Newsletter XII 2024
March 17th to 23st
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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
23. March
Nuclear lobby | Renewables | Renaissance
Goodbye nuclear power!
“Nuclear power is on the rise again” wrote the Munich tz at the weekend after 30 countries had spoken out in favor of further expansion of nuclear energy at a conference in Brussels (Nuclear Energy Summit) shortly before. The reason: Nuclear energy is essential for combating climate change because it does not emit any CO2.
The nuclear lobby has been campaigning for a renaissance of nuclear power for decades. So far in vain, as there have been fewer and fewer nuclear power plants in operation worldwide for many years. To this end, renewable energies are being expanded at an ever faster pace. And the last world climate conference in Dubai just decided to triple renewables worldwide by 2030.
[...] Nuclear power remains an uncontrollable risk
The next catastrophe threatens with new nuclear power plants. In the summer of 2023, half of all nuclear power plants in France were shut down. The French only got through the summer by importing German wind and solar power, and in England six of nine nuclear power plants were shut down at the beginning of January 2024. One nuclear disaster follows another.
The future belongs to renewables. The sun sends us 15.000 times more energy than all eight billion people currently consume. The solar age begins - the sun wins. Goodbye nuclear power! The world's largest solar power plant is currently being built in the United Arab Emirates...
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Climate protection | Armament | militarization
Between the logic of war and climate protection: How rearmament is torpedoing our environmental goals
The dream of feasibility easily reconciles rearmament and climate protection. Why this is an illusion - and how society is being remilitarized.
Eternal growth in a world with finite resources is an illusion that many of us grew up with. The goddess of light decorated the old power plants.
In the name of revamped progress, we happily continue to consume and - within reach of war and environmental catastrophe - feed on the beneficial illusion of freedom. And as usual, they are putting a strain on the planet with a civilizational optimism that borders on stubbornness. Until the foreseeable end.
Fossil fuels, iron and steel, conventional electricity - the much-maligned triad - mark the promise associated with it. They were the serving spirits of a century of great ideas and huge errors on its way to today. The motto now: put an end to all this spooky.
A specter that, by the way, made two world wars possible in the first place, with its enormous killing potential, its enormous waste of materials and resources, which is unparalleled in the history of humanity. We thought we were free of it; as well as the archaic idols of territorial space.
[...] The rich profits of the arms industry
The pacifist ethos of yesteryear ends on the stock market. The defense company Rheinmetall is aiming for the ten billion mark this year, and according to recent reports, profits are expected to increase by 2024 percent in 40. New weapons factories are being built in record time, at home and abroad...
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“Islamic State” claims responsibility for attack in concert hall
The “Islamic State” has claimed responsibility for the attack on a concert hall in Moscow. The jihadist militia published a statement on the Telegram text message service. According to investigators, more than 60 people died in the attack.
The jihadist militia “Islamic State” (IS) claims to have carried out the attack on an event center in Moscow. The group claimed responsibility for the crime on the Telegram short message service. Official confirmation of this claim from Russian authorities is not yet available.
Terrorist expert believes letters of responsibility are genuine
Terror expert Peter Neumann from King's College in London believes the terrorist militia's letter of responsibility for the attack near Moscow is genuine...
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Climate protection | Science | Refugees
Quaschning's video column
Quaschning explains: AfD and climate protection
The AfD wants to abolish all climate protection laws. The climate crisis is already a main cause of flight. Absurd: The AfD spreads hatred and agitation against refugees and uses its policies to create even more refugees.
Isn't it good that with the AfD in Germany we have a party that does not share the irrational CO2 hysteria in its election program and instead focuses on freedom, progress and science?
Hello? Has anyone there ever talked to someone reputable from science? The more carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere, the less infrared radiation reaches space from Earth. This is completely banal physics and not hysteria.
The result: The sun continues to heat up the earth. And you won't believe it: you can even measure it.
And science agrees. In 2019, an incredibly high number of 26.800 German-speaking - attention, now also gendered - scientists warned together about the dramatic consequences of the climate crisis...
