Newsletter XXIX 2023

Northwest Greenland was ice free 400.000 years ago. It was as warm then as it is today. It is frightening which parts of the country were under water because of this. What are we facing?

Bad news from the ice. Very bad. An international team of European scientists has discovered that north-west Greenland was ice-free around 400.000 years ago. At a time when global temperatures were about the same as today...

Does the father of the atomic bomb bear responsibility for the bomb and the Problems with the nuclear industry?

J. Robert Oppenheimer and Manhattan project

Who was the "father of the atomic bomb"?

American physicist Oppenheimer is best known as the leader of the Manhattan Project and the inventor of the atomic bomb. But his legacy is far greater. How did he spend his life between science, politics and morality?

"Throughout his life he filled everyone around him with a sense of enthusiasm for science," wrote the physicist Hans Bethe about his contemporary J. Robert Oppenheimer. Photographs show Oppenheimer as a slender man with a determined gaze - often with a floppy hat on his head and a bulky pipe in his mouth.

In 1963, at the request of President John F. Kennedy, Oppenheimer received the Enrico Fermi Award, the highest award from the American Atomic Energy Agency. But who was the man who went down in history as the "father of the atomic bomb"? Has he ever regretted his invention?...

Chomsky | Climate Crisis | cooperation with China

Noam Chomsky on the most dangerous point in human history

Chomsky says: The nuclear risks have been increased by US triumphalism. The climate crisis in particular requires cooperation with China. And what does neoliberal inequality have to do with the rise of the right? Part 1

We live in a world facing existential threats, while extreme inequality is tearing our societies apart and democracy is in sharp decline. The US wants to maintain its global hegemony, despite the urgent need for international cooperation to address the many challenges facing our planet.

In an interview, Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential intellectuals alive, explains why we are at the most dangerous point in human history and why nationalism, racism and extremism are resurgent all over the world today. The interview is conducted by political scientist CJ Polychroniou.

Noam, you say the world is at the most dangerous point in human history. Why do you think that? Are nuclear weapons more dangerous today than in the past? Is the rise of right-wing authoritarianism in recent years more dangerous than the rise and subsequent spread of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s? Or is it because of the climate crisis, which you said is the greatest threat the world has ever faced? Please explain to us why you think the world is a lot more dangerous today than it used to be?

Noam Chomsky: The climate crisis is unique in human history and is getting worse every year. Unless significant steps are taken within the next few decades, the world is likely to reach a point of no return and decline into unspeakable catastrophe. Nothing is certain, but this assessment seems all too plausible.

The weapon systems are becoming more and more dangerous and menacing. Since the bombing of Hiroshima, the sword of Damocles has been hanging over us. A few years later, 70 years ago, the US and then Russia tested thermonuclear weapons, showing that human intelligence is so advanced that it can destroy anything...

July 22, 2007 (INES Class.?) Unterweser, DEU

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Unterweser (Niedersachsen)

On July 22, 2007, it was discovered that a fitting in one leg of the refrigeration system was improperly adjusted. In the event of an accident, the line would not have been able to provide the required cooling capacity.

Wikipedia

KKW Unterweser

... The cause was an incorrect adjustment of the electronic position indicator on the valve during the inspection in 2006. This was not noticed until the inspection in 2007.

21 July

road construction | CO2 emissions

Petroleum-free asphalt

This new material could transform road construction around the world

With a newly developed asphalt binder, the road construction market leader Strabag wants to improve its CO2 balance and reduce its dependence on bitumen, a refinery waste product. What can petroleum-free biotumen do?

Up until now, not a single meter of road has been asphalted without the petroleum-based binding agent bitumen. However, the tough material also contributes to the fact that CO2 emissions are generated en masse: around 350 kilograms of carbon dioxide per tonne of bitumen.

[...] Now the Cologne-based Strabag and its Viennese parent company are surprising with news that seems to solve the two bitumen problems - environmental impact and supply uncertainty - in one fell swoop. Biotumen is the magic word. Strabag is cooperating with the start-up B2Square/Bitumen beyond Oil from Meerbusch near Düsseldorf. It has developed a bitumen replacement made from naturally occurring hydrocarbon resin and a viscous cashew shell extract...

Energy transition with Hydrogen from Luderitz (NAM) and Luderitz (DEU)

Energy transition in Lüderitz

How municipalities in Africa and in the Altmark want to benefit from the energy transition

One of the world's largest plants for hydrogen production is to be built in Lüderitz in Namibia. A small village in the Altmark is also called Lüderitz and is a partner municipality of the African port city. Municipalities are struggling with similar problems and support each other.

In Lüderitz, Namibia, hope has been at home for decades. First the big port should bring the upswing, then an airport and tourism. Now the construction of one of the world's largest production facilities for green hydrogen is making headlines. A consortium called Hyphen with German participation wants to produce around 350.000 tons of hydrogen annually in the West African desert in about five years. It would be a gigantic project – should it come to fruition. But what worries the people in Lüderitz most is the question of what they can gain from it.

There is a similar discussion about 12.000 kilometers further north. Here, too, there are questions about what the residents get out of the energy production in their region and how they can participate in it. Lüderitz is a part of the municipality of Tangerhütte in Saxony-Anhalt. Apart from the African port city, the municipality in the Altmark is the only place in the world that has that name. And for several years, Lüderitz (Germany) and Lüderitz (Namibia) have been linked by a municipal partnership...

