Newsletter XI 2024
March 10th to 16st
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| Current news+ | Background knowledge |
The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the incidents were never published through official channels, so this information could only be made available to the public in a roundabout way. The list of incidents in the PDF file is therefore not 100 % identical with "INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities", but represents an addition.
March 1, 2006 (INES 2) NPP Kozloduy, BGR
March 5, 1969 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
March 6, 2006 (INES ? Class.?) Nuclear factory NFS, Erwin, TN, USA
March 8, 2002 (INES 3) NPP Davis Besse, USA
March 10, 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,6) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
March 11, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN
March 11, 1958 (Broken Arrow) B-47 Mars Bluff, USA
March 12, 2011 (INES 3) NPP Fukushima II Daini, JPN
March 13, 1980 (INES 4) NPP Saint Laurent, FRA
March 14, 2011 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Pickering, ON, CAN
March 14, 1961 (Broken Arrow) B-52 Yuba City, CA, USA
March 18, 2011 (INES 2) NPP Doel, BEL
March 19, 1971 (INES 3 | NAMS 2) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
March 22, 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Brown's Ferry, USA
March 25, 1955 (INES 4 | NAMS 4,3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
March 28, 1979 (INES 5 | NAMS 7,9) NPP Three Mile Island, USA
We are always looking for up-to-date information. Anyone who can help, please send a message to:
nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
16. March
Protests in Israel
Thousands demonstrate for the release of Hamas hostages
Blocked road, small fires, smoke bombs: Once again people in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem took to the streets in support of a hostage deal and against the Netanyahu government. In some places the police had to intervene.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on Saturday for the release of hostages held by the Islamist Hamas and against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Relatives of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip called for a new hostage deal and called on the government to act quickly. Several demonstrations spread across Tel Aviv and blocked the coastal metropolis's central traffic arteries.
[...] "You don't have any more time"
Relatives of the hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip accuse Netanyahu and his government of not doing enough to secure their release. "Our prime minister has forgotten that he is also the prime minister of 134 hostages," said a relative at a rally. »You're out of time, we're out of time. Do something now, we need you!”
Elsewhere, several thousand people demonstrated against the Netanyahu government and called for early elections...
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Hamas | Militias | confrontation
More confrontation with Israel
Houthi and Hamas plan “next phase” of war
According to the Houthi leader, it is about nothing less than the "encirclement" of Israel: His militias discussed with Hamas at a secret meeting point how the war in the Gaza Strip can be further inflamed if Israel launches its offensive in Rafah.
According to Palestinian sources, high-ranking representatives of the Islamist Hamas and the pro-Iranian Houthi militia from Yemen discussed further “coordination” of their actions against Israel at a meeting. Hamas and Islamic Jihad circles said it was about the “next phase” of the war in the Gaza Strip. A Houthi official said both sides wanted to expand the confrontation with Israel.
According to Hamas and Islamic Jihad circles, leaders of the two Islamist Palestinian groups, the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Houthi representatives held the "important" meeting last week. It was about “mechanisms to coordinate their resistance actions” for the “next phase” of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources did not provide any information about the location of the meeting. A Houthi militia official, who did not want to be named, said the meeting took place in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. This was about an "expansion of confrontations and the encirclement" of Israel, as Houthi leader Malek al-Huthi had already announced in a speech on Thursday...
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Israel | Justice | Ideologies
Of mercy and ideology
Jews traditionally pride themselves on their mercy. What is left of her in the current war against the Palestinians?
In the Jewish “Book of Education” from the 13th century, Jews are apostrophized as “merciful, sons of the merciful.” Compassion is a Jewish virtue, which is sometimes even exaggerated when dealing with others. The Jewish religion is not the only one that adorns itself with such narcissisms. There is generally a contradictory gap between what religions ethically prescribe and claim and what is actually manifested in historical practice. This is precisely why people insist with verve on the morally flattering traditional self-image.
In 1960, Max Horkheimer wrote in his criticism of the official state trial planned by Israel against Adolf Eichmann: The desire to do something to Eichmann because of his atrocities was “too poor” for Israel. He highlights the historical suffering of the Jewish people, but adds the insight: “The refusal to recognize violence as an argument of truth is the consistent feature of its history. He turned the suffering this caused him into a moment of duration and unity. Instead of bringing about dissolution, or special malice and meanness, which are as lacking in Jews as in other collectives, injustice has been translated into a kind of experience. Suffering and hope have become inseparable in Judaism.”
[...] What the philosopher Max Horkheimer would have said about the current Gaza war? The Judaism that he still had in mind in 1960 was diasporic Judaism, shaped by centuries of persecution and suffering, whose approach to its historical fate he sought to characterize through its religious values. But this was the experience of a powerless collective that had no possibility of self-defense. How would Judaism have developed if it had not been exposed to such historically determined powerlessness?
Well, a possible answer to this hypothetical question can be derived from the current Gaza war. Now that the Jews have a powerful army at their disposal, it is clear and clear how they deal with the suffering they have suffered in their nation state: they react to the monstrosities of October 7th with their own barbarism, which may give the impression that it is okay about complying with the biblical postulate of justice “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” which has little to do with Horkheimer's idea of Judaism. And even the symmetry shown in the postulate is far from being met: around 13.000 children and thousands of women who died at the hands of the Israeli army, as well as other uninvolved Gaza residents, testify to a great need for revenge and a maddening desire for revenge, to a devastating rage for destruction and devastation. Other people's deaths don't count...
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cooperations | Right-wing extremists | firewall
The AfD's firewall has many holes
A study by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation shows: Cooperations with suspected or proven right-wing extremist parties in Germany are not uncommon. The number could continue to rise.
"No cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD)!" All other parties represented in the German Bundestag emphasize this. But do they stick to their commitment? At the highest parliamentary level, i.e. in the Bundestag, it has worked so far. But even one level below, in the state parliaments, the demarcation, often referred to as the “firewall,” only worked until 2019.
[...] The finding is clear: most of the cooperation with the AfD or other far-right parties and groups is attributable to the CDU. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation team found 52 cases during the investigation period. The FDP agreed to cooperate in 22 cases, while the Greens only did so five times and therefore the least...
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Climate protection | transport sector | Building sector
Emissions data 2023: Federal Chancellor must stop breaking the law in the Climate Protection Act
Germanwatch calls for immediate immediate programs for the transport and building sectors / Transport Minister Wissing's disregard for EU regulations can be expensive for Germany
According to the environmental and development organization Germanwatch, delayed climate protection in the transport sector is now the most serious problem in German climate policy. This breaks the current climate protection law - this threatens to undermine trust in the rule of law and the reliability of politics. According to the emissions data for 2023 published today by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), the legally prescribed reduction targets will be missed in the transport sector for the third time in a row and in the building sector for the fourth time in a row - despite meeting the annual emissions total for last year.
Lutz Weischer, head of the Berlin office of Germanwatch: “Both the federal government’s emergency measures in 2022 and the climate protection program in 2023 violate the Climate Protection Act. Since Transport Minister Wissing refuses to follow applicable law, Chancellor Scholz must use his directive authority to ensure that his minister finally implements additional climate protection measures in transport. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport and buildings are also subject to the EU Effort Sharing Regulation. If Germany continues to miss these European targets because of Volker Wissing's denial of reality, it will be expensive for the federal budget."...
15. March
Emissions | Climate targets | Traffic | Heating
Germany's emissions balance 2023:
Not quite a clean bill
Germany seems to be able to achieve its climate goals by 2030. That's great - but it's worth taking a look at the small print.
Wait, good news on climate policy? Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has announced that Germany is “on track” to meet the climate targets for 2030. By the end of the decade, climate-damaging emissions must fall by 1990 percent compared to 65, as required by the German Climate Protection Act. The Federal Environment Agency has now drawn up its annual climate balance. The authority estimates that there will be a reduction of 2030 percent by 64 if things continue at the current pace. By exceeding the climate targets by 2030, Germany will in principle even make up for the one missing percentage point at the end of the decade.
