Newsletter XXIV 2023

It was a difficult compromise: after lengthy discussions, the federal government Building Energy Act (GEG), which was originally intended to ban the installation of pure oil and natural gas heating systems as early as next year. Now the regulation should only take effect where it is municipal heat plans gives.

While the federal government wants to set a deadline of 2028 for their development, many municipalities in Baden-Württemberg have already almost or even completely completed their heating plans. Three years ago, the 104 largest cities - all those with more than 20.000 inhabitants - were obliged by state law to submit heat plans by the end of 2023...

Renewables | Energy policy | European Union

EU countries agree on law for more renewable energy

A larger proportion of EU energy consumption is to come from renewable sources in the future. Most recently, France had blocked and renegotiated the law.

The EU states have settled the dispute over a planned law to expand renewable energies. The law aims to mandate a larger share of renewable sources in the energy consumed in the European Union. Most recently, France had blocked the project that had already been negotiated with representatives of the EU Parliament.

The German State Secretary Sven Giegold announced on Friday evening that France had negotiated a different calculation. As a result, some ammonia plants could be exempted from renewable energy targets. This could allow France to use nuclear power for a larger proportion of ammonia production...

desert | drought | Dryness

World Day Against Desertification

Deserts and droughts - a global problem

Today is the World Day against Desertification and Drought. Very few people in Europe know him, although drought and deserts have long been a reality here too.

It was last as rainy as this spring in 2005. Especially in southern and western Germany, people must have wondered where the summer and the bathing weather are.

Not so in the Northeast. It was already dry above average in March and April, and there is still no rain. In mid-June, the Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) registered an "extraordinary drought" in this region.

In the meantime, a large part of Germany is actually suffering from drought conditions. This may come as a surprise given the wet winter and spring in many places, but droughts develop over longer periods of time.

The last five years have been too dry. The subsoil has dried out and needs time and lots of water to recover. Chronic dryness is a problem that is becoming more prevalent and spreading worldwide...

Canada | climate-damaging policies | Forest fires

The forest fires in Canada can no longer be extinguished this summer

[...]

The main cause of the dramatic forest fires is the heating of the earth's atmosphere and, in particular, the burning of oil, natural gas and coal. This puts the disaster country Canada itself in focus as the polluter. Not only because Canada is one of the strongest emitters in the world with around 15 tons of annual per capita CO2 emissions, but also because of its high production of natural gas and oil, including for LNG export plans to Germany. This means that Canada itself is a victim of its own climate-damaging politics and economy. But there is no understanding, the economic focus is still in the fossil economy ...

Disinformation is the D in the DNA of Friends of MiC

Information about this accident only came to the public years later, and only very sparsely.

June 17, 1997 (INES Class.?) Arzamas-16, RUS

A technician died in a criticality failure at the Arzamas-16 nuclear research center. (Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Atomwaffen A-Z

Arzamas-16

When Joseph Stalin was informed by President Truman about the first American nuclear weapons tests in the early summer of 1945, he refrained from any outward reaction. He hoped the Americans would understand how to "make good use" of the weapon - he is said to have said no more. Behind the scenes, however, the research collective under the nuclear physicist Igor Korchatov received orders to "accelerate as much as possible" their own nuclear weapons program. The project in Arzamas-16, the birthplace of the Soviet atomic bomb south of Nizhny Novgorod, was pushed ahead with a gigantic investment in personnel and material. At the September 29, 1949 The TASS news agency reported that a nuclear explosive device had been successfully tested.

Since Stalin wanted the bomb as soon as possible, no one paid attention to the disproportionate cost of materials, money and resources. The required quantity could only be obtained with the help of forced labour. The country also lacked the resources to rebuild after the war...

Wikipedia

Sarov - Arzamas-16

After the Soviet leadership decided in February 1943 to develop nuclear weapons, a corresponding institute for nuclear technology (today: All-Russian Research Institute for Experimental Physics, VNIIEF) was set up shortly after the end of the Second World War. The choice of location fell on Sarow because on the one hand it was isolated and shielded by dense forests, but on the other hand it already had a railway connection. In the Nuclear Technical Institute, under the direction of Juli Chariton, the first Soviet nuclear weapons and also with the participation of Andrei Sakharov the largest ever tested hydrogen bomb (see "Tsar bomb") manufactured.

[...] In August 2010, according to reports, 2200 helpers managed to control fires near the nuclear research center that had broken out across Russia due to extreme drought (see also Forest and peat fires in Russia in 2010).

16. June

France | Earthquake | La Rochelle

Epicenter near La Rochelle

Earthquake rocks western France

An earthquake shook parts of France on Friday evening. The epicenter was near the town of La Rochelle.

The earth shook in France on Friday evening. Preliminary evaluations by the GFZ Potsdam resulted in a magnitude of 4,9. French websites such as "France Séisme" report a value of 5,2 on the Richter scale.

This makes it one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the region ...

Nuclear transport | Uranium hexafluoride

BBU sounds the alarm

Secret nuclear transport rolls over A31 near Ahaus

On Friday morning (June 31) - according to the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU) - a secret nuclear transport with three trucks rolled on Autobahn 16.06 near Ahaus.

