Newsletter XXXIII 2023
August 13th to 19th
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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 came to the public in a roundabout way...
Excerpt for this month:
August 1, 1983 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Pickering, CAN
August 2, 1992 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Pickering, CAN
August 4, 2005 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Indian Point, USA
August 6, 1945 (1. US dropping atomic bomb) Hiroshima, USA
August 9, 2009 (INES 1 Class.?) NPP Gravelines, FRA
August 9, 2004 (INES 1 Class.?) NPP Mihama, JPN
August 9, 1945 (2. US dropping atomic bomb) Nagasaki, USA
August 10, 1985 (INES 5) Submarine K-31/K-431, USSR
August 12, 2001 (INES 2) NPP Phillipsburg, DEU
August 12, 2000, Submarine K-141_Kursk, RUS
August 18, 2015 (INES 2) NPP Blayais, FRA
August 19, 2008 (INES 1) NPP Santa Maria de Garona, ESP
August 21, 2007 (INES 2) NPP Beznau, CHE
August 21, 1945 (INES 4) T Undlicher Unfall in Los Alamos, USA
August 25, 2008 (INES 3) IRE Fleurus, BEL
August 29, 1949 (1. USSR atomic bomb test) Semipalatinsk, KAZ
August 30, 2003, Submarine K-159, RUS
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
19. August
Ahaus | Jülich | Castor | Gronau
Rally against Castor transports
The action alliance Münsterland against nuclear plants, the action alliance "Stop Westcastor" Jülich, the working group environment Gronau, the initiative SOFA (immediate nuclear phase-out) Münster and the alliance AgiEL (nuclear power opponents in Emsland) call together with the citizens' initiative "No nuclear waste in Ahaus". Participation in the protest rally at the present Sunday, August 20, at 14 p.m. at the "Mahner" in the Ahauser pedestrian zone .
In 2024, the plan is to transport 300 highly radioactive fuel element balls in 000 Castor containers from the Jülich research center via the NRW motorways to the nuclear waste storage facility in Ahaus, writes Marita Boslar from the “Stop Westcastor” Jülich action alliance.
[...] The anti-nuclear power initiatives support the BI “No nuclear waste in Ahaus” and announce determined protests from Jülich to Ahaus in order to stop the Castor transports. “Nuclear waste trips to Ahaus have been highly controversial in the past and accompanied by major protests. Nothing has changed to this day. The storage of nuclear waste in Ahaus does not provide any advantages, but provides months of considerable and completely unnecessary risks on the motorways in NRW - plus further trips to a repository that has yet to be determined. Instead, the federal government and the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia should implement Plan A in Jülich - namely the construction of a new interim storage facility based on the current state of science and technology," explained Matthias Eickhoff from the Münsterland Action Alliance against Nuclear Plants.
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network charges | Wind power Bavaria | Kini Jödler
Dispute over electricity tariffs: are electricity price zones poison?
Different tariffs in the north and south harm the industry, some claim - rightly so? A cool fact check.
Bavaria's Prime Minister and campaigner Markus Söder (CSU) recently told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "Different electricity price zones would be a big mistake. Anyone who advocates for such zones lays the ax on Germany as an industrial location and endangers southern Germany as the industrial heart of the republic.”
Söder's statement is grossly exaggerated. But what is actually true: If you were to divide the German electricity wholesale trade into two or more zones - there is currently only one uniform price zone on the electricity exchange in this country - there would be regionally different prices, based on local supply and demand.
[...] Most recently, the topic of power area zones was mixed up with the question of who will pay for the necessary reinforcement of the distribution grids in regions with a lot of wind power in the future. Should that – like today – only be the consumers in the network area in question? Or do you want to pass on the costs to all consumers nationwide? Then customers of public utilities who have little or no wind turbines in their network would also pay for the expansion of the infrastructure in other parts of Germany through their network fees. The head of the Federal Network Agency recently endorsed this.
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Drinking water | Ocean | Seawater Desalination
Desalinate water:
Oceans - the new source of drinking water
Drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce worldwide. Climate change and population growth are exacerbating the problem. Is seawater desalination the solution?
Two-thirds of the earth is covered with water, which is more than enough to support the world's population. But it's too salty. According to a recent study by the United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), tapping river and groundwater and collecting rainwater will no longer be able to meet global water needs.
Desalination plants increasingly in demand
Already today, 22.000 desalination plants in about 170 countries around the world produce drinking water, fresh water and industrial water from sea water. "Every year we see constant growth in our databases, on average we expect annual growth of around 2030 percent worldwide until 15," says Claus Mertes from the German Sea Water Desalination Society (DME). Germany is also involved in the start-up financing of a plant. "It is important to insist on high quality and energy efficiency when it comes to development aid," says Mertes...