The energy transition is going well and that’s great. However, a closer look at the data also raises doubts: Firstly, the Federal Environment Agency's projections are not up to date. The authority has not yet taken the budget crisis into account. This has resulted in the federal climate and transformation fund missing 60 billion euros. When Habeck argues that the government spared key climate protection projects during austerity measures, that is only half true.
[...] Ultimately, CO2 prices can be expected to rise enormously. Anyone who still relies on fossil equipment, be it cars or heating systems, will soon find it expensive.
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Methane | Natural gas | Crude oil
New study
Methane emissions in the USA higher than expected
Methane is many times more harmful to the climate than CO2. Now a new study shows that when fossil fuels are mined, much more methane appears to be released than previously thought.
Cows burp it, it rises up in landfills and it is still found in many heating systems: methane, the main component of natural gas, is an underestimated climate killer. Methane is released when gas and crude oil are extracted. And apparently in far larger quantities than previously assumed. This is proven by a new study that has just been published Nature journal has been published.
When analyzing six production regions in the USA, it became clear that methane is usually released negligently through leaks in the plants. But also through so-called venting, in which natural gas is intentionally let out. The USA produces the most oil and natural gas in the world.
80 times more harmful than CO2
The study is the most comprehensive to date to measure methane emissions from US oil and gas systems, says climate researcher Lena Höglund Isaksson from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)...
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There can only be one in Russia, the flawless PutIn. His electoral victory is rock solid, two days before the end of the election
EU Council President already “congratulates” Putin on his landslide victory
Officially, the Russian presidential elections last until Sunday. EU Council President Charles Michel, like many other people, already knew the winner two days in advance: He congratulated Vladimir Putin.
EU Council President Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Vladimir Putin on his election victory two days before the official end of the Russian presidential election. "I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections that begin today", writes the Belgian at X. "No opposition. No freedom. "No choice," he added mockingly.
The voting started this morning and will last until Sunday. Kremlin leader Putin is competing with three minor candidates in the mock vote, as all serious opponents are either dead, imprisoned or have fled into exile. In mid-February, Putin's most prominent opponent, Alexei Navalny, died under unclear circumstances in a prison camp in the Arctic Circle. Victory is therefore certain for Putin...
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Resistance | fossil fuels | Chemical industry
Billionaire wants to prevent new gas and oil production in the USA
First he took action against coal, now against manufacturers of plastic and fertilizer. Because the climate crisis threatens humanity.
His name is Michael Bloomberg, he was mayor of New York and is the eleventh richest person on our planet. Since he no longer holds public office, he has become even more combative at the age of 81. He has so far spent half a billion US dollars on his fight against the coal and gas industries, with obvious success. Now he is promising another half a billion for his fight against plastic and the petrochemical industry, which is based on oil.
A combative personality
Bloomberg is now the number one enemy of the US petrochemical industry. His new campaign called «Beyond Petrochemicals» (beyond petroleum products) has only just gained momentum, but has already achieved some success...
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Photovoltaics | Subsidies | Meyer Burger
No subsidies for photovoltaics:
Solar factory in Saxony is closing
There are no subsidies for the photovoltaic industry. That's why manufacturer Meyer Burger is closing its factory in Freiberg - and moving to the USA.
DRESDEN/FREIBERG taz | The largest solar module factory in Europe will apparently be closed permanently. Manufacturer Meyer Burger announced on Thursday that production at the factory in Freiberg, Saxony, with 500 employees, had been stopped two days ago. The closure is scheduled to follow in April.
[...] Instead of in Saxony, Meyer Burger now wants to produce more in the USA. There, government programs such as the $400 billion Inflation Reduction Act promote climate-friendly transformation. On Thursday, the Swiss-based company announced that it had made a loss of over 2023 million euros in 300. It is therefore necessary to close the production facility in Saxony.
[...] There is also a geopolitical argument: Continuing to have the production and know-how for solar systems in Germany offers security - and this security has its price, says Habeck.
However, the traffic light does not agree on help for the industry. A so-called resilience bonus, which is intended to make Germany more independent of imports, is planned in Solar Package 1. It is intended to increase the feed-in tariff for solar power producers who buy products from Europe.
But the package has still not been passed by the Bundestag. The reason: The FDP is against it. She sees subsidies as a market distortion that makes solar systems more expensive. There is also concern that long-term aid may be necessary because German companies cannot assert themselves on the solar market. Labor costs in other countries are simply lower...
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Power storage | compressed air
With pressure to the stream
Compressed air storage systems in Münsterland are intended to store large amounts of electricity. The idea behind it isn't new, but it could now be in for a renaissance.
Compressed air storage systems are the exotic ones among electricity storage systems. There are only two systems worldwide. One of them is in Huntorf in Lower Saxony and is almost half a century old. Now the green electricity provider Lichtblick wants to revive the technology.
[...] In the first phase, the storage power plant is expected to deliver 320 megawatts, about as much as Huntorf. A further 320 MW will be added in the second phase. The storage should be able to provide electricity for up to 100 hours. In purely mathematical terms, their capacity would correspond to 64 gigawatt hours, almost five times as much as all the battery storage units currently installed in this country combined.
[...] "The cavern can be accessed in long and short cycles, so that if it makes commercial sense, feed in or out can only be done for an hour or less." This flexibility is the core advantage over battery storage, which is particularly suitable for shorter cycles, says Lichtblick. A study by the US Department of Energy confirms that compressed air storage is one of the cheapest options, especially for high performance and long cycles.
The consortium has a wide range of business models in mind: intraday market, day-ahead market, balancing energy, bilateral contracts, etc. “Compressed air storage can help to compensate for both the temporal and local differences between production and consumption,” says Lichtblick. "The temporal price differences are already becoming increasingly visible in the market."
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Glyphosate | Detergent | water softener
Tübingen researcher sees detergents as a source of glyphosate: What's the truth?
Does the glyphosate in our waters come mainly from our detergent and not from agriculture? A Tübingen researcher suspects this. But there are also doubts.
Agriculture is not the main source of glyphosate pollution in our waters - at least that is what researcher Carolin Huhn from the University of Tübingen believes. She suspects that the glyphosate trail leads to our washing machines. More specifically: the detergent we use. The Tübingen scientist's research is still being examined, but doubts are already beginning to arise.
[...] Pay attention to the ingredients of the detergents
If you want to know whether your detergent contains phosphonates, you should take a look at the ingredients. If DTPMP is listed there, then the detergent is one of those that, according to Huhn's research, could cause glyphosate. According to the Tübingen researcher, most European detergents contain DTPMP - but it is not used in America. However, some exceptions can also be found among German products. The list of ingredients provides clarification.
The NRW consumer advice center points out that this is not always easy. Because DTPMP is not always clearly identifiable. The round blue angel is therefore helpful for consumers, according to the NRW consumer advice center. The seal for environmentally friendly detergents does not contain DPTMPs.
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March 15, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN
On March 12, 2011, reactor unit 1 exploded,
on March 14, 2011, reactor unit 3 exploded and
on March 15, 2011, reactor unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded.
Each of these three reactor explosions on three different days met the criteria for classification as an INES 7 catastrophic accident.
14. March
Bundestag rejects delivery of Taurus cruise missiles
The CDU and CSU fail again with their application for Taurus deliveries to Ukraine
The Union wanted to know again in the dispute over Taurus cruise missiles for Ukraine. Parliament rejected the request to supply the weapon, and prominent traffic light politicians voted with the opposing side.
The Bundestag has again rejected the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. The majority of Parliament voted against a corresponding proposal from the Union. With 687 votes cast, according to the final count, 188 parliamentarians supported the motion, 494 voted against and 5 abstained. 48 MPs stayed away from the vote. There are 197 members of the Union parliamentary group.
Although there are also supporters of a Taurus delivery in the traffic light parties, the coalition stood behind the line of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has clearly rejected a delivery several times...
