Newsletter XIII 2023

March 26st to April 1th

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Nuclear Power Accidents

This PDF file contains a list of accidents and releases of radioactivity. Some of this information was only made public under the most difficult of circumstances. As new information emerges, this list will be expanded and updated...

Excerpt for this month:

March 1, 2006 (INES 2) NPP Kozloduy, BGR

March 05, 1969 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

March 6, 2006 (INES ? Class.?) Nuclear factory NFS, USA

March 8, 2002 (INES 3) NPP Davis Besse, USA

March 10, 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,6) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

March 11, 1958 (Broken Arrow) Mars Bluff, USA

March 11, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN

March 12, 2011 (INES 3) NPP Fukushima II Daini, JPN

March 13, 1980 (INES 4) NPP Saint-Laurent, FRA

March 19, 1971 (INES 3 | NAMS 2) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

March 22, 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Brown's Ferry, USA

March 25, 1955 (INES 4 | NAMS 4,3) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

March 28, 1979 (INES 5 | NAMS 7,9) NPP Three mile island, USA

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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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1. April

Climate Protection Act | Limit CO2 | sector goals

Reform of the climate protection law:

Departure from sector targets

The government wants to reform the climate protection law. This distracts from those ministries that have some catching up to do in terms of climate policy.

BERLIN taz | It is an inconspicuous sentence that is intended to gut the German climate protection law. "Compliance with the climate protection goals is to be checked in the future using a cross-sectoral and multi-year overall account," says the results of the coalition committee of the traffic light government.

So far, specific CO2 limit values ​​have applied for each year and for the individual economic sectors. If they are exceeded, the responsible ministry must rectify the situation with an emergency program.

It is true that emissions are to be checked annually in the future, also broken down by sector. But that would have no practical consequences for the individual ministry. The ministries could also act among themselves: if the transport sector exceeds its budget, there would be room for maneuver in the energy sector if there were no formal problems - the main thing is that the overall balance is right ...

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renewable | heating wood | Romania | deforestation | timber mafia

Renewable Energy Directive RED III

EU agrees on higher renewables target

The European Union wants to increase its share of renewable energies in the coming years. But the new target for 2030 falls short of what is necessary. The burning of wood from forests should also be considered renewable in the future.

[...]

Experts have long been opposed to recognizing the burning of wood to generate energy as renewable. Large-scale wood burning is not CO2-neutral even when deforested forest is reforested. The energy required for clearing, transport and afforestation leads to additional CO2 emissions.

The EU Parliament had therefore spoken out in its decision on the directive for an upper limit for the burning of "primary biomass". Only the burning of sawmill by-products such as shavings and branches should still be considered renewable. However, in the course of the trilogue negotiations, the member states have asserted that wood burning can continue on a large scale.

Green MEP Martin Häusling described the decision as sobering. "In the area of ​​wood energy, the trilogue result is only a slight improvement on the status quo," he said. Europe's forests, which are generally in poor condition, continue to be heavily used for timber harvesting. "We are heading towards overexploitation of the forests, which we urgently need to protect the climate," warned Häusling...

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LPG | budget committee | LNG Terminal Ruegen

Increase in costs at liquid gas terminals

Committee puts Rügen LNG project on hold

A foreseeably oversized liquid gas infrastructure is being built with a lot of money - and the costs are continuing to rise. This is suggested by decisions in the Bundestag this week. For the time being, the budget committee stopped the flow of funds for RWE's LNG terminal in Rügen.

The so-called "Germany pace", with which the liquid gas terminals have been made to swim up to now, has been slowed down this week - at least a little and by a body that was not even on the radar for LNG: the budget committee of the Bundestag .

In mid-March, the Federal Ministry of Finance had already applied to the committee to release more than 3,1 billion euros for the further expansion and operation of floating liquefied natural gas terminals. Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) is the technical term for these special ships.

Of the 3,1 billion, the budget committee approved only a good half on Wednesday, just over 1,6 billion euros. The MPs blocked further expenditure of 1,5 billion euros for the time being, essentially putting the giant terminal planned by RWE off the Baltic Sea island of Rügen on hold...

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Support program | Energy Efficiency | energetic renovation

How the state promotes home renovation

Energetically renovating or modernizing a property should be worthwhile again. There have been new funding programs since March. The most important innovations and what pays off for whom - an overview.

[...]

With an investment sum of up to 150.000 euros per residential unit, the KfW bank grants a loan. It then charges significantly lower interest rates than would be the case with standard financing loans. "Calculated over a period of ten years, based on the current status, this makes savings of 30.000 to 40.000 euros in comparison," explains Halboth.

Favorable KfW interest rates only for energetic refurbishment

However, the granting of this loan is subject to conditions: the property must meet energy standards after the renovation. There is an additional incentive to achieve this: the more energy-efficient the renovation is, the more the loan amount is subsequently reduced.

An example: Anyone who manages to bring their house into the average energy efficiency class 70 with the help of renovation measures gets ten percent of the original loan amount waived. For a house that achieves the best efficiency class 40 after renovation, it is 20 percent...

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31. March

call for peace | social democrat | Olaf Scholz

200 Social Democrats for Peace

Willy Brandt's son writes to Scholz

While the chancellor emphasized in his turning point speech that nothing has been the same since Russia's attack on Ukraine, veteran SPD comrades point to the old-school policy of détente. Willy Brandt's son and 200 signatories write to Scholz that it is not outdated.

Former high-ranking SPD politicians and trade unionists have appealed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to advocate for early negotiations to end the fighting in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. "With each passing day, the danger of an escalation of hostilities grows. The shadow of a nuclear war lies over Europe. But the world must not slide into a new major war," says the appeal "Create peace!", about which the "Frankfurter Rundschau " reported. "We encourage the Federal Chancellor, together with France, to persuade Brazil, China, India and Indonesia in particular to mediate in order to quickly achieve a ceasefire. That would be a necessary step to end the killing and explore the possibilities for peace. Only then can the path be leveled into a common security order in Europe", write the initiators ...

