Newsletter XXX 2023 |
23. to 29. July
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Nuclear Power Accidents
This PDF file contains a list of known incidents from the various areas of the civil and military nuclear industry. Some of this information only reached the public in a roundabout way. As new information emerges, this list will be updated...
Excerpt for this month:
July 5, 2000 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Grafenrheinfeld, DEU
July 8, 2008 (INES 1 Class.?) Nuclear factory Eurodif, Pierrelatte, FRA
July 10, 1991 (INES 3) NPP Bilibino, RUS
July 10, 1985 (Terror) Rainbow Warrior I, Auckland, FRA
July 14, 1955 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
July 16, 1979 (INES 3 | NAMS 1,9) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
July 16, 1945 (1. Nuclear weapons test) Trinity, NM, USA
July 17, 1984 (INES 3 | NAMS 1,8) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
July 22, 2007 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Unterweser, DEU
July 23, 2008 (INES 0 Class.?) Nuclear factory Tricastin, FRA
July 24, 1964 (INES 4) Nuclear factory UNC Charlestown, RI, USA
July 25, 2006 (INES 2) NPP Forsmark, SWE
July 25, 1979 (INES ? Class.?) EL-3, Paris-Saclay, FRA
July 26, 1959 (INES 6) SNL, Simi Valley, CA, USA
July 27, 2004 (INES 1 Class.?) NPP Neckarwestheim NPP, BW, GER
July 27, 1972 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Surry NPP, VA, USA
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nukleare-welt@reaktorpleite.de
29 July
1,5 degrees | climate impact research | Stefan Rahmstorf
interview of the week
"There is a lack of will" - climate researcher Rahmstorf believes that the 1,5-degree target can hardly be reached politically
The climate researcher Stefan Rahmstorf believes that exceeding the 1,5-degree mark in global warming can hardly be stopped. Politically, given the global situation, this is practically impossible to achieve, he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.
Rahmstorf is an oceanographer at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He emphasized that from a purely physical point of view it is still possible to remain below the value of 1,5 degrees. However, climate protection is not a priority for most governments.
Rahmstorf explained that the issue had to be tackled "like when you're in a war situation and that's simply the top priority." There is no lack of solutions, the necessary technologies already exist, but there is also a lack of political will - also with Chancellor Scholz.
You can read the whole interview here. You can find the audio version here. The interview will be broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on Sunday from 11:05 a.m.
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Ukraine war | Propaganda | Victim
Ukraine: If only Russians die in the war
All warring parties use casualty figures for their propaganda. New death tolls from the Ukraine war show how dangerous it is when the media hide unpleasant things. About a riddle and its solution.
The classic "fog of war" is also having an effect in the Ukraine war. Much of what happens on the battlefield remains vague, unverified, and speculative. The warring parties use this to spread information that is useful to them as widely as possible.
Casualty figures are at the center of all war propaganda. Because they set the mood.
[...] In Great Britain, a survey was conducted in 2013 on the number of victims. It found that around 60 percent of Brits believed that fewer than 10.000 Iraqis died in the war, while 44 percent believed it was fewer than 5000.
Scientific studies at the time assumed at least 500.000 to one million deaths - figures that were practically not mentioned by the press and were immediately disputed...
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Merzthutjanix | CDU | AfD
Merz, the East and the AfD
This balancing act threatens to tear the CDU apart
The AfD is around 20 percent in the RTL and ntv trend barometer. In East Germany, the values are even better. This poses problems for the CDU in particular. She faces the greatest ordeal of her history.
Polls are like the water levels of overflowing rivers, only the other way around: if they sink too much, the parties are up to their necks in water. If they rise, the deep breath follows. The AfD also has a special effect: if its values rise, the threat level for the other parties increases, and as many say, for democracy as a whole. This is currently the case. In the trend barometer of RTL and ntv, the party was last at 19 percent and thus still ahead of the SPD.
This is a problem especially for the CDU. It's not up to its neck in water yet, after all, the Union has been the strongest force in Germany in the polls for the past year. But as party leader Friedrich Merz demonstrated once again at the weekend, the topic contains explosives. With his unfortunate appearance in the ZDF summer interview, he caused an outcry. He had questioned the uncompromising rejection of cooperation with the AfD - at least that's how he was understood, even if he protested that he didn't mean it that way. Merz had said that parliaments would still not work with the AfD, that it would probably be no different in cities and communities.
Even well-meaning critics agreed that it was clumsy at the very least. Merz unnecessarily sparked a new debate about how the CDU was dealing with the AfD...
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Earth overload day | Resources | CO2 emissions
Earth Overshoot Day 2023
As early as August 2nd, the world has used up its ecological resources for the whole year. The earth has now been overexploited for more than 50 years. CO2 emissions account for most of the congestion.
Global Earth Overshoot Day falls on next Wednesday 2nd August this year. The day marks the point in the year by which humanity has claimed as many resources from the earth as all ecosystems can replenish in a whole year. That means people live as if they had 1,7 planets at their disposal. The calculation is carried out every year by the Global Footprint Network (GFN). The German Earth Overshoot Day was already at the beginning of May...
28 July
Japan want the oldest reactors in Takahama bring it back online!
After a break of more than ten years
Japan restarts oldest nuclear reactor
He is 48 years old, was taken off the grid in 2011 for inspection work and lay idle: Now Japan is putting another reactor at the Takahama nuclear plant back into operation.