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August 19, 2008 (INES 1) Santa Maria de Garona, ESP
Slowly but surely, all the relevant info on disruptions in the nuclear industry is coming out Wikipedia away!
Wikipedia
On July 15 and August 19, 2008, the plant's two battery systems were tested. According to the CSN authority, their determined capacity was insufficient. These direct current systems perform various safety functions in the event of an accident, such as starting the emergency diesel or displaying the reactor status. The main problem with this event is that after detecting the malfunction of the first system on July 15, the operator did not test the second system immediately, but only on August 19, 2008 ...
CSN - Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear
Reportable Events
Level I event at the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant, reported on August 18, 2008, due to the detection of a capacity failure in the supply batteries of the main buses A and B ...
Translate with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
In February 2012, it was decided to extend the term by five years until 2018. However, on December 16, 2012, nuclenor prematurely took the nuclear power plant off the grid due to a lack of profitability. An upgrade would have cost 120 million euros, and for 2013 there would also have been an increased tax of 153 million euros.
On June 19, 2013, the Spanish Energy Minister confirmed that the reactor would be officially closed for good on July 6, 2013...
18. August
Finland | Olkiluoto | humidity
Nuclear reactor in Finland shut down due to increased humidity
HELSINKI (dpa-AFX) - A Finnish nuclear reactor has been temporarily taken off the grid. As the operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) announced on Friday, electricity production in the reactor block Olkiluoto 2 was stopped early in the morning because an increase in humidity was detected at the turbine system generator. The incident had no consequences for nuclear safety. (Standard message)
A leak in the cooling system of the water-cooled generator was identified as the cause, TVO later explained. According to current estimates, electricity production from Olkiluoto 2 can be resumed on August 28 after the fault has been located and rectified...
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network charges | Electricity price | Renewables
Electricity price scandal about renewable energies:
Northern Germany pays, Bavaria benefits
Paradox: although most green electricity is produced here, northern Germans pay the highest electricity prices. The energy goes on a large scale to the southern federal states.
Bremen – The anger about renewable energies is entering the next round. This time, a dispute is brewing that concerns the grid fees that are passed on to consumers for the expansion of the electricity grid and the connection of new wind and solar systems. These have increased enormously since 2022 - in some regions by almost 40 percent. But northern Germans in particular are asked to pay, while the south diligently imports green electricity. Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt says: "We will be punished for bringing renewable energies into the state"...
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plastic in the sea | Plastic waste | Single-use plastic
Research on plastic in the sea:
More than assumed
Dutch researchers have modeled the movements of plastic in the sea with the largest data set to date. But the study has a weakness.
What is it about?
To plastic - or rather, to far too much of it. As late as 2022, 48,8 percent of all drinks purchased in German shops were sold in disposable plastic bottles, according to a study by the Federal Environment Agency in 2022. How can that be? The author asked the staff of the local supermarket: The offer of the market only reflects the customer's wishes - and that in Berlin's Winsviertel, where 40 percent of the people voted for Alliance Green.
Unfortunately, it is a myth that disposable plastic is properly disposed of or even recycled. In an investigation, Greenpeace proved that German plastic waste ends up in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, for example. And that plastic doesn't stay in landfills. Huge amounts of it get into the oceans in various ways - and 95 percent of it is single-use plastic, according to the Alfred Wegener Institute...
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August 18, 2015 (INES 2) Blayais, FRA
Overexposure of a worker beyond the legal limit. (Costs ?)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
In June 2015, twice in one week, over 100 people had to be evacuated from the Unit 4 building after elevated levels of radioactivity were detected.
On August 18, 2015, a worker was exposed to levels of radiation in excess of guidelines. The event was classified as an INES level 2 incident.
Wikipedia
In 2020, the French government announced that all reactors in operation would be extended by a further 10 years from 40 to 50 years. This was approved by the French regulator in 2021 ...
17. August
Ahaus | Jülich | Castor | Gronau
Dear friends,
we call again Rally in Ahaus this Sunday, August 20, at 14 p.m., at the "Mahner" in the pedestrian zone. It is about preventing the transport of the 152 Westcastors with 300 highly radioactive fuel element balls from Jülich to Ahaus. Across North Rhine-Westphalia and the Ruhr area - always via the Autobahn - that would be total madness and would not contribute to the safe disposal of nuclear waste. It's all about ridding the research center in Jülich of its nuclear legacy, no matter what the cost.
We say no to this and announce decisive protests. The next Castor test drive from Jülich to Ahaus is scheduled to take place in October.