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PFAS | NATO Air Base | Groundwater use prohibited

Carcinogenic PFAS from Nato Air Base contaminate Gangelt's groundwater

gangs/Geilenkirchen In Niederbusch and Stahe, residents are no longer allowed to use the groundwater. The background is exposure to harmful PFAS. The trigger is the NATO Air Base.

Private individuals in the Gangelt districts of Niederbusch and Stahe will no longer be able to use the groundwater from Saturday. The district of Heinsberg has now banned this by general decree. The reason for the ban is contamination of the groundwater, which can cause damage to health.

For the residents of Niederbusch and parts of the town of Stahe, this means, for example, that their wells are not allowed to be used and the groundwater is also not allowed to be used for garden irrigation. The ban will last for more than 20 years, until December 31, 2043...

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Poisons for eternity | Limits | Ban dangerous substances

"Poison of the century" PFAS: New limit values ​​for drinking water

Pans, outdoor jackets, pizza boxes – countless products contain PFAS chemicals. In many places, the partly toxic substances are in the soil. Limit values ​​for PFAS in drinking water are now to be set. For some, that doesn't go far enough.

Gerhard Merches from the Bund Naturschutz stands in front of a spring lake in the district of Altötting. The water is so clear that you can see every stone on the bottom. But paradise is deceptive. Because the water is contaminated with PFAS. The substances hardly break down in nature and are considered potentially carcinogenic, which is why they are colloquially called "eternal chemicals" or "poison of the century".

[...]

The environmental policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Jan-Niclas Gesenhues, is therefore calling for a fund financed by industry to finance cleaning and sanitation measures.

Ultimately, in his opinion, there will be a Europe-wide ban on hazardous substances. This is already being discussed in the EU. For the industry, however, the problem remains that there are still no alternatives for some PFAS chemicals. In addition, some fear that production will then migrate to countries where there are no environmental standards whatsoever.

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Hydrogen | E-fuels | photosynthesis

Solar synthesis gas in one step

Nanofactory simultaneously produces hydrogen and carbon monoxide using sunlight

Solar fuel factory: Chemists have developed a novel nanomaterial that can use sunlight to produce synthesis gas from carbon dioxide and water – in one step. This is made possible by two catalysts latched into a light-absorbing metal-organic framework. This combination enables the simultaneous production of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The system achieves an efficiency of 36 percent and is more efficient than previous catalysts for such solar-to-X reactions.

Synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is an important intermediate product for basic chemicals such as ammonia and methanol, but also for the production of synthetic fuels in the form of e-fuels. So far, syngas has primarily been produced using fossil fuels. In recent years, however, scientists have developed various technologies to produce syngas from water and CO2 using sunlight. The range goes from floating leaves to the three-step solar refinery.

Nano factory splits water and CO2 at the same time

Philip Stanley from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and his colleagues have now developed a new approach for a solar-to-gas process. They were inspired by photosynthesis: the nanomaterial developed by the researchers mimics the properties of the enzymes involved in photosynthesis. The ingeniously composed "nanozyme" is said to produce synthesis gas from carbon dioxide, water and light in one step ...

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Research University of China | Green hydrogen | electrolysis | salt water

New method for direct electrolysis from salt water

Perhaps one shouldn't always talk about "revolutions" or "major scientific breakthroughs", but what the 30-year-old Xie Heping just invented in China could theoretically one day revolutionize the world's energy supply.

A novel method developed by Chinese scientists led by the 30-year-old researcher Xie Heping enables the direct electrolysis of hydrogen from seawater - without the previously necessary desalination step.

[...]

The scientists have already installed a prototype of their novel electrolysis plant without prior desalination in Shenzhen Bay coastal waters and "run it for 3.200 hours under practical application conditions," they write.

That is 133 days and in this time the prototype has produced more than a million liters of hydrogen without any wear of any components being observed.

"Since seawater makes up more than 96 percent of the water on earth, this could be an important step towards the production of green hydrogen (produced with renewable energy)," comments the Financial Times in a report on this invention from China ...

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fossil fuels | social balance | CO2 pricing

"Climate money" instead of tax cuts

A climate check for everyone

The income from the CO2 price should not only be used for the energy transition, but also for social balance. The result of a Copernicus research project is not the first reminder to the traffic light to fulfill its great climate policy promise.

"Climate money" is announced in the traffic light coalition agreement. This is to be transferred to all citizens once a year in order to return at least part of the state income from the CO2 pricing of fuel and heating energy to them.

The idea behind it: everyone initially pays more at the gas station and for heating costs, but those who use less fossil energy end up having even more in their accounts thanks to the transfer. On the other hand, if you consume a lot, you add more.

Poorer households in particular would benefit. Their CO2 emissions are usually low because they usually live in small apartments and drive little or no car.

[...]

Similar to Switzerland, where a CO2008 tax has been levied on fossil fuels since 2 and two thirds of the income from private consumption is repaid as a per capita amount. The same thing happens there in the economy. The remaining third is used as start-up financing for energy and climate investments.

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battery technology | Renewable Store | mine shaft

Gravity batteries could power the whole earth

New research suggests reused underground mines could store enough energy to power "the entire earth" for a day.

In good weather conditions, wind and sun often generate more electricity than the grid can consume. So where can we store this excess energy?

According to scientists at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), abandoned mines could offer a solution.

They say converting abandoned mines into giant "gravity batteries" could store up to 70 terawatts of energy. That's enough to cover all of the world's daily electricity consumption...