[...] Without police protection on the way

According to the BBU, the transport involved three French trucks. The vehicles were seen around 9.30 a.m. on the A31 between Ahaus and Legden/Coesfeld. "The dangerous goods signs attached to the trucks suggest that radioactive uranium hexafluoride was being transported, which was carried out, among other things, in the uranium factories in Gronau and Lingen, but also in the Dutch uranium enrichment plant Almelo, about 30 kilometers west of Gronau , is used,” writes the BBU in its press release.

Udo Buchholz from the BBU board criticizes the fact that the trucks apparently drive across the country without police protection. According to him, the destination is probably France.

"The population and the emergency services such as the DRK and the fire brigade are usually not informed in advance about the transport routes and transport times. In the event of an accident involving the release of uranium hexafluoride, a large area would have to be evacuated in a short time. That can't work in an emergency," warns Udo Buchholz...

Fallout radioactivity | Human history | anthropocene

epoch of man:

Explosively into the next age

A new epoch in the history of the earth is to be officially proclaimed this summer. The Anthropocene is said to start at the same time as the atomic bomb.

[...]

In the case of the Anthropocene, the probable GSSP will refer to that time, namely to the radioactive fallout since the first above-ground atomic bomb tests around 1950. Because unlike the CO2 content, which increases in a comparatively short time, but gradually, occurs the novel increased concentration of uranium and plutonium suddenly - and it will take centuries, if not millions of years, to break down again ...

climate protection law | fossil lobby | Emissions | Sectors

A fiasco: Criticism of traffic light draft for new climate law

Energy and climate - compact: The federal government plans to soften the climate protection law. Again, the FDP and lobbies have prevailed. Critics focus on one aspect in particular.

As expected, the federal government is preparing to soften the climate protection law. As the Federal Ministry of Economics reported on Wednesday afternoon, it has drawn up a draft bill that is now circulating in the other ministries before it is voted on in the cabinet and finally introduced in the Bundestag.

In the past we have repeatedly informed that Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is not taking sufficient measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport. While households, industry and the energy sector have reduced their emissions over the past three decades - albeit by far not enough - those from transport are roughly at the same level as in 1990.

[...]

We explained the process three weeks ago and pointed out that the Climate Protection Act in its previous form was the result of a judgment by the Federal Constitutional Court. This had condemned the legislator to stricter climate protection in view of the consequences for future generations.

Protests continue

But now the responsibility of the sectors is to be softened again, which is criticized even by the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW). In future, the responsibility for compensating for missed targets will no longer lie with the ministries responsible for the sectors, but with the federal government as a whole...

Nuclear fusion | ITER, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

ITER: The world's largest nuclear fusion experiment spirals out of control

The world's largest project for fusion research, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is probably in deeper trouble than previously known. This is shown by documents that have now become public as a result of court processes. At ITER, 35 countries are working together to build a large tokamak fusion facility. However, arguably it boils down to the fact that it doesn't set records for plasma production, but primarily for burning money and not meeting schedules. Taken together, the problems are now piling up to levels that could make ITER one of the biggest failures in the history of science, reports Scientific American magazine.

When construction of ITER started in 2006, the plan was for a project period of ten years and a budget of 6,3 billion dollars. It currently stands at $22 billion in spending. And in two years, the plant should finally go into operation, which means that the construction time would have taken almost twice as long as estimated. But the documents that have recently come to light show that hardly anything will come of it either...

Wind power | Renewable energies

Important record mark

Wind power delivers more than a terawatt

The environmentally friendly generation of energy is on the rise worldwide. In June, wind turbines reached a capacity of more than one billion kilowatts for the first time – the industry is already targeting the next brand.

In June, the world's active wind turbines on land and on the high seas achieved more than a possible output of more than one terawatt for the first time. This is an "important moment" and a "milestone," said Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) director Ben Backwell on Thursday, looking at the data available to the association. The record shows that the way has been "paved for a future with renewable energies" ...

Bayer | Advertising | Glyphosate | Monsanto

Weedkiller Roundup

Bayer pays millions for misleading advertising

The chemical group Bayer is still working to deal with the problems related to the weed killer glyphosate. Now millions of dollars are due in a lawsuit over misleading advertising.

The German chemical company Bayer has to pay the equivalent of 6,4 million euros in the US state of New York for allegations of misleading advertising about the safety of its weed killer Roundup. New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that Bayer and agribusiness giant Monsanto, which the German company bought in 2018, have repeatedly advertised that Roundup products containing glyphosate are "safe and non-toxic" without adequate substantiation.

Not only did this violate New York's "false and deceptive advertising" laws, but also a 1996 settlement between the Attorney General's Office and Monsanto. In it, Monsanto pledged to stop making unsubstantiated claims about Roundup's security...

June 16, 2005 (INES Class.?) Braidwood, USA

Millions of liters of tritium-contaminated water were released from the nuclear power plant from spring 1996 to March 2006, contaminating the local water supply. (Costs approx. 48 million US$)

Nuclear Power Accidents

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Braidwood

In the hot summers of 2000 and 2012, the operator had to obtain special permits to operate the nuclear power plant at higher cooling temperatures than originally planned.