EU Commission | Decarbonization | Hydrogen economy | Steel production

Green steel: EU Commission approves largest German decarbonization project

Berlin - The largest decarbonization project in Germany to date has reached an important milestone. Yesterday (July 20.07.2023, XNUMX), the European Commission granted state aid approval for support for the decarbonization of steel production at Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK).

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe is planning to build a direct reduction plant with smelters in Duisburg at the site of Europe's largest steel works as part of the "tkH2Steel" project. The project aims to take the next important step towards decarbonising steel, the most carbon-intensive industry, and ramping up the hydrogen economy. The BMWK will fund the project together with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with around 2 billion euros. Up to 2 million tons of CO3,5 emissions are to be saved annually...

materials research | Cement | roman concrete

Roman architecture

Mystery of Roman concrete deciphered?

Researchers are discovering the key ingredients and processes that contribute to Roman concrete's superior durability
The use of lime clasts and a hot mixing process are critical to the longevity of the material
The findings could contribute to the development of more environmentally friendly building materials

The structures of ancient Rome are known for their impressive longevity. A key element of this durability is Roman concrete, the composition of which has long been a mystery. Researchers have now gained new insights that could reveal the secret of this ancient building material.

Cambridge (USA). The ancient Romans were masters of architecture. Its structures and streets have survived the millennia and will likely survive for many more centuries to come. In comparison, many modern buildings become brittle after just a few decades. A key element of Roman architecture is concrete, the composition and manufacturing process of which have long been a mystery. Roman concrete, also known as opus caementicium, was a material used by the Romans in a variety of structures and infrastructure, from aqueducts and roads to temples and baths.

[...] Unlike modern concrete, which often begins to crumble after a few decades, Roman concrete has the ability to last for millennia...

France | Wind turbines | NPP Penly

"Dependence on nuclear energy is risky"

Renewable energies in France: fight against wind turbines

France has relied on nuclear power for decades, but President Emmanuel Macron also wants to expand renewable energies. Fishermen in Le Tréport, Normandy, are up in arms about a wind farm project off their coast - but they are less concerned about the expansion of the nearby Penly nuclear power station.

[...] Unlike before, offshore wind power in France is now receiving support from the very top. Emmanuel Macron sees it as a pillar of France's strategy to achieve energy neutrality by 2050. Last fall, the president inaugurated the first French offshore wind farm with 80 wind turbines in Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic coast. Further projects have started in other regions, there are expected to be 50 in total. Although France has 2800 kilometers of coastline, offshore wind farms, like those on land, have been neglected for years...

20 July

Nuclear waste | Repository | Site Selection Act

Repository search: Scold for the anniversary

Nuclear power opponents criticize bogus participation and unscientific

Ten years after the Bundestag passed the site selection law, opponents of nuclear power have sharply criticized the course of the search for a repository for the highly radioactive nuclear waste. The search procedure does not meet the legal and self-imposed requirements, said the anti-nuclear organization broadcast on Thursday. There is "no trace" of the promised participation. With the Site Selection Act, which was amended again in 2017, Parliament restarted the search for a repository.

In doing so, one should have learned from the mistakes and experiences in Gorleben, placed scientific focus in the foreground, created transparency about the selection steps right from the start and effectively involved the citizens, said Helge Bauer from broadcast. However, the Federal Atomic Waste Agency BASE and the Federal Agency for Disposal (BGE) commissioned with the site search have failed to date due to these challenges...

Photovoltaics | Solar Panels | Balcony

Top 5: The best balcony power plants from 219 € - Specialist shops better than discounters

Balcony power plants are cheap, easy to install and reduce electricity costs. We show which mini PV systems performed best in the tests.

The costs of small photovoltaic systems with a current feed-in of up to 600 watts are amortized after about two to three years. However, our experiences from the tests show that systems sometimes differ greatly in terms of performance, reliability and ease of use. In this list of the best, we show which balcony power plants with and without storage function most reliably in practice...

Green hydrogen | photosynthesis | enzymes

Breakthrough: Enzymes produce green hydrogen with 90% efficiency

Green hydrogen can also be produced with significantly higher efficiency and without expensive catalyst materials. This has been shown by a research team from Tel Aviv University. They rely on enzymes that are also known from photosynthesis.

[...] The Israeli scientists' new process relies on the small amounts of hydrogen that can be found everywhere in the atmosphere. A large part of this comes from the photosynthesis processes of microorganisms. Here enzymes ensure that water is split into hydrogen and oxygen and is available for further reactions. In principle, it is also possible that these enzymes are not supplied with the necessary energy by sunlight, but by electrical current...

Vattenfall | offshore | Project costs

Endangered energy transition

Vattenfall stops construction of offshore wind farm

High inflation and rising capital costs make the energy turnaround on the high seas more expensive. The Vattenfall group is now pulling the ripcord on a larger project. Other projects are also at risk.

The Swedish energy supplier Vattenfall has stopped its 1,4 gigawatt Norfolk Boreas wind farm project off the coast of Great Britain. The main reason for this are cost increases of up to 40 percent, the group board said. The wind farm should supply electricity for around 1,5 million households.