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fossil industry | California | excess profit tax

California punishes oil giants for excessive profits

Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill - State Control Agency planned

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a new bill that would allow the state's authorities to punish oil companies if they over-profit. The decision as to whether individual companies have to be sanctioned or not is to be taken over by a newly established state control agency, which will continuously monitor developments on the oil markets and also have the authority to obtain and examine internal data on the pricing of the groups.

"Biggest Obstacle to Change"

"The American economy is built on oil, I understand that. But we're in a transition process and all I'm asking is that they stop ripping us off," Newson quoted NBC News as saying in a statement who recently drew attention at a press conference on the subject.

[...]

After all, it was not for nothing that the Western States Petroleum Association spent a total of 2021 million dollars (around 2022 million euros) in the legislative period from 11,7 to 10,8 to influence legislators. "We have now proven that we are stronger than the oil lobby," said Newson ...

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30. March

Interim storage | nuclear waste | low and medium radioactive | KIT Campus North

Two interim storage facilities will go into operation in 2023

New storage hall for nuclear waste on the KIT Campus North

Two new interim storage facilities for low-level and medium-level radioactive nuclear waste are to go into operation in Eggenstein. On the KIT Campus North site, the former nuclear research center in Karlsruhe.

On the premises of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) near Eggenstein (Karlsruhe district), two new interim storage facilities for low-level and intermediate-level radioactive nuclear waste will go into operation this year. The waste comes from the dismantling of the nuclear facilities on Campus North.

A new logistics and storage hall for low-level radioactive waste went into operation a few weeks ago. The new interim storage facility for medium-level radioactive waste is still awaiting final approval. The release is expected in autumn of this year. The largest amounts of radioactive waste in Germany are currently stored on the KIT Campus North for the Konrad mine in Salzgitter ...

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Karlsruher Institute for Technology | Lithium | Batteries recycling

KIT: Lithium recycling from batteries without a lot of chemicals and energy

Battery recycling has been a somewhat difficult process so far. However, this does not have to be the case, as researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now shown, who can recover a large amount of lithium without much effort.
The new process developed by the KIT researchers makes it possible to recover around 70 percent of the lithium used in a battery. And this without the need for corrosive chemicals, high temperatures or prior sorting of the materials.

Today, mainly nickel, cobalt, copper and aluminum as well as steel are recovered and recycled from battery waste. The recovery of lithium is currently still expensive and not very profitable. The available, mostly metallurgical processes consume a lot of energy and/or leave behind harmful by-products ...

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Exit | Nuclear waste | Low-level radiation

Nuclear waste will remain for decades

The Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant goes offline on April 15. Overall, the dismantling of the five reactors in the southwest costs nine billion euros - almost as much as Stuttgart 21.

The nuclear age in Baden-Württemberg is coming to an end without any official celebrations: When the control rods in the second block of the nuclear power plant in Neckarwestheim are retracted and the generator is disconnected from the power grid on April 15, Jörg Michels, Managing Director of the nuclear power division of EnBW, will be there - but guests are not invited, no speeches are given. Outside, on the other hand, there will be turmoil: opponents of nuclear power will be celebrating a shutdown party in front of the power plant from 13 p.m. and 50 years of resistance.

[...]

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) said in Berlin on Thursday that it was good that a new era was beginning in mid-April. She warned against "backward-looking debates" about further use of nuclear power. Lemke: "We used nuclear power for about three generations and produced waste that will remain dangerous for 30 generations."

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Renewable energies | Hydrogen | EU guidelines

EU is aiming for 45 percent renewable energies by 2030

After two years of negotiations, the European Parliament, EU Commission and Council have agreed on new targets for renewable energies.

By the end of this decade, 45 percent of gross energy consumption in the EU is to be covered by renewable energies (RE). The EU Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council have agreed on this after two years of negotiations. The underlying EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) from 2018 set a target of 32 percent. This will now be renewed if they are formally adopted by the EU Parliament and the EU Council.

[...]

42 percent of the hydrogen consumed in industry in 2030 must come from renewable energy sources, by 2035 it should be 60 percent. The share of renewable energies in the total energy consumption in industry should increase by 1,6 percent every year if possible. The target for the heating sector is set at a binding increase of 1,1 percentage points per year. In addition, there is a new indicative, i.e. non-binding, building target of 49 percent renewable energies for the heat requirement in buildings.

Until recently, the question of whether low-carbon combustibles and fuels should be counted towards the renewable energy targets was a controversial one. The federal government has advocated that these fuels - such as hydrogen produced with the help of nuclear power - are not included in the calculation. A distinction will continue to be made between green and low-carbon hydrogen.

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Euphoria | WNISR | SMR

Enormous costs, questionable benefit: Research is being carried out around the world on concepts for new types of nuclear reactors

It's finally over in mid-April. Germany is phasing out nuclear energy and will focus primarily on renewable energies, wind and electricity in the future. Other countries like China are building new nuclear power plants. And small companies around the world are working on concepts for innovative systems that are supposed to be cheaper and highly efficient.

A new nuclear euphoria is almost spreading, as it was in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs. So far, however, most of it only works on paper.

According to the World Nuclear Industry Congestion Report, 412 reactors are currently in operation worldwide and 57 plants are being built. The share of nuclear energy in the global electricity mix is ​​9,8 percent and has been falling since the mid-90s. Nevertheless, many countries, especially China, India and France, with 69 percent of the world's number 1 electricity generation, rely on nuclear power. One advantage: nuclear energy does not emit any climate-damaging CO2. One disadvantage: Despite decades of experience, the costs for nuclear power plants have not fallen as expected, as a study by the German Institute for Economic Research from March 2023 shows. Renewable energies are significantly cheaper ...

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Lingen fuel element factory | Rosatom | Framatome

Joint venture manufactures fuel elements

Actually, there shouldn't be a joint venture with a Russian company to manufacture fuel elements in Germany. Now this company was founded in France - the production is in Lower Saxony.