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Israel kills civilians with drone
Gaza: Rockets on unarmed people. US draft rejected in Security Council
The news about Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip continues. On Friday, Al-Jazeera released an Israeli army video showing a drone attacking four apparently unarmed men with multiple missiles. After the first missile killed two of the men in a manner that caused the broadcaster to omit subsequent video footage, the drone targeted the two survivors and killed them as well. The attack occurred at the end of January in the southern city of Khan Yunis. Al Jazeera identified the four killed as Palestinian civilians.
Israel's most important ally Washington is increasingly taking exception to the mass killing of non-combatants, but officials in Tel Aviv are becoming less and less interested in it.
[...] However, the veto powers Russia and China as well as the non-permanent member Algeria rejected a draft resolution on the war in Gaza introduced by the USA in the UN Security Council on Friday. Russian UN Ambassador Dmitri Polyansky called the text "hypocritical" and said the document should contain a demand or call for a ceasefire rather than simply stating the need for one. His Chinese counterpart Zhang Jun also said the US draft remains ambiguous and avoids calling for an immediate ceasefire. On the contrary, he sets out conditions that mean nothing other than "giving the green light for the continuation of the killing, which is unacceptable"...
22. March
Drinking water | seawater | Desalination plants
Desalination: The solution to water shortages worldwide?
Desalination plants are expensive, require a lot of energy and harm the environment. But they are vital for more and more regions where water is lacking and droughts are increasing, for example in the Middle East, Africa or the Mediterranean.
Methods of obtaining drinking water from salt water have been known for more than 2000 years. Greek sailors in ancient times boiled sea water for it, and in ancient Rome it was filtered through clay tubes to make it drinkable.
Modern forms of these ancient technologies are now the "present and future of addressing water scarcity," said Manzoor Qadir, deputy director at the United Nations University (UNU) Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Salt water everywhere, but no drinking water
Around 70 percent of the earth's surface is with Water covered, but of these more than 1,4 trillion liters, not even three percent are fresh water, and less than one percent is usable as drinking water.
These resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Because the world population is growing, and in many places there is not enough fresh water. More and more Droughts from durch Climate change lead to water shortages in more and more regions...
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Generation IV reactors | Radioactive waste | Repository
New study: Fourth-generation nuclear reactors won't be ready for decades
New fourth-generation nuclear reactors are staying away. Study sees use only in decades. Climate goals and final disposal unresolved.
A current study makes it clear: new fourth-generation nuclear reactors will not be used in the next few decades. “All technologies need at least two to three decades before they are ready for use,” says physicist Christoph Pistner from the Öko-Institut, who worked on the study.
According to the German Press Agency (dpa), Christian von Hirschhausen from the Technical University of Berlin only sees the market maturity and competitiveness of these technologies in the next “five to six decades”.
No solution for climate goals and final storage problems
The study, carried out on behalf of the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), comes to the conclusion that alternative reactor concepts are not available in time to achieve the Paris climate goals.
BASE President Christian Kühn also emphasizes that these new reactor concepts neither eliminate the need for a final repository for radioactive waste nor answer the pressing questions of climate protection.
Seven reactor types under the microscope
The study examined seven different types of reactors, including lead- and gas-cooled reactors, molten salt reactors and accelerator-driven systems...
The first "mini-reactors" were tested at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) tested. In addition to ship and submarine reactors, the military would also have liked to have nuclear-powered aircraft.
Wikipedia de
The development of nuclear propulsion for aircraft (Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion – ANP) began in the mid-1950s: three prototypes of air-cooled reactors were developed. In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy ended the experiments.
Wikipedia en
Technological competition with the Soviet Union (as represented by the launch of Sputnik 1), and continued strong support from the Air Force allowed the program to continue, despite divided leadership between the DOD and the AEC. Numerous test facilities were funded and constructed through the 1950s and 1960–61 in order to produce a flight-worthy nuclear power unit, including one at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). While the ARE successfully demonstrated operation of a MSR concept, the program was canceled by President Kennedy on March 26, 1961 citing the outrageous cost with no flight-worthy reactor having been produced up to that point – "15 years and about $1 billion have been devoted to the attempted development of a nuclear-powered aircraft; but the possibility of achieving a militarily useful aircraft in the foreseeable future is still very remote".