Braidwood is a nuclear power plant that was threatened with closure. However, on September 16, 2021, the governor of Illinois signed an energy law that would provide a $694 million cash injection for the endangered Braidwood, Byron, and Dresden nuclear power plants.

incidents

In 2006, Excelon was charged with dumping millions of gallons of tritum-contaminated wastewater into groundwater from spring 1996 to March 2006, a charge the operator did not report until December 2005.

For example, on June 16, 2005, tritium leaked from the nuclear power plant and contaminated the local water supply; the damage caused a cost of US$48 million.

In June 2011, US media reported that tritium leaks had been detected at 48 out of 65 nuclear power plant sites in the US. According to a July 2014 list, Braidwood was also affected...

Slowly but surely, all relevant info on nuclear industry disruptions is being removed from Wikipedia!

Wikipedia

Braidwood

In March 2006, multiple lawsuits were filed against Exelon and Commonwealth Edison for tritium releases into local water systems between 1996 and 2003.

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States

15. June

1,5 degrees | Average temperature | El Niño

1,5-degree mark broken for the first time in June – El Niño could cause temperatures to rise again

The earth is heating up. The 1,5 degree mark was exceeded for the first time in June. Researchers speak of the "warmest June since records began".

Frankfurt – Rising sea level and more hot days: climate change is already evident in Germany. According to the federal government, extreme weather events, such as in the Ahr Valley, have more than tripled. While there were an average of three hot days in Germany in 1951, in 2020 there were already eleven.

Climate change: The average global temperature exceeded 1,5 degrees in June

The latest data from ERA5 also show that the climate is warming, the European Copernicus Climate Change Service reported on Thursday (June 15). The average global surface temperatures for the first days of June 2023 are "by far" the highest data for this month. According to this, the global average temperature exceeded 1,5 degrees in the first week of June...

Energy transition | Decarbonization | Sector coupling

Energy transition in rural areas: Why we sometimes have to think smaller

Decarbonisation of the energy supply must also reach rural regions. Sector coupling offers great advantages. How this works in practice.

The German energy transition is currently mostly reduced to the use of air heat pumps or district heating in cities. What is becoming increasingly controversial does not reflect the entire German energy transition.

The political demand that 65 percent of the heating energy required for new systems be obtained from renewable sources or the environment is neither a restriction of democracy nor a deprivation of liberty.

The possibilities for providing useful energy without burning fossil fuels are much more diverse than is currently reflected in the often hysterical discussion in the political media ...

Nuclear waste | Repository | Konrad shaft

Renewed delays in repository construction:

Schacht Konrad is not finished

The construction of the Konrad nuclear waste repository in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, has been delayed again. Opponents of nuclear power are calling for the project to be scrapped.

GOETTINGEN taz | The completion and commissioning of the Konrad nuclear waste repository will be delayed by several years - again. Ludwig Wasmus, a farmer from Salzgitter and head of the Konrad working group critical of nuclear power, responded to the news with the words "That's enough." Wasmus and his comrades-in-arms are calling for the project to be abandoned: "Konrad cannot be implemented, is not responsible and is completely presumptuous in all senses of the word."

A few hours earlier, the Federal Agency for Disposal (BGE) had admitted in an online press conference that the construction of the storage facility for low- and medium-level radioactive waste could only be completed in 2029 instead of 2027 as last planned...

fossil industry | Hydrogen | Record profits

The hydrogen lie: How the fossil industry wants to rip you off

This is how you should be made to gild the farewell to the gas industry

This is the great fear of the world's largest investors in fossil energies such as KKR (which, by the way, own large parts of the publishing house "BILD" and "WELT"): Over 1 trillion euros (yes, a thousand billion) of their property will soon be worthless. Possessions such as plants, refineries, infrastructure and so on. Because soon we will no longer need pipelines or other fossil-based infrastructure, because we simply regulate the vast majority of things with renewables. Electricity directly from the roof, with which you can also heat directly and much more efficiently, for example. These investors want to tout these “stranded assets” as “something useful” for as long as possible in order to maintain their grossly inflated company valuations in the face of the unstoppable renewable transformation. Or to put it bluntly: You want to earn as much money as possible with it for as long as possible...

Expansion of renewables | Electricity price | Solar energy

nature and environment

Solar boom accelerates energy transition worldwide

Solar energy already covers five percent of global electricity requirements, costs are falling, expansion and demand are increasing. Europe's largest solar fair Intersolar shows international trends for the future of photovoltaics.

This year, the organizers of Intersolar in Munich are expecting around 85.000 visitors from all over the world, a new record. There were 65.000 last year.

[...]

China is the solar world champion in expansion and export

China in particular is currently driving global solar expansion. 402 GW are already installed there, and according to the Solar Outlook, around 873 GW are to be added over the next five years. According to Outlook, around 253 GW are expected to be added in the next five years in the USA, 145 GW in India and 88 GW in Germany...