[...] Vattenfall won the contract for Norfolk Boreas at auction last year at a fixed price of 37,35 pounds per megawatt hour. Even then, some developers warned that this price guarantee could make the projects uneconomic due to rising project costs, inflation and interest rates...

Spain | Santa Maria de Garona NPP

Dismantling of Garoña begins following transfer of ownership

Spanish decommissioning and waste management firm Enresa has assumed ownership of the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant from Nuclenor to undertake the first phase of its dismantling. A two-phase decommissioning strategy lasting about ten years is planned for the plant.

Garoña's 446 MWe boiling water reactor began operations in 1971 and was deemed by the regulator, CSN, to be suitable for operation until 2019 given certain technical upgrades. In September 2012, operator Nuclenor - a joint venture of Endesa and Iberdrola - missed the deadline to submit an operating licence renewal application for Garoña, meaning that it had to shut by the time its licence expired on 6 July 2013. However, the reactor was closed in mid-December 2012 to avoid a full year of retroactive tax charges for which Nuclenor would have been liable if it was operating on 1 January 2013...

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

Greenpeace | Climate friendly | air travel | Go by train

Climate-friendly rail travel is usually more expensive than flying

Greenpeace study compares prices on 112 European routes

Whether holiday trips, family visits or business trips: When choosing between train and air travel, the price plays a decisive role. Train travel is predominantly (71 percent) more expensive than comparable climate-damaging air travel, shows a Greenpeace study that examines price differences on popular European routes (online: https://act.gp/3pWrEUG). Deutsche Bahn can only offer lower prices on 23 of the 112 routes analyzed. Traveling to 31 destinations within, from and to Germany is around 50 percent more expensive on average than by plane. If you want to travel at short notice, traveling by train is particularly expensive. "More and more people want to travel by train and do without flights, but the lack of a kerosene tax and other climate-damaging subsidies for the airline industry are distorting prices...

pacifist | Einstein | Oppenheimer | Franklin D. Roosevelt

"No other possibilities"

When the pacifist Einstein advertised the atomic bomb in the USA

The new blockbuster "Oppenheimer" also sheds light on Albert Einstein's connection to the atomic bomb. Today his conflict is a symbol for the dangers of science

On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein signed a memorable letter that is now a museum piece. In it he warns then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "that it may become possible to trigger nuclear chain reactions in a large quantity of uranium, thereby generating enormous amounts of energy (...)". That would be "almost certainly" to be expected in the immediate future. "The new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs." Above all, the developments of the last four months would have made this scenario possible. Finally, Einstein writes: "I have learned that Germany has stopped selling uranium (...)." His conclusion: Germany needs the uranium itself because it has started work on an atomic bomb. Almost exactly a month later, Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began. It ended in 1945 when the United States dropped the first two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Ukraine | MiK military-industrial complex | Tanks

Ukraine: Why the massive US military budget doesn't pay off on the battlefield

The $850 billion military-industrial complex is not built to fight wars. This is shown by the desperate struggle of the Ukrainians with US weapons. Why is that?

When I recently saw a video of Ukrainian troops stepping out of a US-supplied Bradley main battle tank after it hit a mine, I was reminded of how much US Army bureaucrats and contractors who build these military vehicles... developed, fought to make it a death trap for anyone who sits in it.

As originally designed, Bradley tanks will immediately burst into flames when struck by anything significantly more powerful than a bullet, incinerating all occupants. The bureaucrats surrounding tank design were well aware of this shortcoming, but halting development for a redesign would have hit their budget, so they delayed and cheated on testing to keep the program on track. Before a test, they secretly replaced the explosive ammunition with containers of water...

19 July

France | Wind power | offshore

France: New nuclear power plants still in planning - New offshore wind farms already in operation

Münster – France is sticking to nuclear energy despite the massive outage of nuclear power plants in 2022. While the construction of the new nuclear power plants is still in the planning phase, more new offshore wind farms are being quietly connected to the electricity grid in France.

In view of its aging fleet of 56 nuclear power plants, France had publicly announced the construction of at least six new nuclear power plants. In the next 25 years, however, 40 GW of offshore wind power capacity is also to be built. While the nuclear power plants are still being planned, in 2023 new offshore wind farms will go into operation in France after a relatively short construction period and will produce electricity...

Electricity price | green power | power consumption | Electricity mix

Less green electricity, but a larger share in the grid

Mainly thanks to lower electricity consumption, green electricity reached new record levels in the electricity mix in the first half of the year. This is shown by the half-yearly balances of the Fraunhofer Institute ISE and the Federal Environment Agency.

Since the summer heat has set in in Germany, the price of electricity on the exchange has regularly fallen to zero and even below. The main reason is the recent strong expansion of photovoltaics. At some times of the day, renewable energies cover the entire electricity requirement in Germany.

In the electricity mix that comes out of the socket - in industry jargon: public net electricity generation - green electricity achieved a share of almost 58 percent in the first six months of this year, significantly more than the almost 52 percent in the previous year...

Siemens | Framatome | Rosatom

How Framatome and Siemens Energy support Russia

Greenpeace report: Russian interests in Ukraine are benefiting from ongoing nuclear deals between both companies and the state-owned company Rosatom.

Framatome and Siemens Energy support Russia's economic and geopolitical interests by continuing to supply high technology and know-how to the Russian state-owned company Rosatom. This emerges from a report published today by Greenpeace France and Greenpeace Germany. The companies are ignoring Rosatom's active involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Greenpeace demands that Rosatom be added to the EU list of sanctioned Russian companies without delay...