There is now a preparatory meeting for this on Sunday at 12 noon before the rally in the BI office in Ahaus, Bahnhofstr. 29
Apropos: A few kilometers north, Urenco has now officially announced in the city council that it will expand the capacity of the uranium enrichment plant by more than 20% - from 3700 t of uranium separation work to 4500 t. A dubious "residue treatment plant" is also to be built, among other things for the scrapping of old centrifuges. And the uranium waste storage hall for depleted uranium oxide is also scheduled to go into operation in the foreseeable future. The application has already been announced to the state government. Urenco speaks of a "mammoth task" - so we have a lot of work to do.
Nuclear-free climate greetings
SOFA (Immediate nuclear phase-out) Münster
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Moral from the story: warning against Otto jokes is counter-evolutionary
Otto Waalkes: WDR issues a warning because of the old show
Otto Waalkes is celebrating his 75th birthday this year. The entertainer has been on German stages for more than 40 years. Thanks to Ski Aggu, Otto recently experienced new hype on social networks: the Tiktok star had featured Otto's hit "Friesenjung" in one of his songs, and since then the two have been performing together again and again.
The traditional media also want to celebrate Otto's birthday appropriately. The WDR brought the "Otto Show" from the 70s back into the programme. But this is now causing a stir. Because in the media library of the public broadcaster, the consequences are provided with a warning.
[...] quote from Otto Waalke:
That was half a century ago now. Moral concepts have changed since 1970, each era has its own taboos. There's always something offensive about comedy because it violates everyday rules. I was a student at the time and cracked jokes that mostly offended authorities.
[...] "There can't be enough warning about comedy", is his humorous conclusion. He then adds: "As if there were no other problems than old Otto jokes."
At the WDR, a journalist (Jurgen Doschner) kept away from work and thus reduced freedom of the press to absurdity. Climate stickers use counterproductive actions to deter citizens and increase their approval of the theses of the ultra-conservative fans of repression. The left is dismantling itself from the inside before the right can strike and the Springer boss's commitment to the neoliberal FDP strengthens the fascists.
Have we completely lost the ability to assess cause and effect? I can't help but feel that our democracy is currently being canceled...
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disposal | dismantling | Unterweser
Dismantling of Unterweser nuclear power plant: material disappears unchecked?
In an open letter, a group opposed to nuclear power draws attention to allegations of dealing with radioactive residues. Among other things, material is said to have been labeled incorrectly.
The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment is examining possible violations in the handling of radioactive residues during the dismantling of the Unterweser nuclear power plant. This was announced by the ministry. A regional anti-nuclear group had pointed out the relevant allegations in an open letter to the ministry.
The anti-nuclear group has attached two anonymous letters to its letter, in which detailed allegations are made - including that material from the nuclear power plant was incorrectly labeled during dismantling. Even TÜV auditors would be misled. Nobody knows exactly what many of the containers on the nuclear power site contain...
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Climate change | Heat | cities sealed
Heat wave: These are Germany's concrete deserts
These days, some cities are heating up particularly inhumanely. The reason: your ground is sealed and only rarely broken through by green areas and trees. We show the top ten grayest and hottest cities.
If the German weather service predicts 30 to 33 degrees for the next few days, it can get much hotter in some places: the heat builds up on sealed streets, parking lots and high-rise areas. The air temperature there rises up to ten degrees higher than in the rural surroundings.
But which cities have the most gray and asphalt floors? CORRECTIV shows the most sealed places in Germany. For example, in the industrial city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein, number 1 on the list, almost 70 percent of the entire area is covered with asphalt or concrete. The situation is similar in Mannheim and Rüsselsheim am Rhein...
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Solar Revolution: How China and Brazil Shape the Global Energy Market
Energy and climate – compact: Solar boom in the People's Republic puts the rest of the world in the shade. Brazil is catching up, Germany is losing ground. These are the trends.
The expansion of renewable energy sources is gaining momentum worldwide and especially in China. The Rethink Technology Research platform estimates that solar systems with a capacity of 2023 gigawatts (GW) were installed around the world in the second quarter of 92 alone. Around 55 percent of this was in China, where 51,3 GW were connected to the grid.
The share of the other regions of the world with the exception of Latin America has declined compared to the previous year. The solar expansion in Brazil in particular has increased there, where, according to the Brazilian portal Solar, more than 7,4 GW were added in the first seven months - a considerable increase, but still far removed from the Chinese conditions.
For comparison: In Germany, 73,81 GW of capacity is currently installed in solar systems.
Around 6,3 GW were newly connected to the grid in Germany from January to the end of July...