14. June

heat transition | gas lobby | heating law

Kemfert: The heating law is a success for the gas lobby

The traffic light coalition has agreed on a new draft for a heating law. It provides for longer transition periods and may also allow gas heating. Climate economist Kemfert is heavily critical.

The climate economist Claudia Kemfert does not consider the agreements reached by the traffic light coalition in the so-called heating law to be sufficient to achieve the climate protection goals in the building sector. Kemfert said in the MDR AKTUELL climate podcast: "The traffic light has agreed, that's more than nothing. But the climate protection goals will not be achieved with it."

It is "important and good" that the law provides "that heat plans must be drawn up in the municipalities". However, according to Kemfert: “What is really a problem is that fossil-based heating systems are still allowed in existing buildings and that for various years. And the 65 percent renewable requirement is currently only supposed to apply to new buildings in new development areas. That’s really it very very difficult to be able to achieve the climate neutrality targets in the building sector." In the worst case, the gas heaters would continue to run purely on fossil fuels until 2045...

reduce greenhouse gas | steel and cement | methanol from CO2

Methanol from steel mill exhaust gases

Pilot plant for the production of methanol goes into operation at the steel plant in Duisburg

Fuel from CO2: In the future, at least part of the steelworks exhaust gases could be converted into usable methanol. The first pilot plant for this methanol synthesis from smelter gases is currently being installed in ThyssenKrupp's Duisburg steel works. From July 2023, it will produce around 75 liters of methanol per day from the steelworks’ exhaust gas mixture. If the pilot test goes well, this climate-friendly CO2 utilization could soon be up and running on an industrial scale - in the steelworks, but also in the cement industry.

The steel industry is one of the largest CO2 emitters worldwide - around seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to it. This is mainly due to the use of coke, coal and natural gas as reducing agents and to heat the furnaces. As a result, metallurgical gases are produced which contain, among other things, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Although some of these gases are burned and used for heating, there is still a lot of CO2 left over.

[...]

In the future, not only steel works could benefit from such a secondary utilization of the CO2: Due to the modular design of the methanol plant, it is possible to transfer the process to other CO2-intensive industries - for example waste incineration plants or cement works. During cement production, for example, CO2 is always released due to the chemical reaction when burning lime.

"The technology for CO2-based methanol production is therefore a sustainable and long-term investment even if the steel industry has completely switched to hydrogen," explains Tim Schulzke from Fraunhofer UMSICHT.

Nature Conservation | Agriculture | EU Parliament | Renaturation Act

Before the crucial vote

"Farmers also benefit from renaturation"

The EPP Group wants to block the nature restoration law in the European Parliament's Environment Committee. The Conservatives claim that the law would allow farmers to cultivate less land, which would threaten Europe's food security. Science disagrees.

The way Europe produces food is inefficient, says Jeroen Candel of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Too much food is wasted, conventional agriculture is the main driver of biodiversity loss and meat production causes high greenhouse gas emissions.

A third of Europe's greenhouse gases come from agriculture.

[...]

Sabien Leemans, biodiversity expert at the WWF in Brussels, understands why the EPP is still shooting at the law. "The EPP is running an aggressive campaign and does not shy away from making false statements," said Leemans.

For months, the Christian Democrats had negotiated the law with the other parliamentary groups and tabled amendments. It was not until the end of May that the parliamentary group broke off negotiations on the law because the law was suddenly bad. "The claim isn't credible, it's just a political game in the run-up to the elections," Leemans is convinced ...

Taz | Freedom of speech | article rewritten

How the Taz manipulated an article by a Ukraine war reporter

Unai Aranzadi reported for Taz from the combat zone in Ukraine. But the article was falsified, says the reporter, and perhaps aligned with the NATO line. Do western journalists enjoy freedom of expression in Ukraine?

Spanish journalist Unai Aranzadi visited the eastern Ukrainian cities of Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Lyman as a reporter in February. The documentary filmmaker, who won prizes in Spain, sent two reports to the German daily Taz from the hail of bombs at the front in the battle for the Donbass.

Aranzadi is very familiar with the Ukraine conflict, having been there regularly for documentaries since 2014. The first text was published on February 3, 2023, entitled "Where the Russian Offensive Begins" and recounts the Russian bombing of homes and the destruction it left in its wake.

On February 11, the second text was published under the title "Where the Russians have been before".

However, the printed version left Aranzadi speechless. His text had been changed significantly by the editors without his consent - in his opinion distorting the meaning. Whole paragraphs were deleted, new ones were added that he hadn't written and with which he doesn't agree.

Aranzadi says the changes were not made for editorial reasons, but are interventions to bring the article in line with the paper's policy: "There were no problems in the first report, in which I condemned the brutal Russian bombings." , he tells Telepolis ...

June 14, 1985 (INES Class.?) Constituentes, ARG

An excessive local power spike in the reactor core led to the failure of 46 fuel rods, radioactive material from the fuel assemblies was released into the reactor cooling system. (Costs approx. 11,2 million US$)

Nuclear Power Accidents

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Argentina

owns five research reactors, the oldest of which, designated RA-1 ENRICO FERMI, went into operation in 1958 ...

