Superstition has no place in journalism. A turn of the year that is accompanied by such an abundance of weather records still has a certain symbolism.
Weather services across Europe are reporting heat records on December 31st and January 1st. In Germany, too, the year 2022 is saying goodbye with the warmest New Year's Eve since weather records began in 1882.
In four locations in southern Germany, temperatures rose to over 31 degrees on December 20st. A weather station in Wielenbach, Upper Bavaria measured the highest value at 20,8 degrees.
[...]
The inrush of polar air masses as far as Florida led to images in large parts of the USA and Canada that were reminiscent of the end-time film "The Day After Tomorrow".
The storm "Elliott" caused heavy snowfall and hurricane-force winds. In many places, new low temperatures were reached. Temperatures dropped to minus 45 degrees in parts of the United States.
US media reports of well over 60 deaths and at times over 1,6 million households without electricity...
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Nuclear lobby | FDP | Minister of transport
Transport Minister Wissing wants to distract from his own failure with the nuclear power plant debate
So far, Federal Minister Volker Wissing has not had a particularly lucky hand in bringing the Ministry of Transport, which is under him, into line with the requirements for climate protection. It was not until July 2022 that various experts criticized the minister's plans as inadequate. There was talk of a gigantic implementation gap and a lack of will to reduce climate-damaging privileges and subsidies. The new year begins with an expert opinion from the scientific service of the Bundestag, according to which he violates the requirements of the Climate Protection Act.
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Anyone who only has uranium fuel rods as a tool sees too little nuclear power in every problem
This is also due to Wissing's predecessors, who acted with extreme fear and for decades only hid behind the efficiency increases of combustion engines: Both the CO2 emissions per passenger kilometer in cars and the CO2 emissions per tonne kilometer in trucks have fallen slightly since 1995.
However, these successes fizzled out in view of the ever-increasing mileage of an ever-growing vehicle fleet. No matter how efficient the manufacturers made the engines, they could not go against the political idea that 80 million people should only be able to get around by car. Wissing doesn't dare to name this problem either, so now nuclear power should fix it...
sticky | Activist | climate catastrophe | WiP
Everything sticks...
Climate activists glued themselves to the asphalt or to iconic images in museums, giving the topic of the impending man-made climate catastrophe the much-needed attention. This worked fine for a while, but as the old saying goes, "Get off the horse before it's dead or it'll fall on your feet."
Most often, people become politically active for noble reasons, because they want to make a difference and to change unbearable conditions for the better. In the daily Sisyphus work in the hamster wheel, however, the once invoked noble intentions and goals are increasingly in danger of losing their importance and the means become an end. Then at the latest it is time to do something else...
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03. January
Until 2030
Norway becomes a hydrogen supplier
Norway could supply Germany with up to 2030 terawatt hours of green hydrogen by 50. A joint declaration is to be signed during a visit by Minister Habeck.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck is traveling to Norway this week - also to create the conditions for significant hydrogen imports. During his trip, Habeck wants to sign a corresponding joint declaration. The Green politician will hold political talks in Norway on Thursday and Friday and meet business representatives.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, Norway and Germany want to reaffirm their intention to ensure a large-scale supply of hydrogen with the necessary infrastructure from Norway to Germany by 2030.
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Energy transition | Solar Panels | Electricity costs
The solar revolution from below
Solar modules have now become so cheap that many households could afford their own "power plant". With public start-up funding, your own electricity would be unbeatably cheap - and not only that: This could give the energy transition a decisive boost.
The new solar booster begins with the fact that every household can get a suitable solar system - whether on the balcony, in the garden or on the roof - and then simply plug it into the socket. Logging in and asking someone for permission is a thing of the past.
This does not endanger the stability of the power grid. It's a popular carrier tale. They would actually only have to look at the weather report in order to be able to calculate sufficiently how much solar power will be fed into the grid...
