Newsletter XXXIV 2023

August 20th to 26th

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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

26. August

dog poop | attack | AfD

Attack on AfD politician

Beatrix smeared with faeces by stork

A demonstrator attacked the AfD politician Beatrix von Storch in a small town in Rhineland-Palatinate - apparently with feces. According to the police, he had previously pretended to want to take a picture with her.

Before a performance in Daun in the Eifel, AfD member of parliament Beatrix von Storch was smeared with faeces on Friday.

As the police in Daun confirmed, a man pretended to want to take a picture with the politician. He stepped closer to her and then reportedly smeared her abdomen with a substance said to be dog feces.

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Fridays for Future | Climate movement | form of protest

Climate activist in an interview

"We're having a dry spell, but we're going to persevere"

Five years of Fridays for Future - but the popularity of the climate movement is shrinking. This is also because there is more debate about forms of protest than about the burning issue of the climate crisis, says Fridays for Future activist Meret Busch.

Klimareporter°: Ms. Busch, you were one of the 500 climate activists who took part in the Fridays for Future summer congress in Lüneburg last week. There it was also about the future of Fridays for Future. What is the biggest challenge facing the climate movement right now?

Meret Busch: One of the biggest challenges is that we have been fighting on the streets for four years, but even with a new government we have still not achieved the climate goals and taken the measures that are necessary for effective climate protection.

It should be about: How can we secure the future of our generation, but also of all those who come after us on this planet? Instead of talking about it, many, including in the parties, are now concentrating on criticizing climate activists. This is a discourse shift. I think that's very dangerous, because it distracts from the actual topic...

25. August

Ecuador stops oil production im Nature reserve

No oil production in the Amazon region:

A turning point not only for Ecuador

The end of oil production in the Amazon region could completely transform the Latin American country. Now the country needs a new business model.

The referendum in Ecuador changes everything, even the newspaper landscape: "Sustainable agriculture in the Amazon region is part of the solution," wrote Ecuador's El Comercio a few days after the sensational Sí in the Yasuní referendum. Quite unusual for the otherwise conservative newspaper, which is the leading medium in Ecuador's capital Quito.

On Sunday, after almost all votes were counted, 59,31 percent of voters voted to end production in one of the country's largest oil fields, Bloque 43 in Yasuní National Park - an unexpectedly clear victory for the largest Ecuadorian nature reserve, where the Huaorani Native Americans and thousands of animals and plants, some of which are threatened with extinction, live...

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China | CNNC | Hualong One | Saudi Arabia

Competition for US offer

China wants to build nuclear power plant in Saudi Arabia

In order to expand its influence in the Middle East, China is bidding to build a nuclear power plant in Saudi Arabia. In developing its nuclear program, the kingdom had first asked the United States for help. But Washington attaches this to one condition, unlike Beijing.

Saudi Arabia is considering a bid from China to build a nuclear power plant in the kingdom. This was said by several Saudi informants familiar with the matter. The move is intended to pressure the US government to compromise on the terms of US aid to the country's nuclear plans.

The state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) has bid to build a nuclear power plant in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province near the borders with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, sources say.

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 August 25, 2008 (INES 3) IRE Fleurus, BEL

http://www.greenpeace.de/themen/energiewende/atomkraft/belgien-strahlenunfall-schwerer-als-gedacht

Wikipedia

Fleurus

Radiochemical Industrial Plant - 2008

After completion of a production process, three smaller collection tanks were filled into a larger waste water tank. This led to an unexpected chemical reaction with the formation of radioactive iodine-131. Due to a defective measuring computer, this could escape slowly and unnoticed through a chimney into the environment for a few days. When the problem was noticed, production was stopped in the entire plant on the instructions of the Belgian supervisory authority and a district sector of 5 kilometers to the north-east was banned from the consumption of agricultural products for a few days ...