Centro Atomico Constituyentes

The Centro Atomico Constituyentes (CAC) is located in Partido de San Martin, Buenos Aires, and houses important facilities of Argentine nuclear research, such as the first nuclear reactor in Latin America (RA-1) and the heavy ion accelerator TANDAR.

The CAC also houses the Uranium Powder Production Plant (PFPU) and the Research Reactor Fuel Elements Plant (ECRI)...

Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Spiegel 17/1987

»A cold shiver runs down my spine«

SPIEGEL report on hidden nuclear power plant incidents around the world

Humanity has slipped past the catastrophe several times by a hair's breadth. This is revealed by 48 accident reports that were kept secret by the Vienna International Atomic Energy Agency: breakdowns, often of the most bizarre, profane kind from the United States and Argentina to Bulgaria and Pakistan ...

13. June

United States deliver Uranium ammunition in the Ukraine War

Sharp Kremlin reaction possible

Report: USA equip Abrams tanks with uranium ammunition

As late as March, the US denies supplying uranium ammunition to Ukraine. However, according to a report, that may change. There is criticism of the weapon - but it is effective and not prohibited. The tanks that could be equipped with it are currently in Germany.

The Abrams tanks, which are expected to be delivered by the USA to Ukraine by the autumn, are said to be equipped with depleted uranium ammunition ...

Press freedom | link | Radio Dreieckland

Freiburg journalist should now appear in court

Because of a link, a journalist from the free broadcaster Radio Dreyeckland is now to answer in court. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Stuttgart overturned a decision of the Regional Court Karlsruhe in the second instance. Experts see freedom of the press in danger.

When the public prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe took action against a journalist from Freiburg, there was a reversal: the editor should now answer in court after all. Prosecutors have accused him of supporting a banned association through a link in a news article – and that would be a criminal offence.

[...] Interested parties can get an idea of the news report, which is accused of having an "appeal character" and "advertising effect" for linksunten.indymedia. It consists of almost 150 words and is still online.

Meyer Burger | Subsidies | Solar Panels

Solar company moves to USA?

Grüner criticizes the traffic light because of the subsidy course

Europe's only manufacturer of solar cells with a plant in Saxony-Anhalt is threatening to relocate to the USA. Reason: massive US subsidies. This brings criticism of the federal government.

It's a threat in itself. Meyer Burger writes in a letter to Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) that they are considering canceling the projects for the further expansion of solar production in Germany - and investing in the USA instead.

[...]

In the USA, the red carpet is rolled out for us when it comes to setting up new plants and selling solar modules.

From the letter of Meyer Burger

The program ties the subsidies to one condition: that production takes place in the USA. If a company builds a plant there, the subsidies are massive: "For one gigawatt of solar cells and solar modules in the USA you get $110 million a year - until 2029," calculates the CEO of Meyer Burger, Gunter Erfurt, in an interview with ZDFheute before ...

Idaho | SMR | Exploding costs | NuScale

Another expensive nuclear project

Dream of cheap mini-reactors fizzles out in Idaho

For its energy transition, the USA wants to double its nuclear capacity by 2050. The solution is new mini-reactors. But the model project by industry leader NuScale in Idaho shows a familiar pattern: Years before completion, costs explode.

[...] Unlike the 50-megawatt module, however, the 77-megawatt version has not yet been certified: NuScale only discovered a few years ago that significantly more energy can be extracted from the individual mini-reactors. It was only in January that an application was made to the nuclear power authority NRC for the power increase to also be approved.

Less performance, higher costs

A short-term change of plans that could throw off the schedule for the construction of the model power plant. It wasn't the only one: Actually, NuScale in Idaho wanted to build the premium version of its flexible mini-nuclear, the VOYGR-12 with a total of twelve mini reactors. Instead are just six SMR planned. The installed capacity will thus shrink from 600 to 462 megawatts.

Even more notable was a third change that NuScale also announced in January: The "Carbon Free Power Project" will take place 5,3 billion Dollar at least 9,3 billion Dollar costs. The cause was "mainly external influences" such as rising steel prices and key interest rates, not the project itself, NuScale tried to calm down in a statement, because inflation is also an issue in the nuclear industry...

Glyphosate | amphibians

Malformations confirmed by glyphosate

Even at low concentrations, herbicides cause developmental disorders in amphibians

Explosive timing: while the EU is discussing an extension of approval for the controversial herbicide glyphosate, a study confirms its harmful effects on amphibians - and possibly other organisms. Accordingly, glyphosate causes massive malformations in tadpoles even in low concentrations. This also applies to the pure active substance without further chemical additives. The drug could even be partly to blame for the global amphibian extinction, as the team explains.

[...] The tests showed that even the pure glyphosate caused significant malformations in the tadpoles. These included shortened, crooked bodies, malformed cranial nerves, small hearts and a slow heartbeat. "The tadpoles exposed to the pure herbicide also show a different swimming behavior," reports senior author Susanne Kühl from the University of Ulm. The higher the glyphosate concentration, the more severe the deformities were and the more restless the tadpoles moved.