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Great Britain | renewable | Wind energy
Brits have become electricity exporters thanks to renewable energy
For the first time in the past decade, Britain was a net electricity exporter thanks to the expansion of renewables in 2022. The island took in 3,5 billion euros
For the first time in the past decade, the UK was a net electricity exporter in 2022. As a result, the Brexit island was often able to compensate for the electricity bottlenecks with its neighbors, especially in France, in the past year. The lucrative surplus was made possible above all by the constantly growing share of renewable energies in the country's electricity generation. The power generators had "a year like no other", sums up Iain Staffell from London's Imperial College.
The scientist is jointly responsible for a website that is compiled on the basis of detailed data, primarily from the network operator National Grid, and is paid for by the energy supplier Drax. As a result, wind energy was responsible for 27 percent of electricity production, a new record. In addition, another eleven percent came from biomass, solar systems and hydroelectric power plants. Nuclear power plants accounted for 16 percent of the energy mix, while the coal-fired power plants that dominated a few years ago now only account for one percent...
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Runtime debate | FDP | Nuclear lobby
Debate about longer nuclear power plant runtimes: Should citizens still be allowed to have a say?
FDP politicians want to transfer the decision to an expert panel. Others call for an end to the debate. Why the newly sparked dispute could be a sham debate. The comment.
The FDP is under pressure, and their participation in the governing coalition does not do them any good. In the state elections last year, she suffered severe defeats, and the polls are bad. If there were elections to the Bundestag today, it would probably be difficult for her to get back into parliament.
[...]
Transferring the decision on such questions to a commission of experts may correspond to the neoliberal doctrine - this procedure is not democratic. Experts cannot democratically legitimize a decision whose consequences affect millions of people who were not allowed to have a say; to whom the arguments were not presented ...
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3M announces phase-out of PFAS production
2025M plans to stop manufacturing PFAS by 3. The follow-up costs of the "eternal chemicals" are too high.
3M, best known for its yellow Post-It notes, is one of the largest producers of PFAS chemicals. That will change in a few years. The group announced on December 20th that it would phase out the production of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds. This was reported by the Reuters news agency and the BBC, among others.
By 2025, the company plans to completely stop producing the controversial chemicals. The final trigger was a lawsuit by the California Attorney's Office against several companies that manufacture or use PFAS, including DuPont and 3M. The legal pressure from stricter environmental regulations worldwide is having an effect ...
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United States | MIC | experimental reactor | SMR
62 years ago today:
The fatal Idaho nuclear accident
In early 1961, a reactor was to be restarted as part of a routine procedure. It took just milliseconds to go from failure to disaster.
The United States had already demonstrated the destructive power of nuclear fission to the world by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But the idea of using nuclear energy in a controlled manner was also pursued very early on by the military of many countries. Nuclear-powered warships and submarines are the most prominent examples today.
Control rod out of control
Starting in 1, the SL-1958 military test reactor in the US state of Idaho was used primarily to test the possibilities of supplying remote military bases with electricity and heat. But again, it would be the destructive power of nuclear fission chain reactions that would make the facility go down in history.
On January 3, 1961, 62 years ago today, the reactor was supposed to be started up again after a break over the holidays. To do this, the crew first had to power up the central control rod in the conventional sense in order to reattach it to its control element. What ultimately caused this lifting process to go much further than it should have gone is still unclear to this day...
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03 January 1961 (INES 4 | NAMS 2,9) NRTS, Idaho Falls, USA
In this accident in what was essentially the first Small Modular Reactor (SMR), about 41 TBq radioactive radiation released.
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Wikipedia
List of accidents in nuclear facilities
At the National Reactor Testing Station Idaho, the experimental SL-1 reactor suffered a critical steam explosion and heavy release of radioactive material incident, killing the three operating crew members. With the exception of iodine-131, the spread of the radiation was limited to an area of 12.000 m². Within a radius of 30 km around the reactor, the contamination of vegetation by iodine-131 was about 100 times the natural radiation intensity. Even 80 km away, the load on the vegetation was twice as high...