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Assassination consider Moscow
Gunmen shoot around
At least 60 dead in attack in Moscow concert hall
Several gunmen shoot around in a concert hall near Moscow. At least 60 people die and more than 145 are injured. The building catches fire and the roof threatens to collapse. Numerous people are said to be trapped in the burning building.
According to the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB, 40 people were killed in the armed attack in a concert hall in Moscow. More than 100 others were injured, a statement said. During the night the number of deaths rose to 62. The Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region spoke of 145 people being taken to hospitals that night. Because rescue and police operations were still ongoing on site and the building was on fire, the numbers could still rise significantly. It is said that at least eight children were among the injured...
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Dryness | Groundwater | Lack of water
The drought is over – but for how long?
Meteorologists have declared the drought in Germany to be over. But they warn that the situation can change quickly. The next summer of disasters is already looming in southern Europe.
Finally the beginning of spring! Who doesn't love sunny days with summer temperatures? However, it would be good for nature if it rained every now and then in the coming weeks. Several experts have officially declared the end of the nationwide drought. Since 2018, many regions across the country have been struggling with extreme water shortages. In many years there was no rain at all in the summers and the precipitation in the winters could not compensate for this. It was only last year and this winter that sufficient precipitation fell again for the first time and groundwater levels rose significantly. And yet some are warning that the drought could return sooner than we would like.
[...] Meteorologists and climate researchers agree on the long-term trends: droughts and heavy rain events are likely to become more severe in the future, because average temperatures are rising worldwide. And the warmer the air is, the more water it can absorb and the more “charged” the rain front is. According to the DWD, the water absorption capacity doubles for every ten degrees Celsius increase in temperature. Surface water evaporates more quickly, plants draw more water from the soil due to the longer summers and people's water consumption also increases in hot weather.
So it's high time to think about sustainable water strategies...
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Bundesrat | Subsidies | Sanctions
Subsidy reductions and cuts
Agricultural diesel, clinical atlas, digitalization: what else the Federal Council has decided
The states didn't just make headlines on Friday when it came to the topic of cannabis and the Growth Opportunities Act: other far-reaching decisions were also made in the state chamber. An overview.
It wasn't just cannabis legalization and a billion-dollar growth package for companies that found a majority in the Federal Council on Friday. The states also gave the green light for the dismantling of subsidies for agricultural diesel and the quality atlas for hospitals. In addition, they approved the second budget financing law, which, among other things, provides for stricter sanctions on citizens' money and lower federal subsidies for statutory pensions. The Federal Council also approved a regulation that allows biodiesel made from 100 percent used cooking oils. However, the traffic light draft for the new online access law did not find a majority.
Despite the massive protests from farmers in recent weeks, the Federal Council decided to cut subsidies for agricultural diesel. The corresponding law will therefore not be referred to the mediation committee. As an alternative, the federal government announced a package of measures to support agriculture.
[...] However, the new online access law (OZG 2.0) did not find a majority. The traffic light coalition's draft law was intended to advance the digitalization of administration and ensure more data protection. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), whose house is in charge of the project, said: “I will suggest to the cabinet that they call the mediation committee.” She is ready to continue negotiating constructively “because our country needs more digital progress.” It is very regrettable that the Union-led states in the Bundesrat did not agree to OZG 2.0, she added. In doing so, they stopped the further digitalization and modernization of the state...
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Climate protection | Weather | Forecast
Weather theme
Weather Kids
Children present global weather reports for 2050
Today, children around the world are presenting a fictitious weather report for the year 2050, which is based on scientific data. The aim is to draw attention to urgently needed climate protection measures.
In over 80 countries around the world, television viewers today will: Rub their eyes inside as they expect the regular weather report and suddenly see very young offspring “weathermen” presenting an unusual forecast for the year 20250. Although the format is known, the views moderated by the children are not.
Impressive warnings
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and The Weather Channel, launched the Weather Kids initiative (www.weatherkids.org) to raise collective awareness of the impacts of climate change and to call for urgent climate protection measures for the next generations...