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RWE | Renewables | Fossil | nuclear power | billion profits
Profiteer from the energy crisis
Why RWE makes billions in profits
At the energy company RWE, profits last year were almost a billion euros higher than expected - partly because of high electricity prices. However, the business will probably not continue like this.
There were certainly unusual words that the head of the energy company RWE, Markus Krebber, chose when presenting the business figures today: "2023 was characterized by a very good business result." Quite matter-of-factly, "very good, nothing more." Krebber has apparently deliberately avoided cheering arias. Because Germany's largest electricity producer has a total of 4,5 billion euros in net profit in the company's coffers, a whopping increase of 40 percent - that is also due to them high electricity prices. RWE benefited financially from the energy crisis.
The Essen-based energy multinational no longer supplies households, but sales to large customers or on the electricity exchange - for example to municipal utilities and large customers - were very lucrative. And that's not just because of the coal-fired power plants.
This is how CFO Michael Müller calculates:
"Last year, 35 percent of our electricity came from renewable sources, with electricity generation from gas coming in second place and electricity generation from coal coming last."
Accordingly, coal and nuclear energy only provide eight percent of RWE's profits.
[...] But the extraordinarily high profits at RWE will not continue. Because wholesale prices have now fallen significantly again. “I think we were all surprised at how quickly electricity prices fell. Which is of course good for the location,” said the CEO. For RWE, on the other hand, less: Because the electricity generated is sold cheaper, the net profit this year will probably only be half as high. But maybe the predictions are wrong again.
At least that's what many city treasurers are likely to hope. Because 80 cities and districts own shares in the company - mostly for historical reasons. These are primarily municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate. And they are happy, because after the billion-dollar profit, RWE is increasing its dividend: the energy company is paying out 744 million euros as a profit share. This is a welcome additional income for many urban households.
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EU Commission | international law | financial crisis
Why the expropriation of Russian assets could become a global financial crisis
The EU is playing with fire on the issue of frozen Russian assets. Why expropriation could damage the global financial system.
Russian assets in the European Union are still frozen and there is still no agreement on what to do with these funds. Leading politicians in Germany, the USA and the EU are toying with the idea of handing them over to Ukraine.
For moral reasons you believe you are right. After all, Ukraine was attacked in violation of international law and must be rebuilt. But this idea suffers from reality and the devastating consequences it would have.
The economic risks of expropriation
Much has been written about the dangers to the US dollar and the euro. The expropriation of national bank assets from a state with which one is not at war is likely to be contrary to international law and undermines trust in Western currencies...
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Lobbying | Lobby Control | Party donation
LobbyControl confirms that the traffic light government has made significant progress
Stricter rules for civil servants, a lobby footprint for laws: the government's work is impressive, reports LobbyControl. “Blatant deficiencies” remained with party donations.
The organization LobbyControl considers the federal government's work in recent years to be a success. Many new lobbying rules have been introduced.
[...] The report's so-called evaluation traffic light was still red in two out of five action areas in 2021 and yellow in two others, LobbyControl announced. Today the traffic lights show green-yellow in three areas - the lobby register, when changing sides and when it comes to parliamentary rules.
Only the newly examined field of “conflicts of interest in the federal ministries” is rated red – i.e. unsatisfactory. The reason for this is, among other things, the best man affair involving State Secretary Patrick Graichen in the Federal Ministry of Economics by Robert Habeck (Greens), who was dismissed in May 2023, and the recent hydrogen affair in the Ministry of Transport.
LobbyControl assesses rules in federal ministries as “not up to date”
Timo Lange from LobbyControl said: "Anyone who knows compliance rules from larger companies will be surprised at how compliance issues are handled in the federal ministries." The fact that members of the federal government and political officials do not even have to report private financial interests or company investments is "simply no longer appropriate."
[...] Nevertheless, there remain "glaring deficiencies" when it comes to party donations, said Eschmann. The biggest deficit is that there is still no upper limit for donations and sponsorship. In addition, too little is still known about corporate investments and shareholdings of MPs.
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Fusion | Ministry of Research | Fusion research
Nuclear fusion: Germany is taking part in the race for the first fusion power plant
The Federal Research Minister wants Germany to be among the first to build a fusion power plant.
With a new funding program, the federal government wants to pave the way for the first fusion power plant in Germany. “We want to build a fusion ecosystem of industry, start-ups and science,” explained Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) on Wednesday when presenting the program "Fusion 2040 – Research on the way to a fusion power plant" (PDF). "The global race is on. I want us in Germany to be among the first to build a fusion power plant," said the minister.
Her ministry is already funding institutions that are researching fusion: The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Forschungszentrum Jülich. This funding for research into energy generation is now to be given a second pillar in order to create a "fusion ecosystem" together with industry...
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Portugal | climate change deniers | Super election year
Series: Super election year 2024
Election success for climate deniers in Portugal
After the success of the right-wing radical Chega in the parliamentary elections in Portugal, a difficult government is expected. The country's climate policy is also at stake - and the European energy transition.
For a long time, Portugal was spared from a shift to the right. This will be over with the parliamentary elections on March 10th at the latest. With around 18 percent, the right-wing populist to extreme party Chega ("It's enough") has become the third strongest force.
[...] When it comes to climate policy, Chega does not stand out significantly from other parties on the right-wing spectrum. Climate protection is basically not included in the entire election program, explains Luísa Schmidt, a sociologist at the University of Lisbon.
Chega is essentially a “climate change denier party,” said Schmidt. If right-wing radicals participate in government, there is a risk of “a dangerous climate policy setback.”
However, there are currently no signs of Ventura's party participating in the next government. In fact, the election results generally make forming a government extremely difficult.
Coalition between right and conservatives unlikely
The elections were a clear defeat for the ruling Partido Socialista (PS). Of the 41 percent that the Social Democratic Party won in the last parliamentary elections in 2022, just under 29 percent remained. The conservative party alliance Aliança Democrática (AD) achieved almost one percentage point more...
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March 14, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN
On March 12, 2011, reactor unit 1 exploded,
on March 14, 2011, reactor unit 3 exploded and
on March 15, 2011, reactor unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded.
Each of these three reactor explosions on three different days met the criteria for classification as an INES 7 catastrophic accident.
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March 14, 2011 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Pickering, ON, CAN
AtomkraftwerkePlag
The grassroots organization Sierra Club Canada protested against the lifetime extension in 2013 and called for the nuclear power plant to be shut down immediately due to aging, increasing radiation and increasing release of tritium. In June 2010, for example, unexpected beta-gamma radiation from reactors 5 to 8 was released into the water.
On March 14, 2011, 73.000 liters of water, slightly contaminated with tritium, flowed into Lake Ontario because of a sealing problem at a pump. The operator and supervisory authority described the risks as "negligible".
In January 2012, contaminated water leaked from the "broken" Reactor 4 due to a leak, according to the Sierra Club...
Wikipedia en
On March 14, 2011, 73 cubic meters of demineralized water leaked into Lake Ontario due to a defective pump seal...
Nuclear power accidents by country#Canada
Page No. 8 - Safety Issues at the Pickering 'A' Nuclear Generating Station, from 1983 to 1997.