United States | Don Trumpl | Michigan

Prominent Republicans

16 "fake voters" charged with conspiracy in Michigan

Joe Biden won the 2020 election - also in the state of Michigan. But there, 16 voters conspired to report a list of "Trump votes" to Washington. Republicans now face lengthy prison terms.

In the US state of Michigan, 16 suspects have been charged with trying to tip the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in favor of the losing then-incumbent Donald Trump. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Tuesday the defendants secretly met in the basement of Michigan's Republican Party headquarters in December 2020 and falsified voter certifications.

They falsely stated that, as Trump voters, they were the legally elected voters in the state in the north of the United States, Nessel said. Democrat Joe Biden won the Michigan election. The accused then sent the lists to the US Senate in Washington and to the National Archives.

The accused Republicans are prominent politicians in the state - like former party vice president Meshawn Maddock...

war of aggression | politics and media | double standard

Baerbock: Putin on trial (but not the western mass murderers)

The German Foreign Minister is recognized for her speech before the UN Security Council. Aggressive wars should no longer go unpunished, she demands. Seriously?

In a speech at the UN Security Council in New York on Monday to commemorate 25 years of the so-called Rome status of the International Criminal Court, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) called for a reform of the statute. According to this, aggressive wars should also be pursued without restriction in the future, even if the aggressor state is not a contractual partner.

She also supports the proposal to try Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leadership in a special tribunal.

In the speech, Baerbock lamented:

Because if we don't respond, if the international community's response to Russia's aggression is impunity; if Russia, which has not signed the Rome Statute, can never be prosecuted for its war of aggression against Ukraine - then our world will be a place where all states will live in fear of a larger neighbor. I don't want to live in such a world. None of us want to live in such a world. We have a responsibility to try. We must join forces and find ways to close the accountability gap for the "primal crime," the crime of aggression. For Russia's war - and for any future war of aggression, wherever it may take place.

True, it is absolutely frustrating and unbearable that state aggressors usually do not have to answer for their actions during their lifetime. It is also true that Putin and the Russian leadership are waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and committing serious crimes.

But the German Foreign Minister's complaint to the UN is hypocritical and mendacious. Because law presupposes universality, without which it cannot exist. Equal must be treated equally. But that shouldn't be the case...

18 July

Propaganda and agitation with plenty of money

Right media portal "Nius":

Basic principle twisted facts

The media portal "Nius" offers a stage for right-wing hate speech. It is financed by a billionaire and unites Julian Reichelt with Jan Fleischhauer.

Basically, you have to be grateful to Julian Reichelt. His new media portal "Nius" finally ensures order. As long as Jan Fleischhauer was still writing columns for Der Spiegel or Judith Sevinç Basad was working as a freelance journalist, many found it difficult to classify these voices: Liberal pioneers who break through the left corridor of opinion with refreshing brilliance and whose original theses, spiced with a pinch of provocation, should shake us all up? Or just right-wing populist mood makers?

It is certain that "Nius" is right-wing populist propaganda. And also that Jan Fleischhauer and Judith Sevinc Basad work for the portal...

Russia | Uranium enrichment | Uranium hexafluoride | Novouralsk

Nuclear accident in Novouralsk: uranium barrel from Gronau under suspicion

Serious accident in the Russian nuclear complex Novouralsk with at least one fatality

After a serious nuclear accident in Russia with one dead and three injured, citizens' initiatives from Germany are calling for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be involved. The activists suspect that a leaking barrel with depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF6) from the Westphalian uranium enrichment plant in Gronau or its sister plant in the Dutch town of Almelo could have triggered the accident.

[...] Vladimir Slivjak, co-chairman of the Russian environmental organization Ecodefense and winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, describes the explosion and the release of highly toxic and radioactive material in Novouralsk as a "consequence of an extremely low safety culture in the Russian nuclear industry."

Russian environmentalists have repeatedly warned of accidents in the Russian uranium enrichment plants and of the import of uranium waste from Gronau and Almelo, "but the Russian government has not listened." Because the Russian and European nuclear industry thinks above all of their profit and their geostrategic interests, more such accidents are to be feared...

Nazi comparison | Advertising | lying

Advertising bans for unhealthy foods:

Food industry draws Nazi comparison

Food manufacturers compare advertising restrictions for child protection with the upbringing in the Nazi era and the GDR. And reaped criticism from several quarters.

BERLIN taz | The leading association of the food industry has drawn parallels between Federal Minister Cem Özdemir's planned advertising bans for unhealthy food and the Nazi regime and the GDR. “A green food minister must not dictate to citizens what to read/watch, nor to the media what to broadcast. Germany has already had two bad experiences with state education,” wrote the Federal Association of the German Food Industry (BVE) on Tuesday under a Twitter comment by the author of this article. With advertising bans, Özdemir wants to protect under-2s from being tempted to eat an unbalanced diet that contributes to obesity and related diseases...

Rheinmetall arms Russia

How Rheinmetall made money from Russia's rearmament

The war in Ukraine boosted Rheinmetall's share price. What seems to have been forgotten: the group helped to upgrade the Russian army. That's the background.

