Newsletter XX 2023

14 until 20. May

***

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:

1 May 1968 (INES 4 | NAMS 4,6) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

1 May 1962 (french Nuclear test "Beryl") In Ecker, FRA

2 May 1967 (INES 4) NPP Chapelcross, GBR

4 May 1986 (INES 0 Class.?) NPP THTR 300, DEU

7 May 2007 (INES 1) NPP Philipsburg, DEU

7 May 1966 (INES 4) Research Institute RIAR, Melekess, USSR

11. to 13. May 1998 (6 atomic bomb tests) Pokhran, IND

11 May 1969 (INES 5 | NAMS 2,3) Rocky Flats, USA

12 May 1988 (INES 2) NPP Civaux, FRA

13 May 1978 (INES ? Class.?) NPP AVR Jülich, DEU

18 May 1974 (India's 1st atomic bomb test) Pokhran, IND

21 May 1946 (INES 4) T Undlicher Unfall in Los Alamos, USA

22 May 1968 (Broken Arrow) USS Scorpion sank sw. of the Azores, USA

24 May 1958 (INES ? Class.?) NRU ChalkRiver, CAN

25 May 2009 (North Korea's 2nd nuclear bomb test) Punggye-ri, PRK

26 May 1971 (INES 4 | Class.?) Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, USSR

27 May 1956 (US atomic bomb tests) Eniwetok and Bikini, USA

28. to 30. May 1998 (6 Pakistani nuclear bomb tests) Ras Koh, PAH

*

We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nukleare-welt@reaktorpleite.de

20. May

Japan | TEPCO | security flaws

Still serious security flaws

Japan's nuclear regulator decides against TEPCO

Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) has decided to uphold the ban on nuclear fuel dumping inside the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. This represents a setback to TEPCO's plans to bring reactor #7 back online soon.

The agency said the ban cannot be lifted because safety inspections at the facility have not yet been completed.

TEPCO plans to restart reactors in October

Actually, TEPCO plans to restart reactor No. 7 of the nuclear power plant in October. However, with the ban on nuclear fuel relocation, this plan cannot be implemented ...

*

Drinking water | PFAS | Bodensee,

Water Protection Commission calls for ban

Experts warn: Too many chemicals in Lake Constance

The concentrations of harmful industrial chemicals, so-called PFAS, are too high in the drinking water reservoir at Lake Constance. The International Water Protection Commission for Lake Constance calls for the substances to be banned.

Investigations in Lake Constance have shown that the concentrations of the PFAS pollutant group (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) are too high. This was announced by the International Water Protection Commission for Lake Constance (IGKB) on Friday after its most recent meeting in Ermatingen, Thurgau.

Up to eight times as much PFOS in Lake Constance as permitted

According to a press release, one substance in particular, PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), is relevant to the health of humans, fish-eating birds and mammals...

*

Heat with wind | Renewable Energy Law EEG | Citizen Energy

Wind turbines could heat villages - could!

If too much wind energy comes into the power grid, systems are curtailed. The excess energy could also be used for heat - regionally. Exactly what the traffic light government wants. But the Renewable Energy Sources Act of all things prevents older wind turbines from being used for this purpose.

Warm water flows from the tap. That sounds unspectacular. However, the water in Nechlin is mainly heated by the wind. The world's first wind heat storage facility is located in the Uckermark region. Actually a role model for heating without fossil fuels - and cheap. Only: imitation is made extremely difficult for the municipalities by law.

[...]

Was forbidden according to the EEG: Feeding in and own electricity

City Councilor Thorsten Breitschuh spoke to the operator of three new facilities. It feeds into the power grid according to the EEG. "And until now it was forbidden to feed into the EEG and draw your own electricity at the same time. That means it would have to go out of the EEG. That's not financially feasible at all." The operator would therefore have to forego state funding.

On the other hand, according to Breitschuh, you could feed into the EEG with newly built systems and use the curtailment current yourself. "But that's only been possible since this year. That means that, for economic reasons, you can't get hold of the electricity from the old systems. Nobody will make it available for heating." ...

19. May

Slovakia

Slovakia: Court acquits millionaire after journalist murder

Bratislava. Millionaire Marian Kocner has been acquitted more than five years after the double murder of a Slovakian investigative journalist and his fiancé. A special court near Bratislava on Friday concluded that the businessman could not be proven to have ordered the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend. In contrast, the co-defendant Alena Z. was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The case made international headlines. Kocner's conviction was generally expected. The millionaire is currently serving a multi-year prison sentence for other crimes. Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova (both 27) were shot dead in their home in the village of Velka Maca in February 2018. The journalist had reported on the criminal entanglements of politicians and entrepreneurs like Kocner ...

*

Last Generation | Violence | rage

Violence against climate activists:

They call it self defense

Street blockades often result in violence. How is it that so many people are offended by the actions of the last generation?