... The rescue team could not find either a fire or the victims at first, but they found radiation levels of about 10 mSv/h inside the reactor building. When appropriate protective equipment arrived, a team entered the reactor building and found one dead and another member of the three-man crew still alive. According to a US Atomic Energy Commission report, 22 rescuers received an equivalent dose in the range of 30 to 270 mSv. The reactor was dismantled and the 12 ton reactor core and pressure vessel were buried a few months later...
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I
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Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States
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The accident of January 4, 3 rated INES category 1961 can be found in the Wikipedia entry "Idaho National Laboratory" in this one paragraph:
The Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1) was a particularly low-power reactor intended to provide electrical power and heat to remote United States Army stations such as arctic radar stations. An accident on January 3, 1961 killed three people, the operators of the reactor. Radioactive iodine leaked from the reactor building, contaminating the surrounding area with 50-100 times the natural level, and 80 km downwind radiation levels were twice normal.
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02. January
France | EDF | Cracks | Flamanville
Nuclear power in France is weakening
Despite breakdown power plants, Paris relies on reactors for climate protection
France's nuclear power plants can't get out of the negative headlines. In the final week of 2022, reactor availability was well below expectations, and repairs to several decommissioned plants are once again being delayed. In addition, the commissioning of the only new reactor, Flamanville 3 in Normandy, is still a long time coming after a construction delay of ten years. It should now no longer take place in 2023, but only in 2024 ...
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Lützerath | Energy company RWE | Activist
Diary from Lützerath
No more feel-good activism
The energy company RWE wants to demolish the hamlet of Lützerath. The police are getting closer and closer. Barricades are built.
Yesterday I was thinking about what to do if the police storm the occupied village where I've been living for a few days. The question still seemed far away to me, on Monday it already feels more real.
Greenpeace had asked for help the evening before because they feared that their containers at the wooden gates of Lützerath would be cleared. My roommates wanted to make sure that Greenpeace could stay and that RWE could not make preparations and set up "heavy equipment" in front of the camp before the planned evacuation in just over a week. Whatever this could mean.
“Cops in the camp!” someone shouted in front of the wooden gate on the street. Although it belongs to RWE, it is also the entrance to the village. And right now the excavator has to point its shovel straight at the house where I sleep. A hooded person points at me, starts to laugh, and I realize it's time to shut my mouth...
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One year lobby register
The traffic light has not yet implemented its promise to quickly reform the lobby register law and to close the remaining gaps. So where do we stand on the lobby register?
A mandatory lobby register has been in place in Germany for a year now. On January 1, 2022, the lobby register law came into force, which was passed by the then Groko under great public pressure against the background of the mask and Azerbaijan affairs in spring 2021. The traffic light has not yet implemented its promise to reform the law quickly and to close any gaps that still exist. So where do we stand with the lobby register after a year?
Lobby register is well known in the lobby scene
First, a look at the numbers: over 5.500 lobbyists were entered in the register at the end of December 2022. This number is not far from our forecast in spring ...
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Nuclear reactors number decreases | IAEA | Nuclear lobby
In 2022, the number of nuclear power plants and nuclear power production fell for the first time worldwide
At the end of 2022, according to statistics from the official IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), only 422 nuclear reactors were still generating electricity worldwide. 20 years ago, in 2002, there were 444.
After the global nuclear power production of 2021 terawatt hours (billion kilowatt hours) in 2.653 was lower than fifteen years earlier in 2006 with 2661 TWh (according to IAEA), nuclear power production will increase again in 2022 due to the standstill of many old and defective nuclear power plants, especially in France to have sunk.
And yet nuclear lobbyists, like Professor H.-W. Sinn from the Ifo Institute at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-University in Munich that everyone is building new nuclear power plants and only the "stupid Germans" are getting out of nuclear power. The official figures of the IAEA refute this propaganda ...