Ontario's Nuclear Generating Facilities - English - PDF file
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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March 14, 1961 (Broken Arrow) B-52 Yuba City, CA, USA
Wikipedia en
On March 14, 1961, an airplane accident occurred near Yuba City, California. A United States Air Force B-52F-70-BW Stratofortress bomber, AF Serial No. 57-0166, c/n 464155, took off from Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento with two nuclear weapons on board. According to the official Air Force report, the aircraft suffered an uncontrolled decompression that required a descent to 10.000 feet (3.000 m) to reduce cabin altitude. The increased fuel consumption caused by the lower altitude and the inability to reach a tanker aircraft in time caused the aircraft to run out of fuel. The crew was able to evacuate to safety, and the now unoccupied aircraft crashed 15 miles (24 km) west of Yuba City, the nuclear weapons being torn from the aircraft upon impact. The weapons did not detonate because their safety devices were functioning properly. A firefighter was killed and several others were injured in a traffic accident on the way to the scene.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
13. March
Artificial intelligence and nuclear power
Tractebel report on powering data centers with modern reactors
Belgian company Tractebel (part of French energy group Engie) and its subsidiary RED have published a white paper on how advanced reactors, including small modular reactors (SMR), can provide energy for data centers. "Powering the 4th Industrial Revolution - Pioneering Data Center Partnerships with Advanced Nuclear Technology" states that data usage and processing will see a radical expansion. The 32-page report states that "our ever-growing need for increased connectivity and artificial intelligence (AI) supports our daily needs for efficiency, creativity and automation of repetitive tasks."
The combined electricity consumption of Big Tech firms is predicted to exceed that of some developed countries due to the hyper-exponential growth of data centers (DCs). “One thing is clear: data centers are here to stay, and a sustainable growth planning process is critical.
Addressing this remarkable growth must take into account "one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: the energy quadrilemma", which relates to the affordability, sustainability, security of supply and social impact of future energy systems. "Renewable energy is our best hope for a sustainable and socially acceptable transition, but it suffers from its volatility. As demand for clean energy increases, advanced nuclear energy offers a complementary and zero-emission solution"...
In my last one WiP-Contribution "More courage would be good..." I asked the question: Who actually really benefits from AI? So here we have the answer: The nuclear industry and its lobby! Reported on March 5th ifnn, that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is purchasing the Cumulus data center campus in Pennsylvania, which generates the energy required from the forty-year-old nuclear power plant susquehanna relates.
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Turkish air strikes on northern Syria illegal
Attacks against civilian infrastructure should be viewed as possible war crimes
For months, Turkey has been bombing hospitals, power plants and water pipes in the predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria with planes and drones. According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), Turkish warplanes and drones carried out 23 attacks on the critical infrastructure of northern and eastern Syria between December 26rd and 74th. In 2023, Turkey would have attacked northeastern Syria 798 times, the STP quotes a balance sheet from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In mid-January, the Kurdish Public Relations Center Civaka Azad reported how the power supply had collapsed in large parts of northern and eastern Syria as a result.
Attacks on civilians and facilities such as hospitals are - if deliberate - illegal under international law because they violate Article 8 Paragraph 2 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This is what a statement from the Bundestag's Research Service said, which was requested by Gökay Akbulut, Bundestag member of the Left, and is available exclusively to the "nd"...
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Renewables | CO2 emissions | Chemical industry
Climate study on the chemical industry:
The dirtiest dozen
The chemical industry causes 14 percent of all CO2 emissions in the industrial sector. How can it be made greener? asks a study commissioned by the WWF.
BERLIN taz | The twelve chemical parks in Germany that emit the most CO2 are responsible for 14 percent of total industrial emissions in Germany. At the same time, this “dirty dozen” accounts for around 3 percent of German greenhouse gas emissions. This is shown by a study by the Öko-Institut on behalf of the environmental organization WWF. The list is headed by BASF in Ludwigshafen. The plant will release by far the most CO5,9 into the atmosphere, with 2022 million tons in 2. In total, the twelve largest plants released 23 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
[...] At 40 percent, the power plants that supply the chemical plants with energy account for the largest share of air pollution. These are combined heat and power systems that simultaneously generate electrical and thermal energy in a power plant. This is followed by emissions from steam crackers at 24 percent. These are systems that are needed to produce basic chemicals, which require very high temperatures. Ammonia plants follow in third place with a share of 14 percent. Basically, the production of raw materials results in high emissions, while further processing causes relatively low emissions.
Florian Fabian, BASF spokesman, said when asked that they were aiming for “net zero CO2045 emissions” in Ludwigshafen by 2. At the site, BASF would increasingly promote the use of renewable energies as well as the development and use of CO2-free processes. In addition, the chemical company is planning, among other things, to build a solar park...
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PFAS chemicals: Almost everyone is exposed
“Forever chemicals” are omnipresent and damage the cardiovascular system
Urgent suspicion: Researchers have proven that so-called per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) occur in the blood of almost all people. Traces of PFAS chemicals are not only omnipresent, but are also associated with a long-term increased risk of cardiovascular disease, as blood analyzes suggest. The chemicals are likely to cause unfavorable blood lipids.
Chemicals from the group of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) are water, grease and dirt repellent. Because of these properties, the synthetic substances have been found in countless everyday products since their invention in the 1950s, for example in cosmetics, dental floss and coatings on functional clothing or pans.
But the PFAS chemicals have a major disadvantage: they can only be broken down by very few microbes and therefore end up in the environment and our food from products containing PFAS via groundwater. The half-life of PFAS in the human body is approximately four to nine years. That is why they are also called “forever chemicals”. There are always discussions about whether and to what extent PFAS pose a threat to our health. For example, studies suggest that the chemicals promote obesity and cancer and damage various organs.
[...] According to the research team, the results make a strong argument for stricter regulation of all PFAS to protect people's health - including the newer PFHxS, which were developed as an alternative to PFOA and PFOS. In the EU, the chemicals are regulated but not banned. “Even if we do not see any immediate health risk for the test subjects we examined, the situation is still worrying. “In the long term, the increased risk can have a negative impact on the heart and circulation,” says Breteler.
In order to better assess the risk, future studies should focus on specific areas of the body. “We looked at the blood work. In a next step, it would make sense to investigate the occurrence of PFAS in individual organs,” says Breteler. In addition, ongoing projects to remove PFAS chemicals from the environment must be pushed forward.
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Whistleblower | Boeing | Quality Management
Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead
Quality manager John Barnett publicly criticized his ex-employer Boeing. Now he is dead - and his brother is making allegations against the aircraft manufacturer.
A former Boeing manager who had repeatedly publicly criticized the company for alleged safety problems has been found dead in the USA. The police in the city of Charleston said that 62-year-old John Barnett probably killed himself in front of a hotel in the state of South Carolina, citing "the worldwide attention" that the whistleblower had attracted.
Barnett was in Charleston testifying against Boeing at the time of his death. Barnett worked as a quality manager at the US aircraft manufacturer for more than three decades before leaving the company in 2017. Since then, he has shared with journalists his concerns about what he sees as poor conditions in the production of Boeing aircraft.
[...] Barnett's lawyers are calling for an investigation
Boeing released a one-sentence statement after Barnett's death: "We are saddened by the passing of Mr. Barnett and our thoughts are with his family and friends."
Barnett's lawyers called on police to continue investigating despite the coroner's initial decision. "He was in very good spirits and was really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on," Brian Knowles and Robert Turkewitz said in a joint statement, according to CBS News reports. "We saw no signs that he would take his own life. Nobody can believe that."...
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March 13, 1980 (INES 4) NPP Saint Laurent, FRA
A faulty cooling system in the Saint Laurent A-2 UNGG reactor melted fuel together, forcing an extended shutdown. (Cost approx. US$26 million)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
1980: Partial meltdown in reactor A-2
The second accident at Saint-Laurent, described as the most serious in French history, occurred in reactor A-2 on March 13, 1980. A metal plate had come loose and clogged dozens of cooling tubes, after which the cooling system partially failed. Two fuel elements melted, the radioactive contamination of the cooling gas increased massively. Fortunately, the emergency shutdown worked, and the reactor was automatically deactivated ...
Wikipedia
Nuclear power station_Saint-Laurent#Intermediate_f%C3%A4lle,_partial_meltdowns
On March 13, 1980, a fuel element melted in the other UNGG reactor A2. The damage led to contamination of the building. The reactor was then unavailable for the next two and a half years. During the cleaning work, it was noticed that several kilograms of molten material had settled in a caisson. It was flushed with water and the substances (including plutonium) ended up in the Loire. Later studies of the sediments of the river downstream of the power plant showed that the amount discharged into the river corresponded to about 0,3 g of pure plutonium. This accident was classified by the French nuclear regulator ASN as level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES)...