BERLIN taz | When the man swings his fist, Irma Trommer braces himself for the pain. She narrows her eyes and waits for the impact. But then the fist doesn't hit. She stops short of her face and forms a pistol. So her owner then stops and poses for photos.

Trommer joined the last generation almost a year and a half ago. Before that, she was occasionally politically active. On Usedom, where she lived, the offers were not exactly plentiful. With a move to Berlin, that changed abruptly. Through friends, she became aware of the last generation and got involved - first with the camera as a photographer, later she took up superglue herself and used it to stop cars.

For Trommer, it is now part of her activism that she experiences violence. People are dragging her across the street, tugging at her glued hand, pushing her with the hood in front of them. When the wall of cars and trucks in front of her starts honking, she feels deaf in the noise.

[...]

Irma Trommer will continue to block roads for the climate, she says. Despite the violence she will almost certainly experience again. After all: The anger that speaks from it is the end of indifference.

*

battery technology | Lithium | Graphite | silicon

Revolution at the negative pole: is super-fast charging coming?

Batteries have become more and more powerful - but the anode, the negative pole of the cells, has hardly changed. A Dutch start-up now claims to have made a breakthrough for improvements to the negative pole.

Hardly any other technology has developed as rapidly as the lithium battery in recent years. It is just over 30 years ago that a team of Japanese, Canadian and British electrochemists developed the lithium-ion cell.

[...]

In figures, the lithium-ion cell has almost quadrupled its energy density – i.e. the amount of electricity it can store per kilogram of weight or per cubic centimeter of volume – in the past ten years, from around 100 watt hours per liter to 396. The service life too has multiplied, from around 300 charging cycles to more than 5000, and the price has fallen by more than 2010 percent since 90 thanks to mass production, more economical use of materials and better production processes.

But today's lithium battery has a problem: its negative pole. "Almost all technical and electrochemical advances took place at the cathode, the positive pole," says Dirk-Uwe-Sauer, Professor of Electrochemistry at the RWTH in Aachen. "The negative pole, the anode, on the other hand, still looks almost the same as it did 30 years ago." It consists of graphite, a special structure made of carbon ...

*

Climate change | Groundwater | lakes

water loss in lakes

Researchers warn of extreme consequences for biodiversity

In Germany, too, many lakes are suffering from drought and climate change. This is not a danger to the drinking water supply, says hydrobiologist Rinke in an interview. The shortage could still have drastic consequences for the ecosystem.

tagesschau.de: A study has shown that half of all major lakes worldwide have lost water in the past few decades. How is the situation in Germany?

Karsten Rinke: Only two bodies of water in Germany are included in the study. However, we know from other studies that most of the lakes in Germany are not as endangered as in other, drier areas of the world. Because the strong evaporation is not so high in this country. And when a lake is connected to a river, the water level is initially relatively insensitive to fluctuations in the inflow.

However, there is a problem with groundwater-fed lakes. These are, for example, all quarry ponds, and from a regional perspective, many lakes in Brandenburg and also in northern Germany. They are very sensitive when the groundwater level goes down. And since 2018 we have seen that these bodies of water are getting smaller or have already dried up in some cases...

*

France | Hydrogen Green | Colors

France delays adoption of EU renewable energy law

The formal passage of the EU's renewable energy directive has been postponed after a last-minute objection from Paris. Paris calls for more "guarantees" for low-carbon hydrogen from nuclear power.

The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) was set for formal adoption on Wednesday (17 May) after EU member states and the European Parliament reached a preliminary political agreement on 30 March.

[...]

The delay is a reminder of the dispute that arose over the final agreement on CO2 standards for cars. Some fear this has set a precedent for large EU member states to use their weight to win concessions...

*

The Ukraine War and its Aftermath | The population suffers

More than 24 percent of the Ukrainian population is impoverished

War as a heavy social burden: Thousands flock to the pawnshops to borrow personal belongings for lack of cash. In churches, as in the town of Irpin, panels are set up to distribute bread and food

Oleksandra (40), a well-dressed woman in a hooded wool coat and Nike sneakers, came to one of the Kiev pawnshops to cash in her sewing machine ...

18. May

France | EDF and EPR | Flamanville | Hinkley Point

Nuclear power: France accelerates into a dead end

Law passed to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants: enormously expensive and risky. In Germany, electricity prices have not increased after the shutdown.

Before it comes to the nuclear power country France, first good news for German consumers. The parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, puts this sarcastically in a nutshell with a view to Bavaria: "I'm afraid Markus Söder has to be very strong now …"

[...]

The problems alternate with the new EPR building in Flamanville. It should actually have been supplying electricity for eleven years. So far, however, he has only been delivering higher and higher bills. The costs have exploded from the planned 3,3 to almost 20 billion euros. There are other difficulties as well.