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Climate Crisis | Glue | Extinction rebellion
Change of course at Extinction Rebellion:
No more sticking
British climate activists announce in a statement that they no longer want to be stuck. Instead, other actions should be the focus.
LONDON dpa | For the time being, the activists of the Extinction Rebellion movement in Great Britain no longer want to stick themselves to works of art and block roads in protest against the lack of climate protection. The group made the announcement on New Year's Day in a statement titled "We're Quitting."
The disruptive actions - which are quite controversial among the population - were important to stir up and to denounce systematic political failure in the face of the climate crisis. However, "tactics would have to be continuously developed": From now on, they want to put more pressure on responsible politicians by mobilizing the broad masses of society for forms of collective protest ...
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Climate change | temperature record | Dryness
Germany 2022: Too sunny, warm and dry
Climate in Germany reaches new records and a warming of 1,7 degrees
New record: Since weather records began, no year in Germany has been as sunny as 2022 - and the heat record of 2018 was also reached, perhaps even exceeded, as the German Weather Service determined. It was also too dry again. Global warming has already reached 2022 degrees in Germany in 1,7 compared to pre-industrial values, so the trend towards ever warmer temperatures is also unbroken in Germany.
In 2022, the consequences of climate change could hardly be overlooked worldwide: large parts of Europe and the northern hemisphere experienced a week-long heat wave in summer, which set new heat records in many places and which, according to attribution analyzes, would not have been possible without climate change. Heavy rain and rainy storms also caused severe flooding in many regions. The oceans and also the North Sea and Baltic Sea also reached new heat records in 2022 ...
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Assange | Whistleblower | Press freedom
US President Biden, drop the lawsuit against Julian Assange!
Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg sees the process as an attack on press freedom. He is calling on the US Justice Department to indict him too, while five major newspapers rally behind Assange. Is publishing a crime?
US President Joe Biden is pushing ahead with the controversial criminal case against Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. Assange has been in the strict British Belmarsh prison for almost four years. He has since appealed against his extradition to the United States, where he faces charges of espionage and computer fraud, which could land him in a maximum security prison for 175 years...
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01. January
Lingen fuel assemblies | UAA Gronau | Neckarwestheim | Lützerath
Dear friends,
I hope you had a relaxed turn of the year - in Lingen the old year ended with a vigil in front of the nuclear power plant and the new year began with a spectacular action: activists occupied a hall roof of the Lingen fuel element factory and unrolled a large banner "Shut down" on the hall wall. This makes it clear: The resistance against the nuclear industry in Emsland and Münsterland will continue in 2023, until the last nuclear power plants and the fuel element factory in Lingen and the uranium enrichment plant in Gronau are shut down!
After the end of the action, several activists were initially taken to the Lingen police station - personal details were also taken from people who gathered in front of the gate for a solidarity action at night. The PM of the activists as well as some photos are documented here:
https://atomstadt-lingen.de/aktuelles/
More information also on Twitter www.urantransport.de and https://www.noz.de/lokales/lingen/artikel/protest-gegen-atomenergie-beim-kernkraftwerk-emsland-in-lingen-43860980
We declare our solidarity with the activists and join the political demands!
Today protest actions also took place in Gronau at the UAA and in Neckarwestheim at the nuclear power plant.
At the same time, we are calling for participation in the rally in front of the Lingen nuclear power plant on January 21, 13 p.m. - for the immediate nuclear phase-out and against further nuclear deals with Russia and China. The phase-out of nuclear power is far from over, we don't trust the traffic lights in Berlin a millimeter - now it's all about our public protest. And as a reminder: The fuel element factory belongs to the French state, the nuclear power plant belongs to RWE - we therefore see the rally on the 21st as a solidarity campaign for the many people who will oppose the climate-politically completely absurd and dangerous demolition of Lützerath in the coming weeks want.
Please advertise the rally in Lingen and come by!