Russian and French companies have set up a joint venture to manufacture fuel elements for Eastern European nuclear power plants in the Lingen fuel element factory. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment in Hanover said on Wednesday. As the nuclear licensing authority, the ministry has to decide on an application as to whether fuel elements for Eastern European nuclear power plants of a Russian type may also be manufactured under license in Lingen in the future. The "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" reported first.

Initially, a joint venture between the French Framatome group, which owns the Lingen fuel element factory ANF, and a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Rosatom in Germany was planned. This application was withdrawn after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had expressed serious doubts about the approval. As a result, according to the Ministry of the Environment, Framatome GmbH, the parent company of ANF, and the Russian Rosatom subsidiary TVEL founded a joint venture in France. Close cooperation with Rosatom is planned for the production of the fuel elements for the Russian reactor type...

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Hydrogen | drought | Water scarcity

Drought in Brandenburg: Where should the water for the hydrogen come from?

The country has big plans for new, green industries. But they need a lot of water. And that is unfortunately scarce in the Mark. About a state government that gives too little thought to a valuable resource

On the way down to Sacrower See you meet an angler. How is the water level? "Low," he replies, pressing his thumb and forefinger together tightly. Further down, directly on the shore, there is a yellow house with a gabled roof, which houses the Institute for Inland Fisheries (IfB). Steffen Zahn has been observing the level of the Brandenburg waters from there for years: Sacrower See has dropped by 2018 centimeters since 60, Seddiner See by two meters. Zahn sits in front of his computer and shows images of the dried-up Black Elster, a river in Lusatia that is typically a meter deep and up to 20 meters wide. There you could have fished well in the past: pike, perch, white bream and chub. "A whole potpourri," says Zahn, "now all the fish are gone." The river bed of the Black Elster has been empty every summer since the drought in 2018...

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cooling reactor | Lack of water | Anti Nuclear Committee

No water for cooling nuclear power plants in Europe

In the future, new nuclear power plants will no longer be able to be cooled and there is a lack of water for irrigation in agriculture.

Almost dried up rivers and lakes are already a clear warning. The Anti-Nuclear Committee calls for a massive expansion of renewables. After the mega profits, the government and the e-business are required at the expense of the electricity customers.

[...]

“What is absolutely not considered by the governments is the great, increasing water shortage in Europe and also in other countries, which will lead to an unforeseen energy disaster. Because to cool the reactors you need huge amounts of vital water, 2,44 billion cubic meters. After cooling, this is only partly reheated and fed into the water cycle, and additionally heats the rivers along the nuclear power plants again. A large part, however, is evaporated via the cooling towers, increasing global warming and lacking agriculture for irrigation,” clarified Josef Engelmann and Manfred Doppler from the Anti-Nuclear Committee. This water shortage made it clear last summer that the French nuclear power plants could not be sufficiently cooled due to a lack of water in the rivers and had to be shut down ...

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29. March

Czechia | Dukovany | Temelin | Westinghouse | Framatome

US company Westinghouse will supply nuclear fuel for Czech nuclear power plant in Dukovany from 2024

From 2024, the nuclear fuel for the Dukovany NPP will be supplied by the American company Westinghouse. Until now, the Dukovany power plant has used fuel from the Russian company TVEL, which belongs to the Russian state holding Rosatom.

After the outbreak of war in the Ukraine, the operator of the power plant, the semi-public energy company ČEZ, decided to replace the supplier for safety reasons...

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FDP | Climate policy | Traffic light coalition

Climate policy in the style of the FDP: The traffic light coalition fails as the last generation

After a marathon meeting, the traffic light coalition is largely following the course of the FDP in climate policy. But the liberals only offer convincing strategies on paper - in practice they engage in dangerous and expensive self-deception. An analysis

In the climate and environmental policy debate, the FDP is currently in the pillory as a member of the traffic light coalition and the federal government. She opposes a ban on internal combustion cars and new oil heating systems, promotes expensive and inefficient "synthetic fuels" and rejects a speed limit on motorways. Your Federal Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, is missing the climate targets imposed on his ministry, and your Research Minister, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, is making unrealistic announcements as to when electricity from nuclear fusion can be fed into the grid. And their finance minister and party leader Christian Lindner is accused of being more concerned about the welfare of the Porsche company than about climate protection...

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Repository | highly radioactive nuclear waste | Poison of eternity

Nuclear waste for eternity - the search for and construction of a repository takes historical time

When people started building nuclear power plants, very few knew what they were getting themselves into. Catastrophic accidents such as in Chernobyl and Fukushima showed that, contrary to expectations, the technology cannot be controlled. Fortunately, Germany and its neighboring countries were spared a serious nuclear accident.

The search for a repository for highly radioactive waste shows how unpredictable the use of nuclear power is. Today nobody knows what the outcome of this process will be.

What is known, on the other hand, is that if the last three nuclear power plants in Germany are disconnected from the power grid by April 15th, the amount of highly radioactive, highly radiating waste, especially from the fuel elements, will no longer increase. It will then be around 27.000 cubic meters, which will be packed in around 1.900 containers made of special steel. An underground repository is being sought for this legacy of the nuclear industry, which will shield the hazardous waste from the environment for a million years. That's a period of 30.000 generations - you really can't plan that far.

So far it has been a mystery where the German repository will be built, when work will start and when it will be finished. Because a few years ago, the search for a location started again. And recently the federal company for final storage (BGE) announced that it might not be able to name a location until 2068. Then it may take 20 years until the camp is finished. Add a few more delays and it would be 2100 before the first containers disappeared underground...

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Russia sanctions | Fuel assemblies

Incomplete sanctions: This is how Putin continues to earn billions

The EU has turned off the money supply to Putin. Or? Apparently there are huge gaps in the sanctions – they enable billions in business.

• Despite numerous sanctions, Russia earns billions in trade with the EU
• Because some areas are excluded from the measures that have been decided
• Has the EU really turned off the money supply to Putin?