Japan has restarted a 48-year-old nuclear reactor. Reactor block number 1 at the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture is the oldest operating nuclear reactor in the country. It had been commissioned in 1974 before being taken offline for periodic inspections in January 2011.
Shortly thereafter in March, as a result of an earthquake and massive tsunami, there was a core meltdown in the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and the reactor remained shut down afterwards. On Friday, the operating company Kansai Electric Power (Kepco) drove him again. The reactor is scheduled to generate electricity starting next Wednesday before resuming full operation on August 28. Kepco also wants to restart Block 2. When exactly is not clear yet...
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battery technology | hydrogen production | Power storage
The combination battery is both a rechargeable battery and a hydrogen factory
Zinc-based system stores electricity and produces hydrogen when discharged
Technology for the energy transition: Researchers have developed a cheap battery that can store electricity but also produce hydrogen. This is made possible by a zinc anode and an aqueous electrolyte whose water molecules are broken down when the battery is discharged. In initial tests, a demonstrator of this system achieved an efficiency of 50 percent when storing electricity and 80 percent when producing hydrogen. Lifespan could be ten years.
[...] Researchers from the Zn-H2 project have now developed a battery storage device that is cheap to produce and twice as useful: the zinc-based battery can store electricity efficiently and, in the first prototypes, has achieved an energy density of almost 1.300 watt hours per liter of electrolyte. At the same time, however, this battery can also produce hydrogen. During discharging, electrolysis takes place in the aqueous electrolyte and hydrogen gas is produced.
This is made possible by a further development of already known batteries with zinc anodes. Such zinc batteries are significantly less expensive than traditional lithium-ion batteries and use readily available raw materials such as steel, zinc and potassium hydroxide. The scientists of the Zn-H2 consortium have now combined this battery technology with alkaline water electrolysis and thus developed the new "double storage"...
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Natural gas | LNG | gas lobby
Exit now: how municipal utilities are rebelling against the powerful gas lobby
German gas companies have gained influence in the course of the Russia sanctions. But the criticism is growing, some municipal utilities are leaving the "Zukunft Gas" association. When will the gas exit come?
Natural gas - especially in liquefied form as LNG ("Liquefied Natural Gas") for transport by ship - has become the focus of energy supply after the failure of cheap Russian supplies in the wake of the Ukraine war. This can be observed above all in Germany. The lobbies have used the crisis to present fossil fuels in a favorable light and are propagating its sustainability.
But the burning of gas to generate energy and heat is very harmful to the climate, in many cases even associated with more greenhouse gases than coal or oil. This has to do with the methane emissions during production and transport, the so-called indirect emissions.
However, the gas lobby, united in the "Zukunft Gas" association, presents fossil fuels as a clean solution. It uses its economic power - enhanced by profits made from Russian gas deals - to influence politics and legislation...
27 July
Energy transition | complain | arbitral tribunals | Bundesgerichtshof
BGH declares private arbitration inadmissible
Disputes between investors and states within the European Union must be settled in state courts. This is an important signal for the energy transition.
In the end, no one was surprised when Senate Chairman Thomas Koch announced his verdict. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has now carried out what has become irresistibly clear for a few years: Private arbitration proceedings on investor lawsuits under the Energy Charter Treaty are inadmissible. Disputes between investors and states within the European Union (EU) must be settled in state courts.
The fact that this is news that is not entirely unimportant for the energy transition is illustrated by the three lawsuits that the BGH now had to rule on. In the first case, the Irish project developer Mainstream Renewable Power demanded around 330 million euros from Germany because it saw its investments in offshore wind farms in the North Sea endangered by changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act. The other two lawsuits come from the energy companies RWE and Uniper, which are demanding 1,4 billion or several hundred million euros from the Netherlands - because of the coal phase-out by 2030. They had invested in coal-fired power plants there...
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Wind power | power line | direct current
Long fight over a long line
The plans for the SuedLink power line have been in existence for more than ten years. Today the groundbreaking ceremony took place with Minister Habeck. But the electricity highway from north to south is already leaving deep scars.
[...] In order to achieve climate neutrality in the electricity sector, many kilometers of additional electricity networks would have to be built over the next two decades. Wind power is often generated primarily in northern Germany, but the major consumption centers are in the south and west of the republic.
The BUND environmental association considers the route superfluous
The environmental association BUND sees it differently. Wind power should sensibly be generated where it is needed, said Werner Neumann, spokesman for BUND's federal energy working group. It's more environmentally friendly and cheaper...
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Gulf Stream | Climate collapse | water temperatures
Atlantic tipping point
Gulf Stream could collapse in just a few years
The Atlantic overturning circulation will collapse before the end of this century, a new study predicts. Despite criticism of the forecast, it is becoming apparent that the risk of the tipping Atlantic current has been underestimated so far.
The Atlantic overturning circulation AMOC reaches several thousand meters deep. It ensures the constant exchange of warm and cold water masses in the Atlantic.
Part of the flow system is the Gulf Stream, which is so important for the European climate. For north-western and northern Europe in particular, it acts as a kind of heat pump, without which it would be five to ten degrees colder on average.
A study now published in the journal Nature Communications gives cause for concern. Exactly this drop in temperature could occur later this century...
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EU Commission | Civil protection | Forest fires
Brussels buys more fire-fighting planes to fight forest fires
The EU Commission has announced the purchase of XNUMX new aircraft to increase the capacity of its fleet for firefighting in southern European countries.