From about 9.1. is to be expected in Lützerath with the beginning of the black-green police operation - on 14.1. a large demo will take place in Lützerath, which we are also calling for. The 1,5 °C limit runs BEFORE Lützi. We demand that the black-green state government stop the police deployment and the RWE excavators immediately!
All information: www.alle-doerfer-bleiben.de
All the best to you for 2023 - the year has started actively!
Nuclear-free New Year's greetings
Sofa (immediate phase-out of nuclear power) Münster, action alliance Münsterland against nuclear plants
www.sofa-ms.de, www.urantransport.de
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Progress | Truth | Enlightenment
The year of exacerbation
The diverse crises that we are experiencing are inherent in the growth dynamics of an economic system that does not satisfy human needs but wants to make profits. There is no critical and enlightening theory that would make it possible to diagnose the causes of the social crisis.
[...]
When I am asked about the surprise of the year, I can give many individual examples, from the problems with the energy transition to the extension of the nuclear lifetime to the nine-euro ticket. But, as important as they are, at their core they remain an attempt to preserve what already exists in a new form, just as the heading of the current coalition agreement promises: "Dare to make more progress."
But it is precisely this progress that, as Walter Benjamin wants to tell us, is piling up the rubble of civilization before us.
My surprise of the year is that faster, much faster and harder than expected a year ago, a global crisis of the previous hegemony of progress is spreading, a multifaceted crisis complex that extends to the economy, ecology, politics and the social sphere and must also be seen in the Ukraine war. The plasters that used to help in normal times no longer stick...
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01 January 1977 (INES 5) NPP Beloyarsk, USSR
A number of accidents and releases of radioactivity are in the Wikipedia not or no longer to be found. Apparently, slowly but surely, all important information about accidents in the nuclear industry is being removed from Wikipedia!
Wikipedia - de
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Belojarsk
In Unit 1977, in 2, half of the fuel assemblies in the active zone were destroyed...
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Unf%C3%A4llen_in_kerntechnischen_Anlagen#1970er_Jahre
In an accident, 50% of the fuel channels in Unit 2 of the Belojarsk NPP, a pressure tube reactor similar to the RBMK, melted. The repair took about a year. The staff was exposed to high levels of radiation. (INES level 5)
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Wikipedia - en
Nuclear power accidents by country#Russia
In the English language version of Wikipedia, this incident is - INES 5 "serious accident" - not mentioned at all.
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Beloyarsk_(Russland)
From 1964 to 1979 there was a series of events in Beloyarsk-1 in which fuel channels were destroyed and workers were exposed to increased levels of radiation. In 1977, 50% of the fuel assemblies at Beloyarsk-2 melted down; the staff was exposed to high levels of radioactivity...
Various incidents during breeder operation were also reported in the 1990s ...
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Current news+
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Ukraine war | Peace | negotiations
Where are the peacemakers?
The majority of Germans are in favor of a diplomatic way out of the war. A peace policy perspective would be important.
(Part 1 - 2 - 3 and end)
The answer of the federal government to a small question by the AfD in the Bundestag on October 31 about possible peace solutions for Ukraine reads literally:
From the Federal Government's point of view, it is up to the Government of Ukraine to decide on the taking place, timing and content of possible negotiations with the Russian Federation on a peaceful solution to end Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also said that the "parameters" for negotiations would be set in Kyiv.
Not only after the incident in Poland, however, does the question arise as to whether Selenskyj can and should be trusted blindly at all. After a rocket hit Poland, he put the thesis of a Russian rocket attack into the world without verification and stuck to it even after the USA, NATO and Poland had officially rejected this opinion. Not only the FAZ feared that Selenskyj wanted to draw NATO into the war with this false claim.
In the meantime, it has become known that the United States is demanding accountability from Ukraine for the use of the military equipment supplied, and the Biden administration is apparently in confidential talks with Ukraine to signal greater openness for negotiations with Russia.