Nuclear power accidents by country#France
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
12. March
Right-wing extremists and their Nazi methods against mayor and district administrator
Burgenland district in Saxony-Anhalt
AfD apparently wants to pay a “home visit” to the CDU district administrator
CDU politician Götz Ulrich advocates for refugees in his constituency and has already been threatened with death for this. Now he has published AfD plans to visit him personally.
In the Burgenland district in Saxony-Anhalt, two AfD members of the state parliament are apparently planning to hold a demonstration directly past the house of a CDU district administrator. The CDU district administrator Götz Ulrich, in front of whose house the elevator is to take place, told the district council in Naumburg. According to Ulrich, the AfD politicians Hans-Thomas Tillschneider and Lothar Waehler have registered a rally in Bad Bibra for March 25th. CDU politician Ulrich also lives there.
Under the motto “Stop the great raid,” the AfD politicians wanted to hold a rally through Bad Bibra between 18 and 21 p.m. The demo route leads right past the district administrator's house and even takes a small detour. One of the people who registered for the demo, Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, is considered a right-wing extremist. He maintains close contacts with the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement” and is monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
[...] "We all know where such instruments of intimidation, repression and threats can lead," says Ulrich. »I don't even have to serve the Nazi era. All you need to do is look at the year 2015, in the Burgenland district, in Tröglitz, with a prepared refugee accommodation.«
In 2015 there was an arson attack on a refugee accommodation in Tröglitz. Nobody was injured. Previously, members of the NPD and Tröglitz citizens had held weekly marches through the town and also protested in front of the house of the then mayor Markus Nieth (independent). He was then forced to resign from his position in order to protect his family.
After the arson attack, Ulrich committed to renovating the house and stuck to the plan for refugee accommodation. According to his own statements, he was already receiving death threats back then.
Ulrich received cross-party solidarity from Saxony-Anhalt for his statement. He announced: "I will stand up to these Nazi methods and continue to stand up for the free-democratic basic order wherever this is necessary."
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Subsidies | Solar industry | Resilience bonus
Fight against cheap goods from China:
Can the German solar industry still be saved?
The Bundestag is discussing subsidies for the solar industry. A resilience bonus could protect the solar industry. While some hope for this, others fight vehemently against it.
Production at the solar module producer Meyer Burger in Freiberg is at a standstill. According to CEO Gunter Erfurt, the factory will probably close at the end of the month. Why now? The demand from the energy transition is enormous; never before have so many systems been installed in Germany.
And yet manufacturers like Meyer Burger, Solarwatt and Heckert-Solar in Saxony complain that production is no longer profitable. Because they cannot keep up with China's aggressive price war. Subsidized by billions from the state, China sometimes offers goods below production costs. 90 percent of all systems installed in Germany in 2023 are made in China.
[...] FDP against the solar package 1
One way to do this would be the so-called resilience bonus. This stipulates that consumers should receive a bonus on electricity feed-in for a limited time when purchasing a European system. That would protect production in this country. This is how the Greens and SPD see it in the traffic light coalition. With Solar Package 1 including a resilience bonus, they want to accelerate the expansion of photovoltaics in Germany.
The FDP is resisting Solar Package 1. The market will solve the problem. Others see it that way too. And the energy economist Manuel Frondel believes that Meyer Burger is not needed for the energy transition. Domestic manufacturers would not be able to compete with large Asian manufacturers due to high labor costs and lack of economies of scale. Therefore, there should be no permanent subsidies.
Solar industry association for resilience bonus
Economist Claudia Kemfert counters: It's about preventing the worst, not missing out in the competition for green markets and being vulnerable in geostrategic conflicts, especially with China.
Carsten Körnig, general manager of the solar industry association, also believes that the solar industry is systemically relevant and is in favor of the bonus and in favor of building new solar factories in Germany and Europe...
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Energy supply | Electricity price | Coal power generation
Winter survived well without nuclear power - and electricity is cheaper
The meteorological winter is over - the second after Russia's attack on Ukraine and the first after the final phase-out of nuclear energy. The energy supply in Bavaria and Germany coped well with this.
There were many gloomy predictions - even in the days just before Christmas, when the proportion of coal-fired electricity in the German power grid was high for a short time. The “Bild” newspaper wrote at the time about “Germany in the coal trap”. CSU General Secretary Martin Huber posted that German electricity was dirtier than it had been in years.
[...] Germany burns as little coal as it last did in 1959
The electricity suppliers did not have to resort to coal-fired power plants more often, but quite the opposite: in 2023, Germany - despite the nuclear phase-out - burned as little coal in power plants as it did in 1959. In the months of January and February 2024, the downward trend in coal-fired power generation continued. This winter, 29 percent less coal was burned than the year before...
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AfD | Protection of the Constitution | Abuse of law
Appeal process in Münster
Court rejects AfD's applications
There is a lot at stake for the AfD at the Münster Higher Administrative Court: Can the Office for the Protection of the Constitution observe the party as a suspected case? Right at the beginning of the appeal process, the lawyers failed with several applications.
With several applications in the party's appeal against the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the AfD tried to prevent a quick decision on its classification as a suspected right-wing extremist case. However, the party failed right at the start of the hearing at the Münster Higher Administrative Court.
Among other things, the court rejected an application against the appointment of the Senate. The presiding judge Gerald Buck accused the AfD of abusing the law. The party did not present any new arguments. The request was made across the board and obviously without any reason...
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Right-wing extremism | Higher Administrative Court | Ban application
Party in court
The AfD wants to prevent stage two and could get stage three
For years, the AfD has resisted being classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case or even as a confirmed extremist effort. An important decision is now pending in an appeal process before the Higher Administrative Court in Münster - the possible consequences extend up to an application for a ban. And yet the ruling is unlikely to have any impact on the state elections in September. But it could harm the AfD in West Germany. An overview.
What is the issue before the OVG Münster?
Formally, the AfD is not a defendant, but a plaintiff: It is suing "against the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution," as the OVG Münster announced in January when the dates for the oral hearing were announced. In practice, there are three appeal procedures:
- Firstly, the AfD wants to ensure that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not allowed to classify it as a suspected case. The Cologne Administrative Court had already approved this classification in March 2022.
- Secondly, the “wing” around the Thuringian AfD state leader Björn Höcke should be classified neither as a suspected case nor as a confirmed extremist effort. The Cologne Administrative Court declared the classification as a suspected case to be permissible two years ago, but not the classification as confirmed right-wing extremist - on the grounds that the "wing" had been formally dissolved.
- And thirdly, the AfD also wants to ensure that its youth organization “Junge Alternative” (JA) is not a suspected case.
In parts, reality has overtaken the process. Since April 2023, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has no longer classified the “Young Alternative” as a suspected case, but as confirmed right-wing extremist. The AfD unsuccessfully sued the Cologne Administrative Court. The “wing” has now not only been formally dissolved, but has also “absorbed into the party,” as right-wing extremism expert Axel Salheiser tells ntv.de. At the same time, Höcke is now "the central leader within the AfD, even if he has no office at the federal level," says lawyer Hendrik Cremer from the German Institute for Human Rights. Höcke's position in the AfD shows the radicalization of the party...
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March 12, 2011 (INES 3) NPP Fukushima II Daini, JPN
Wikipedia
Chronology_of_the_disaster_in_Japan_of_2011
Due to the great Tōhoku earthquake on March 11, 2011 and the subsequent tsunami, all four reactor blocks at the Fukushima-Daini nuclear power plant (Fukushima 2) were shut down automatically.
On March 12, 2011, the temperature in the condensation chambers of units 1, 2 and 4 rose to over 100 ° C and the pressure relief systems stopped functioning. An evacuation zone of 10 kilometers radius was ordered for Fukushima II. The evacuation area of Fukushima II was therefore almost entirely within the 20 km evacuation zone for Fukushima I Daiichi. The temperature in the 3 reactors only fell below 15°C again on March 100th.