16. August
traffic light coalition | Expansion solar | Solar industry
"Solar package" of the traffic light
End of the Merkel dent
The solar power expansion will continue to boom, also thanks to the solar package now decided by the traffic light government. But there is a problem with the reconstruction of the German solar industry.
Solar energy is booming. The "solar installers", as the installers of the photovoltaic systems are called, have their hands and order books full.
This year is even likely to overshadow the previous record year 2012 in terms of expansion. At that time, systems with a good 8.000 megawatts of nominal power were installed, in 2023 it was already 6.500 megawatts in half a year. Experts expect that the 10.000 megawatt mark will fall by the end of the year.
[...] Scholz and Co have not yet managed to rebuild the German solar industry, which almost completely disappeared from the country at the time. But that would be almost as important.
Because the "solar boom two" should not depend on modules from China. And also not from those from the USA, where a solar Mecca is currently being built.
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Groundwater | Drinking water | rainwater
Artificial groundwater recharge Solution for drought?
Periods of drought not only endanger nature, but also the groundwater and thus our drinking water. Collected rainwater could help. But this requires certain conditions.
According to the Berlin hydrogeologist Irina Engelhardt, the enrichment of artificial groundwater during heavy rain could provide relief during periods of drought in the future.
"In some regions we see a decent drop in the groundwater level," said the head of the Chair of Hydrogeology at the Technical University of Berlin of the German Press Agency. It is indispensable for people, animals and nature - for example as drinking water from the tap, for irrigating fields or watering animals. Therefore, according to Engelhardt, urgent measures are needed to continue to provide sufficient water even in the event of a long-lasting drought...
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United States | Forest fires | 1,5 degree
Fires in Hawaii:
Gone up in smoke
A fire destroys an entire city in tropical Hawaii. Has climate change been out of control for a long time?
So far it has been a reasonably reassuring thought: people can slow down the climate change that they are causing. We could even stop it - although hardly at global warming of 1,5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, but hopefully at the much-vaunted two-degree target. If everyone made enough effort, the green transition could still be achieved before large parts of the planet became uninhabitable.
But what if that's not true? When control over the unleashed force of nature has long since slipped away?
The fire came to Hawaii last week. The verdant, waterfall-ridden chain of islands in the Pacific was about the last place in the United States where people expected the deadliest fire in over a hundred years. We had cynically gotten used to the fact that there was a fire in California – but on Maui? The flames consumed Lahaina, the coastal town where the kings of Hawaii once resided. At least a hundred people died; many are still missing...
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Democracy | Protection of the Constitution | Freedom of speech
Haldenwang, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD and the alleged freedom of expression
Are the constant encroachments of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution just a symptom of the disease of democracy or do they indicate a deeper cause?
At first glance, the case only seems a little strange, but not of particular importance or even explosiveness:
Thomas Haldenwang, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), had repeatedly pointed out right-wing extremist currents in the party and corresponding statements at the party conference during the AfD's European election meeting.
[...] But if the political protagonists of this democracy meanwhile openly, unashamedly and completely openly interpret national and international law arbitrarily in the way that suits them (double standards), and then criticize the government's actions, incidentally with the strong support of the the protection of the Constitution, which is dependent on instructions, because of allegedly no longer "permissibly" questionable overriding interests, because otherwise accusations of treason, framing, stigmatization are to be feared, is the subject of the book description of "How Democracies Die" by Levitsky/Zíblatt, professors for government theory at Harvard University much faster than a free society would like: How far has this democracy progressed in the process of wasting away?...
15. August
Nuclear lobby | Greenwashing | SMR | Hydrogen
IP3 and GEP work together for the Surry Green Energy Center
IP3 Corporation (IP3) and Green Energy Partners LLC (GEP) have formed a joint venture to build the Surry Green Energy Center (SGEC) in Surry County, Virginia. Real estate and project development company GEP announced plans in April to build the United States' first integrated green energy center near Dominion Energy's Surry nuclear power plant.
The SGEC will be a new data center powered by zero-carbon green energy from on-site small modular reactors (SMR). GEP has secured 641 acres of land in Surry County on which to build the center. The project includes a fleet of 4-6 SMRs that will power 20-30 data centers, generate hydrogen and provide backup power to the Virginia grid. The SGEC aims to expand the capacity of Virginia's data centers and meet increasing energy demands...
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Am 1 April 2022 I wrote about the nuclear lobby's new strategies and one of their conventions where an advertising executive explained at length to the "Friends of a Radiant Energy Supply" that they need to change their language because people get scared when they hear atom...or nuclear...because they then involuntarily think of nuclear weapons and atomic bombs.