The US government fears, on the one hand, that support for military aid in the US itself will decline and, on the other hand, that a number of partners will tire of supporting Ukraine, given the negative repercussions of the war. Crumbling support for a ninth package of sanctions is a sign of that fatigue.
Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan is also holding confidential talks with Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, on how to avoid further escalation and how to keep the lines of communication open. CIA chief William Burns also met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin in Turkey.
In a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, President Biden declared his willingness to speak to Putin if he actually has an interest in finding a way to end the war. Putin's spokesman said Russia was willing to negotiate if "our interests" were protected.
Macron said Europe must prepare a new security architecture. We need to work out what we are prepared to do, how to protect our partners and how to give guarantees to Russia once it returns to the negotiating table. Of course, a new security architecture doesn't come overnight, but it would have to start being addressed.
As long as the German government and the EU maintain their unconditional support for Ukraine, as they did at the October summit, and leave Zelensky alone to determine the war goals, the biggest obstacle to starting negotiations of any kind is the fear of negotiations themselves If this passive stance persists, politicians fear that they will be viewed as appeasers and even defeatists if they urge compromises at the negotiating table rather than a military victory for Ukraine.
An important element in getting out of this political paralysis would be to gear the sanctions to a peace policy perspective, or at least to put them up for discussion. Because in my opinion there is no realistic alternative.
It would be important to distinguish between a geopolitical and a peace policy objective of the sanctions
It is not difficult to see that two fundamentally different goals can be pursued both with the arms deliveries and with the sanctions. When developing a strategy to end the war, it would be important to first differentiate between geopolitical objectives and a peace policy strategy, as recommended by the peace researcher Joachim Becker.
The geopolitical strategy pursues the following objectives:
- Geostrategic sanctions are intended – as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has threatened – to “ruin” Russia so that “the economy will not get back on its feet for years”.
- As US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin blurted out, they are intended to weaken Russia to such an extent "that it is no longer capable of something like the invasion of Ukraine."
- Geostrategic considerations are also behind the goal of a regime change, i.e. to force Putin out of power because one can no longer negotiate with him because – as the gas supply freeze proves – he is not sticking to agreements. "For God's sake, this man can't stay in power," US President Joe Biden blurted out during a visit to Poland in March, hinting at such an objective.
- Among the neocons in the USA, but also among the Atlanticists in Europe, there are advocates of maintaining a "unipolar order" determined by the USA and the necessary reduction of Russian influence on world politics. Forces that are pushing for a concentration of Western forces on the system opponent China. Many see it as the main goal, massive US support for Ukraine. In this geopolitical strategy, the sanctions are actually part of a proxy war that the United States is waging with Russia.
A note on the proxy war:
However, one argument against this thesis of proxy wars, which is also widespread in left-wing circles, is that Ukraine was never pressured by the USA/NATO/the West to start a war. The Ukrainian readiness to defend itself – this should always be made clear – is a consequence of the Russian attack and Russian war crimes, which have also been proven by the UN.
One has to be careful that the reference to Western-imperial policies or the reference to the "capitalist land grab" in the East - as Klaus Dörre called it and which undoubtedly existed - in everything that can and must be criticized about it, not as relativizing or even justifying Russian aggression. Rather, as the war progressed, it became a proxy war.
The war goal pursued with such a geopolitical strategy of sanctions is linked to a victory for Ukraine and – implicitly or implicitly – the restoration of full sovereignty over all areas, i.e. including Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, i.e. the restoration of the status before the spring of 2014.
The necessary debate about a peace policy perspective
I agree with Rolf Mützenich, who wrote in the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation's IPG-Journal in October:
It is also the task of German and European diplomacy to do everything possible to ensure that thinking in zones of power and influence does not become irreversible. A far-sighted and comprehensive foreign policy remains essential today.
If one wants to direct the geopolitical strategy into a peace policy perspective, it is essential to conduct a serious debate on the following questions, for example:
- Do you want to offer Russia the prospect of easing sanctions if Putin agrees to a ceasefire and a peace treaty that may follow? A clear answer was needed to the question of whether the sanctions are conditioned, whether there is an if-then relationship.