The twelve "Canadair" aircraft are fully funded by the EU but based and owned in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
[...] However, these new aircraft will not be available until the 2027 wildfire season.
This comes at a time when wildfires are raging in the Mediterranean and North Africa, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. At least 40 people died.
This month, both Greece and Tunisia activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, allowing them to ask other countries for help fighting fires. Since July 18, around 500 firefighters and nine firefighting planes have been deployed to Greece and Tunisia.
More than 180.000 hectares of land have been destroyed by fire in the EU so far this year, almost 30 percent more than the 20-year average. In Greece, the area burned this year is even 83 percent above the average...
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Heat in Italy, Greece and all around Mediterranean
Heat chaos in southern Europe: power outages, curfew, planes cannot land, holidaymakers leave
An enormous heat wave continues to prevail in southern Europe. With dire consequences. In Malta and Sicily, for example, the electricity repeatedly went out.
Catania/Valletta – The extreme weather continues to keep Europe in suspense. Enormous forest fires are raging in Greece, so that tourists have to be evacuated. In northern Italy, on the other hand, storms cause devastation and also claim human lives. Meanwhile, southern Europe continues to be hit by a brutal heat wave - with consequences that many would not have expected at first.
47,6 degrees Celsius were measured on Monday afternoon around 15 p.m. in Catania, Sicily. According to the Italian news agency Ansa, Catania is the hottest city in Sicily...
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July 27, 2004 (INES 1 Class.?) Neckarwestheim NPP, BW, GER
Wikipedia
Nuclear power plant_Neckarwestheim
At the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant, human error caused an incident in which water from Block II, contaminated with two megabecquerels, got into the Neckar despite countermeasures being taken immediately. For the first time in Germany, the incident led to the operating company of a nuclear power plant (EnBW) having to pay a fine (€25.000). A plant manager was fired because he had made critical comments.
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Neckarwestheim_II_(Baden-Württemberg)
On July 27, 2004, low-level radioactive water escaped from the nuclear power plant and flowed unnoticed into the Neckar. Since the release of radioactive substances was not reported, administrative offense proceedings were initiated ...
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July 27, 1972 (INES ? Class.?) Surry NPP, VA, USA
Two killed when a steam pipe ruptured. (Cost approx. US$1,2 million)
Slowly but surely, all relevant info on nuclear industry disruptions is being removed from the German Wikipedia!
Wikipedia en
Nuclear Power Plant in Surry County in southeastern Virginia...
- On July 27, 1972, two workers were fatally burned after a routine valve adjustment resulted in steam escaping through a gap in a vent line...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
On November 6, 2015, Dominium applied to the NRC for a lifetime extension to 1 years for Surry-2 and -80 to 2052 and 2053. Lifetimes of 80 years are currently the subject of controversy in the USA; Various nuclear experts doubt that safe operation can be guaranteed with such runtimes...
26 July
NASA | Lockheed | Bwx | HALEU | DARPA | nuclear propulsion
BWXT begins work on cislunar nuclear engine and fuel
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has entered into an agreement with Lockheed Martin to begin manufacturing and designing an experimental thermal nuclear missile and its propulsion system. BWX Technologies, one of Lockheed Martin's partners in this project, will develop the nuclear reactor and manufacture the HALEU fuel.
[...] The goal of the DRACO program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion system (NTP) in orbit. NTP uses a nuclear reactor to heat the fuel to extreme temperatures before expelling it through a nozzle to produce thrust. Compared to conventional space propulsion technologies, thermal nuclear propulsion offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio, approximately 10.000 times greater than electric propulsion, and a specific impulse two to five times higher than chemical propulsion...
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Last Generation | Climate movement | Climate activists
Survey on climate activists:
Climate movement is losing support
A survey shows that only half as many people as two years ago support environmental activists. 85 percent reject the last generation.
BERLIN taz | According to a survey, support for the climate and environmental movement in Germany has halved in the past two years. In 2021, 68 percent of those surveyed said that they had their support in principle, in May 2023 it was only 34 percent. This was announced by the organization More in Common, which works for social cohesion and commissioned the online survey of around 2.000 people aged 18 and over, selected according to sociodemographic criteria, from the Kantar Public opinion research institute.
85 percent stated that they had little understanding for the road blockades by the last generation climate protection group. Only 8 percent expressed understanding. 85 percent also judged that the climate and environmental movement as a whole "often goes too far in their protest actions"...
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Wind turbines | distance rule | Repowering
15.000 transport applications for wind turbines are stacked up at Autobahn GmbH
The economic policy spokesman for the FDP in the Bundestag, Reinhard Houben, claims that the expansion of wind power is not happening any faster "because we don't have enough permits for the transport of these wind turbines." In fact, applications are piling up at Autobahn GmbH. A fact check.
- According to experts, in order to advance the expansion of wind power, more transport permits must be granted.
- The federal government is responsible for the permits, but is lagging behind.
- There are deficits in the previous step, the allocation of land for construction.
The federal government's expansion targets for wind energy are ambitious - a bit too ambitious. According to the plan, around 2.000 systems should actually be added nationwide every year. Last year there were only 550.
[...] Based on the database of almost 10.000 systems, he worked out that it typically takes eight years from the initial planning to commissioning. The average processing time of twelve weeks for a transport permit, on the other hand, seems quite manageable.