Institut_national_des_radioéléments

An estimated 45 GBq of iodine-131 was released through the chimney. The Belgian nuclear regulatory agency Agence Fédérale de Contrôle Nucleaire (AFCN) shut down the IRE, a producer of radioisotopes for medical use, immediately after the accident was reported. Residents were warned by the police over loudspeakers six days after the incident not to eat fruit, vegetables, milk and water from the area, after the government's crisis management team had revoked the initial all-clear and activated the European information system ECURIE...

Nuclear power accidents by country#Belgium

From 2002 to 2011, a total of 5 INES-relevant accidents (3 x INES-2 and 1 x INES-4 and INES-3 each) were registered in Belgium.

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

24. August

Climate change | Antarctica | emperor penguin

consequence of climate change

In four out of five emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, no chicks survived in 2022

In Antarctica, the loss of sea ice in 2022 led to an unprecedented breeding failure of emperor penguins, a study shows. That means 90 percent of the colonies could be extinct by the end of the century.

According to an analysis, emperor penguins are suffering massively from the disappearance of sea ice in Antarctica. The rapid melting of the ice led to the death of all chicks in four out of five colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea last year, according to the study by the British Antarctic Survey. Satellite images showed that the areas of ice used by the penguins as breeding grounds had completely disappeared before the chicks developed their waterproof plumage.

The complete failure of breeding is a direct consequence of the unprecedented loss of sea ice that has been recorded in the region in recent years due to climate change, according to a statement accompanying the study. According to Peter Fretwell's team, the results, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, underpin predictions that 90 percent of all emperor penguin colonies are likely to be all but extinct by the end of the century if global warming continues.

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The Golden Board in front of the head

Who delivered the biggest anti-scientific nonsense of the year?

After a two-year break, the negative prize "The golden board in front of the head" will be awarded again this year. There have never been so many candidates as this year

After a two-year break, which was due to Sars-CoV-2, the time has come again this autumn. "The Golden Board in Front of the Head" is being awarded for the eleventh time. This is a disgraceful prize that has been awarded by the Viennese skeptics since 2011. Of course, this association is anything but scientifically skeptical - on the contrary: since 2011, the unflattering award has been given to people and organizations who were responsible for the biggest anti-scientific nonsense of the year, in order to make a small contribution against the country's fatal scientific ignorance afford...

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Energy companies 93% invest in fossil energies

Corporations against energy transition

Oil and gas multinationals as "accelerator"

Two new analyzes show that Europe's large energy companies maintain their fossil business and hardly invest in renewable energies. The corporate strategies have little to do with the announcements that they want to become climate-neutral by 2050.

Global warming should be stopped at a maximum of two degrees Celsius, better at 1,5 degrees. This is what the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 says. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a large part of the existing fossil energy reserves may no longer be mined and burned if the goal is to be achieved – specifically: 80 percent for coal and natural gas, and 30 percent for oil.

A lot more of it would have to stay in the ground if 1,5 degrees are targeted. The new IPCC boss Jim Skea recently pointed this out. The energy companies, however, continue to rely almost unchecked on the exploitation of fossil resources, as two current studies show.

The new report "The Dirty Dozen" by energy expert Steffen Bukold analyzes the strategies of European oil and gas companies, including Shell, BP, Total and Wintershall Dea. They used their recent record profits to continue to exploit climate-damaging oil and gas deposits, it says.

The twelve companies surveyed put 93 percent of their investments in fossil fuel projects and only seven percent in renewable energies last year...

23. August

fascis

Dealing with fascism:

Besides reason

How to deal with political paranoia? Because this disease also has not only symptoms, it also has causes.

Almost everywhere in Europe the same picture: authoritarian, populist, anti-democratic, right-wing extremist, neo-fascist movements and parties are growing, gaining influence and coming to power here and there. They can lie so that the beams bend, they can live out their incompetence and corruption performatively, they can bend the law, show how little human life and the environment are worth to them. They no longer need the mask of bourgeois men and women. They are obviously chosen, not because they are, they are chosen because they are what they are. Namely: fascists.