On April 18, 2011, the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NISA) assessed the events at Fukushima-Daini as INES Level 3.
Nuclear power accidents by country#Japan
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
The plant is also called Fukushima II and is located approximately 12 kilometers south of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant...
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March 12, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN
On March 12, 2011, reactor unit 1 exploded,
on March 14, 2011, reactor unit 3 exploded and
on March 15, 2011, reactor unit 2 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded.
Each of these three reactor explosions on three different days met the criteria for classification as an INES 7 catastrophic accident.
11. March
The United Nations deserves reform
United Nations Reform: Friendly Frontal Attack on the Veto Powers
Hundreds of organizations are preparing UN future summits. Reform of the United Nations as a goal. How the UN Pact for the Future contributes to a peaceful world.
Over 300 international civil society organizations, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, IPPNW and ICAN, are working hard to prepare for the United Nations Future Summit in September 2024.
[...] The starting point for the future summit is the United Nations Charter of 1945. It demands that all signatory states resolve conflicts peacefully. This general peace requirement requires reinforcement among the member states and will be particularly emphasized at the future summit:
All members shall resolve their international disputes by peaceful means in a manner that does not endanger international peace, security and justice.
Chapter I, 2 UN Charter
The five veto powers in the UN Security Council in particular regularly refuse this central peace imperative. At the same time, they are nuclear weapon states that signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have not yet fulfilled the resulting obligation to disarm and abolish nuclear weapons.
[...] Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty: A step forward
The contract came into force on January 22.01.2021, 70. XNUMX countries worldwide have now ratified it. The treaty prohibits all signatory states from developing, producing, stockpiling and testing nuclear weapons. The proliferation of nuclear technology is also prohibited. The threat and use of nuclear weapons are therefore ruled out.
Biological weapons have been banned under international law since 1975 and chemical weapons since 1997. This finally also applies to nuclear weapons. The ban treaty will become increasingly important in the coming years and will prompt countries around the world to sign it. This development will not be stopped by the influence of the nuclear weapon states. Rather, the pressure on them will grow to finally honor the commitments made in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
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Fukushima | Zaporizhia | Temelin | Shika NPP
Nuclear power: Fukushima Daiichi 13 years after the disaster
13 years ago, a tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The occasion sparked protests against nuclear power.
On March 11, 2011, 13 years ago today, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was destroyed after a seaquake and resulting tsunami on the Japanese Pacific coast. Work to repair the damage caused by explosions and meltdowns is ongoing and will take decades to come. In this regard, little progress has been made at the site of the accident compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, in Japan, more electricity is being generated again through nuclear fission.
The NGO International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) used the anniversary as an opportunity to place a full-page advertisement in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Nuclear energy is expensive, unsuitable for saving the climate and dangerous. This is even more true in war, in which every nuclear facility becomes an incalculable security risk," it says, signed by almost 1700 doctors and supporters. They are referring to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, where a prolonged power outage could lead to a core meltdown. For example, the power supply failed there in December 2023.
[...] An earthquake measuring 3,2 on the Richter scale in southern Bohemia prompted the Upper Austrian state councilor Stefan Kaineder (Greens) to issue a warning last week. The earthquake occurred 32 kilometers from the Temelín nuclear power plant: "It shows once again the deadly dangers we face with nuclear power and how powerless we are if a disaster occurs." According to an assessment report (PDF) for the Austrian government, the Temelin nuclear power plant is designed for a magnitude 6 earthquake. It is unclear whether, given the likelihood of stronger earthquakes, it is guaranteed that it will withstand such earthquakes.
A magnitude 7 earthquake near the western Japanese Shika nuclear power plant with its two reactors on January 1 this year is said to have partially exceeded its design limit. Contrary to initial reports, the quake and a subsequent three-meter-high tsunami caused damage. Electricity transformers were damaged. Both units of the Shika nuclear power plant have been out of operation since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. Operator Hokuriku Denryoku wants to put the nuclear power plant back into operation, but there is local resistance. Previous reports had denied that the nuclear power plant was at risk from earthquakes, but the Japanese nuclear regulator has now ordered new investigations...
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Study by the peace research institute Sipri
Europe is almost doubling arms imports, the USA is significantly increasing exports
Global arms imports are declining, but some regions are arming themselves heavily, according to a recent study. While the USA is massively expanding its arms exports, one country is slipping in terms of exports.
Ukraine still has to defend itself from the Russian attack, Israel is fighting against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and major powers such as India and China are arming themselves. The world has not become more peaceful - and the current wars and crises influence the import and export of weapons.
Every year, the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri reports on trends in the global arms trade. When comparing the five-year periods 2014 to 2018 and 2019 to 2023, Sipri found a decline of 3,3 percent - and at the same time significant shifts among the largest importers and exporters of weapons.
According to the survey, by far the most weapons went abroad from the USA - they increased their exports by 17 percent in the comparable period.
[...] According to Sipri, Israel obtains a significant proportion of its weapons from Germany: 30 percent. The USA supplies almost all of the rest (69 percent). Last year, the federal government approved arms exports worth 326,5 million euros to Israel - ten times as much as in 2022. Most of this was approved after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.
By far the largest recipient of German arms exports remains Ukraine. In the first three quarters of the year alone, the federal government approved the export of military equipment worth 3,3 billion euros to the country during the war, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced.
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Fukushima | GAU | Tsunami | Noto Peninsula
Warnings about nuclear power plant plans
Fukushima as a reminder
Anyone who continues to rely on nuclear power will provoke the next catastrophe, warn anti-nuclear groups on the 13th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. They see themselves confirmed by an earthquake in Japan and the ongoing problems with the nuclear power plant ruins.
This Monday marks the 13th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. On this occasion, nuclear opponents have warned against underestimating the risks of nuclear technology, which would result from the continued operation of the aging nuclear power plant fleet and plans to build new reactors in Europe.
The anti-nuclear organization Radiated warned: "Anyone who continues to rely on nuclear power will provoke the next catastrophe. Unlike in Fukushima, however, the radioactive cloud in Europe would not rain down over the Pacific, but over densely populated areas."
Dangerous cracks, faulty components, storms, short circuits or earthquakes could trigger a serious accident in European nuclear power plants at any time, said the organization's expert, Armin Simon, "not to mention the risk of possible attacks and attacks on nuclear facilities."
The nuclear opponents see themselves confirmed, among other things, by the earthquake that struck the Japanese Noto peninsula on New Year's Day 2024. The tremors caused damage to the main power supply of the Shika nuclear power plant, which fortunately was not connected to the grid. Leaking oil cut several connections to the external power supply. A three meter high tsunami hit the facility, which is only 70 kilometers as the crow flies from the epicenter of the earthquake...
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Super GAU | Nuclear disaster | UmweltFAIRaendern
Anniversary of the catastrophe: Multiple catastrophe in Fuskushima – nuclear energy out of control
Today, March 11, 2024, marks the 13th anniversary of the multiple nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Three of the nuclear reactors exploded, releasing radioactive radiation over a wide area. Depending on the source, 150.000 to 200.000 people had to be evacuated from the region to avoid serious health damage or even death. Enormous amounts of radioactively contaminated soil and water were created during the cleanup work. Despite international protests, Japan last year began simply discharging contaminated water into the Pacific and “diluting” the radioactivity on a large scale. To this day, the experts and workers have not been able to access the melted, highly radioactive nuclear fuel inside the reactors, which still needs to be cooled. It is unclear whether new explosions could possibly occur. The salvage work around the nuclear reactors will continue for decades and will cost enormous amounts of money. The dangers of nuclear energy are irresponsible...