[...]

Since the start of the Ukraine war, the European Union has already passed ten sanctions packages - but there are still puzzling gaps in the import bans. Russia is no longer allowed to sell tanker oil, coal or steel to the EU. But nuclear fuel for European nuclear power plants and diamonds are still not on the sanctions list. Russia continues to earn billions with this...

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Finland | breakdown series | NPP Olkiluoto, Eurajoki, South West Finland

Nuclear champion Finland - cause for envy?

While the last nuclear power plants are being shut down in Germany, the country is still relying on nuclear power. But it looks back on a series of breakdowns. Potentials for renewables were not used.

Some people may look enviously at Finland these days when the last nuclear power plants in Germany are now being shut down. Because the country is not only the "happiest" in the world for the sixth time, it also has a brand new nuclear power plant that will soon be regularly connected to the grid, and there is already a repository. But behind this snapshot of the current "nuclear champion" lies a series of glitches that show that nuclear power is neither a fast nor a cheap source of energy.

The nuclear power plant, which is expected to go into commercial operation in mid-April, is Olkiluoto 3 in Eurajoki municipality, south-west Finland - the project which has overtaken even Berlin's BER airport in terms of delays and cost increases. It was initially known and celebrated as the first nuclear power plant to be built in Europe for decades.

It was originally supposed to go online in 2009. Headlines like "Olkiluoto 3 launch delayed again" were repeated almost constantly and dampened the euphoria. And so it continued when the power plant went into test operation at the end of 2021: four months turned into more than a year...

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South Korea | safety test | NPP Kori, Busan, South Korea

Reactor Kori-2 will be temporarily shut down in April

The Kori-2 reactor, the third oldest nuclear reactor in South Korea, will be temporarily shut down in April.

The reason is that the operating license for the reactor expires on April 8th. Unit 2 of the Kori Nuclear Power Plant in Busan was connected to the grid on April 9, 1983.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that continued operation after the operating license expired would require procedures such as safety testing and plant improvements, which would take three to four years...

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Combustion engines | E-Fuels Hydrogen NPP

No bad compromises in favor of the French nuclear industry

There is increasing evidence that France is buying its consent to the production of a few combustion cars after 2035 at an extremely high price.

Nuclear power is to be aligned with renewable energy sources in various EU regulations. France sees this as an opportunity to continue financing its ailing fleet of nuclear power plants and to be able to build new reactors.

“Although, or rather precisely because, the French nuclear fleet is so dilapidated and prone to failure that half of it came to a standstill around the summer of 2022, France sees itself as the chief lobbyist for the nuclear industry. President Emmanuel Macron is doing everything to organize public and private funds for her ...

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28. March

PutIn's new clothes | horror clown | PutIn | staged | prison sentence

Daughter painted anti-war picture - Russian condemned

In Russia, a father has been sentenced to two years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine. The case started after his daughter drew a picture at school that said "Glory to Ukraine."

A Russian court has sentenced a single father to two years in absentia for criticizing the war in Ukraine. Alexey Moskalyov was found guilty of "discrediting" the Russian army in the online networks, said his lawyer Vladimir Bilenko.

[...]

Independent media reported from the courtroom of a staged trial with rehearsed incriminating testimonies from alleged witnesses. No evidence was presented. The Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky commented that the power apparatus used the father to punish the child, who was not prosecuted by the law...

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coalition progress | highway solar | coalition committee

Smash for the Greens

The traffic light federal government is wrecking climate protection, and solar highways won't help either. For the Greens, the coalition committee was an enormous defeat - and also for the SPD and their "Chancellor for Climate Protection".

Is this the "progress coalition" we need? After mega-deliberations of the coalition leaders, one thing is certain: the traffic light federal government is continuing to build motorways vigorously, and at a faster pace. But they should be equipped with solar systems.

Is that supposed to be politics? Or is it a joke?

It is what comes out when the FDP and the Greens (and SPD) form a government together, but have too few intersections when it comes to the mega-future issue of climate protection.

The "solar highway", which naturally produces more instead of less CO2, is the grotesque symbol of the resulting failure. Incidentally, the Berlin CDU originally had the idea with their extended A100, the so-called "climate highway"...

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Traffic light coalition | Climate Protection Act

Decisions of the coalition committee

Climate protection law should be relaxed

In terms of climate policy, the marathon meeting of the coalition committee - as of Tuesday evening - was not a big hit. New autobahns are to be equipped with solar systems, the heating switch away from gas and oil is to be supported in a technology-open manner, and the climate protection law is to be reformed.

After a marathon meeting, the party leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP announced the results of the coalition committee on Tuesday evening.

One of the approved projects eases the climate protection law: In the future, it should be possible to offset the results of the individual sectors against each other.

[...]

If the "anti-climate protection coalition" now lays hands on the climate law, "it sins against all future generations," said DUH Managing Director Jürgen Resch. This would counteract the spirit and content of the historic climate protection judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court.

Resch continues: "Unless the responsible ministries are obliged to make annual reductions, the climate protection law will degenerate into a paper tiger." This will lead to Germany breaking its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.

Resch also spoke of "horror news" for the transport sector in view of 144 accelerated motorway construction projects and a planned "actual equality" of combustion cars with electric cars.

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France | Nuclear lobby | net zero

Nuclear power dispute: Paris wants to increase pressure on Brussels

Most recently, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described nuclear power as not being strategic. The French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher has sharply criticized this and is working on a counter-offensive in Brussels.

Nuclear power is not mentioned in the list of "strategic" technologies in the European Commission's Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), unveiled on March 16. In Paris, the indignation has triggered.

Ahead of last week's EU summit, the French President's office called for clarity on the matter, urging member states to decide "once and for all" whether or not nuclear power is an asset to the EU's decarbonisation.