The pressurized water reactor EPR has elementary safety and design problems. Therefore, it should now be about an "EPR 2", since the EPR has design errors, for example in Chinese Taishan became very clear.

The power plant builder EDF, which had to be completely nationalized again in the meantime, also admitted the same with the new building in British Hinkley Point ...

*

NATO | defense | military-industrial complex

Stoltenberg demands more money from Germany for defense

The NATO Secretary General sees two percent of the gross domestic product for defense as the "absolute minimum". Germany should increase its spending as soon as possible.

Jens Stoltenberg has called on Germany to increase defense spending to two percent of gross domestic product as quickly as possible. "I expect all allies who have not yet reached the two percent to do so as soon as possible," the NATO Secretary General told Der Spiegel. "Two percent is no longer the goal in the future, but the absolute minimum that everyone should achieve - not just in a decade, but as quickly as possible." Germany is moving in the right direction and has decided to buy fifth generation fighter jets and helicopters...

*

Bundeswehr | Corruption | Franz Josef Strauss

With the smack of corruption

Since it was founded, the Bundeswehr has made major mistakes in procurement. Two scandals occurred in the XNUMXs – the problems continue to this day.

As soon as the new Bundeswehr came into being, it got caught up in one of its biggest procurement scandals. The allegations against those responsible weigh heavily. It's about bribery and corruption. When the HS 30 infantry fighting vehicle was bought by Hispano-Suiza, there were serious allegations. Even ordering in Switzerland is unusual. Finally, the large order of initially planned 16.800 tanks goes to a company that has not yet manufactured such vehicles.

[...]

As early as May 20, 1958, one year after the order was placed, Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss set up a commission to examine economic, technical and organizational issues relating to the HS 30. The number of pieces is reduced, but the program continues. Between September 1959 and February 1962 the troops received 2176 HS 30...

*

Armaments | special fund

Defense budget: spending for the Bundeswehr soaring

German army on a shopping spree. This is how the military and defense politicians trick to get more tax money. When will the population be informed of the true costs?

In the annual finger-wrestling over the coming federal budget, it is usually the case that the "medium-term financial plan" for the next four years is passed in March.

Funding gap of 20 billion euros

This time, however, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) postponed the publication after the government, despite long and tough negotiations, was unable to agree on how a funding gap of 20 billion euros should be closed.

In response, the finance minister went to the drawing board again, and Spiegel Online reported the preliminary result on May 16: "All ministries should make their contribution" to closing the budget gap.

Only one department will be "spared". What is meant is the Ministry of Defense (BMVg), whose budget – in addition to the special fund – will be increased even further. The Bundeswehr, in turn, is using the opportunity and has been going on an extensive shopping spree for some time, which means that the funds in the special fund are likely to be used up quickly.

At the same time, the cost of supplying arms to Ukraine, which are not even counted as military expenses, is skyrocketing ...

*

18 May 1974 1st Indian atomic bomb test in Pokhran, IND

Wikipedia

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernenergie_in_Indien#Militärische_Nutzung

This "Smiling Buddha" atomic bomb test had a yield of about 8 kilotons of TNT equivalent and was detonated on May 18, 1974 at a depth of 107 m at the army compound near Pokhran (Rajasthan) in the Thar desert.

-

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

-

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

-

https://www.atomwaffena-z.info/heute/atomwaffenstaaten/indien.html

17. May

Austrias conservativeer felt

Corruption in Austria:

The self-service shop

A process involving two pollsters illustrates corruption and manipulation in Austria. They provide insights into the felt of the ex-chancellor.

VIENNA taz | An ex-minister in front of the judge, a political intrigue in the background and a celebrity on the witness stand: This mixture attracted more attention on Tuesday than corruption processes of this magnitude normally enjoy in Austria.

The prominent reluctant witness is Sabine Beinschab. The demoscop indirectly initiated the political decline of Sebastian Kurz as Chancellor and ÖVP boss. Because in 2021 it became known that she had produced embellished surveys on behalf of the short intimate Thomas Schmid, at the time of the crime in 2017 as Secretary General the strong man in the Ministry of Finance. They were then published in the free newspaper Österreich...

*

Electricity price | Power grid | power exchange

North-South conflict on energy costs:

Cheap electricity for Söder

The federal states in the north produce renewable electricity and consider the price model to be lacking in solidarity. Of course, those in the south see it differently.

BERLIN taz | It's a North-South conflict: The federal states in the north complain that although they generate most of their electricity from renewable energies, they don't benefit from cheaper electricity prices - or even pay higher prices. However, the countries in the south insist on maintaining the current electricity price system.

[...]

A solution would be in several price zones, as required by the countries in the north. Then regional prices are formed on the sub-markets from supply and demand. This would tend to make electricity more expensive in federal states that mainly import it, and cheaper in the exporting countries.