Today, August 15, 2023, I find the above article on WNN, which beautifully illustrates the perfect execution of this strategy.
A site for 4 to 6 new Small Modular Reactors (SMR) not far from the Surry Nuclear Power Plant in Surry County in beautiful Virginia will become the "Surry Green Energy Center (SGEC)". Not a word about atom..., nuclear..., reactor or similar, such evil words are simply not used anymore.
Are they kidding us?
Yes!
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Democracy | AfD | knew nothing
"It works like it did in 1933"
AfD city councilor is appalled - and announces her exit
An AfD city councilor radically settles accounts with her party and sees parallels with the rise of the NSDAP. "To come to power, they use the weaknesses of democracy - the democracy they want to abolish." At the same time, she warns against the "installation of right-wing extremists in the constituencies".
In an interview, Freia Lippold-Eggen, AfD city councilor in the Bavarian town of Bad Kissingen, compared the actions of the AfD with those of the NSDAP in 1933 and announced her departure from the party. "In order to come to power, they use the weaknesses of democracy - the democracy they want to abolish," said the local politician to the "Saale-Zeitung". And further: "It works like it did in 1933, that's exactly how the NSDAP grew. The AfD does it without decency. I have to say it so clearly, because: Whoever is silent, agrees."
[...] When asked whether the AfD should be banned, the 68-year-old said: "If things continue like this, I'm all for it." She hopes that there will be "more decent people" leaving the party. "No one needs to say afterwards: I didn't know anything."...
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Water | Agriculture | Pesticide | Insects
Small water monitoring:
Too many pesticides get into the water
Small streams and ditches are not in good condition in Germany. Due to a lack of water protection, too many sprays get into the water, criticizes the Federal Environment Agency.
Wherever many pesticides are used on the surrounding fields, the pollution in the adjacent streams and ditches is particularly high. This is the result of a study commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The results contradict the assessment that pesticides only affect the treated fields themselves. However, the use of pesticides can be reduced, for example with permanently overgrown buffer strips along the water bodies. For example, they could reduce runoff above ground after a downpour, according to a statement from the agency.
The study was carried out by experts from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. In 2018 and 2019, they recorded ecological data on more than 100 stretches of water for their nationwide monitoring of small bodies of water. The current report further classifies the older findings. For the first time, the actual records of the farmers in the catchment areas of the water bodies were also available for evaluation.
They show that in reality far higher amounts of pesticides get into the water than predicted. In every second water sample, active ingredients used in plant protection products exceeded the acceptable concentrations. In addition, the pesticide residues have far greater effects on the animals and plants in the water than previously assumed. The UBA summarizes that the insect community was only in a moderate to poor condition in four of the five streams examined...
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Warming | Climate change | Forest fires
A look at the climate of the "two-degree world"
Two degrees of warming predicted as early as the 2040s - what would the consequences be?
Near future: Global warming will already have exceeded the two-degree mark by the 2040s - even if climate change is slowed down by climate protection, as a new forecast shows. As a result, humidity and heat will also increase in our latitudes, while the winds will weaken at the same time. In the Amazon region and parts of the Arctic, on the other hand, it is becoming windier and drier and the risk of forest fires is increasing. In South Asia, heavy rains are increasing.
There is now little chance of limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Instead, the warming is already at 1,14 degrees and climate researchers predict that the 1,5 degree limit will be exceeded in the next few years. The consequences of climate change can no longer be overlooked in Europe either: extreme weather is on the increase and heat, drought and fires are increasing again this year in the Mediterranean region.
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Disinformation | Energy costs | Save energy | uncertainty
Heat transition: why the willingness to save energy is so low
Energy and climate – compact: Many households are afraid of not being able to pay rising energy costs. Willingness to save energy is also only low. Why is that.
Before the winter of 2022, concerns about a gas shortage were high, public institutions, employers and private individuals were asked to go into the winter with lower room temperatures.
In fact, according to the Federal Network Agency, 2022 percent less gas was consumed in Germany in 17,6 than in the previous year.
[...] The panel does not provide any possible explanations for the declining approval of heat transition measures in the building sector. It can only be said that many households are poorly informed.
On the other hand, the federal government's campaigns seem to be having little effect here. While the broad media echo about the planned but not implemented gas levy or the installation ban for new gas heaters - sometimes backed up with misinformation - reached far more people, but rather caused uncertainty and rejection.
14. August
United States | Greenhouse gas | law unconstitutional
Judgment with a signal effect
Historic success for young plaintiffs in US climate litigation
The US state of Montana violates the constitutional right to a "clean and healthy environment" - a judge has now ruled, agreeing with 16 young plaintiffs in the matter of the climate crisis.