[...] How are you supposed to understand that without losing faith in your fellow human beings? Also in the face of a political mainstream in which people bury their heads in the sand, adapt in advance, voluntarily abolish anything that could offer cultural resistance to fascism? Since nobody believed in the tale of the protest voters anymore, people have settled in. It won't be that bad, that bit of fascism or post-fascism or fascism that shouldn't be called that.

When all reasonable attempts at explanation have been ticked off, the only thing left is a fall into the realm of the irrational. One of the zones through which one has to pass could be called "political paranoia"...

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PFAS | Damage to health | Chemistry forever

Chemical scandal in Belgium:

Truth that makes you sick

Chemicals from a 3M factory are polluting the area in Zwijndrecht, Belgium. Endangered residents are preparing a class action lawsuit.

[...] The story of PFAS in Zwijndrecht is not unique, although the town is now synonymous throughout Belgium with an environment that has become toxic. At the same time, as the investigative "Forever Pollution Project" published by 18 European media in the spring, there are around 17.000 such polluted areas in Europe. Over 2.100 of these are considered "hotspots" where the concentration "reaches levels considered hazardous to health". While Zwijndrecht has some of the highest PFAS levels, heavily industrialized Flanders, like parts of the UK or North Rhine-Westphalia, also has many heavily polluted places...

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Climate policy | Climate Protection Act | transport and buildings sectors

Targets missed, set six: devastating verdict on German climate policy

Energy and climate – compact: The Expert Council has submitted its statement on climate protection to the government. The missed targets are actually even more serious than generally reported. Here's why.

The Council of Experts for Climate Issues set up on the basis of the Climate Protection Act, which is supposed to regularly assess the federal government's climate protection policy, presented an opinion on the current climate protection program of the traffic light coalition yesterday, Tuesday. As expected, the verdict is once again scathing, even if one tries to keep a positive tone.

[...] For the transport and building sectors, the target values ​​specified in the Climate Protection Act had not been achieved, which is why the responsible ministries should have presented an immediate program within three months. This is what the current climate law provides for, but the ministries did nothing, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) refrained from using his policy competence.

Instead, there is now a new, cross-departmental climate protection program. After all, there is support for this from the expert council...

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Disinformation | climate change deniers | Heartland Institute

Systematic character assassination of climate researchers

A global network of climate change deniers is spreading misinformation. A new study shows that one of their main strategies is the character assassination of scientists and decision-makers. This can also be observed in Germany.

Failed climate policy is often explained by social inertia or other almost fatalistic arguments. However, climate misinformation does not spread by itself, but is the result of global campaigns by various interest groups.

One example is the conservative US think tank Heartland Institute, a key player in the globally organized climate change denial scene, which also has close ties to the German anti-science lobby organization "European Institute for Climate and Energy" (EIKE) and to coal and oil companies such as Exxon Mobile funded.

The impact and damage caused by these disinformation campaigns is often underestimated. The result is not only poorer general climate education, but also less approval for climate protection...

22. August

Fukushima | Tritium | radioactive water

After the meltdown in Fukushima: Japan discharges radioactive waste water into the sea

Atomic Energy Japen plans to discharge 30 liters of radioactive water into the sea every day for 40 to 500.000 years. The International Nuclear Safety Agency has approved the release plans. For Greenpece this is a scandal

Japan plans to start discharging wastewater from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Thursday, despite opposition from fishing communities, China and some scientists.

[...] About 1,3 million tons of treated water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools - is stored in more than 1.000 steel tanks on site, but Tepco has warned that storage space is running out.

Tepco's advanced liquid treatment system removes most radioactive elements with the exception of tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to separate from water...

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Climate targets | Federal Environment Agency | climate law

Traffic light violates climate law

Germany will clearly miss the climate targets for 2030

The Federal Environment Agency is today publishing the projection report for 2023. According to this, Germany will exceed the CO2030 emissions permitted up to 2 by up to 331 million tons. At the same time, the Climate Expert Council will present its assessment of the government's climate protection program.