The Rheinmetall Group, which is now based in Düsseldorf, has an eventful history in the shadow of state armaments. If German politics invests more in armaments, the value of the company will reach peak values. But when the German cartel office puts its foot down, the price suddenly collapses despite good business.

The fact that armaments orders were also landed from Russia after the end of the Cold War did not damage the company's reputation. The group seems to be networked too well in Berlin. Former FDP Minister Dirk Niebel has also been included in the Bundestag lobby register as a representative of Rheinmetall's interests since 2015.

[...]

On November 23, 2004, the Röchling family, who own the company, announced that they would sell their Rheinmetall shares. A day earlier, the Rheinmetall preferred share had reached a new all-time high of EUR 39,99.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rheinmetall shares rose to EUR 25 on February 2022, 101,20 and exceeded the EUR 28 mark for the first time in their history on March 2022, 200...

deep seabed mining | manganese nodules | Seabed

Nobody stops deep-sea mining in international waters

Greenpeace warns of silt and toxins and releases covert video footage of recent seabed tests.

From mid-September to mid-November 2022, the Canadian mining company The Metals Company (TMC) carried out tests with the deep-sea mining vessel "Hidden Gem", which the International Seabed Authority (ISA) approved at short notice. The Swiss Allseas also took part. She owns several special ships. Greenpeace fears that the companies TMC and Allseas would destroy unique, diverse ecosystems directly on the seabed over a license period of thirty years.

The test area was in the Pacific in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Mexico and Hawaii. Covert recordings show how irreversibly the deep sea is being destroyed: First, bulldozers suck up the top four to ten centimeters of the seabed. Machines then filter out the manganese nodules so that they can then be pumped to the surface of the water through a riser pipe system and processed further on land. In total, more than 3000 tons of metal-bearing nodules were collected over a length of eighty kilometers...

the European Commission | Decarbonization | CO2 capture

EU Innovation Fund

EU Commission selects 7 innovative large-scale decarbonization projects in Germany

Berlin - On July 13, 2023, the European Commission, in the third call for funding within the framework of the EU Innovation Fund, in addition to Meyer Burger's HOPE project for the construction of new production capacities for the manufacture of PV modules in Thalheim, Bitterfeld-Wolfen (Saxony-Anhalt) six further large innovative decarbonization projects in Germany preselected.

These are two projects for CO2 separation in the cement and lime industry, a 157 MW electrolyser and an electrolyser production facility, a plant for the production of innovative PEM stacks and an electrified pilot plant for plastics recycling...

17 July

Fridays for Future | Transport Minister Wissing | refusal to work

Review from Fridays for Future:

Fridays demand Wissing's dismissal

Fridays for Future presents its own emergency program for traffic: Minister Volker Wissing has to go - because of "refusal to work".

BERLIN taz | According to the Climate Protection Act, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) should have presented an emergency program by Monday at the latest to compensate for the climate targets from 2022 that were missed in his area. Because Wissing did not comply, Fridays for Future (FFF) presented its own emergency program for the transport sector - and called for Wissing's dismissal. The transport minister is not fulfilling his legal obligations, said FFF spokesman Pit Terjung on Monday in Berlin.

FFF's emergency program envisages a speed limit of 120 on motorways and an immediate stop to the construction and expansion of motorways and federal roads, including the 144 new motorway projects planned by Wissing. In addition, the climate protectors are calling for the expansion of local public transport and cycling as well as the gradual abolition of motorized private transport. A kerosene tax is also needed. As a last point, FFF demands Wissing's immediate dismissal because of "refusal to work". "He would be fired immediately in every company for that," said spokesman Terjung...

Die Linke | Carola Rackete | Gerhard Trabert | European Parliament

It's a match - Die Linke and Carola Rackete

With the support of the movements for climate justice and against racism in the European Parliament

[...] At a press conference on Monday, Wissler and her co-chair Martin Schirdewan presented their favorites for the European Parliament list. Schirdewan himself wants to return to the European Parliament, the same applies to Özlem Alev Demirel. The surprises are second and fourth places. If the Left leadership has its way, they should be filled by Carola Rackete and Gerhard Trabert. Trabert's proximity to the Left Party has been known for a long time - the poor doctor from Hesse has already stood as a non-party candidate for the Bundestag and in 2022 even as a candidate for the office of Federal President. At the presentation, the social medicine expert said with a wink that if he runs for the EU next year there is even the prospect of having to take office.

But the big surprise is Carola Rackete. The 35-year-old became known as "Captain Rackete" in 2019 because she entered the port of the island of Lampedusa with the sea rescue ship "Sea-Watch 3", although she had been prohibited from doing so by the authorities. Rackete explained her decision with the emergency situation in which the rescued found themselves on board the ship. Italy's interior minister at the time scolded, calling Rackete, whose ship had touched a police boat from the Guardia di Finanza in the port, a "bagger and "criminal" who "got on his balls".

In the European Parliament, Rackete could "get on the nuts" of the environment committee, which she would like to join. Carola Rackete is an ecologist. At the beginning of her appearance on Monday in the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, she said that the elementary human right to a healthy environment is currently the most threatened. Food and arable land would have to be withdrawn from financial speculation and agricultural subsidies would have to be given to ecological, regional farms, Rackete set the first substantive accents...