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March 22, 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Brown's Ferry, USA
A fire burned for seven hours and damaged more than 1.600 control cables for three reactors, knocking out cooling systems. (US$281 million)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Major fire in 1975
A highly dangerous situation developed on March 22, 1975. A worker was looking for leaks with a candle (!) in order to seal them and in the process ignited polyurethane foam. The foam had already been recognized as dangerous and banned in 1963, which was ignored by the team. The fire that followed quickly spread and destroyed all of the cables that were important for safety. Because of a “chain of negligence, inadequacies and faulty planning,” the entire security system spiraled out of control. All indicators of nuclear events, all electrical circuits, the main water pump and the emergency cooling system failed. Fortunately, the cooling water level could be maintained using low-pressure pumps. It was finally possible to shut down the reactor. The fire was only extinguished after seven hours. Only with a lot of luck a catastrophe was prevented...
Wikipedia
Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant
In January 2024, TVA applied for an extension of the operating license for all three reactor blocks for a further 20 years (for a total of 80 years), the granting of which is currently (as of March 2024) being examined by the supervisory authority...
21. March
"Back to the Future" FragDenStaat
Transparency? Communication with the Ministry of the Interior only by post instead of e-mail!
Judgment of the Federal Administrative Court:
From now on, FragDenStaat will only be analogue
The Federal Administrative Court considers anonymous freedom of information requests to be inadmissible. At the request of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it is destroying the low-threshold access that FragDenStaat offers. The Transparency Project criticizes the “scandalous verdict”.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig today declared anonymous freedom of information requests inadmissible. The ruling primarily has an impact on the successful civil society platform FragDenStaat.de, on which people can easily ask authorities for documents digitally and without providing a registration address.
The platform has been working this way for 13 years and it has always been a thorn in the side of the Ministry of the Interior (BMI), which is responsible for freedom of information. The ministry had previously complained that “more and more things were becoming public” through FragDenStaat. “This is a development that is not desirable for the administration,” said a BMI representative at the time.
The case now being heard was about FragDenStaat, but the BMI, led by the SPD, and the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information argued in court. Originally, FragDenStaat was supposed to be summoned to the proceedings, but the court said it was disinvited in a “perfidious way”: “Initially we were only admitted to one of the two procedures and not to the other because the content was the same. Then only the appeal proceedings were admitted to the Federal Administrative Court, to which we were not invited. So we were excluded from the further proceedings as parties invited.”
[...] On FragdenStaat, users can send a request by email to the relevant authority and the authority can respond by email. The principle not only allows for quick communication, but also works completely digitally without the need for post and expensive letters. But the Ministry of the Interior repeatedly prefers communication by post and does not use the platform for communication.
According to its own information, FragDenStaat will now expand its platform and, if possible, continue to sue. At the same time, the transparency project demands that the traffic light coalition introduce the promised transparency law and thus allow pseudonymous inquiries.
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Nuclear waste | Nuclear lobby | SMR
Mini nuclear power plants criticized
“Fantasies” of the nuclear lobby
The EU Commission sees nuclear power as the form of energy of the future. A new study commissioned by the federal government, however, warns against new reactors.
BERLIN taz | Ursula von der Leyen is committed to expanding nuclear power. It could play an important role in the transition to clean energy, said the EU Commission President on Thursday at the “Nuclear Energy Summit” in Brussels. High-ranking representatives from around 35 countries took part in the meeting, which was hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Belgian EU Council Presidency.
Von der Leyen specifically promoted the construction of small modular reactors (SMR) as a promising technical innovation. “There are already more than 80 projects worldwide and some of our Member States have expressed a strong interest in these reactors,” she claimed.
[...] Market launch not currently foreseeable
At the same time as von der Leyen's promotional speech, the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) in Berlin presented a new scientific study that came to an extremely critical assessment of SMR. A market launch of the new reactor types is currently not foreseeable, said the new BASE President Christian Kühn: "Despite some intensive advertising from manufacturers, we currently do not see any development that makes the construction of alternative reactor types likely on a large scale in the coming years."