In the US state of Montana, a group of young plaintiffs have achieved historic success in a climate lawsuit. A judge ruled that Montana violated the plaintiffs' constitutional right to a "clean and healthy environment." Judge Kathy Seeley ruled unconstitutional a state law that required agencies to ignore the effects of greenhouse gases when reviewing permit applications for oil and gas projects.
The decision in the case »Held v. Montana" sends a big signal and could encourage similar proceedings across the country.
[...] Lead plaintiff Rikki Held, whose family runs a ranch in Montana, testified during the trial that her family's livelihoods and well-being have been increasingly impacted by wildfires, extreme temperatures and drought. She recalls forest fires where dozens of kilometers of power cables burned "so we didn't have electricity for a month." Livestock died because ranchers couldn't pump water and grass was scarce because of a drought, she said.
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Renewables heizen District heating
Excess electricity: Instead of turning off wind turbines, heat could be produced
Renewable energies produce electricity unevenly. There are times when electricity production significantly exceeds demand - for example when there is a lot of sunshine and a lot of wind. An MDR AKTUELL user wonders what happens to the excess energy. There are methods, including the conversion of energy into heat. In reality, however, wind power or photovoltaic systems are usually switched off.
[...] converting electricity into heat is one of many ways to use excess electricity that are currently being worked on. So far, however, the following has usually happened when there is a risk of too much electricity coming into the grid: "In such cases, wind power or solar systems are then stopped and taken off the grid," explains Christoph Kost. He is a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.
Because the balance between electricity supply and demand must be balanced – in relation to Central Europe. Excess electricity can therefore also be sold to neighboring countries. If it is not needed there either, it could happen that up to 20 percent of the wind turbines stand still by the hour, explains Kost. In the future, storage technologies will therefore be an important part of the solution: "Hydroelectric power plants, pumped storage power plants: In the meantime, significantly more batteries have been installed , both in buildings and in the power grid."...
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Climate change | Forest fires | Copernicus
Risk factor climate change
ESA World Fire Atlas reveals global forest fires
The interactive ESA World Fire Atlas shows global forest fires and their development over time. In recent years, climate change has led to a significant increase in the frequency and size of fires.
Paris, France). A study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) recently showed that climate change has significantly increased the risk of forest and bush fires. On a global average, the fire season is two weeks longer today than it was in 1979 World Fire Atlas of the European Space Agency (ESA), which was created using observation data from the Earth observation satellites Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B.
According to the ESA scientists, higher global temperatures and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events are primarily responsible for an increase in forest fires. As the forest fires in Greece and Italy have shown in recent weeks, they can quickly destroy large areas of vegetation and woodland...
13. August
Subsidies | Globalisation | plunder
The new economic nationalism also has great advantages
World trade is perverted by billions in socialized costs and subsidies at the expense of the general public.
Just a few years ago, critics of globalization were ostracized. Above all, advocates of deregulated free trade, which allegedly helps all countries to achieve more prosperity, had their say. But globalization and free trade were perverted from the start. It can therefore be for everyone's benefit if (punitive) tariffs and mutual restrictions on imports and exports are back in business.
[...] High tariffs can at least partially compensate for the subsidies for the movement of goods and the socialized costs. The consequence of this: For many products, importing from distant countries and exporting to other continents would no longer be worthwhile. The volume of world trade would be reduced, and the share of supply from products produced locally or further afield would be increased. Jobs would increasingly be shifted to less distant areas and into one's own country, where they are economically most productive, taking all costs into account.
At the same time, the plundering of resources and the ecological burden on our planet would be reduced somewhat. The human contribution to global warming would decrease.
Investments and money could also be saved: airports would no longer have to be expanded for a long time, the number of deep-sea freighters on the seas and the number of trucks in long-distance transport would no longer have to be increased.
That would improve the quality of life for many people...
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Chemical | PFAS ban | Poison of eternity
A world without Teflon?
The European chemicals agency ECHA is considering far-reaching restrictions on fluorinated chemicals used in jet engines, electric cars, cooling systems, semiconductors and countless end products. This would have consequences for many areas of life.
In February 2023, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki published a proposal that could curtail the global production of chemicals more than ever before. Environmental authorities from five countries - Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden - have presented a plan that would severely restrict the manufacture of more than 12 substances. They are known as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds, PFAS for short, and are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their longevity.
Representatives of these substances can be found everywhere in our environment. They form non-stick coatings on cookware, smartphone screens, weatherproof clothing and dirt-repellent textiles. They are used in microchips, jet engines, cars, batteries, medical devices and cooling systems.