"We were surprised that some defects already occurred at the lowest concentration that we tested, i.e. at 0,1 milligrams per liter," reports Flach. "These are concentrations that are sometimes exceeded several times in natural waters in many countries." Further analyzes also provided initial indications that glyphosate inhibits the development of the cranial nerves and the activity of a gene that is important for correct heart development in the animals...

June 13, 1984 (INES Class.?) Fort St Vrain, USA

Moisture ingress led to the failure of 6 fuel assemblies at the Fort St. Vrain nuclear power plant, necessitating an emergency shutdown by the Public Service Company of Colorado. (cost approx. US$ 26 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Fort St Vrain (USA)

incidents

The operation of the reactor was accompanied by a long series of accidents, e.g. B. Helium and other leaks, clogging of graphite balls with boric acid crystals, problems with control rods, corrosion and breakage of steel pipes, etc. These have been documented in detail in a study.

For example, on June 13, 1984 B. triggered an emergency shutdown due to defects in fuel elements; there was damage of 26 million US dollars. On September 6, 1984, snow and storms caused the emergency power supply to fail. On October 3, 1987, leaking oil caused a fire in the turbine room and extensive damage.

Gloomy record

Like other high-temperature reactors, Fort St. Vrain had poor performance. The reactor was never operated above 73% of its capacity and was shut down from June 23, 1984 to April 11, 1986 after problems with control rods. On August 18, 1989, he was shut down due to a stuck control panel; 11 days later its permanent closure was announced...

12. June

Gorleben BGZ scrapped Transport container for castors

Disposal of Castor transport containers:

Scraped like an old bike

The operator of the Gorleben interim storage facility has old Castor hoods scrapped. Opponents of nuclear power warn of the radiation and demand a free measurement.

GOETTINGEN taz | Opponents of nuclear power in Wendland are seriously irritated. It was with "great concern" that we learned from the local press that transport cases from castor containers were disposed of in a normal junkyard without them having been cleared beforehand, says Wolfgang Ehmke, spokesman for the Lüchow-Dannenberg citizens' initiative (BI) for environmental protection. The federal company for interim storage (BGZ), operator of the two nuclear waste interim storage facilities in Gorleben, had the metal hoods shredded by a scrap dealer in the district town of Lüchow.

[...] Citizens' initiative wants to turn to nuclear supervision

"It is completely unclear to us why this clearance measurement did not take place," says Ehmke. "And that this may have put workers at risk." The citizens' initiative now wants to contact the nuclear supervisory authority in the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment ...

Georgia | Hydropower | Wind energy

energy geopolitics

Green electricity from the Caucasus

Ukraine did it last year - and sooner or later Georgia would also like to become part of the European electricity network. The Caucasus country can also bring a gift that is coveted in Europe: Green electricity.

The Akhaltsikhe substation is located at an altitude of 1.100 meters in the Lesser Caucasus. The construction plan for the switches had to be specially adapted to the thin air so high up, says Thomas Arlt, project manager at the engineering service provider Fichtner in Stuttgart.

Arlt once sat in the control room of the Boxberg lignite-fired power plant in Lusatia. That was long ago. Georgia, the country between the peaks of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, has been his second home for a good 30 years.

During that time, Arlt helped patch and modernize Georgia's dilapidated power system. From 2009, hundreds of kilometers of power lines were newly built or upgraded as part of the "Black Sea Transmission Network", largely co-financed by the German development bank KfW, which is still advertised by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau ...

SIPRI | Armament

SIPRI report Nuclear powers drive rearmament

According to the peace research institute SIPRI, the nuclear powers are strengthening their nuclear arsenals. After the start of the war against Ukraine, transparency also decreased. A significant increase in warheads was recorded in China.

According to the Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI, all nuclear weapon states have accelerated their nuclear armament. In their annual report, the researchers warn of the increasing number of operational nuclear weapons. "We are drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history," said SIPRI Director Dan Smith. He called for nuclear diplomacy to be restored and international controls over nuclear weapons to be strengthened.

According to the report, the nine nuclear powers - the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel - are continuing to modernize their nuclear arsenals. According to SIPRI estimates, the global stock of nuclear warheads continued to decrease by almost 2022 to an estimated 2023 from the beginning of 200 to the beginning of 12.512. On the other hand, the number of operational nuclear weapons will increase by 86 to an estimated 9576 ...

Italy | Vulkan

Campi Flegrei: Is the supervolcano threatening to erupt?

Subsurface movements indicate gas ascent and increasing crustal fractures

Potential warning signs: Europe's largest active supervolcano could be heading for an eruption, volcanologists report. They have detected movement patterns in the subsurface of the Phlegraean fields near Naples that indicate rising gas and increasing fractures in the crust. This weakening of the rock could make it easier for magma to rise from deeper zones. However, it is still unclear whether the Campi Flegrei will actually erupt soon or whether the volcano will calm down again.