I can think of a number of recent articles on the subject, including:
April 9, 2023 - More wind turbines are being built in Germany again
May 2, 2022 - Expansion of wind power is faltering - countries hardly make room for wind turbines
February 11, 2022 - Germany no longer needs wind turbines
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heat transition | climate-friendly | heat plan
This is how heating becomes cool
When it comes to warming up, it is now up to the municipalities. With new low-temperature networks, they can protect the climate – and relieve the burden on citizens.
Heat cooler – that seems to be a contradiction in terms. But after the traffic light government finally agreed on a concept for the climate-friendly conversion of the heating supply, so-called low-temperature heating networks could in fact be the solution for many households in Germany.
Houses that were previously heated by natural gas or oil are connected to a common new network that is operated entirely or largely with green energy. The highlight: The temperature level in the network is relatively low, but it is still pleasantly warm in the houses.
And: Homeowners get away cheaper than if they have to invest in a heat pump or pellet heating system themselves...
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Climate change | Temperatures | Greenhouse gases | heat wave
Are the deadly heatwaves driven by climate change?
Energy and climate - compact: New study examines the extreme temperatures in Europe, the USA and China. To what extent are rising greenhouse gases responsible for this? What are we facing?
The severe heat waves that have hit the Mediterranean, China and the US since June are very likely to be related to climate change. That's the finding of a new attribution study published yesterday, Tuesday, by a team of British and Dutch researchers.
According to this, in a world without additional greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the Chinese heat wave would only occur once in 250 years. The extreme high temperatures in North America and southern Europe are "almost impossible" without the mass combustion of fossil fuels...
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July 26, 1959 (INES 6) SNL, Simi Valley, CA, USA
Partial meltdown in the Santa Susana Field Laboratory sodium reactor experiment. (Cost approx. US$38 million)
Wikipedia
At the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, which operated a 7,5 MWe sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, a 30 percent meltdown occurred in this reactor due to a clogged cooling duct. Most of the fission products could be filtered out. However, most of the radioactive gases were released into the environment, resulting in one of the largest iodine-131 releases in nuclear history. The accident was kept secret for a long time ...
accident in 1959
Sodium_Reactor_Experiment#Accident_in_year_1959
... It is very likely that the coolant partially boiled (boiling point of sodium: 883 °C), which allows conclusions to be drawn about the local temperatures. However, the melting temperature of the metallic uranium used as fuel was not reached, only the fuel rod cladding began to turn into a liquid state. The exact date of the damage is unknown, but could be narrowed down to the period between July 12 and 26, 1959.
Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States
AtomkraftwerkePlag
On July 26, 1959, a partial meltdown occurred in the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE), a sodium-cooled reactor with an output of 7,5 to 20 MW at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Moorpark, California.
Because of the high heat, 10 of 43 fuel elements were damaged and radioactive substances were released. The reactor was shut down in February 1964 ...
25 July
Climate protection | Heat pump | Springer | heating law
Energy researcher Quaschning: "The heating law deliberately fueled fears"
Volker Quaschning criticizes that Söder also fought the heating law with false statements. Storms and heat can already be attributed to the climate crisis.
Professor Quaschning, as a scientist you have been fighting for climate protection for years. How did you perceive the debate about the heating law?
Volker Quaschning: I read the debate with great astonishment. The draft law at the beginning was certainly poorly communicated. But then, driven by Springer-Verlag, a campaign against the law began, which was taken up by several parties. This had nothing to do with a factual discussion. Prices and false statements were mentioned here, at which one can only shake one's head as a scientist. For climate protection, we need an objective discussion. If Mr. Merz wants to become Federal Chancellor, he too must comply with the Climate Protection Act.
What would be an example of false statements?
Quaschning: When Mr. Söder claims that buying a heat pump costs up to 300.000 euros, then I don't know how big the villa that goes with it is? A normal heat pump costs 30.000 euros including installation...
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Forest fires | Storms | extreme weather im Mediterranean
Dead after storm in Italy, up to 46 degrees expected in Greece
It's well over 40 degrees hot, forests are burning, in northern Italy a 16-year-old died in a storm: the weather around the Mediterranean is extreme. Greece is not expected to cool down until Thursday.
Heat waves, hailstorms and violent gusts of wind: In regions around the Mediterranean, people are suffering from the extreme weather, and several people have died. At the same time, huge areas of nature are destroyed in forest fires. The situation is particularly bad in Greece, where a new heat wave is expected.
According to the Greek weather office, it should be well over 40 degrees hot there on Tuesday and especially on Wednesday in large parts of the country. In the west, the meteorologists expect even more than 46 degrees on Wednesday. Only on Thursday should it at least "cool down" slightly: to around 35 degrees...
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Japan | lifetime extension | Takahama
Oldest reactor in Japan
People in Osaka demonstrate against restarting a reactor at the Takahama nuclear power plant
Many people in Osaka demonstrated against the planned restart of a reactor in the Takahama nuclear power plant. The reactor was built in the 1970s and in 2021 the city's mayor gave permission for operation.
Many residents of the nuclear power plant gathered in front of the headquarters of the electricity supplier KEPCO in the Kita district of Osaka and criticized the company's plan to bring the reactor back on line after a twelve-year shutdown.
[...] In May, the Japanese government passed a law allowing nuclear reactors to operate for more than 60 years. The reactor at the Takahama nuclear power plant is the first older reactor to fall under this regulation...