Slovakia | Westinghouse | AP1000 | SMR

JAVYS from Slovakia signs AP1000 and AP300 agreements

Westinghouse Electric Company has signed MoUs with Slovakian company JAVYS for the potential deployment of its AP1000 reactors and AP300 Small Reactors (SMR) in Slovakia.

Westinghouse stated that the MOUs will "create a framework for the two parties to work together on detailed engineering and development plans, while also exploring next steps to implement proven reactor technologies in Slovakia."

[...] The AP1000, a pressurized water reactor (PWR), is described by Westinghouse as a Generation III+ reactor with fully passive safety systems. Four AP1000 units are currently operational in China - two in Sanmen and two in Haiyang - and two units are scheduled to come online at the Vogtle site in the US over the next year. AP1000 technology has also been selected for planned new nuclear power plants in Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria.

According to Westinghouse, the technology is also being considered for several other sites in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States."

In May, the company introduced its AP300 SMR. This is a single circuit pressurized water reactor based on AP1000 technology. Westinghouse hopes to receive design certification by 2027 and to begin construction of the first reactor block in 2030, which is expected to be operational in 2033...

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

Low-level radiation | Uranium ammunition | Births

Mysterious findings near a large NATO training ground

Suddenly fewer girls were born in five communities in the Lüneburg Heath. Battle poisons are piling up nearby.

Normally 100 to 104 boys are born for every 106 girls. This ratio is fairly stable around the world. In 1984, however, this birth gender ratio changed abruptly in five German communities. There is no explanation for this. But worrying assumptions.

All five communities are located in the Lüneburg Heath in the state of Lower Saxony, in the immediate vicinity of two large NATO military training areas, Munster and Bergen.

[...] For decades, the German Ministry of Defense has said that the Bundeswehr does not have any uranium ammunition. But “Der Spiegel” revealed something different in January 2001: “The Bundeswehr also had uranium ammunition,” was the headline in the news magazine at the time. The secrecy went so far that even the German parliament was not informed about it by the government at the time. According to “Spiegel”, the Bundeswehr probably took over assets from the “National People’s Army of the GDR” and the “Western Group of the Red Army”. “There are indications that eight to ten projectiles were fired.”

Next wrote «Der Spiegel» in January 2001: «The poison was fired [...] also on German soil. At the end of the week, the armaments company Rheinmetall admitted that it had tested DU ammunition in Unterluess, Lower Saxony, in the early 1972s. A professor from Göttingen reported to the "Spiegel" that in 73/17 Rheinmetall had offered him the opportunity to observe test firings with various projectiles that had been manufactured by the company from depleted uranium. In Schrobenhausen, Upper Bavaria, the armaments company MBB even tested DU ammunition for 1996 years until XNUMX...

European Union | Latin America | Mercosur | China

The EU and the CELAC countries

"Leave aside a little arrogance"

The EU is in danger of falling behind China in Latin America. On the continent, people are increasingly surprised about the demands and conditions of the Europeans. Can a summit meeting in Brussels bring new impetus?

The target is the largest free trade zone in the world with more than 720 million people. The EU and the Mercosur countries have been negotiating for more than two decades. An agreement that has been ready to be signed for four years has not yet been ratified.

"I really want to reach an agreement with the European Union," Brazilian President Lula da Silva insists, "but that's not possible. The European Union's latest proposal doesn't allow for an agreement."

[...] Mercosur agreement as a litmus test

A strategic partnership - that's exactly what Brussels wants with the countries of Latin America. The Mercosur agreement seems like a litmus test.

Political scientist Oliver Stünkel explains that he speaks weekly with Brazilian politicians and decision-makers in the other Mercosur countries. Nobody really understands what is happening in Europe, how decision-making processes work there. "It's all a bit confusing. The longer this is delayed, the greater the disillusionment will be if ratification doesn't take place after all."

Europe is in danger of falling significantly behind in Latin America. The big competitor is China. The trade volume between the Middle Kingdom and the Mercosur states is around 180 billion dollars, between Mercosur and the EU states a good 120 billion dollars...

Volkswagen | E-car promotion | Electricity price

VW manufactures fewer electric cars - the beginning of the end?

German car companies are falling behind when it comes to e-mobility. As action is taken against higher emission limits, China and the US are moving forward. Is there a threat of decline like that of the German solar industry?

In view of the alleged reluctance to buy e-cars, the VW board of directors has decided to curb the production of e-cars at the Emden plant.

The reasons given are a reduction in subsidies in Germany and high electricity prices. This justification is not convincing, especially given the fact that electricity prices have continued to fall in recent weeks and months and that Volkswagen is not only selling e-cars in Germany.

However, it is particularly noteworthy that sales of e-cars are also increasing rapidly in Germany. The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has published the registration figures for June - and thus also the half-year balance for the first half of 2023. According to this, almost 54.000 fully electric vehicles were registered in Germany in June, which corresponds to an increase of 64 percent compared to the same month last year.

Their share of all registrations was 18,9 percent. In the first half of the year, almost 32 percent more electric cars were registered than in the previous year...

July 17, 1984 (INES 3 NAMS 1,8) Sellafield, GBR

There were about 2,9 TBq radioactive radiation released. A solvent fire in the sludge tank of the sewage treatment plant in building B241 was caused by dripping hot metal during cutting work. (Cost approx. US$33,4 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

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

Wikipedia

Sellafield

The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.

Sellafield # Incidents

Radiological releases

Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...

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

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites

During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...