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Radioactivity | Low-level radiation | Damage to health
Don't trivialize the health damage caused by radioactivity: New study results confirm the dangers of low-level radiation
In a current statement, the “BUND Atomic and Radiation Commission” (BASK) reacts to international efforts to relativize the assessment of the health consequences of radioactive radiation. After the Second World War, the so-called “linear no-threshold hypothesis (LNT hypothesis) became established, which shows a linear relationship between radiation dose and the probability of illness. “What this means is that when a large group of people are irradiated with a low dose, the amount of damage caused is proportional to the total dose (sum of all individual doses). It means that half the effect can be expected with half the dose - but also that there can be no harmless dose or dose threshold (threshold)," says the paper by the group of experts appointed by the Federal Executive Board of the BUND. “Proponents of nuclear energy have been resisting the LNT hypothesis for a long time.” In the paper, the authors point out that there are no reasons to relativize the LNT hypothesis and also refer to new studies to prove this.
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Greenpeace | Reactor disaster | Fukushima
Fukushima reactor disaster
March 11, 2011 plunged Japan into a state of emergency that continues to this day. The triple catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami and catastrophe hit the country to the core.
March 11, 2011 went down in history as one of Japan's worst days. A triple catastrophe struck the high-tech industrial country: an earthquake with an unprecedented magnitude of 9.0, a huge tsunami and - triggered by this - a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant with fatal consequences.
The tsunami wave, which was up to 15 meters high, washed over a 1000-meter-wide area on the east coast of the Japanese main island of Honshu. The water also burst over the nuclear power plant with its six nuclear reactors - the beginning of a nuclear catastrophe.
Large parts of Japan's territory around Fukushima Daiichi were contaminated. More than 22.000 people lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami, and hundreds of thousands had to be evacuated due to radioactive contamination. The health consequences are serious: many more suffer from trauma, and children are also increasingly suffering from thyroid diseases. In October 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Health officially confirmed the first case of leukemia in a worker at the damaged nuclear facility, which is directly related to the accident. Women and children in particular suffer from the social consequences of the disaster.
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March 11, 2011 (INES 7 | NAMS 7,5) NPP Fukushima I Daiichi, JPN
There were about 1,59 million TBq Radioactivity released. An earthquake and a tsunami caused the emergency generators in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to fail, causing the reactors to crack and fires and nuclear meltdowns to occur. (Cost approx. US$260.000 million)
Wikipedia
Chronology_of_the_disaster_in_Japan_of_2011
Due to damage to the power supply and cooling system caused by the Great Tōhoku earthquake of March 11, 2011 and the subsequent tsunami, as well as missing cables for mobile power generators, the Fukushima-Daiichi NPP (Fukushima 1) suffered three out of six failures Reactor blocks lead to overheating of the reactor core.
There were several explosions:
In unit 1 on March 12th,
in unit 3 on March 14th and
in unit 2 on March 15th,
in which the outer building shells were destroyed and radioactive material was released. In addition, on March 15, a fire broke out in reactor block 4. The reactor cores of Units 1 and 3 were flooded with seawater and boric acid for makeshift cooling and to protect against radioactive radiation. The Japanese government ordered evacuation measures with a radius of 20 km, which have affected around 80.000 people so far.
On March 18, 2011, the events in units 1 to 3 were provisionally assigned to INES 5 level by the Japan Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NISA).
On April 12, 2011, the Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NISA) placed Fukushima-Daiichi on a par with the Chernobyl disaster (INES 7)...
List of nuclear power accidents by country
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
End of the myth of safe nuclear power
The Fukushima disaster in March 2011 was the third disaster to occur after Mayak and Chernobyl. Entire areas of Japan were radioactively contaminated. To date, the Japanese government and the operator TEPCO do not have the situation under control. The destroyed reactors cannot be entered, and radioactive water contaminates groundwater and the Pacific Ocean.
This must be kept in mind in order to be able to assess the degree of irresponsibility of the Japanese government in its decision to bring nuclear power plants that were shut down after the GAU back online despite the resistance of the population.
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March 11, 1958 (Broken Arrow) B-47 Mars Bluff, USA
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
On March 11, 1958, a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet took off from Hunter Air Force Base, operated by the 375th Bombardment Squadron of the 308th Bombardment Wing, near Savannah, Georgia, at approximately 16 :34 p.m. and was scheduled to fly to Britain and then North Africa as part of Operation Snow Flurry. The plane carried nuclear weapons in case of war with the Soviet Union. Air Force Capt. Bruce Kulka, acting as navigator and bombardier, was called to the bomb bay after the plane's captain, Capt. Earl Koehler, spotted a malfunction light in the cockpit indicating that the bomb harness locking pin was not engaged. As Kulka reached around the bomb to pull himself up, he accidentally grabbed the emergency release pin. The Mark 6 nuclear bomb fell on the B-47's bomb bay doors, and the weight pushed the doors open, causing the bomb to fall 4.600 m (15.000 ft) to the ground...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The U.S. Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow incidents between 1950 and 1980.
Examples of these events are:
1950 British Columbia B-36 crash
1956 B-47 disappearance
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision
1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash
1964 Bunker Hill AFB runway accident
1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident
1966 Palomares B-52 crash
1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion, Arkansas
Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Wayback Machine en
A 1973 Sandia Laboratories report, citing a then-classified army compilation, stated that between 1950 and 1968, a total of 1.250 U.S. nuclear weapons were involved in accidents or incidents of varying severity, including 272 (22 percent) in circumstances involving impacts which, in several instances, caused the detonation of the weapon's conventional high explosives...
10. March
Fukushima | meltdown | cooling water | Fukushima 1 Daiichi
13 years after the tsunami and catastrophe: mystery inside the reactor
In 2011 there was a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. Japan will have to deal with and live with this radiant material for decades to come.
TOKYO taz | Thirteen years after the March 2011 meltdown, the interior of the Fukushima nuclear reactors remains an unsolved mystery. To this day, large amounts of debris and extreme radiation stop all attempts to extract even a tiny sample of corium.
A magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami destroyed the power supply and cooling of the reactors and caused a triple core meltdown. A lava-like mixture of enriched uranium as nuclear fuel and the molten remains of steel control rods full of cadmium and boron - called "corium" - burned through the bottom of the reactor vessels and ate into the concrete of the containment.
The Fukushima operator Tepco estimates the total amount of corium to be a gigantic 880 tons. It has not yet been possible to find out exactly how much of the radiant material in each reactor actually escaped and where it went...
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Super election year | Democracy | Nationalism
"The USA is the most endangered democracy"
Never before have so many people around the world been able to vote in one year. But the first elections show that anti-democrats have a good chance. A film about the democracy paradox
More than half a billion people have already had the choice in 2024. But according to a study, democracy has been in decline worldwide for 17 years. The previous elections in Bangladesh, Azerbaijan and El Salvador appear to be continuing this trend for 2024.
Where does this democracy paradox come from? What does this mean for the upcoming elections in India, the EU and the USA? And why is it almost everywhere about nationalism? Democracy researcher Michael Koß explains this in the video...
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Gendering | Deflection | Cleavage
Stop gendering, you anti-democrats!
Gender is forced on us by a minority. It pushes the real problems of society into the background. What would be necessary instead. An essay.
Hardly a day goes by without politicians, journalists, professors, even podcast philosophers, assuring the public that gender is of no interest to anyone, that there is nothing more insignificant, that we have other problems and that the whole fuss is a phantom debate. The dismissive mantra at least seems to reassure those who celebrate it. But what if we are dealing with a misjudgment, a lack of political instinct, which ensures that the mood in the country remains permanently worse than the situation?
The underestimated power of gender
The fact is: the longer news, documentaries and reports - not to mention talk shows - are opposed to the explicit vote of the overwhelming majority of their users and the criticism of hundreds of linguists and media scientists - the more an increasing number of them become entrenched the recipients of such emissions have a devastating impression.
Firstly, they think that "those up there do what they want anyway" and don't care one bit about the protests of those to whom they are constitutionally obliged to be non-partisan and from whose fees they - royally - finance themselves in the executive suites.