“The concepts neither solve the need to find a final storage facility for the radioactive waste nor the pressing issues of climate protection.”
BASE President Christian Kühn
On the contrary, it is to be expected that “from a safety perspective, the possible advantages of these reactor concepts will be outweighed by disadvantages and the still unanswered questions,” said Kühn...
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United States | Election campaign | Assange | Gaza
From Gaza to Assange: Can Joe Biden free himself from the electoral noose?
With a ceasefire resolution, the USA appears to be clearing the Gaza war blockade. The Assange deal is also being discussed. Is this Biden's offensive against Trump? A classification.
There are two recent reports that suggest the Biden administration in the US is trying to make up ground against Republican challenger Donald Trump in November's presidential election.
Resolution: The US's U-turn in the Gaza war?
One concerns Israel's war in Gaza, which is putting the US government under increasing pressure. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now announced that a draft resolution for an “immediate ceasefire” has been submitted to the UN Security Council.
The US also called on Netanyahu to cease arms and refrain from invading the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Blinken hopes that the draft resolution will send a “strong signal.”
Of course, a “ceasefire” is not a “ceasefire” – and the details of the draft still need to be looked at. But it is the clearest message yet from the US to Israel to de-escalate the war.
[...] Will Biden drop espionage charges against Assange?
There is a second message that could indicate a change of course by the Biden administration. The White House is reportedly considering offering Wikileaks founder and journalist Julian Assange a deal. An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday stated that the US government is discussing a plan to drop the current 18 charges under the Espionage Act of 1917.
In return, Assange would have to plead guilty to minor administrative offenses relating to the incorrect handling of classified documents. Assange could make the confession remotely from London and would likely be free soon after the deal because he has already spent five years in prison in Britain.
However, Assange's legal team has not yet received any indication that the prosecution strategy has changed. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the US...
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Energy policy | European Union | Nuclear Energy
EU states are calling for European financing of nuclear power
The EU wants to achieve its climate goals. However, the states disagree about how to get there. Some are relying on nuclear power – and want to finance it together.
Nuclear power advocates in the European Union (EU) have made a new push to secure European funding for the technology. Nuclear research should be paid for from the EU budget – “perhaps nuclear projects too,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. "I think that's something that should be possible."
Belgium currently holds the EU Council Presidency. Even before the actual EU summit in Brussels, heads of government whose countries use or want to use nuclear power met in the morning. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the meeting that nuclear energy could play an important role in the transition to a climate-friendly economy. Von der Leyen is the top candidate of the conservative EVP party family in the European elections and is therefore running for a second term in office.
[...] In addition to France, which gets around 65 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania have long relied on nuclear energy. However, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands also use nuclear power. A narrow majority of 14 EU states are now members of a nuclear power alliance under French leadership.
Countries such as Germany, Austria and Denmark currently reject nuclear power. However, they were outvoted several times in the Council of EU Member States when it came to funding for power plants or new nuclear technologies...
Nothing new from Brussels. The usual suspects are screaming for more money...
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Energy transition | Network operator | Infrastructure
Is the nationalization of electricity transmission networks inevitable?
New power lines are needed for wind and solar power. The costs increased due to underground cabling. Network expansion is stalling, nationalization is approaching?
There are four in Germany Transmission system operator (TS operator), each of which supplies certain regional zones in the area monopoly.
The regions served by today's transmission system operators go back to the four large supra-regional energy companies RWE, E.ON, EnBW and Vattenfall, which were established within the framework of the politically decreed Unbundling, i.e. the separation of the network and electricity generation/trading.
[...] Nationalizing transmission networks: solution or problem?
Due to the huge sums required to expand the transmission networks and the increased interest rates, the TSOs are increasingly having problems financing network expansion. Added to this is the fear of government regulatory intervention, which would significantly limit the achievable margins in order to prevent electricity prices from rising again.
It is hardly surprising that the transmission system operators would rather sell the expansion and operation of the high and extra-high voltage networks to the federal government than take greater risks themselves. If the transmission system operators simply run out of capital, the balance between the north-east and the south of the Republic and thus the energy transition will fail.