The price differences fluctuate: If there is sufficient transport capacity between the zones, the prices remain identical, but they diverge to a greater or lesser extent in the event of network bottlenecks. The EU is also increasingly pushing for a split of the German electricity market, since the current form is also leading to market distortions in neighboring countries ...

*

Lawsuit | Press freedom | Radio Dreieckland | Indymedia

Link to links below was legal

The district court of Karlsruhe called off the public prosecutor's office and the district court because of the controversial raids and investigations against the free broadcaster "Radio Dreyeckland". In an article, the broadcaster linked to the archive page of the banned portal indymedia.linksunten. The court sees such links as part of journalistic duties.

The district court in Karlsruhe decided yesterday not to allow the charges against an editor of the broadcaster Radio Dreyeckland (RDL). The public prosecutor's office had accused the editor of linking to the archive page of the banned platform linksunten.indymedia.org in an article by the radio station and thus supporting a banned organization. In the course of the investigation, there were much-criticized raids on the editorial offices and on two editors, from whom computers with extensive editorial communication were also confiscated.

According to the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF), the regional court has now announced in a "pioneering decision" that the link is part of the journalistic tasks and therefore not a punishable support of a banned association. According to the civil rights organization, it is also clear that the searches of apartments and editorial offices ordered in January were illegal. Due to the high importance for editorial secrecy and the protection of informants, the regional court also ordered that the police must delete the copies made of the data carriers that were originally confiscated...

*

Graichen's resignation | nepotism

allegations of nepotism

Secretary of State Graichen has to go

The controversial Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Graichen vacates his post. He is accused of nepotism in connection with the appointment to the top post at the German Energy Agency.

According to media reports, the undersecretary for energy in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Patrick Graichen, who has come under criticism, is losing his post. The top employee of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck is criticized because he was involved in filling the top position at the federal German Energy Agency (Dena). The job was awarded to former Berlin Greens politician Michael Schäfer. This was Graichen's best man, which the Secretary of State had not initially announced.

Both Graichen and Habeck described the process as a mistake. After the private connection between Schäfer and Graichen became known, the Supervisory Board of Dena decided to re-advertise the filling of the post.

According to the dpa news agency, Graichen is now to be placed on temporary retirement. The background is therefore the results of further internal tests ...

*

Propaganda from Springer's "fake news pump" Bild-Zeitung | heating law

After report on alleged ban plans

Kretschmann on the discussion about heat pumps: "No installation obligation planned"

A report in the Bild-Zeitung about allegedly secret plans for compulsory conversion of building heating systems caused a stir. According to the BW state government, this is a misrepresentation.

The Baden-Württemberg state government has rejected reports of an allegedly planned obligation to convert building heating systems. The country is not planning to install 620.000 heat pumps. According to a spokesman, the draft of an energy concept from the Green Ministry of the Environment only contains target values.

[...]

The Bild-Zeitung, which first reported on the subject, was also told that there were definitely no plans in the country to ban oil and gas heating based on this concept or to introduce an obligation to install a heat pump, emphasized Kretschmann. .

*

Japan | Fukushima | tritium water | Pacific

Release is scheduled to begin in the summer

People demonstrate against the release of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant

On Tuesday, many people protested against plans to drain the water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.

TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear power plant, has almost completed construction of the facilities needed for the venting. The Japanese government plans to start this summer.

[...]

The plans of TEPCO and the Japanese government have already been protested by the regional fisheries cooperatives, who fear that the reputation of their products, which has gradually improved after the accident, will be damaged again.

To alleviate the economic damage, the Japanese government set up a fund of 30 billion yen (approx. 200 million euros) and another 50 billion yen (approx. 334 million euros) after further protests ...

16. May

Pro-Atom | Alliance du nucleaire | nuclear states

Energy in Europe:

Pro-nuclear countries band together

An alliance of European states wants to focus more on nuclear energy. At a meeting in Paris, they coordinated their position.

PARIS taz | The representatives of 16 nuclear-friendly European countries met in Paris on Tuesday to coordinate their strategy for expanding nuclear energy. The countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, accepted the invitation of French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher. This explained that nuclear energy is important "for our security of supply as well as for our climate protection obligations".

The states spoke out in favor of increasing the installed capacity of nuclear power to 2050 gigawatts (GW) by 150. So far around 100 GW are connected to the grid in Europe ...

*

offshore | Wind turbines | Investors | Wind Catching Systems

Power for 80.000 households: Huge wind catchers for offshore use

The Norwegian company Wind Catching Systems is working on an offshore wind turbine of a different kind. The wind catcher, which consists of up to 126 turbines, is said to be as high as the Eiffel Tower and supply electricity for 80.000 households.