PFAS are extremely useful. Their fluorine-spiked carbon chains allow grease and water to roll off textiles and protect industrial equipment from corrosion and heat damage. But the strong carbon-fluorine bonds cannot be broken by natural processes. So, as PFAS escape into the environment from factories, homes, and vehicles, slowly but surely, ever-increasing pollution will accumulate. According to the PFAS restriction proposal of February 2023, it is estimated that tens of thousands of tons of such chemicals are released into the environment in Europe alone - every year...
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Infrastructure | Climate targets | Transformation
The ecological wave, deadlocks in the climate crisis and the nuclear lesson
Calendar week 32: The necessary transformation is not just about individual technologies, but about a massive reduction in human intervention in nature, says Michael Müller, SPD pioneer and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. Too little attention is paid to that.
Klimareporter°: Mr Müller, the climate projection report that the Federal Environment Agency will be publishing shortly is likely to be devastating. Germany will miss its climate goals with a bang – for both 2030 and 2045. Is there now a risk of fatalism when it comes to climate protection, along the lines of: If we can no longer achieve the goals anyway, do we not have to make any more efforts?
Michael Müller: Since the work of Joseph Schumpeter, especially his study "Business Cycles", we can know that far-reaching economic upheavals are only possible if an appropriate economic and social infrastructure is created at an early stage. This covers various areas - from education to the public sector to the corresponding financial institutions.
This is closely linked to the theory of long waves, for which the prerequisites must be created at an early stage in order to place economic and technical development on a new basis...
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Uranium from Nigeria will after France delivered, it stays in the country radiant trash
Military coup in Niger: Uranium mining and environmental destruction as deeper reasons?
For years, France's nuclear power plants were powered by uranium from Niger. The environmental and health damage in the country is enormous. What follows from this politically?
The military coup in Niger further destabilized the Sahel region in Africa. The military used force to overthrow the democratically elected government of President Bazoum. However, large parts of the population support this.
After military revolts in Mali and Burkina Faso put an end to democratically elected governments, there are now fears that the Sahel zone, which has been overrun by Islamist terrorist groups, is becoming even more withdrawn from Western influence.
The spread of Islamic fundamentalism, coupled with the work of Russian Wagner soldiers, represents a threatening development for the stability of the region and thus for the protection of human rights.
However, it is good that the ECOWAS (states of the West African Economic Community) did not opt for a military intervention, as originally threatened, but spoke out in favor of a diplomatic solutionto bring Niger back to democracy. Any war would have pushed the Sahel even further into the abyss.
Secure uranium supply for France's nuclear power?
The big question, however, is why a large part of the population of Niger supports a violent military coup including the abolition of the constitution and thus democracy.
The extent to which France's nuclear companies are fueling a long-standing antipathy towards France in Niger is hardly analyzed in current reporting on the military coup.
This is likely to play a key role in this. The reports and analyzes of these days are mostly limited to the fact that the uranium supply of the French nuclear power plants is not endangered. This is a bold claim by the French nuclear industry since about 25 percent of the uranium for nuclear power plants in France come from Nigeria.
On the other hand, there are currently no reports on the major environmental damage and the years of protests by the population. They play a central role in understanding the dislike of the population in Niger.
The French nuclear companies and their owners, the French government, are arguably trying to continue to give the impression that nuclear energy is not only clean, but also a reliable and safe source of energy.
But the military coup has suddenly shown that the uranium supply of France and the EU as a whole is very dependent on politically unstable and autocratically governed countries such as Niger, Kazakhstan or even the warring Russia.
For geopolitical reasons alone, there can be no talk of a permanently secure supply of uranium. In this context, it is significant that the fuel elements for EU nuclear power still largely come from Russia and thus generate high war revenues for Russia - despite all boycott measures by the West. Especially in the nuclear industry, the dependence of the consumer countries on the supplier countries means that all other political goals and principles of the consumer countries are subordinated to the procurement of uranium and fuel elements.
Environmental degradation led to protests and riots
The Niger-based Tuareg founded the Niger Justice Movement in February 2007 and in 2007-2008 attacked several military targets in the northern region of Niger.
Their demand for collective rights as indigenous peoples stems from the repression of their rights as nomads, first during the colonial period and later by the independent state of Niger, which continued the interests of the former colonial power France, particularly in uranium mining (see International Journal for Social Studies , ISSN: 2455-3220, Volume 03, Issue 10, September 2017).
In the year In 2013 there were mass protests of the affected population in the uranium mining areas in Niger against the French nuclear company Areva, which is now called Orano.