- Should there be an offensive offer for a gradual lifting of sanctions against a phased withdrawal of the Russian military? (In this way, for example, one could also send the signal to the Russian population at the same time that a withdrawal of the occupation troops would result in the gradual lifting of the onerous economic sanctions.)
- Who could fathom whether it is true that the Kremlin "want a negotiated solution"? At the end of October, Putin declared his readiness for peace negotiations at a Moscow discussion forum; it is understandable that he had not indicated any willingness to compromise before such talks. On the other hand, in his speech at the G20 summit in Bali, President Zelenskyy took the strongest position: the prerequisite for this was the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of his country's territorial integrity. "Effective security guarantees" are then necessary for this.
However, Ukraine is currently even excluding negotiations with a presidential decree. When the German foreign minister supports the Ukrainian president's refusal, it is the exact opposite of diplomacy. Because Annalena Baerbock should also know that one day a ceasefire will be negotiated, the only question is whether in the next few weeks, in a few months, or in a year or two. Can't Mrs. Baerbock imagine what would be left of Ukraine then?
Rejecting a diplomatic solution would divert resources primarily to rearmament for decades to come.
Part of a peace policy strategy is that such questions should and can be thought about in the first place.
Because negotiation offers can probably not be carried out on the open market, the government is not primarily in demand. As with the solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis, negotiating compromises would have to be found via back channels.
This does not mean, however, that any negotiating positions should not be publicly discussed and disputed. Above all, a left that doesn't want to expose itself to the danger of being taken in by the populist slogans of the right is called upon to develop ideas of how it imagines a diplomatic solution ...
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Background knowledge
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reaktorpleite.de
Map of the nuclear world:
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine must take place ...
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The internal search for
brought the following results, among others:
May 20, 2022 - Forked tongue politics: They talk about peace but want war
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May 16, 2022 - How a negotiated peace is torpedoed in the Ukraine war
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December 14, 2021 - 50 Nobel Prize winners call for clear disarmament
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YouTube
Keyword search: Ukraine peace negotiation
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ukraine+Frieden+Verhandeln
Videos:
27. December 2022 - daily news - 7:04
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24 October 2022 - € news - 1:25
"Cry for Peace": How to deal with Russia's war in Ukraine?
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May 16, 2022 - Monitor - 6:13
Ukraine war: pacifism at an end?
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: Ukraine peace negotiations
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Ukraine Frieden Verhandeln
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Wikipedia
Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, is an invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin that initially targeted the entire territory of Ukraine and escalated the Russo-Ukrainian war that had been smoldering since 2014.
Concentrations of Russian troops in the border regions with Ukraine were observed as early as April 2021. On February 21, 2022, Russia recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” under Russian influence. The alleged threat from Ukraine served as a pretext for the all-out attack on the rest of Ukraine; this began in the early morning of February 24 simultaneously from the south, east and north. Russia's original war goal, the rapid capture of Kiev and the overthrow of the Ukrainian government, was abandoned at the end of March. Russia concentrated on an offensive in the east of the country and was able to record territorial gains there; However, it continued to meet resistance and was pushed back in September 2022 by a counter-offensive from the greater Kharkiv area. Russia responded with partial mobilization and the illegal annexation of southern and eastern Ukraine. In early November 2022, Russian troops also withdrew from the west bank of the Dnieper, giving up the city of Kherson, which had been occupied since March 2022. After the withdrawal of the Russian troops, war criminal abuse, rape, torture and executions of civilians became known in the liberated cities...
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United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council, often referred to as the World Security Council, is an organ of the United Nations. It consists of five permanent members (also known as P5) and ten non-permanent members (elected members) or states. The five permanent members (France, Russia, the United States, the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom) have an extended power of veto when passing resolutions and are therefore also referred to as veto powers...
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Newsletter LII 2022 - December 26th to 31st
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