The wind turbine from the Norwegian company Wind Catching Systems could soon rise out of the sea like an oversized wall of wind turbines. In its largest version, it is said to be 300 meters high and 350 meters wide.

[...]

One of the big advantages, according to the company, is the smaller footprint compared to conventional offshore wind turbines. A wind catcher should produce five times the energy compared to a 15 megawatt system. Five of the systems should be able to generate as much electricity as an offshore wind farm with 25 wind turbines.

This should be possible, among other things, by the fact that they run in both weak and very strong winds. In addition, the wiring and maintenance of the system should also be easier. In addition, there is a significantly longer service life ...

*

Chemical industry | PFAS | Poison of eternity | Fertility

Health Politicians on Chemicals:

"High time for regulation"

Eternal chemicals are unhealthy, now a ban on the so-called PFAS is pending. Politician and doctor Armin Grau explains why it is urgent.

[...]

Wochentaz: How clear is it now that these everlasting chemicals are harmful to health?

Armin Gray: There is no longer any doubt. Many of these substances disrupt the human hormone system, for example. There is strong evidence that they are not only involved in the development of thyroid disease and diabetes, but can also lead to reduced fertility. They can also increase the risk of testicular and kidney cancer, among other things. Some substances are neurotoxic, meaning they attack the brain and could lead to behavioral problems. This is very evident in stressed animals. Higher cholesterol levels and reduced effects of vaccinations are also possible consequences.

[...]

Your coalition partner FDP is concerned that a general ban on PFAS could weaken Germany and Europe as a location for business and innovation.

I take a very different stance. The continuation of the current politics weakens us massively - the individuals who get sick, society that loses trust in politics, and in the long term Europe as a business location. Only something that is environmentally and health-friendly can be innovative. There's a lot coming up for the industry, yes. This is a huge transformation process. But once you understand how wrong it is to work with these substances, I don't think there is a viable alternative.

*

Nuclear waste | Repository | Castors

Nuclear waste: No security, only calculation models

Germany does not yet have a repository for the remains of 60 years of nuclear power use. Latest idea: Recycle old fuel rods as raw material for new reactors. About the gaps in this model.

At the repository you play for time. The search has now been extended to the year 2068 in the worst case. Then you have to decide where you want to store the approximately 27.000 cubic meters that are to be packed in around 1.900 containers, so-called castors.

In addition, there are around 6.500 tons of heavy metal in vitrified radioactive waste packages from reprocessing and other radioactive waste from research reactors. 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.

It is currently not possible to estimate whether we will still know what lies beneath after 30.000 to 40.000 generations. A German nation state has only existed for six generations...

*

Police | power of definition | police violence | State authority

violence during operations

The power of definition of the police

What form of force may the police use? A research team questioned 3300 people affected and conducted interviews with emergency services. The answers vary.

What are the police allowed to do? The question has come up again and again in Germany in recent years - for example in demonstrations and football derbies, but also in identity checks. Individual videos of police operations were distributed on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #policeviolence - for example when a 15-year-old was checked in Hamburg in August 2020, who was overpowered by several police officers because he was riding an e-scooter on the sidewalk. The police union (GdP) announced at the time that they could not see any police violence in the video.

[...]

Police use of force is a practice to establish this dominance in certain situations. But even in retrospect, the police have a special power of definition.

"For those affected by excessive use of force by the police, for example, a situation arises in which they can hardly get their rights without mechanisms that counteract police dominance," say the researchers.

15. May

Farmer | Chemical industry | Biodiversity | Pesticides

Agriculture is the main cause of decline in European bird populations

Europe's bird populations have been declining for decades. Researchers have now investigated how anthropogenic influences such as climate change, changes in forest cover, urbanization and intensified agriculture affect bird biodiversity. The latter had the greatest negative impact on European bird populations.

[...]

According to the researchers, the intensification of agriculture has the greatest negative impact on bird populations. The reason for this is, on the one hand, that the habitats of the birds are being restricted by ever larger arable land. Bird populations are better off in countries with smaller production areas.

On the other hand, the use of chemical agents such as fertilizers and pesticides is of great importance, as these have a negative impact on the diversity of invertebrates. At least in some stages of development, such as the breeding season, they make up an important part of the diet of birds. According to the researchers, this is the case for 143 of the 170 species studied. When this food supply is disrupted, reproductive success is affected by affecting parental behavior and nestling survival. There is also direct contact between the birds and the consumption of seeds that have been treated with chemicals. Which in turn means that the birds do not die directly, but the organism is influenced over time and increasing consumption ...

*

Fertility | Sperm quality

Are men becoming more infertile?

Almost every tenth couple in Germany who would like to have children cannot conceive a child naturally. One reason for this could be that men seem to be becoming increasingly infertile. This is the result of several large-scale studies in which researchers have examined the number of sperm in male ejaculate. The result: The sperm concentration per milliliter of semen has decreased by an average of 52 percent. This decline particularly affects men from industrialized countries in Europe and North America.