The media in Germany have been waiting for weeks for the so-called projection report 2023. Every two years - and from now on every year - the federal government has to use a forecast to clarify whether Germany will achieve its climate goals with the current policy.

Two months ago, in mid-July, there were first media reports about a draft of the 2023 projection. The paper is said to have simmered in the departmental coordination between the ministries. The Federal Environment Agency has now released the current projection report from 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

[...] According to the current projection report, the already problematic areas will clearly exceed their targets: Transport will exceed its previous budget by up to 2030 million tons by 210, the building sector by up to 96 million and industry by up to 83 million tons ...

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Ecuador | Election campaign | Murder

After murders during the election campaign

Left defies terror

Ecuador: Electoral success for »Revolución Ciudadana« and Luisa González. Socio-political issues convince majority

In Ecuador, the left camp is still on the rise. After its landslide victory in February's local and regional elections, the Revolución Ciudadana (RC) movement also emerged as the strongest political force in Sunday's parliamentary and presidential elections. In the future parliament, the party of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa will make up 40 percent of the deputies. After counting 91 percent of the votes in the first ballot, the left-wing presidential candidate Luisa González was also 33,25 percent ahead of the banana entrepreneur Daniel Noboa, who, as a candidate from the right-wing alliance »Movimiento Acción Democrática Nacional« (ADN), achieved 23,72 percent. On October 15, both candidates for the presidency must now compete against each other in a run-off election...

21. August

Ecuador | Referendum | oil production

Referendum in Ecuador:

Oil production in the Amazon voted out

The majority of people in Ecuador vote to protect Yasuní National Park. It is a groundbreaking vote - not only for the indigenous people.

HAMBURG taz | Until the day of the election, Pedro Bermeo was traveling with the activists of the YASunidos all over Ecuador to promote a Sí. A yes to the protection of Yasuní National Park and the end of oil production in one of the most biodiverse biosphere reserves in the world.

The result of the referendum, said the lawyer and environmental activist a few days before the vote on Sunday, has signal character - for his country, but also beyond. "It could result in more referendums, make our country more grassroots democratic and that could serve as a model for other countries," Bermeo said.

The 31-year-old, lanky, with a full beard and a mop of hair tied back, has now come a big step closer to realizing this dream. Because after counting around 93 percent of the votes (as of Monday afternoon), it is clear: a majority of the people in Ecuador, around 60 percent, voted for nature - the no camp, which campaigned for the continuation of oil production, lost ...

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Guatemala | Elections | Corruption

Guatemala: Arévalo defeats Pact of the Corrupt

Social Democrat wins runoff election in Guatemala against established candidate Sandra Torres

Guatemala has made its decision: hopeful Bernardo Arévalo wins the presidential elections with around 58 percent. The Central American country filled the headlines with an adventurous election campaign, the arbitrariness of a corrupt judiciary - and a seed of hope. That seed is the Semilla (seed) party of the social-democratic Arévalo, who has been denounced as a communist by opponents. His central plan: to break with the "Pact of the Corrupt". This tiny elite pulls the strings in the country's political operations, controls the judiciary, the economy and large parts of the political landscape, and the embodiment of this "Pact of the Corrupt" is Sandra Torres. She is a former first lady, a third-time candidate for the presidency and a representative of an ultra-conservative worldview.

[...] However, that does not mean that the nightmare is over: Despite the confirmed presidency, the repression could continue after the election. This is mainly due to two central personalities. Their names are Consuelo Porras and Rafael Curruchiche. Porras is Guatemala's Attorney General - and since May 2022 on a US sanctions list for "significant corruption", especially for obstructing anti-corruption investigations in the country. Ironically, Curruchiche is the head of the special prosecutor's office against impunity and is considered just as corrupt...