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July 25, 2006 (INES 2) Forsmark, SWE
A short circuit in an outdoor switchgear of the network near the boiling water reactors caused the emergency shutdown of unit 1 and led to a series of subsequent failures in the plant in a complex scenario. Due to a design error, disconnecting the plant from the grid and switching to house load operation - in which the power plant uses its own electricity to run important ancillary units - did not work as planned. (Cost approx. US$12 million)
Wikipedia
On July 25, 2006, the Forsmark-1 reactor was automatically disconnected from the power supply after a short-circuit in the substation through which the nuclear power plant feeds its electricity to the general grid. This led to a load shedding of the generator and the heat produced in the reactor could no longer be converted into electrical power. The reactor was shut down via a scram. The electricity for the control of the nuclear power plant and the feed pumps, which have to dissipate the decay heat, failed. It had to be provided as a substitute by diesel emergency power generators. However, two of the four generators could not feed into the emergency power grid because they remained electrically connected to the 500 V line, which had failed. In addition, the power supply for some of the measuring devices in the control room failed...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
On July 25, 2006, Sweden apparently narrowly escaped a nuclear catastrophe. Reactor 1 at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant was cut off from power supply due to a short circuit. Only two out of four emergency generators started up. An investigation into the accident revealed that the short circuit had failed computers, speakers, and displays, preventing personnel from seeing the reactor data clearly. "For example, the water level in the reactor dropped significantly as a result of the scrambling, but the exact level remained unclear because of the power outage."
According to the former chief designer of the nuclear power plant, Höglund, you were only 20 minutes away from a meltdown.
The accident was classified as an INES level 2 incident.
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July 25, 1979 (INES ? Class.?) EL-3, Paris-Saclay, FRA
At the EL3, a reactor moderated and cooled with heavy water, radioactive liquids spilled into the normal waste drains and seeped into the local Paris-Saclay catchment area. (Cost approx. US$5 million)
Wikipedia fr
In 1979, the EL-3 reactor was finally decommissioned after 22 years of operation. In 2005, EL3 was only partially dismantled , due in particular to the lack of a final disposal solution for radioactive graphite waste. The graphite reflectors of the EL2 and EL3 reactors in Saclay represent a total mass of 109 tons.
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
There is no further information. Or is it?!
We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nukleare-welt@reaktorpleite.de
24 July
EU Parliament | EU funding for nuclear power
EU industrial plan: Parliament backs traditional nuclear power
Nuclear power is to be reinstated on the list of preferred technologies in the EU's industrial plan, according to a political agreement in the European Parliament.
The European Commission presented its draft Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) on March 16 to boost low-carbon technology manufacturing on European soil in response to the US IRA.
Nuclear power was left out. Much to the displeasure of nuclear power advocates, especially France.
[...] On Tuesday, however, things took a new turn.
With the support of the Social Democrats (S&D), the Conservatives (EPP), the Nationalists (EKR) and the Far Right (ID), Grudler and the proponents of nuclear power secured its inclusion in the unified list of technologies conducive to the green reindustrialization of Europe...
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Energy transition | power line hangs in licensing procedures
Why the expansion of SuedLink has been delayed
The construction of the SuedLink has been delayed for years, and only 17 of the planned 700-kilometer power line have been approved so far. The long official procedures slow down the project again and again.
It is intended to accelerate the energy transition in Germany: the SuedLink power line. The route is to transport electricity generated from wind power in northern Germany to southern Germany over a distance of around 700 km. The investment volume is around ten billion euros. "The transmission route SuedLink is one of the key projects of the energy transition in Germany," said Andreas Schell, head of the energy provider EnBW.
[...] For EnBW, the SuedLink is also becoming more and more expensive. After citizens' initiatives and the Bavarian state government, which had opposed the expansion of the route, pushed through priority underground cabling, the costs more than doubled...
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China | Climate targets | Renewables
China plans to double wind and solar capacity in three years
Coal remains a problem, but China could reach its climate targets five years earlier than planned.
As the second largest economy in the world, China is the world's largest energy consumer and the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. But China is also the largest and fastest growing producer of renewable energy in the world.
In sustainability discussions, reference is often made to China's large climate footprint. However, 1,4 billion people also live there, four times as many as in the USA. The climate footprint of an average American is significantly larger than that of a Chinese...
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Fossil dress up with green power and drive up the price for offshore wind
Licenses auctioned
Oil companies are rushing to offshore wind
Well-funded energy companies have prevailed in the most recent tenders for offshore wind farms. The billions in revenue from the licenses show that offshore wind farms can become a lucrative business.
The Federal Network Agency announced a surprise in mid-July. The authority awarded the energy companies BP and Total the contract to build and operate wind turbines for several large areas in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
On the one hand, the interest in the auction of the four plots, three in the North Sea and one in the Baltic Sea, was astonishing. There were eight applicants for the North Sea areas and nine for the wind farm in the Baltic Sea off the island of Rügen.
The network agency's income from the auction is also surprisingly high. The corporations are paying a total of 12,6 billion euros for the use of the space over the next 25 years, with an option to extend for a further ten years.
[...] "Wind power at sea is now so economically attractive that the project sponsors are outdoing each other for access to sea areas," said Sascha Müller-Kraenner from Deutsche Umwelthilfe, "The tale of expensive green electricity is finally off the table ."
The Offshore Wind Energy Foundation is less enthusiastic. She fears that this market will only be dominated by a few well-funded corporations in the future because the auction process favors these interested parties. "It should be in the interest of the federal government to maintain the diversity of actors," said managing director Katharina Würtz.