Not only is the number of sperm constantly decreasing, their quality is also continuing to decline. This is measured by whether the sperm are alive at all and also by factors such as the speed, mobility and shape of the sperm. In analyzes of the semen, so-called spermiograms, something is increasingly wrong. One of the authors of an international overview study even warns that this could endanger the survival of mankind in the long term ...

*

energy suppliers | Energy price brake | Kartell

Cartel Office initiates the first proceedings against energy suppliers

Critics had predicted multiple abuses of the energy price brake. The Cartel Office is now initiating the first procedure. And announces “regular systematic investigations”.

The Federal Cartel Office in Bonn has initiated the first abuse proceedings against energy supply companies that may have applied for excessive reimbursement amounts from the state because of the energy price brakes. It is a two-digit number of gas suppliers, said Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt on Monday. "We have indications that the underlying prices could not be objectively justified to the end customer."

The energy price brakes for gas and district heating as well as for electricity have applied retrospectively for January and February since March. The state thus caps the price for gas, district heating and electricity for 80 percent of consumption - and pays the suppliers the difference to the market price. There were fears from the start that companies might take advantage of this and charge above market prices...

*

Methane | Temperature rise | global warming

Special satellite for methane to detect leaks and large sources

Environmental organization builds satellite "MethaneSAT" for measuring methane, which detects even the smallest leaks. The data should be publicly accessible.

According to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Global Methane Tracker 30, methane is responsible for about 2023 percent of global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution. However, it is still not entirely clear where the highly effective greenhouse gas really escapes and how it influences global warming. After all, it contributes 20 times more to global warming than CO84 over a period of 2 years. Limiting the concentration of methane in the atmosphere is therefore just as important as ending carbon dioxide emissions. The IEA's methane tracker is based on current data from satellites and ground-based measurements, but these are still incomplete.

That should now be a new one Satellite called MethaneSAT which is scheduled to start at the end of this year and will be able to detect and measure methane emissions and leaks worldwide with unprecedented precision from spring 2024...

*

Nuclear phase-out | Electricity price | Power Supply

A month out of nuclear power: Electricity even got cheaper

A month after the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany, there are hardly any visible effects on the power supply. Both in terms of price and security of supply. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to be done.

The power supply system in Germany coped well with the shutdown of the Isar 2 nuclear power plants near Landshut, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2. In the first month without German nuclear power, electricity on the exchange did not become more expensive, but actually cheaper.

The Vice President of the Federal Network Agency, Barbie Kornelia Haller, summed it up in an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk: "The effects are extremely small."

[...]

Burger calculates that the three now decommissioned German nuclear reactors produced around 30 terawatt hours a year. A third of that could be saved this year compared to last year, because the abating crisis in nuclear power in France means that less electricity has to be exported there. According to Burger's forecast, the remaining 20 terawatt hours will be completely replaced by renewable energies in the course of this year: half each through the expansion of photovoltaics and wind energy ...

14. May

Constitutional state protection | Extreme right

Neo-Nazi dropout: "The whole story is not true with the NSU trio."

Mike R. comes from Jena, was a neo-Nazi in Nuremberg, housed Böhnhardt, Mundlos and Zschäpe and now appeared as a witness in the Bavarian investigative committee. The role attributed to the three is incorrect, he said.

"I'm not just scared of people in the scene. The protection of the constitution and state security play a very important role.”

“They are overestimating these three and investigating in the wrong direction. That's all I'll say." - O-Ton Mike R., former right-wing extremist in Jena and Nuremberg, in the NSU investigative committee II of Bavaria, May 3, 2023

"Scene & Protection of the Constitution"

In September 2000, the NSU's series of murders of commercial men with foreign roots began in Nuremberg. Three of the ten murders were committed in this city. In at least two cases it has been proven that members of the Nuremberg scene had contact with the later victims...

*

Lobby | Chemical industry | Limits

Dangerous Chemical Bisphenol A:

Industry against new limit values

It is associated with cancer, infertility, diabetes and neurological disorders. Nevertheless, companies continue to fight for bisphenol A.

BERLIN taz | Industry groups are opposed to stricter limits for the dangerous chemical bisphenol A (BPA). On Thursday, Plastics Europe and the Food Association, among others, sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture in which they expressed their "concern" about the "process now beginning" of a new risk management system. The background is a re-evaluation of the plastic component BPA by the European Food Safety Agency, Efsa.

She recently lowered the recommendation for the tolerable daily amount of BPA in food by a factor of 20.000 - a "spectacular decision", judged Josef Köhrle, senior professor at the Institute for Experimental Endocrinology at the Berlin Charité ...