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France | lifetime extension | Tricastin

Litschauer/Greens on nuclear power plant runtime extension:

France is acting irresponsibly

Greens: EU Commission must ensure cross-border EIA

Vienna (OTS) - "For me, it is incomprehensible how France can extend the service life of an ancient nuclear power plant without a cross-border environmental impact assessment - as the ESPOO Convention actually envisages. The last two years in particular have impressively shown how error-prone the French power plant park is and how many unexpected corrosion problems the EDF has to contend with," says Martin Litschauer, anti-nuclear spokesman for the Greens, about France's plans, the term of one of the first to extend French nuclear power plants to 50 years. "I therefore call on the EU Commission to take action and ensure a cross-border EIA for these old reactors, in which everyone can participate."...

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Fires in Canada, on Tenerife and Hawaii

Wildfires: Fires of a new dimension

Severe fires in Tenerife, Canada and Hawaii. Mass evacuations and thousands missing. Hawaiians fear losing their cultural identity through land sales.

Thousands of Tenerife residents were forced to flee last week from blazes from wildfires that authorities said were out of control, news channel Al Jazeera reports.

The fire is of a magnitude "that the Canary Islands have never experienced before," said Rosa Dávila, Chair of the Island Council. By Saturday, 26.000 residents had to be evacuated. About a million people live on the popular tourist island, which is part of the Canary Archipelago off the coast of Western Sahara.

The police suspect arson. The perpetrators are responsible for one of the worst fires on the island in the past 40 years, it is reported...

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Nuclear waste | Jülich | Ahaus

In alliance with the Jülich people

BI "No nuclear waste in Ahaus" protests against new transports

The BI "No nuclear waste in Ahaus" and other anti-nuclear groups protested at the warning. In the alliance they want to prevent nuclear waste transports from Jülich.

On Sunday, the citizens' initiative "No nuclear waste in Ahaus" protested with over 100 people at the Mahner. Their spokesman Hartmut Liebermann described what they fear: 152 Castor containers could be sent from the Jülich research reactor to Ahaus from 2024, in 60 road transports, five per week. The first test drive with empty containers has already taken place. The next will follow in October.

The casks contain the fuel elements of the reactor. Since they cannot be prepared for disposal in Ahaus, they would have to be transported to other locations before disposal. The Ahauser council, the BI, the Jülich alliance Stop Westcastor and the non-party mayor there, Axel Fuchs, are against the transports...

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August 21, 2007 (INES 2) Beznau, CHE

Wikipedia

Beznau nuclear power plant

On August 21, block 2 was in annual revision. The block-common reserve grid feed-in was switched off for maintenance work. To compensate, the emergency diesel generator of Unit 1, which was running at full load, was switched on when idling. After the reserve network was re-established, it was noticed that this diesel would not have fulfilled its emergency power function due to a fault. According to the HSK authority, there would theoretically still have been a cross-connection to the emergency diesel of the shut down Unit 2, but this diesel was also being maintained...

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Beznau (Switzerland)

Greenpeace has published a fact sheet on Beznau with a list of incidents. According to this, for example, in 1992 two workers died who were in an unpumped room with argon. In 1997 there was a total failure of a cooling system for two weeks. According to the Swiss supervisory authority ENSI (then HSK), however, "one of three emergency cooling lines was not immediately ready for use for two weeks." In August 2009, two workers were badly exposed to radiation due to uncoordinated work. Incidents and emergency shutdowns have increased since 2007.

The August 2009 incident was assessed as an INES level 2 incident. Because of the incident, ENSI only certified that the Beznau nuclear power plant had sufficient operational safety in 2010 and initiated criminal proceedings...

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August 21, 1945 (INES 4) atomic bomb research in Los Alamos, USA

Wikipedia

Harry_Daghlian

Harry K. Daghlian Jr. worked on the Omega site of the Nuclear weapons factory in Los Alamos and created supercritical mass when he accidentally dropped a block of tungsten carbide onto a plutonium core (Demon Core). Although he pushed the piece away, he received a fatal dose of radiation in the incident and died on September 15, 1945....