Von der Leyen reacted after the first day of the summit, saying: "Only the net-zero technologies that we consider strategic for the future - such as solar cells, batteries and electrolysers - have access to the full advantages and benefits." This is not the case with nuclear power ...

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Fossil | Climate Crisis | Insurance | Insure our future

Extraction of fossil fuels

Environmental organizations increase climate pressure on insurers

In view of the climate crisis, environmental organizations and activists are demanding drastic measures from insurance companies: they should no longer support the reduction of fossil fuels.

In a letter to the CEOs of 30 insurers and reinsurers, almost two dozen interest groups united in the "Insure our Future" initiative call on managers to stop insuring projects for the development of fossil energy sources "with immediate effect". The same applies to investments in companies in these sectors that have not committed themselves to the 1,5 degree target. The insurance industry's commitments, which so far have primarily related to coal production and power generation, are not sufficient to meet the limit of global warming of a maximum of 1,5 degrees Celsius ...

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demonstration of violence | double standards | Amnesty International

Amnesty International criticizes Western double standards

Toughness against Moscow, leniency among friends: In view of the Ukraine war, Amnesty has denounced double standards. The federal government is also criticized.

The organization Amnesty International (AI) has published its annual report on the human rights situation worldwide. The growing number of refugees and the violent suppression of protests are particularly frightening. This was stated by the organization in Berlin when the annual report for 2022/23 was published. The report examined the human rights situation in 156 countries.

According to this, security forces in 85 of the states used unlawful force against demonstrators in the past year. Activists were arbitrarily arrested in more than half of the countries considered, and in 25 countries, emergency services used lethal weapons against protests...

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March 28, 1979 (INES 5 | NAMS 7,9) NPP Three mile island, PA, USA

There were about 3,9 million TBq released radioactivity.

Equipment failures and operator errors led to the loss of coolant and partial core meltdown in Block 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power station.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

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AtomkraftwerkePlag

https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Harrisburg/Three_Mile_Island_(USA)

Three Mile Island 2 meltdown

What happened on March 28, 1979 at Reactor 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of how easily nuclear accidents can occur through a combination of small technical defects and human error without the need for a natural disaster is.

Due to the ingress of moisture, two water pumps in the secondary circuit in the reactor switched off automatically, whereupon two emergency pumps started up. However, their water supply was blocked due to two valves that had not been opened again after previous maintenance. This meant that the dissipation of the decay heat in the reactor, which was then switched off, collapsed, the fuel rods continued to heat up and there was extensive core meltdown.

... "The white-hot reactor heart poured down to the bottom of the pressure vessel in a torrent weighing tons. Almost three quarters of the core, consisting of 36.816 fuel rods, bundled in 177 fuel elements, had melted at temperatures of almost 2800 degrees." However, for reasons that are still unknown to this day, the pressure vessel held up, and the emergency cooling was effective after all...

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Wikipedia

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktorunfall_im_Kernkraftwerk_Three_Mile_Island

Reactor accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant

The reactor accident in the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) in the USA on March 28, 1979 was a serious accident (INES level 5), in which there was a partial core meltdown in reactor block 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, in which about a third of the reactor core was fragmented or melted...

Venting to the environment

... by venting into the atmosphere. It is estimated that radioactive gas (in the form of krypton-85; 10,75 year half-life) with an activity of about 1,665 × 10 was released during the incident¹⁵ Bq.

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27. March

France | Macron | nuclear lobbyist

Macron's futile promotion of nuclear power

France wants to classify nuclear power as "green" energy, putting it on a par with wind and solar energy. But the President reckoned without the EU.

Emmanuel Macron is a big fan of nuclear energy. The French President takes every opportunity to promote what he considers to be clean nuclear power. But there is a problem: around half of the 56 kilns in France are idle and the state doesn't have the money to modernize them. This causes difficulties for the country, because around 70 percent of the energy required comes from nuclear power plants.

For this reason, Macron keeps going on a promotional tour to Brussels to get the missing billions from the European Union...

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Enzym | breaks down plastic | Plastic waste

Speed ​​enzyme breaks down PET in record time

Natural catalysts found in a cemetery compost in Leipzig can decompose PET overnight.

Plastic normally hardly decomposes in the environment. Anyone who has ever found ancient plastic packaging in nature knows this. Exceptions, however, confirm the rule. Some microorganisms manage to adapt and break down the durable man-made polymers.

Almost a year ago, a research team from Leipzig found an impressive example of such an exception. The microbial he discovered enzyme PHL7 manage to "completely dismantle an entire PET packaging from the supermarket in one day", explains the biochemist Christian Sonnendecker in an interview with the SWR. Compared to previous finds, this is extremely fast...

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Climate protection | Climate targets | referendum

Climate protectors want to continue fighting after a failed referendum

Despite the failure of the climate referendum in Berlin, the initiators also see positive aspects of the vote. And look ahead.

After the failure of the Berlin referendum for more ambitious climate goals, the initiators of the vote and other climate protectionists do not want to back down. "It's a shame for everyone in Berlin. Of course we're going to continue, we're going to keep fighting," said Jessamine Davis, spokeswoman for the Climate New Start Alliance.

[...]

According to the initiators, the result of the referendum shows that many people in Berlin think that politicians are not acting fast enough when it comes to climate protection. After all, 442.210 people voted yes, more than the CDU received second votes when it won the election on February 12 (428.228). The referendum failed because of the quorum. But he shows: "Berlin wants more climate protection." Thanks to the campaign for the referendum, politicians have also recognized that...

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pacifist | lump | nonword

You are a shabby rag pacifist!

The "lumpenpacifist" is one of these new neologisms of the turning point. The term sounds old, as if it had been stolen by the People's Court. But he isn't. Bad enough that one could assume that.