The largest active supervolcano in Europe lies under the Campi Flegrei near Naples. When this volcanic area erupted almost 40.000 years ago, half of Europe was covered with ash and smoke, and eruptions continued to occur later. The last, rather small, eruption to date occurred in 1538. Since then, the Phlegraean fields have been calmer, but by no means inactive, as evidenced by gas leaks, hot springs and tens of thousands of volcanic earthquakes.

Hidden Danger

But how high is the risk of a new outbreak? This question has occupied volcanologists for decades. The activity of this supervolcano has increased again since the 1950s: underground gas pressure and temperatures are rising, the magma composition is changing and the underground has risen several times – by around four meters below the small coastal town of Pozzuoli, according to Christopher Kilburn from University College London and his colleagues report...

11. June

Colonial | prosperity | truth and enlightenment

A pedestal must remain

After the crimes of colonialism, the West now has its back against the wall. And yet we must hold fast to the values of the Enlightenment.

We still struggle to understand colonialism and slavery as part of our own history. In the collective memory, both remain external events that, at worst, happened on the periphery of Europe. Colonialism created the economic prosperity of the West in the first place and thus the secure basis on which we were able to forge our moral ideals of a peaceful order of freedom and equality. Not only did our wealth emerge on the bloody soil of colonial exploitation, but also the normative principles with which we have always justified our global pioneering role. It is therefore more than appropriate to critically question these ideals, our previous thoughts and actions...

lobbyists of energy have Climate protection verhindert

Who prevents climate protection at the CDU/CSU:

Hardliners, defectors, lobbyists

When Union politicians thwart climate protection, there is money behind it - or ideology. A few selected examples.

During his time as a member of the Bundestag, Georg Nüßlein overturned the statutory remuneration for solar and wind power fed into the grid. At the same time, he attracted attention with sideline activities, for example on the supervisory board of Sfirion AG, which builds diesel power plants and wind farms.

Lars Rohwer, who was elected to the Bundestag in 2021, sits on the supervisory board of the lignite group Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG, which will bring him a good 10.000 euros this year. In the Bundestag he said: "The current plans for the massive expansion of wind turbines and photovoltaics are destroying our networks."

In 2008, the confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of State Hildegard Müller moved to the head of the energy industry lobby association. There she created the campaign "Energy is not black and white" to create a social climate for extending the life of nuclear power plants. In 2016 Müller switched to RWE, and since 2020 she has been the top car lobbyist - President of the "Association of the Automotive Industry". In return, she receives an annual salary of 1 million euros, more than twice as much as the chancellor once received...

Nuclear waste | Repository | Transmutation

Research on high-tech processes

How nuclear waste could be rendered harmless

Nuclear waste is dangerous. The previous solution: store it deep in the ground. But can't you just turn the radiant elements into harmless ones? In fact, such a process is being researched - it's called transmutation. Is it the solution to the repository problem?

[...] It will still be some time before the transmutation is finally ready for use on an industrial scale, according to Röhlig: "Back in the 1990s it was said that it would take another 30 years for the technology to mature. Today it always is 30 years to go. So it's a bit like nuclear fusion." Research into P&T also consumes a lot of money. In the end, it should be more expensive than simply setting up a repository for nuclear waste, says the expert.

Harald Welzer about Economy and Future:

It's the economy, ecos.

If we want to get serious about the socio-ecological transformation, we have to put the economy at the center of our transformative activities.

»Economy is understood to mean all human activities that make planned and efficient decisions about scarce resources with the aim of satisfying needs as best as possible. The need to manage arises from the scarcity of goods on the one hand and the unlimited human needs on the other.«

Ah, Wikipedia, you source of infinite knowledge, you fascinating proof of the swarm intelligence of humans too! According to your profound definition, all the nonsense that the economy tirelessly and with constant success would not exist: who would ever have felt the need to buy a three-ton electric car that could not be parked in a garage or in a parking lot fits, but is designed to look like it came out of a gumball machine? And who would seriously talk about the efficient use of scarce resources after the accelerated expansion of 144 motorways in times of climate catastrophe?

The »unlimitedness of human needs« only exists in the poetics of economics; in reality, human needs are limited, for example, by the fact that people have to die. Or, as the existential philosopher Uwe Seeler put it, "you can't eat more than three steaks a day."

And just as the trivial psychology of "human needs" is only a functional invention for attributing characteristics to people that fit into a completely unlimited, ever-growing economy that is not oriented towards resources and needs, the scarcity of goods is not taken into account as a matter of principle, but permanently increased by overexploitation (scarcity is increased?), as evidenced by the spectacular extinction rates of the species or the planned destruction of soil, forests and water. Ironically, the only resource that is not scarce continues to grow because it is managed so successfully by economists: That's the stupidity...

Canada | Forest fires

Worry about week-long wildfires

According to official information, the forest fires in Canada will last even longer. In the province of Quebec, the fight against the fire threatens to drag on "all summer", according to the authorities. Most recently, more than 400 fires blazed in the country.

According to the authorities, the forest fires in Canada will continue for weeks. "We are facing a battle that we believe will continue throughout the summer," said Quebec's security minister François Bonnardel.