List of accidents in nuclear facilities

20. August

Ukraine war | IPPNW | Ceasefire | Peace negotiations

Ukraine War: IPPNW calls for ceasefire to prevent escalation

"Taurus" cruise missiles for Ukraine: The risk of NATO becoming a war party is increasing. There must also be an end to the hostilities for humanitarian reasons.

The debate about the delivery of "Taurus" cruise missiles to Ukraine is coming to a head, while at the same time Kiev is apparently increasingly attacking targets in Russia. According to media reports, attacks with Western weapons on Russia's core area would "pose the danger of NATO becoming a war party in the conflict" from the point of view of the USA and also of the Federal Chancellor.

[...] We call for an immediate ceasefire and subsequent peace negotiations to prevent further escalation.

Bringing an end to hostilities for humanitarian reasons

Irrespective of the risk of escalation, we must bring the war to an end for humanitarian reasons in order to end the daily deaths and traumatization of both the civilian population and the soldiers; and also to mitigate related, sometimes global, crises such as famine.

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Forest fires in Canada, Spain and Greece

Devastating wildfires worldwide: Thousands of Canadians flee fire

In Canada, wildfires are moving relentlessly toward two cities. The fires are under control in Tenerife and are breaking out again in Greece.

In several provinces of Canada, devastating forest fires are currently destroying houses and driving thousands of people from their homes. At the center of the action were two cities toward which the flames were moving ever further: the region around the city of Kelowna in the province of British Columbia and the city of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, a sparsely populated area in the Arctic Circle.

[...] Cause of the fires in Tenerife unclear

According to official estimates, the number of people who have had to leave their homes because of the fire in the north and north-east of the island is more than 12.000. This estimate is based on the population of the eleven affected communities. At first, a spokeswoman for the authorities even spoke of around 26.000 evacuees on Saturday. This number was later revised significantly downwards. Injured or destroyed houses were not initially reported.

[...] New forest fires in Greece

Meanwhile, a forest fire is raging again in Greece. At least eight villages were evacuated on Saturday in the north-east of the country, the authorities said, according to the Ana news agency. The fire broke out near the village of Melia on Saturday and is said to be moving in the direction of the airport in the port city of Alexandroupoli.

Current news+

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Renewables | sun and wind | Energy transition

The sun will shine for another 4,5 billion years

The sun is our largest and most reliable source of energy. Every second of our being here, it sends us 15.000 times more energy than all of humanity consumes today.

The astrophysicists have calculated that it has been doing this for 4.5 billion years and another 4,5 billion years. And it does it eco-friendly, cost-effectively, on every roof, forever, and with no toxic or hazardous waste.

This year and this summer, the previous failures of the energy transition have become particularly visible and noticeable. We are experiencing one heat record after another, forest fires in Italy, Greece, Canada, Tenerife, California and China - floods in Slovenia, Austria, Franconia and Tyrol as well as worldwide coral death and warmer seas than ever before. Around the Mediterranean people experience temperatures of 40 degrees and more. Our house is on fire and the energy transition is still going far too slowly.

But now the federal government has finally passed an amendment to the law, a solar package that makes it easier, less bureaucratic and faster to install solar modules on roofs, balconies, facades, fields and brownfield sites. Now the time has finally come: the solar age is beginning, the sun is winning.

The Kohl government tentatively began the solar energy turnaround more than 30 years ago with a 1.000 roofs program. The red-green federal government then passed the Renewable Energy Sources Act in 2000, the intention of which has now been adopted by 80 governments worldwide. In Germany, however, this law was bloated by nine amendments and brutally bureaucratized, so that it was almost impossible to install a renewable system without a lawyer. The approval procedures lasted up to ten years and longer.

Everything should now be approved more easily and decidedly faster. Tenants, tradesmen, farmers, homeowners and apartment owners will soon be able to get started if they want to become renewable. After all, 90 percent of the buildings in this country are still without solar systems. The skeptics and the regulation-mad Germany can and must now quickly rethink and act. A salutary experience awaits us.