Clemens Wergin is the chief foreign policy correspondent of the daily newspaper Welt. Recently, in a pamphlet marked as an opinion piece, he spoke unashamedly of "lumpen pacifists." They should now understand that Putin does not want to negotiate. How does he know that when you don't even try, you might ask yourself. But that should not be the topic here. What is relevant here: Where does this term actually come from? And why is it now considered completely harmless to use such a defamatory formulation?

All clear: The term does not come from Nazi jargon. It first became apparent in April 2022. At that time, Spiegel fighting rooster Sascha Lobo used this composition. To be more precise, that was on April 20th of last year: Maybe that was intended as a reminiscence, to create a term that reminds of the old days...

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NATO | Lawsuit | Uranium ammunition

Cancer caused by DU ammunition - class action lawsuit against NATO

For example, while 'Die Zeit' and ZDF are currently downplaying the dangers of using DU ammunition as usual, the 'Welt', the loss-making flagship of the Springer concern, relatively matter-of-factly about Serbian lawyer Srdan Aleksic's lawsuit against NATO. The attorney is currently representing 3.500 clients in a class action lawsuit.

In November 2016, 146 states of the UN General Assembly - from a total of 193 member states - called for a resolution to ban the manufacture, distribution and use of DU ammunition. To date, this has not been enforced.

The US military had already used DU ammunition in Iraq in 2 during the second Gulf War. The abbreviation DU stands for "depleted uranium". DU ammunition is valued by the military for its high penetrating power.

[...]

According to NATO, 15 tons of DU ammunition was dropped on areas in Serbia and Kosovo. When the bombs detonated, radioactive dust was thrown into the air, which was also spread to parts of neighboring countries: Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. According to Aleksic, it is therefore not just a Serbian problem. Certain endemic plant species have declined sharply, as have some bird species. Aleksic relies on scientific knowledge that it takes at least 4,5 million years for nature to recover. He therefore comes to the conclusion that DU ammunition contaminates everything that we humans need to live: "Future generations are being deprived of their livelihood."

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26. March

Warming | cooling water | Dryness

Nuclear power plants evaporate our precious water

Harsh criticism from the Green anti-nuclear spokesman Martin Litschauer: Cooling of nuclear power plants in the EU devours amounts of water every year in the amount of the entire Austrian annual consumption.

In many regions of Europe, the drought is becoming more and more of a problem and fossil-fuelled power plants with cooling towers are depriving our rivers of the valuable water that we urgently need for agriculture, among other things.

[...]

These quantities are considerable: gas-fired power plants in the EU require 530 million cubic meters of water, coal-fired power plants 1,54 billion cubic meters and nuclear power plants 2,44 billion cubic meters of water per year. In total, this corresponds to the water consumption of all households in Germany.

[...]

However, the large water requirements of the nuclear power plants are also becoming a problem for the operators, with reactors having to be throttled or shut down more and more often because the cooling water is no longer sufficient. The nuclear industry is not sufficiently prepared for climate change and is itself threatened.

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nuclear industry | Sanctions Russia | Lingen fuel element factory

Russia sanctions? Yes, but not for the nuclear industry

The EU has issued ten packages of sanctions against Russia. Business in the nuclear industry continues to thrive. A German location also plays a role.

The restructuring of the energy markets is full of contradictions, especially in Germany. One of the reasons is the sanctions policy of the EU towards Russia. According to Brussels, the punitive measures are intended to reduce the income of the Russian state and thus make it more difficult to finance the war against Ukraine.

[...]

Green energy politician Hans-Josef Fell criticizes the fact that the European nuclear industry is financing the Russian war and nuclear armament:

The French nuclear company EDF alone paid at least 345 million euros to the Russian nuclear company Rosatom last year and thus significantly helped finance the war in Ukraine and the build-up of the Russian nuclear arsenal. Fears of a Russian nuclear strike are much discussed, but Russian nuclear weapons funding continues to be pumped out of the EU.

TVEL Group works mainly in uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel production. The company belongs to the holding company Atomenergoprom, which in turn is part of the state-owned company Rosatom. Rosatom also has oversight of the Russian nuclear weapons ...

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Energy transition | Climate protection | Local transport

Delayed energy transition, shocking gas capacities and tougher climate fight

Klimareporter°: Ms. Kemfert, the coalition committee is meeting tonight. Many of the disputes between the SPD, Greens and FDP are about climate policy: coal phase-out, motorway construction, the future of oil and gas heating. Are the days when climate policy was primarily about Sunday speeches over?

Claudia Kemmert: Yes. The energy transition, like real climate protection in general, has been delayed for far too long. We pay the price for that. Now it's time to get down to business because there is a lot to catch up on and it can no longer be postponed.

The debates still shock me. We seem to be learning too little from past mistakes. We find ourselves in endless circular and ghost debates that do not get us any further for climate protection. Time is wasted again.

We should act much faster. Instead of arguing about e-fuels or the end of combustion engines, we should strengthen rail transport and local public transport and expand the charging infrastructure. Scrap bonuses for old oil and gas heating systems are also more needed than gas price brakes...

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Photovoltaics | thin layer | organic solar cell

In the future, solar cells will come off the roll – and out of the 3D printer

How practical it would be if you could simply cover cars, smartphones or entire buildings with solar cells. Then, in the future, batteries could simply be constantly recharged. It's not as far-fetched as it sounds at first. Scientists are already working intensively on so-called solar foils, which are only a few millimeters thick. A British team has now succeeded in producing novel solar cells with a 3D printer. But we also have promising projects.

Will solar cells soon be sold by the meter on a roll? Current research work and up-and-coming young companies suggest that. Because they are working on so-called solar foils – i.e. solar modules that are very thin and very flexible. They are often not as efficient as classic photovoltaic modules, but they score with other advantages. With the help of solar foils, for example, surfaces can be equipped that were previously out of the question for the installation of solar panels ... 