*

Wind turbines | swim

Energy transition at sea:

Wind power learns to swim

Until now, wind power plants could only be located in shallow coastal waters. But prototypes for floating rotors are getting better and better.

When the wind power industry from around the world recently met in Copenhagen for WindEurope, in the same exhibition hall in Copenhagen where the struggle for a climate agreement was unsuccessful in 2009, there was an attraction. It was not the speeches of the French energy transition minister or the Danish climate minister, but the presentation of a rather small Irish company.

The Gazelle company presented a floating foundation that can support wind turbines with an output of up to 15 megawatts. Large wind turbines on land only achieve a third of this output. Because the wind blows much more steadily and at higher speeds over the sea, wind energy should now learn to swim.

That sounds like a pretty crazy idea: floating pinwheels. However, only at first glance. "In many regions of the world, the depths off the coast are very steep," says Volker Quaschning, Professor of Regenerative Energy Systems at the HTW Berlin. For example in front of India, Taiwan, Japan or Portugal. Very steep means several hundred meters...

*

AfD | Extreme right | conspiracy

Aluhut-AfD now also believes in chemtrails?!

The Aluhut-AfD now also believes in chemtrails? The right-wing extremist enemies of democracy, the AfD, left for their own delusional world a long time ago. It must be said in all clarity: The politics and rhetoric of these neo-Nazis is not only inhuman and demonstrably anti-constitutional, they not only want to abolish democracy in Germany. They lie like crazy, most of the problems they complain about don't even exist and they mostly believe in confused conspiracy myths.

[...]

It could be extremely funny if it wasn't so dangerous. In Saxony, the AfD is currently the strongest force. Real fascists and right-wing extremists whose ideology is neither compatible with our reality nor with the constitution. We could laugh that the tinfoil Nazis are now taking chemtrails seriously, but when they are elected in spite of, or apparently because of, these conspiracy theories, that is extremely disturbing. 

The "original" Nazis also believed in conspiracy myths, after all - about Jews ruling the world. This culminated in World War II and the Holocaust...

*

Climate balance | rich people | pigeon chess

Climate social inequality

How the rich justify their inaction

Rich people have a particularly bad climate footprint. But there is hardly any awareness of the problem, shows a British study and recommends stronger government measures.

Can the climate crisis be overcome with more wind turbines, new technologies and an accelerated hydrogen ramp-up? That alone will not be enough, the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) clarified this week.

The citizens must also go along and change their day-to-day behavior, writes the advisory body of the federal government in a special report. The Environment Council sees politics as having a duty to shape the framework accordingly – in order to promote, but also demand, environmentally friendly behavior.

[...]

How do the rich themselves view their climate-damaging lifestyle? Do they have an awareness of the problem that would lead one to expect voluntary changes in behavior?

No, is the result of the Leeds study. Neither the interviews nor the discussion rounds with a total of 30 people give any hope that the wealthy would come to their senses of their own accord and make less use of their privileges. Nobody made a connection with climate change.

The respondents are well aware that their energy consumption is particularly high. But they talk about it as if such a lifestyle is perfectly normal and resist questioning...

Current news+

**

Heat | poverty | climate adaptation

Heat waves hit poor neighborhoods particularly hard

Thousands of people die every year from heat waves. A new study shows that cities and poor districts are particularly affected. Green spaces are healthy and protect against heat, but they also drive up rents.

The sun beats down mercilessly on the asphalt, hardly a breeze penetrates the building canyons and only a few exhausted city trees donate small patches of shade. The summers in our cities are becoming a challenge as global warming progresses. In addition to climate change, this is due to the urban heat island effect.

Concrete, glass and metal surfaces store far more heat than meadows or forests. The building materials in our cities are therefore responsible for overheating. At the same time, there is a lack of green and water areas.

The resulting temperature differences between the city and the surrounding area are considerable. A difference of up to ten degrees can be achieved in Berlin and other large cities. Even in small towns, this difference can be felt and measured.

The sweltering heat isn't just uncomfortable. The effects of heat waves range from "diseases such as sunstroke, ⁠heat stress⁠, fainting, heat cramps and heat stroke to heat-related death," writes the Federal Environment Agency.

In fact, heat waves usually claim significantly more lives than floods, storms or earthquakes. Between 2018 and 2020, more than 19.000 people died in Germany as a result of the heat, according to an evaluation by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German Weather Service and the Federal Environment Agency. For last summer, the RKI brings about 4.500 deaths related to heat.

These numbers will not decrease by themselves in the coming years and decades. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report, it is virtually certain, i.e. 99 to 100 percent certain, that heat waves will increase in frequency, intensity and duration, even if the 1,5 degree limit is observed.

The poorer a neighborhood, the hotter it is

While the heat is particularly severe in cities, it does not affect everyone equally there either. Using the example of Los Angeles, a recently published study shows how unequally different parts of the city suffer from heat waves.