For example, the costs that increase as a result of bidding competitions would ultimately be passed on to customers...
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Resistance | Climate movement | Anti-nuclear
Climate movement versus anti-nuclear activists:
A little less block, please
The climate movement could learn a lot from the former anti-nuclear movement. For the sake of the matter, she overlooked many political differences.
Whatever one thinks of the nuclear phase-out, one thing is clear: the anti-nuclear movement was successful in achieving its goal. Late, but still. Which begs the question: What can other movements - especially climate activists - learn from this success?
Above all, the anti-nuclear movement was open to actors from all social tendencies. She acted across milieus, she excluded no one. It was diverse in the best sense, namely in the sense of an ideological diversity.
This is how people fought together who were often miles apart on other political issues - conservative winegrowers from the Kaiserstuhl and left-wing students, for example. Because the actors were sovereign enough to recognize the charm of the pluralistic resistance, ideological differences receded into the background. The only thing that mattered was the common goal...
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July 24, 1964 (INES 4) UNC Charlestown, RI, USA
Wikipedia de
List of Accidents in Nuclear Facilities#1960s_Years
At a United Nuclear Corporation nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Charlestown, 38-year-old worker Robert Peabody caused an accident involving a liquid uranium solution. As a result, Peabody was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation of around 88 sieverts. (INES: 4)
Wikipedia en
United Nuclear Corporation, Wood River Junction
On July 24, 1964, a fatal criticality accident occurred at the United Nuclear Corporation's Wood River Junction nuclear facility. This plant was designed for the recovery of highly enriched uranium from waste from fuel element production. Technician Robert Peabody worked with a tank containing radioactive uranium-235 in a sodium carbonate solution stirred with a stirrer. Intending to add a bottle of trichloroethane to remove organics, he accidentally added a bottle of uranium solution to the tank, resulting in a criticality excursion (runaway chain reaction) which is accompanied by a flash of light and the squirting out of about 20% of the tank's contents (approx 10 liters from 40 to 50 liters including the contents of the bottle).
This criticality exposed the 37-year-old Peabody to a lethal radiation dose of "more than 700 rem," equivalent to 7 Sv. He died 49 hours after the incident...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
23 July
Nuclear phase-out | Renewables | Electricity price
100 days after nuclear phase-out
Can Germany cover its electricity needs?
It is claimed that Germany will no longer be able to meet its own electricity needs as a result of the nuclear phase-out. Is that true and what has changed in the power supply since then.
The historic step was exactly 100 days ago on Monday: On April 15, the last three nuclear power plants Isar 2 (Bavaria), Neckarwestheim 2 (Baden-Württemberg) and Emsland (Lower Saxony) finally went off the grid. Since then, some have liked to paint the specter on the wall that Germany can no longer produce its electricity needs independently.
Representatives of the CDU, CSU and AfD repeatedly claim that by phasing out nuclear power, the Federal Republic has made itself largely dependent on foreign countries for its electricity supply. However, that is not the truth...
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Elections | Latin America | power elite
Central and South America: Power elite torpedo free elections
In some Latin American countries, the will of the people at the polls is still being grossly manipulated.
Basic democratic rules are particularly blatantly disregarded in Guatemala. It is well known that in this Central American country there have been hate hunts on members of the opposition, members of the press, members of the judiciary and others whom the ruling minority considers suspicious for decades. If you don't leave the country in time, you risk your own skin...
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Energy transition | Hydrogen | heating law | populism
Divisive campaigns, champagne toasts and the bad Mr. Musk
Calendar week 29: The debates about the energy transition and climate must be objective and respectful, says Claudia Kemfert, energy economist and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. Science, the media and all democrats are called upon to prevent further divisions in society.
Climate reporter°: Ms. Kemfert, energy and climate experts, are concerned about the sharpness of the debate about the "heating law". This kind of populism, which does not shy away from false claims and personal defamation, has frightened scientists, entrepreneurs and associations. What can be done against the impending social division in climate protection?
Claudia Kemfert: The division of society is part of the "sowing doubt" campaign, as I also describe it in my current book "Shockwaves".
The point here is to make false claims and spread fake news, to deny scientific findings and to defame scientists in order to create divisions and weaken democracy. Similar to what we have seen in the USA in recent years.
I am concerned about those parties or party members who are actually middle-class but fuel the divisive debate and even take "Trump style" lessons from relevant parties in the US...
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Nuclear waste | Repository | Interim storage
BASE President König calls to complete the search for a repository by 2046
After the shutdown of the German nuclear reactors, the problems of nuclear energy are far from over. The President of the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management is now calling for a repository to be committed to by 2046 at the latest.
The search for a repository for the highly radioactive nuclear waste produced in Germany has been difficult for years: progress is slow. First of all, a location should be determined by 2031. But last November it became known that the targeted date could not be met. Instead, the Federal Agency for Disposal (BGE) calculates in the best case with the year 2046, another scenario even envisages a time corridor up to 2068.
Now the President of the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), Wolfram König, is calling for the year 2046 to be set "as a benchmark"...
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Ausgestrahlt | Search for a repository | Site Selection Act
Ausgestrahlt spokesman about repository search:
"No sign of participation"
Ten years of searching for a nuclear waste repository have disappointed Helge Bauer. He knows what would have to change so that the process doesn't hit the wall again.