Youtube

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or anywhere in the world, all have the same problem: With every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced ...

16 July

Extreme right and "Totally normal", Nazis in Brandenburg

Fatal truce

Two teachers criticize Nazi activities at their school. The state government is helping only half-heartedly - a foretaste of next year's elections.

The two teachers who made it public in Burg im Spreewald that students there paint swastikas, show the Hitler salute and racially insult children who have fled will leave the city. Laura Nickel and Max Teske asked to be transferred to other schools in Brandenburg last week.

A pattern repeats itself. Anyone who opposes right-wing extremists, against racist behavior, has to go in the end. And yes, the two teachers have been severely threatened. Also in the past week, unknown persons stuck around 60 stickers with a black and white photo of the teachers and the request “piss off to Berlin” in Burg. But what matters in such a situation is not so much what fascists and their fans do. But what the others are doing who are also still there...

military research | Merzthutjanix | Summer slump

Ban voluntariness?

Daniel Lücking on the civil clause at universities

On the way to the approaching summer slump, CDU leader Friedrich Merz provides topics for discussion. He calls for the abolition of the civil clause at universities, which states that research on military topics may not be carried out there. This is doubly inappropriate, since Merz is interfering with the competence of the federal states on the subject of education on the one hand, and on the other hand wants to abolish something that is a voluntary commitment anyway...

Climate change | Basic Law | climate adaptation

Association of towns and municipalities demands constitutional amendment for climate protection

In the opinion of the Association of Towns and Municipalities, the Basic Law must be changed in order to finance climate protection. The association expects billions in costs.

The Association of Towns and Municipalities is calling for protection against the consequences of extreme weather to be included in the constitution. In view of the billions in costs to be expected, the so-called adaptation to climate change must "in future be anchored as a real joint task in Article 91a of the Basic Law", said managing director Gerd Landsberg of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. The federal government should then make money available to the municipalities for adaptation measures.

Article 91a of the Basic Law regulates such joint tasks, including coastal protection. In the future, the German districts will also have to develop so-called climate adaptation concepts. Landsberg warned that, in addition to realistic goals, there must also be "adequate financing" for planning and implementation. And a sustainable action program is needed...

Heat, Combustion engines and Subsidies

Survived transit rooms, sealed heat protection and flopping e-cars

In Germany, more and more petrol and diesel cars are being registered as e-cars, says Andreas Knie, mobility researcher and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. While the premiums for e-vehicles have almost all expired, combustion engines continue to benefit from tax privileges and diesel subsidies.

[...] Klimareporter°: Although more protective measures have been taken against extreme heat in recent years, tens of thousands continue to die from heat in Europe every year, mostly women, as a new analysis shows. In Germany, the first heat action plan is now being drawn up at federal level. Why are we so late?

Andreas Knie: We in Germany live from repression. For years we believed that we were pioneers in climate and environmental protection. In fact, we are all car listeners and haven't heard the bang.

On average, we seal almost 35 hectares every day just for the transport infrastructure. This means that every day we concrete over an area the size of 17 soccer fields. We are expanding the transport infrastructure without rhyme or reason, as if there were no tomorrow.

We do not have the consequences of this policy on the screen. The heat action plan is again just a clumsy reaction that shows the whole misery of German climate policy: it just doesn't happen.

If we don't start immediately with a consistent unsealing of our cities, the number of heat-related deaths will continue to rise drastically in the next few years. But that is destiny and not worth mentioning, while the protest of the climate stickers is defamed as a terrorist act...

Justice for Members of parliament and unemployed

Top incomes in the Bundestag: Politics as a profit machine

The socially disadvantaged are played off against each other by politicians. But they owe their privileges precisely to the population. We should talk about that.

When Hartz IV became citizen income, it was not the system that changed, but above all the name. The SPD in particular wanted to get rid of a trauma without really changing anything. Still, a debate has erupted about how unfair it is that the unemployed get so little support. Even after crises and strong price increases.

This is unfair to the "hard working" people. They are always fielded when it comes to stepping down. This is how it works over and over again, to put the demarcation to "below" in the foreground and thus to distract from "above"...

July 16, 1979 (INES 3 NAMS 1,9) Sellafield, GBR

In a remote gutting cave in building B30 were caught in a fire 3,7 TBq of radioactivity released. (Cost approx. US$30 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

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

Wikipedia

Sellafield

Sellafield # Incidents

Radiological releases

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

The mushroom cloud stands for atomic or hydrogen bombs, also in the context of tests July 16, 1945 (1st atomic bomb test) Trinity, NM, USA

Wikipedia

The US led the first "Trinity" atomic bomb test in the Alamogordo Test Range when fissile material was found in the Hanford site produced plutonium-239 was used, the explosive power was 20-22 kilotons (kT).

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

Atomwaffen A - Z

Trinity nuclear test

On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear weapon in history exploded over the New Mexico desert in the United States. At the Alamogordo test site, in the desert of the "Jornada del Muerto" (Day's Journey of the Dead), the USA tested a completely new implosion weapon developed in Los Alamos, which was intended to end World War II. The plutonium bomb detonated in the Trinity nuclear test was the same type of bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th, killing 4 people in 64.000 months...