The authors of the study, published in the journal Science Advances, found a negative correlation between the average household income in a residential area and the surface temperature during the day.

In other words, the poorer a neighborhood, the higher the temperatures during a heatwave. The difference increases with the average temperature.

An average income difference of 10.000 US dollars with an average temperature of 45 degrees Celsius leads to a 0,7 degree higher heat stress in the poorer part of the city. At an average temperature of 20 degrees, the difference is only 0,2 degrees.

The scientists find an explanation for this phenomenon in the vegetation cover. In poorer parts of the city there are fewer parks and city trees. Topographic differences, i.e. the distance from the coast or whether a quarter is on a hill or in a depression, would have far less influence on heat stress, writes the California research team.

In part this is a result of past racist housing policies in the US, but even today, homes near parks are coveted and therefore expensive. Green spaces not only help against the heat and are proven to promote well-being and health, but also drive up real estate prices in the neighboring districts.

The study states, "These results highlight the disparities in heat stress among various racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States."

The data is missing in Germany

Of course, this cannot be transferred one-to-one to Europe or Germany. Income segregation is less pronounced in German cities. Nevertheless, the basic pattern can also be observed here.

"Of course, lower-income population groups in Germany usually live under worse living conditions, with poorer insulation, do not have air conditioning and have no alternative rooms available during heat waves," says Susanne Bieker from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in Karlsruhe.

Continue reading ...

Background knowledge

**

The map of the nuclear world

Where has all the money gone?

Seriously?

*

The internal search for

Heat | poverty | climate adaptation

brought the following results, among others:

April 29, 2023 - Igniting and doubting climate protection: Union and FDP are pouring oil on the fire

*

April 29, 2022 - Heatwave in India and Pakistan collapses electricity supply

*

December 14, 2021 - Nobel Prize winners call for two percent disarmament for the climate

YouTube

Keyword search: whom the climate catastrophe first Street Art?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Wen die Klimakatastrophe zuerst trifft?

Videos:

DER SPIEGEL from March 30, 2023 - 4: 08

Climate crisis in California: "It's a continuous fire of catastrophes"

*

WDR Aktuelle Stunde from May 22, 2022 - 3:33

Climate catastrophe it's 5 past 12 and it decides elections

*

Tagesschau from 1979 - 1:43

Climate change warning

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

Ecosia

This search engine is planting trees!

Keyword search: Who will be hit first by the climate catastrophe?

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Wen die Klimakatastrophe zuerst trifft?

planet school

Who will be most affected by climate change?

We already have less snow in winter than just a few decades ago. On the other hand, plant growth begins earlier in the year and we can now go swimming well into autumn. But the absence of the white splendor and the longer bathing season are among the more harmless consequences of the rise in temperature.

No country on earth will be spared from climate change. When the sea level rises, large tracts of land will be flooded on all coasts of the earth. This is expensive for rich countries like Germany or the Netherlands, but not an unsolvable problem. Here dams are built against the floods, which can also withstand a strong rise in water. 

The situation is different in poor countries: Large parts of Bangladesh, for example, are only a few meters above sea level - and the poor country cannot afford expensive coastal protection. If the sea level rises by one meter, many millions of people will lose their homes and have to resettle. The Maldives and the South Sea islands of Tuvalu can be even worse: These islands only rise a few meters above sea level and could be completely submerged - then an entire country would have to relocate ...

**

Wikipedia

Climate catastrophe

Climate catastrophe is climate change with worldwide catastrophic effects. This also includes uncontrolled global warming, for example as a greenhouse-earth scenario. The mass media in particular often use the term as a framework for interpreting the feared consequences of man-made climate change. Sometimes, even in climate impact research, drastic consequences are referred to as climate catastrophes. Climate catastrophes serve as motifs in literature and film. If left unsolved, the current political, social and technological climate crisis would result in a climate catastrophe...

Back to:

Newsletter XIX 2023 - May 7th to 13th

Newspaper article 2023

For work on 'THTR circular', 'reaktorpleite.de' and 'Map of the nuclear world' we need up-to-date information, energetic, fresh comrades-in-arms under 100 (;-) and donations. If you can help, please send a message to: info@reaktorpleite.de

Donation appeal

- The THTR circular is published by the 'BI Environmental Protection Hamm' and is financed by donations.

- The THTR circular has meanwhile become a much-noticed information medium. However, there are ongoing costs due to the expansion of the website and the printing of additional information sheets.

- The THTR circular researches and reports in detail. In order for us to be able to do that, we depend on donations. We are happy about every donation!

Donations account: BI Umweltschutz Hamm

Usage: THTR Rundbrief

IBAN: DE31 4105 0095 0000 0394 79

BIC: WELADED1HAM

***