GOETTINGEN taz | Ten years ago, on July 23, 2013, the Bundestag passed the Site Selection Act. That was the starting signal for a new search for a repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste and was good news for many at the time, including Helge Bauer. And today? The procedure does not meet the legal - and self-imposed - requirements, says Bauer from the anti-nuclear organization "Aussendung". There is “no trace” of the promised participation.
[...] "If nothing changes, the search will hit a wall again," says Bauer. "Because there will again be massive protests against the nuclear waste storage facility, and rightly so." Wackersdorf and Gorleben have shown that no nuclear waste factory and no nuclear waste repository can be enforced against the citizens. Creating trust is only possible through co-determination and real participation on an equal footing.
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Renaissance | SMR | Resistance
The Hype for a Nuclear “Renaissance”
The Eternal Dangers of Small Modular Reactors (SMR). The new push for nuclear energy comes not only from the nuclear industry or billionaires like Bill Gates, but also from parts of the environmental movement.
[...] We're standing in the Deco Lobby of the historic Kiggins Theater in downtown Vancouver, Washington, wanting to see a screening of Atomic Bamboozle Watch, a remarkable new documentary from filmmaker Jan Haaken, which examines the recent trend toward nuclear power and a nuclear "renaissance" in the Pacific Northwest. Lloyd, a Vietnam veteran, is something of a local environmental hero, having led efforts to decommission Oregon's infamous Trojan Nuclear Plant in the early 1990s. He is also one of the nondescript stars in a film that explores his critical role in the successful shutdown of Trojan and his continued opposition to nuclear technology.
[...] As the credits rolled off Atomic Bamboozle, I looked around the packed cinema. I felt the immediate shock of the moviegoers, who had no idea that nuclear power was about to make a comeback in the Northwest. Lloyd Marbet sat at the back of the theater with his arms crossed, looking calmer than most. Still, I knew that he wanted to lead the fight to prevent SMRs from reaching the banks of the nearby Columbia River and that he would infect a younger generation with the passion to oppose the nuclear-industrial complex he was fought for decades.
"Can you imagine us fighting this shit again?" he asked me later, with his usual sense of urgency and outrage. "We've beaten them before, and you've got a damn bet we'll do it again."
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July 23, 2008 (INES 0 Class.?) Tricastin, FRA
The operator Areva reported that on July 08, uranium-contaminated sewage had leaked and flowed into the Rhone. On July 23, around 100 people were "lightly contaminated" by radioactive particles. (Cost approx. US$8,6 million)
Wikipedia
... on July 23, around 100 people were "lightly contaminated" by radioactive particles. The particles had escaped from the vent line of a shut down nuclear reactor.
Police forces searched the director's office to find out whether the operator had complied with the applicable safety regulations...
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Chomsky | crisis of democracy | class struggle
Chomsky: What happens if orders from Washington are not followed?
It's the time of the monsters. Chomsky describes the decay processes. Right-wing collapse in the ex-centres, rebelling corporations, disobedience of the rising states. And then? Part 2, end.
The first part of the interview "Noam Chomsky on the most dangerous point in human history" you'll find here. Political scientist CJ Polychroniou conducts the interview.
CJ Polychroniou: We've heard on countless occasions from both political pundits and influential academics that democracy is in decline. Indeed, in early 2022, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) claimed that only 6,4 percent of the world's population lives in a "full democracy", although it is far from clear what the conservative weekly The Economist means by "full democracy". But we can all agree that there are several key indicators that point to dysfunction in democracy in the 21st century. But isn't it also the case that the perception of a crisis in democracy has existed almost as long as modern democracy itself? And isn't it also the case that the common talk of a crisis of democracy refers exclusively to the concept of liberal democracy, which is anything but a real democracy?
Noam Chomsky: What exactly is a crisis of democracy? The term is well known. For example, it was the title of the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, liberal intellectuals from Europe, Japan and the USA.
This title stands alongside the Powell memorandum as one of the harbingers of the neoliberal onslaught that gathered momentum in the Carter administration (mostly Trilateralists) and ran its course with Reagan and Thatcher. The Powell memorandum, aimed at the business community, was the hard, conservative side. The Trilateral Commission report was the soft, liberal side.
The Powell Memorandum, written by Judge Lewis Powell, was outspoken. It called on the business world to use its power to fend off what it saw as a major attack on the economy - seen in the corporate sector no longer being able to freely control almost everything, but in some delicate efforts to curb its power.
The flashes of paranoia and wild exaggeration are thought-provoking, but the message was clear: launch harsh class warfare and put an end to "troubled times," a standard term for 1960s activism that left society heavily civilized.
Like Powell, the Trilateralists were concerned about "troubled times." The crisis of democracy was that the activism of the 60s produced too much democracy.
All kinds of groups were demanding more rights: the young, the old, women, workers, farmers, sometimes called "special interests". A particular concern was the failure of the institutions "responsible for the indoctrination of youth": schools and universities.
You have been held responsible. That's why you see so many young people disrupting society with their activities. Such popular aspirations were seen as an intolerable burden on the state, which was unable to respond to these special interests. So we had a crisis of democracy.
The solution was obvious: "more moderation of democracy". In other words, a return to passivity and obedience so, curiously, democracy can flourish.
This concept of democracy has deep roots stretching back to the Founding Fathers and the British before them, and has been revived in important works on democratic theory by 20th-century thinkers including Walter Lippmann, the most prominent public intellectual, Edward Bernays, a guru of the powerful public relations industry, Harold Lasswell, one of the founders of modern political science, and Reinhold Niebuhr, known as the theologian of the liberal establishment.