No wonder - uranium mining in Niger has led to huge environmental destruction. In Niger there are 20 million tons of radioactive waste on heaps. They are whirled up by winds as radioactive dust, contaminate the soil and groundwater and thus get into the respiratory tract and the scarce drinking water in the Sahel.
In particular, the radioactive contamination of the sophisticated well systems built by the Tuaregs in the desert region for centuries is a threat to the existence of the people - not just for the nomads.
The radioactive pollution in the uranium mining areas is far above the international health-approved limit values, as a study in 2009 showed.
In 2019, two past winners of the global Nuclear Free Future Award, CRIIRAD's Bruno Chareyron and Aghirin'man's Almoustapha Alhacen, drew the attention of policymakers in France and Brussels to the major environmental pollution caused by uranium mining in this desert region.
They did so at the invitation of Michèle Rivasi, a French MEP from the Greens group, and laid bad facts on the table. For example, in the town of Arlit, with 200.000 inhabitants near the French uranium mines, the death rate is twice as high as in the rest of the country Niger.
Im Nuclear Free Future Award Uranium Atlas numerous other facts of the environmental destruction of Niger and other regions of the world through uranium mining are shown...
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Background knowledge
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The map of the nuclear world
Uranium is mined in Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia, Namibia, Niger, Russia, Uzbekistan, PR China USA and many other countries...
The internal search for
Uranium from Nigeria | France | Uranium mining
brought the following results, among others:
August 3, 2023 - Niger is also about uranium and exploitation
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December 11, 2022 - Radiant renovation in the Ore Mountains: Wismut takes stock
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November 11, 2021 - Ban on uranium mining in Greenland now decided
YouTube
Uranium mining in Africa
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Uranabbau in Afrika
Videos:
ARTE report - April 24, 2023 - 24:46
Niger: Uranium and the Consequences
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ARTE - April 15, 2023 - 11:52
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
Uranium mining in Africa
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Uranabbau in Afrika
The nuclear chain
Uranium: dangerous raw material
The first link in the nuclear chain
Uranium is mined for nuclear energy and weapons. However, far too little is known about the consequences of uranium mining. Every step of the nuclear fuel chain involves accident risks, generates nuclear waste and pollutes the environment. Since the Chernobyl catastrophe, many people have been aware of the consequences of a super meltdown, but the media hardly report on the environmental destruction and damage to health caused by uranium mining.
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How is it prepared?
Uranium is bound in rock. In uranium ore, natural uranium has a very low concentration. Ore with a concentration of only 0,05 percent uranium is being mined in the Olympic Dam mine in Australia. Most deposits have a uranium content of 0,1 to 0,2 percent.
One exception: In Saskatchewan, Canada, ores with a uranium content of more than 20 percent can be mined. However, since 2006 the prospecting has been hampered by a flood; it is unclear how the extraction can continue due to the ecological and health consequences of the flooding.
There are two methods for extracting uranium: conventional mining above and below ground and a chemical method, in-situ leaching (ISL - on-site leaching)...
Wikipedia
Uranium mining in Niger is one of the most important economic sectors of the West African landlocked country, because uranium is the most important export commodity. Uranium mining in Niger developed under French leadership and the country has been one of the world's most important uranium suppliers since production began in 1971. In 2015, Niger's share (from two active mines) was about 7% of world uranium production...
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The mining of uranium is linked to negative environmental influences, which occur both during the mining itself and after the mining activity has ended due to the mostly insufficiently secured mining legacies. Uranium is predominantly mined from open pit and underground mines, with the majority of uranium coming from countries "whose mining environmental standards are considered to be underdeveloped". In countries such as Russia, Canada, Niger or Kazakhstan, there are no other requirements for dealing with landfills. This is accompanied by land use, water consumption and pollution as well as general environmental pollution and health risks for miners and the affected population. Specific to the extraction of uranium is the resulting release of and exposure to radioactivity, which has led to increased (lung) cancer cases in the history of uranium mining. Opponents of nuclear power have criticized the fact that the CO2 emissions from uranium mining are not taken into account when considering the ecological balance of nuclear energy.
Aborigines living near uranium mining sites in Australia have a conspicuously high incidence of cancer. Uranium mining in Germany (in the former GDR, stopped after reunification in 1990; see Wismut) led to illnesses of miners. Through reports, medical dossiers and court files, this uranium mining is considered to be the best documented in the world...
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Tables and graphics with information on the subject of uranium are presented here.
Although uranium was mined as early as the 19th century for coloring glass and ceramics, intensive mining only began in the course of the nuclear arms race in the Cold War from 1945/46 and the beginning of civilian use of nuclear energy from 1954...
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Newsletter XXXII 2023 - August 6th to 12th
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