"It's the first time in Quebec's history that we're fighting so many fires and evacuating so many people," the minister said. A total of 416 forest fires blazed in Canada on Saturday, 203 of them out of control...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Current news+

The West is scaring away the Global South

How the West Loses the Global South

Global South no longer willing to simply follow the West. The war in Ukraine showed that. What does that have to do with the narrow-mindedness of Western countries? (Part 1)

Lawrence Summers is concerned. The former US Treasury Secretary attended the latest spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank and noted that there were worrying signs that the US was becoming "lonely". In contrast, other powers banded together.

His quote from a participant from a developing country, who surprised Summers with the explanation, went viral on the Internet: "We'll get an airport from China and instructions from the USA."

"So most countries, especially the developing countries, know exactly what contributes more to their development," the Chinese Global Times comments on this process.

It can hardly be formulated more aptly. Because it is not just the effective development efforts, especially by China, that the West has nothing to oppose. It is narrow-mindedness, hostility and messianic zeal that lead Western politicians to ignore the interests of the Global South and even those of major partners such as China, Brazil, Turkey or India.

Narrowed West vs. the Rest debate

The "West against the rest" attitude, which has spread in the West as a result of the Ukraine war, shows this in an almost exemplary way. Suddenly all countries outside of NATO are only rated according to the scheme "support Ukraine or oppose us".

The German foreign minister, in particular, has regularly made herself impossible in recent times because she has demanded subordination to NATO's strategic goals from the countries she has visited - contrary to their economic interests. The appeal to India, for example, to support the economic sanctions unilaterally imposed on Russia by most NATO countries means nothing else.

Something like that doesn't go over well. "While Western allies agree that Russia must be crushed in a gigantic struggle between democracies and autocracies, the skeptical rest, especially from the developing world, are calling for peace and compromise," comments the South China Morning Post. A "chaotic peace" is always preferable to a "monstrous war".

A large part of the public in the South obviously shares this opinion. In February 2023, the European Council on Foreign Relations published survey results that clearly show this. "Citizens in China, India and Turkey prefer a quick end to the war, even if Ukraine has to cede territory." ...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Background knowledge

The map of the nuclear world

The north delivers technology and weapons to the south...

The internal search for

The West is scaring away the Global South

brought the following results, among others:

June 7, 2023 - Climate Change: We owe the Global South $170 trillion

March 16, 2023 - Twenty years ago when the US was Putin

February 25, 2023 - The double standards of the West when dealing with international law

December 18, 2022 - One UN for all

YouTube

Keyword search: neocolonialism

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

Videos:

probono magazine from September 11, 2016 - 5:53

EPA - or how Europe enriches itself with Africa

ARTE Re: from November 18, 2022 - 32:14

The Legacy of Colonialism

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

Ecosia

This search engine is planting trees!

Keyword search: neocolonialism

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

Wikipedia

neocolonialism

Neocolonialism (from ancient Greek νέος néos, German 'new' and colonialism) is a term for the relationship between the states and corporations of the industrialized nations and countries of the Global South after the dissolution of the colonial empires in the 20th century. The first Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah wrote in 1965 with his work Neocolonialism - The Last Stage of Imperialism for the first time an economic analysis of the political economy of neocolonialism with the claim of a continuation of Lenin's theory of imperialism and his work Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism ...

[...]

Criticism of the IMF and World Bank

In the 1980s, the Western-dominated financial institutions International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank developed the system of structural adjustment measures. Here, decisions on the granting or non-granting of loans or the granting of debt relief were linked to the condition of market-oriented economic reforms. These adjustment measures, also known as the Washington Consensus, included privatizations of public companies, relaxation of trade restrictions, and general deregulation of markets for investors. The consequences are the sale of state-owned businesses and infrastructure to foreign companies, which leads to a further loss of autonomy and the deterioration of public services such as health and education systems.

The accusation leveled at the IMF and World Bank is that countries are forced by these organizations to take measures that are primarily in the interests of the rich countries and their businesses, but which take little or no account of the development of the economies concerned - often with the Result that the poverty of the population is even increasing. Examples include the Argentina crisis (1998-2002) or the largely unsuccessful negotiations to date (2004) on opening the US and EU markets to agricultural products from African countries...

BpB - Federal Agency for Civic Education

Neocolonial world order? Breaks and continuities since decolonization

The notion that some peoples are incapable of self-government and are therefore dependent on the help of more "civilized" peoples to graciously minister for them seems as absurd as it is anachronistic today. Nevertheless, decades after almost all colonies have fought for or been granted independence, the accusation of colonialism is still loud: Even after formal decolonization, we did not live in a post-colonial, but in a neo-colonial world order.

This article aims to pursue this accusation and use a few examples to examine the breaks and continuities that can be found on closer examination of the post-colonial era. First, what is meant by colonialism and neocolonialism is defined, before phenomena from different areas – world economy, military, development cooperation, agriculture, biodiversity, migration as well as culture and media – are discussed with regard to these definitions. It is also discussed whether and to what extent the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are "instruments of exploitation" of the Global South or whether globalization and development cooperation can be described as new forms of colonialism ...

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Newsletter XXIII 2023 - June 4st to 10th

Newspaper article 2023

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