Farmers also become energy farmers.

Anyone can buy a solar module in the hardware store, plug it into the socket, produce their own electricity using a plug-in solar power plant and save on electricity costs when the sun is shining. If there is a lot of sunshine at midday, the counter can sometimes run backwards.

Farmers can do double farming. Grow vegetables or fruit down on the ground as before and produce and sell electricity four meters above using an elevated agri-solar power plant. Farmers also become energy farmers. In July 2023, Germany had already produced 66 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. There will be many more in the future, since the expansion of wind energy is finally supposed to be faster.

Sun and wind are the key energy sources of tomorrow. With electricity storage and power lines from the windy north to Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, we will soon be able to use far more renewable energy. Even when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. When onshore wind power and offshore wind power are combined, we almost always have wind power available. In addition, there is the storable hydropower, geothermal energy, bioenergy and the wave and sea energy of the oceans. The world is full of renewable energy. We just have to learn to use the full symphony of renewables.

If the Bundestag gives the green light in autumn, the government's solar package can come into force at the beginning of 2024.

Background knowledge

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The map of the nuclear world

Nobody needs all that stuff...

The internal search for

Renewables | sun and wind | Energy transition

brought the following results, among others:

April 29, 2023 - China puts huge wind and solar power plant into operation

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December 9, 2022 - Renewable energies: Global breakthrough in five years

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May 4, 2022 - The sun, the forest and the big bucks

YouTube

Energy transition Renewable sun Wind

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Energiewende Erneuerbare Sonne Wind

Videos:

DW Global Ideas - October 12, 2021 - 6:23 am

Uruguay: energy transition with sun and wind

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Terra X - Jul 19, 2023 - 29:19

Can we manage the energy transition – and will electricity become cheaper?

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!

Energy transition Renewable sun Wind

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Energiewende Erneuerbare Sonne Wind

Federal Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions about the energy transition

Germany is in the middle of the energy transition. Energy from renewable sources, such as sun and wind, is intended to replace energy from fossil fuels, such as coal, and nuclear energy. We have compiled the most frequently asked questions that this turnaround entails for you together with our answers.

know.de

Renewable energy sources: wind, sun and water

What is the difference between solar panels and solar cells?

In solar collectors, solar radiation heats a liquid, which is then used via heat exchangers to heat process water (solar thermal energy generation). With solar cells, the sun's rays are used directly to generate electricity (energy generation through photovoltaics). In power plants, the sun's heat creates steam and drives generators. Most of these power plants are still in the experimental stage, only the Californian parabolic trough power plant in the Mojave Desert has been delivering an output of around 350 megawatts for years.

By the way: Photovoltaic systems are mainly installed on house roofs. Modern systems are not dependent on sunny weather, but always work as long as it is light. They deliver about 1,5 watts on an area of ​​100 square meters. A house roof with 60 square meters of solar cells can deliver over 8000 kilowatts per hour on average over the year...

Wikipedia

Energy transition

[...] The aim of the energy transition is to minimize the ecological, social and health problems caused by the conventional energy industry and to fully internalize the external costs that are incurred in the process and have so far hardly been priced into the energy market. In view of global warming, which is largely caused by humans, the decarbonization of the energy industry by ending the use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas is particularly important today. The finite nature of fossil fuels and the dangers of nuclear energy are also important reasons for the energy transition. Solving the global energy problem is considered the central challenge of the 21st century...

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Energy transition by country

The article Energy transition by country describes the global efforts to transform the existing fossil-nuclear energy system into a sustainable energy system based on renewable energies. This energy transition has been established in many industrialized and emerging countries for several years, whereby the respective approach differs significantly depending on the political, economic and geographical circumstances...

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Newsletter XXXIII 2023 - August 13th to 19st

Newspaper article 2023

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

Donation appeal

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

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

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

Donations account: BI Umweltschutz Hamm

Usage: THTR Rundbrief

IBAN: DE31 4105 0095 0000 0394 79

BIC: WELADED1HAM

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