[...] The hard core of habitually right-wing extremists, which in East Germany has already been augmented by the older GDR cohorts - functionaries, sympathizers and followers of Stalinism who cannot live in a society that is authoritarian enough - is now receiving new supplies from a center that has become uninhabitable for citizens who can no longer be disciplined like stupid students and who, above all, want to be asked whether they agree with this language regulation or that migrant quota.
The policy of "assignments", including semantic ones, has definitely failed if dictates are perceived as harbingers of a dictatorship.
It's true, there are more important things than gender language, people really have other concerns: migration, housing shortages, energy prices, insecurities caused by war and climate change and much more...
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March 10, 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,6) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
Release of about 18 TBq Plutonium down the chimney of building B230. (Cost approx. US$150 million)
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.
Wikipedia
Sellafield (formerly Windscale)
The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
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The AfD is right-wing extremist and unconstitutional
“There is every reason to be afraid of the AfD”
The lawyer and right-wing extremism expert Hendrik Cremer believes the danger posed by the AfD is underestimated. “It is a democratically elected party, but it is not democratic,” he says in an interview with ntv.de. "It doesn't just target people who are not German enough in the AfD's national-ethnic imagination. If the AfD came to power, then no one would be safe in this country anymore."
Hendrik Cremer is a lawyer at the German Institute for Human Rights. His book was recently published
"The longer we remain silent, the more courage we will need. How dangerous the AfD really is."
ntv.de: In the first few years after the AfD was founded, experts assumed that it would harm the party if the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified it as extremist. This has already happened in three federal states, in Thuringia in 2021 - but the survey values have not gone down since then, but have gone up. Is it possible that many people don't care whether the AfD is right-wing extremist or not?
Hendrik Cremer: I'm not a fan of mixing the AfD and its electorate. What seems more important to me is that it is known what the AfD stands for and what goals it is pursuing.
In your view, the AfD is unconstitutional.
Definitely, yes.
Unconstitutional is a fairly abstract term. What does that mean specifically?
Their anti-constitutionality already emerges from their programs - from the basic program of 2016 and their social policy concept of 2020, as well as their election program of 2017 and that of 2021. It is clear from these texts that the AfD is striving for a homogeneous national community. There is an analogy there with National Socialist ideology, even if the AfD does not express its racist positions in the way that was common in the 20th century. For example, it no longer uses the term “race” but operates with the term “culture”. This is a typical approach of right-wing extremists in the 21st century.
Can you give an example?
Their 2021 election program speaks of a “consensus of values” that “forms the identity of our people and sets us apart from others.” These values are passed on “from generation to generation”. And then comes the sentence: "The community-building effect of German culture is the foundation of our Basic Law and cannot be replaced by constitutional patriotism."
What is unconstitutional about that?
According to the AfD, culture and identity are unchangeable characteristics. Only those who, according to the national-ethnic ideas of the AfD, have belonged there for generations can belong. The AfD thus claims to be able to define who is German and who is not. This is in clear contradiction to the Basic Law, which stipulates that anyone who has German citizenship is a German - regardless of what religion they belong to or how many generations their ancestors have lived in Germany. The AfD reserves the right to exclude people who do not belong to “us”. This is unconstitutional.
Does the AfD deliberately formulate its programs in such a way that it is not immediately clear that it is not about “culture” but about racism?
This is part of their strategy of self-trivialization. “Culture” as a replacement term for “race” serves to conceal the actual intention and to appear compatible in social discussion. This applies especially to the written programs that are decided at party conferences. However, if you read it more closely, it becomes clear that this refers to the old racist concepts that classify and exclude people. The AfD strives for a homogeneous national community. Such concepts were the starting point and basis of the National Socialist ideology.
With this self-trivialization, is the AfD also trying to avoid being classified as right-wing extremist and ultimately avoid being banned from the party?
Self-trivialization is in fact an essential part of their strategy, which we can regularly see in interviews or on talk shows. Here the AfD officials are concealing their real intentions from the public. They act as if they wanted to take part in democratic discourses.
In January 2021, the AfD published a "Declaration on the German national people and German identity", which stated that the party was "unreservedly committed to the German national people as the sum of all people who have German citizenship". If there were a ban procedure, would the Federal Constitutional Court have to consider this as exculpatory?
No. AfD officials repeatedly claim that they stand on the basis of the Basic Law. But these are purely tactical maneuvers. Such statements have no weight because the programs say something completely different and because the AfD representatives say something completely different in their public speeches. The Federal Constitutional Court would not be deceived by such explanations.
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Background knowledge
The map of the nuclear world
A lot of responsibility for humanity...
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The “Internal Search”
Right-wing extremist and unconstitutional
February 8, 2024 - The AfD and Björn Höcke have long been planning for the “day after”
January 14, 2024 - “Time to unpack the instruments of defensive democracy”
June 25, 2024 - Two tips on how we can further strengthen the right-wing extremist AfD
May 14, 2023 - Aluhut-AfD now also believes in chemtrails?!
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The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Rechtsextremismus
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Wikipedia
Right-wing extremism
Right-wing extremism (also the extreme right) refers to various extremist currents within the political right. The term includes ultranationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi or neo-fascist political ideologies and activities.
Right-wing extremists are based on ethnicity, deny and fight the right of all people to social and legal equality and represent an anti-pluralistic, anti-democratic and authoritarian understanding of society. Politically, they want to transform the nation state into an authoritarian “national community”. “People” and “nation” are defined racially or ethnopluralistically.
Characteristics of such concepts, especially in Europe, are various right-wing extremist symbols and signs, historical revisionism regarding certain eras, such as Italian fascism and the time of National Socialism, xenophobia and even xenophobia, anti-American and/or other conspiracy theories...
Anti-constitutionality
People or organizations whose goals or ideas are directed against fundamental constitutional values are described as anti-constitutional.
In its ruling banning the SRP in 1952, the Federal Constitutional Court defined the minimum principles of the free-democratic basic order of the Federal Republic. These are: “respect for the human rights specified in the Basic Law (GG), especially the right of the personality to life and free development, popular sovereignty, the separation of powers, the responsibility of the government, the legality of the administration, the independence of the courts, the multi-party principle and equal opportunities for all political parties with the right to form and exercise an opposition in accordance with the constitution. A party that rejects or agitates against these principles is considered unconstitutional...
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Federal Agency for Civic Education
What is right-wing extremism?
We encounter the term right-wing extremism in school, in the media and in politics. But what exactly does this term mean? How is a closed right-wing extremist worldview made up? The articles on this page provide an initial overview of the basic ideas of right-wing extremist ideology.
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Amadeu Antonio Foundation
Anti-constitutionality: What is anti-democratic about the AfD?
Although the AfD is democratically elected, the orientation of the right-wing radical party and many of the statements made by its representatives are anything but democratic. What is unconstitutional about the AfD?
Anyone who is elected democratically does not have to be democratic. The example of the AfD shows this quite clearly. The self-proclaimed Alternative for Germany runs election campaigns, its representatives hold parliamentary offices and it acts as a “bourgeois” party in a democratic system. The AfD likes to describe itself as a “people’s party”. However, it tries to implement its political goals with inflammatory and racist words and content against political-ideological enemy images at the parliamentary and social levels.
For good reason, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution first classified the AfD and its youth organization, JA, as a “test case” in 2019, and two years later, in 2021, as a “suspected case”. According to a court ruling, there is “sufficient factual evidence of anti-constitutional efforts within the party.” The JA violates “the basic law’s guarantee of human dignity” and is “in contradiction to the free democratic basic order,” according to the 2021 Office for the Protection of the Constitution report.
Anti-democracy means propaganda against the building blocks of democracy, such as human rights, equality, popular sovereignty, separation of powers and freedom. State associations of the AfD were already classified and observed by the state authorities of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in various federal states (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg) before 2021 as so-called suspected extremist cases or even as proven right-wing extremist objects of observation (Thuringia)...
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YouTube
Keywords: Right-wing extremism, Anti-constitutionality
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