All were good liberals in the vein of US Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt and Kennedy. They all agreed with the Founding Fathers of the United States that democracy is a threat that must be averted.
The citizens of the country, in a well-functioning democracy, are tasked with pulling a lever every few years to elect someone offered to them by the "men in charge". They are supposed to be "spectators, not participants" and kept in line with "necessary illusions" and "emotive simplifications," which Lippmann called "creating consent," a key task of any democracy.
Fulfilling these conditions would constitute "full democracy" as the concept is understood in liberal democratic theory. Others may have different views. But who deviates from the given is part of the problem, not the solution, to use Reagan's phrase.
Returning to concerns about the decline of democracy, even this "full democracy" in the sense described above is in decline at its traditional centers. In Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's racist "illiberal democracy" in Hungary has unsettled the European Union, as has Poland's ruling Law and Justice party and other organizations that share its deeply authoritarian tendencies.
Orban recently hosted a conference of far-right movements in Europe, some of which have neo-fascist roots. The US National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), a core element of today's Republican Party, was a key participant. Donald Trump gave an important speech. Tucker Carlson contributed a documentary, a tribute.
Shortly thereafter, NCPAC held a conference in Dallas, Texas, at which the keynote speaker was Orban, hailed as a leader in authoritarian white Christian nationalism.
This is no joke. At both the state and national levels, today's US Republican Party, which has abandoned its former role as a parliamentary party, is looking for ways to gain lasting political control as a minority organization committed to illiberal Orban-style democracy.
Their leader, Trump, has made no secret of his plans to populate the non-partisan civil service, the basis of any modern democracy, with staunch loyalists, to prevent any halfway serious teaching of American history, and to eliminate niches of a more than formal and limited democracy.
In the most powerful state in human history, with a long, mixed, sometimes progressive, democratic tradition, these are not trivial...
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The map of the nuclear world
The population should pay taxes, not determine how they are used...
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The internal search for
Chomsky | crisis of democracy | class struggle
brought the following results, among others:
July 22, 2023 - Israel's ex-ambassador worries about democracy in his own country
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October 31, 2022 - Crisis of democracy: "We are faced with a puzzle"
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June 1, 2022 - Noam Chomsky: From class struggle to green revolution
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May 20, 2022 - Forked tongue politics: They talk about peace but want war
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May 15th. 2022 - "Ecology without class struggle is just gardening"
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April 1, April 2020 - Democracy in ICU
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Keyword search: crisis of democracy
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Videos:
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Democracies worldwide under pressure?
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Keyword search: crisis of democracy
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Wikipedia
Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a private policy advisory think tank founded in July 1973 on the initiative of Zbigniew Brzeziński and David Rockefeller. The Commission is a society of around 400 highly influential members from the three major international economic blocs of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, as well as a few select representatives from outside these regions. In this way, the Trilateral Commission connects experienced policymakers with the private sector. The goal is improved cooperation between the three regions.
It is financed by funds from foundations, companies and private donations. The European chairman of the European Group since January 2022 has been former Bundesbank President Axel A. Weber, who is also a member of the Group of Thirty, which was also founded by David Rockefeller. Weber's predecessor as European chairman from 2012 to 2022 was Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank from 2003-2011. He took over the presidency from Mario Monti, who became Italian Prime Minister in November 2011.
[...]
Criticism
Scientific Analysis
Due to the secrecy and the more than poor reports of meetings, seminars and conferences, there is speculation about the Trilateral Commission. Essentially, the close proximity of politics to business and a lack of transparency are causes for assumptions. Hans-Jürgen Krysmanski, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Münster, also doubts the private nature of conferences such as Bilderberg or Davos and associations such as the Atlantic Bridge, the Council on Foreign Relations, the European Council on Foreign Relations or the Trilateral Commission.
According to the sociologist and economist Rudolf Stumberger, all barriers between business and politics have disappeared, which can also be seen in people. Tendencies towards refeudalization could be identified, ie alongside the official democratic structures, the unofficial structures of self-appointed elites would again gain in importance...
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radical democracy
The term radical democracy or radical democracy (from the Latin radix = relating to the root and democracy) refers to models of democracy or democratic theories that exclusively recognize the sovereignty of the people as a basis and that both natural law stipulations and the influence of third parties through economic power or institutions acting on their own authority, such as e.g. B. reject the financial markets as well as the lack of alternatives.
Systems of oligarchy, plutocracy and technocracy can be used as antonyms.
The main ideas behind the idea of radical democracy include the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his work Contrat Social, the German-American political theorist Hannah Arendt, the Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis, the Argentine political theorist Ernesto Laclau and the Belgian political scientist Chantal Mouffe.
[...]
Criticism
For supporters of representative democracy, radical democracy is considered to be an overly extreme interpretation of the idea of democracy, which could potentially lead to a violation or even abolition of the individual rights of the individual in favor of a general will oriented towards the concept of the masses. They consider rule solely or mainly by referendums to be dangerous because they believe it could lead to populism and, in the worst case, to dictatorial “rule by the mob” (ochlocracy) or charismatic popular leaders empowered by them, or at least to a restriction of the private sphere in favor of the public one. Instead of a radical democratic identity model of rule, they prefer a delegation model (e.g. according to Joseph Schumpeter) that does not see the main problem in the exercise of political power by a few, but in their control through the possibility of voting out and the courts.
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