United States of America

nuclear weapon states


Current news+	Background knowledge

Current news+

Climate catastrophe | Fridays for Future | greenhouse earth

"I don't want to be my grandson"

Franz Alt turns 17 on July 85th. In an interview with Volker Hasenauer for “GLAUBE+HEIMAT”, the man from Baden-Baden explains why there is still room for improvement in climate policy and which pacifist beliefs he recently had to reconsider.

At almost 85, what still gives you hope in our crisis-ridden world?

Franz Alt: On the climate issue, the actions of young people at Fridays for Future. I would never have thought it possible that the then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg could start a global campaign in which millions of people around the world have now taken part. That got politics going. Even the German one. Also very important is the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2021, according to which the weak climate protection policy in Germany calls the freedom of the younger generation into question. This was the only way to decide that Germany must be climate-neutral by 2045. That gives me hope.

Can we still limit global warming without catastrophic consequences?

The rich countries are causing the climate crisis and the poor are suffering the most. That's totally unfair. If the rich countries make so little money available to the poor for climate change, as has just become apparent at a conference in Bonn, then we won't make it. In the Paris climate agreement, Germany, like 196 governments worldwide, committed itself to limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees. But we are currently on a course of three to four degrees. If this continues, I don't want to be my grandson who has to live in an inhumane greenhouse earth.

How do you rate German climate protection policy?

The traffic light coalition must finally act instead of just arguing. The FDP in particular is a blocking party. 80 percent of Germans are in polls for climate protection. But woe betide it goes to the purse in the short term! Solar and wind energy are already the cheapest forms of energy. But the populists in the FDP and among the conservatives simply aren't able to think long-term. Take nuclear power as an example: We have relied on nuclear power for two generations in order to have cheap energy. But we are burdening 33 generations with nuclear waste. Because that long - a million years - the garbage emits deadly radiation. How do we want to build a repository for a million years if operators only give guarantees for 000 years? We are the first generation that has lost its brood instinct to care for the generations to come.

Do you also criticize the churches for doing too little to protect the climate and the environment?

Yes. Churches should have woken people up much earlier. Why hasn't there been a solar system on every church roof for a long time now? Jesus already knew in his Sermon on the Mount: “The sun of the Father shines for all. For the just and the unjust.” And it does it for free, environmentally friendly and forever. What are we waiting for? The message of peace from the wonderful young man from Nazareth is the real turning point. And not more and more money for the military worldwide.

After the end of nuclear energy, the coal and gas power plants in Germany were started up again - with fatal environmental consequences...

Unfortunately, this is a consequence of the 16 years of Merkel governments. You slept through the energy transition, although the knowledge was already there. In Germany we could have been at 100 percent renewable energies long ago.

Are the protests of the last generation climate stickers helpful and right?

I absolutely understand her. The failure of us old people has a fatal effect on the life chances of the young. However, it is questionable whether the actions of the climate stickers will not have the opposite of the intended rousing effect. But young people must also be allowed to be irrational!

Psychologists emphasize that stirring up end-time sentiment and fear is counterproductive. Do you need a more positive mood to show progress and motivate people to take part?

The question is how justified the fears are. Simply suppressing fear would be completely wrong. I have to deal with potentially catastrophic developments! Be it global warming or the fear of nuclear weapons...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Background knowledge

The map of the nuclear world

Climate protection is expensive, and money can only be spent once ...

The internal search for

Climate catastrophe | Fridays for Future | greenhouse earth

brought the following results, among others:

May 28th, 2023 - Hedonism in climate change: Why we should be prepared to do without

January 19, 2023 - Climate change: Greenland's heart is also thawing

December 1, 2022 - The New York Times and the new climate deniers

March 14, 2021 - Nuclear energy and climate catastrophe: No bright future

YouTube

Keyword search: climate catastrophe

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

Videos:

MrWissen2go on January 29, 2022 - 13:52 p.m

This is what happens when climate change escalates

ZDFinfo documentary from July 1, 2023 - 42:02

Climate catastrophe in the USA: is the war over water coming soon?

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!

Keyword search: climate catastrophe

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

July 13, 2023 - hot season - ways out of the climate catastrophe

Wikipedia

Climate catastrophe

is the term for climate change with worldwide catastrophic effects. This also includes uncontrolled global warming, for example as a greenhouse-earth scenario. In the mass media in particular, the term is often used 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...

resistance (politics)

Resistance is the refusal to obey or active opposition to the authorities or the government.

It is initially of secondary importance whether the rulers against whom resistance is being exercised exercise their rule legally, legitimately or illegally. Evaluations such as "justified resistance", goals and means of resistance, moral and legal concerns require an observer's point of view: it depends on who, where and at what time the evaluation is made. The resister will always evaluate the resistance differently than the one against whom the resistance is directed. The latter, however, is usually the "authority" who at the same time has the power to define law and order. Accordingly, resistance is outside the set order.

background and demarcation

Resistance as a form of social and political debate has been anchored in European political culture since ancient times. In almost all forms of society there was or is a consensus that resistance can be necessary and legitimate in certain cases. In specific cases, opinions sometimes differ.

Resistance must be distinguished from revolution because it is not fundamentally aimed at reforming the social order. In certain circumstances, the restoration of an old law or a legal system that has been repealed can be the central concern. Nevertheless, a movement that started as a resistance can lead to a revolution...

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Newsletter XXVIII 2023 - July 9th to 15th

Newspaper article 2023

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