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Nuclear phase-out | Nuclear waste | Repository

Germany and the long search for a repository for nuclear waste

The age of nuclear power is ending in Germany these days. The exit has been postponed several times. But now the time has come: in mid-April the last three nuclear power plants will shut down. An era ends, but another chapter is still unfinished: the search for a nuclear waste repository.

Germany is looking for the repository: a place that is supposed to offer security from the radiant legacy of the nuclear power plants for at least a million years. Enclosed in granite, salt or clay rock, the waste from 66 years of energy production under German soil should rest forever.

[...]

The radioactive waste is currently distributed throughout Germany in interim storage facilities above ground - monitored by the Federal Agency for Interim Storage. However, the first permits for the waste containers will expire in the next ten years. It wasn't intended to be used for that long. Now they have to stay in operation much longer before we find nuclear power's final resting place.

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Current news+

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Ukraine | DU ammunition | radioactive | highly toxic

What uranium ammunition would do to Ukraine

Great Britain wants to deliver so-called DU shells to Kiev. This weapon has already caused enormous suffering. Why this is so little known and what part the WHO may have played in it.

The British Secretary of State for Defense Annabel Goldie, recently stated that uranium shells will also be delivered to Ukraine with the Challenger 2 tanks announced by London. This has caused a stir, especially in Russia, and rightly so.

Because uranium projectiles and bombs are weapons made of depleted uranium 238 or DU for short. Depleted uranium is radioactive and highly toxic. It has a half-life of around 4,5 billion years.

Depleted uranium is a waste product of the nuclear industry and is formed when natural uranium is enriched for fuel rods used in nuclear power plants. If fuel rods weighing one ton are required, around seven to eight tons of depleted uranium are produced as a waste product. And because this by-product is radioactive and highly toxic, it must be safely stored and guarded. That costs money, a lot of money.

There are now around 1,3 million tons of it worldwide and they are constantly increasing.

That's why the nuclear industry was happy when arms manufacturers took an interest in this waste product. Because they had discovered that if you shape depleted uranium into a metal rod, such a projectile penetrates the metal plates of a tank like hot metal through a stick of butter.

When penetrating an armor plate, the uranium projectile is abraded, which ignites explosively at the high frictional heat of around 1.000 degrees. The crew of the tank burns up and the tank is destroyed.

It is because of these two properties - penetrating steel like butter, and self-igniting and acting like explosives - that the nuclear industry's waste product, depleted uranium, has become so popular with the military.

Therefore, tons of these missiles were used in the Iraq wars of 1991 and 2003. But also in the 1999 Kosovo war, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon, in Somalia, in the Libyan war and in Syria in 2015 in the fight against the "Islamic State" terrorist militia.

When I visited Iraq, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo in 2003 for a WDR television documentary, our equipment naturally included a Geiger counter to protect us from the dangers of this ammunition.

That the dangers can be deadly, we suddenly understood when visiting the hospitals in these countries. Babies with severe deformities were born there even then: Babies without eyes, without legs or arms; Babies who wore their internal organs in a skin sac on the outside. All these creatures lived only a few hours, probably in excruciating pain.

Continue reading ...

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Background knowledge

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The map of the nuclear world

Wikipedia: While uranium ammunition is known to be stockpiled by 21 countries (USA, Russia, UK, China, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, France, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, Thailand, South Korea and Japan; uranium munitions have been used to combat armored vehicles since the mid-1970s), only one country, the United States, has so far admitted to using these munitions in war maneuvers. Recently, several thousand tons of uranium ammunition were mainly used in the Second Gulf War (320 tons), in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, in the Kosovo War, in the Iraq War and in the Syrian Civil War. During a three-week operation in the Iraq war in 2003 alone, between 1000 and 2000 tons of uranium ammunition were used by the "coalition of the willing".

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The internal search for

Uranium ammunition | Poison of eternity

brought the following results, among others:

March 22, 2023 - Doctors' organization fears long-term health and environmental damage to Ukraine

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March 13, 2023 - Poisons Forever - Glyphosate, PFAS, Uranium and all their relatives

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December 1, 2016 - Pentagon confirms use of uranium ammunition in Syria

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The Uranium Story - Fissile Atoms Half-Life

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YouTube

Keyword search: uranium ammunition

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Uranmunition

Videos:

US Army Training Manual - 0:59

Uranium ammunition - Nato nuclear waste shot

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ZDF planet e - 29:21

Sardinia's deadly secret (uranium ammunition, thorium)

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Frieder F. Wagner - 1:32:12

Deadly Dust - uranium ammunition and its consequences

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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: uranium ammunition

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Uranmunition

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AtomkraftwerkePlag

Uranium ammunition

Depleted uranium weapons

Uranium ammunition (also called uranium weapons or uranium projectiles) are weapons that contain depleted uranium (DU). Due to the high density of uranium, such weapons have a high penetration power and are therefore used against tanks, for example. In addition, when the target hits the target, intense heat is generated, which can set fuel and ammunition from tanks on fire.

Depleted uranium is a waste product from the production of fuel for nuclear power plants. It is composed of 99,8% uranium-238 and 0,2% uranium-235 and may also contain traces of plutonium-239. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4,468 billion years...

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Wikipedia

Uranium ammunition

Uranium ammunition, also DU ammunition (from English depleted uranium), is armor-piercing ammunition whose projectiles contain depleted uranium. Due to the high density (≈19,1 g/cm³) of uranium, these projectiles develop great penetrating power when they hit the target. Compared to natural uranium, the depleted uranium consists to a lesser extent of the fissile uranium isotope 235U and thus mainly of the isotope 238U, which cannot be fissile by thermal neutrons. The radioactivity of the depleted uranium (the α-radiation activity of 15.000 Bq/g is about 40% lower than that of natural uranium) does not serve any military purpose in this case...

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Newsletter XII 2023 - March 19th to 25th

Newspaper article 2023

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