To date, the transmission networks as well as the distribution networks have been subject to state regulation by the Federal Network Agency. If the state should now not only become a legislator, but also the owner and regulator of the transmission networks, this is mainly what they see FDP critical, but doesn't have a better suggestion of his own.
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United States | UN resolution | Ceasefire
UN resolution submitted
US calls for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip
The USA wants to show Israel alternatives for a ground offensive in Rafah. However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will not let this dissuade him. The Americans are now taking the route through the UN. However, the proposed resolution is linked to a condition that makes implementation difficult.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the United States has submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip. "We actually presented a resolution that is now before the Security Council that calls for an immediate ceasefire coupled with the release of the hostages," Blinken told Saudi media Al-Hadath. Blinken's comments came during a visit to Saudi Arabia for talks about the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken's comments came during a visit to Saudi Arabia for talks about the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The US has in the past exercised its veto power on several resolutions calling for immediate ceasefires in the war between Israel and Hamas...
20. March
Lobbying Association | Future gas
Campaign against controversial gas association:
Wave of resignations from lobby association
Critics accuse the “Future Gas” association of working against the heat transition. Dozens of municipal utilities are canceling their memberships.
BERLIN taz | The campaign by several organizations to withdraw public utilities from the fossil lobby association “Future Gas” is apparently successful. Since August 2022, more than three dozen municipal utilities have turned their backs on the “Future Gas” industry association, said the organizations Lobbycontrol and 350.org as well as the performance art collective Weiterso! on Wednesday with. The “Future Gas” association neither wanted to confirm nor deny the figures to the taz.
The campaign against the lobby association has been running for almost a year. Critics accuse the association of advocating the continuation of the fossil gas business. In their opinion, the association is pushing this Delaying the heat transition from fossil fuels to climate-friendly solutions and primarily represents the interests of large gas companies.
In addition, critics are attacking the association because it claims that hydrogen will be used for heating in the future - which is extremely unlikely given the very high costs involved. “Future Gas” continues to promote the installation of gas heating, criticizes Christina Deckwirth from Lobbycontrol. “It distorts the discourse,” she says. “The lobby association holds out the prospect of simply being able to maintain existing business models.”...
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Greenhouse gas emissions | Methane | Natural gas production
Methane Mystery: How the Collapse of the Soviet Union Affected Emissions
Post-USSR: Production of natural gas fell, but more methane was released into the atmosphere. Scientists have revealed the secret. What can be learned from this?
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated collapse of industry in many Eastern Bloc countries contributed to a massive decline in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution in these countries in the 1990s. At least that's the common narrative.
Decline in greenhouse gas emissions after the collapse of the Soviet Union
In Europe, this development contributed significantly to the fact that the first international emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 were exceeded. Emissions of the extremely potent, although less persistent, greenhouse gas methane also appear to have been declining since 1992. At least this year, an abrupt slowdown in the increase in methane concentration in the atmosphere was noted.
[...] Social upheavals as a cause of increased methane emissions
Overall, the authors suspect that the social upheavals led to the infrastructure becoming increasingly dilapidated, oil and gas wells being less monitored, and the decline in exports causing more gas to escape intentionally or unintentionally into the environment. In addition to the results of the current study, similar trends could also be observed in other former Soviet republics, the scientists suspect.
[...] Current methane emission problems in gas production
Unnecessarily high methane emissions from the extraction and transport of natural gas are still a problem today. An analysis of aerial photos of gas production sites in the USA showed that the infrastructure there releases an average of 2,95 percent of the production into the atmosphere as methane. That's about three times as much as estimated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the study published in the journal Nature. The total damage amounts to 9,3 billion US dollars...
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Renewables | Investments | Irena
“Nuclear power is a joke”: head of the renewable energy agency speaks plainly at the climate conference
At this year's Energy Transition Dialogue in Berlin, the Secretary General of the Renewable Energy Agency is calling for less talk and more action. But he rejects nuclear power.
Berlin - The chairman of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Francesco La Camera, called for more focus on achieving climate goals at the two-day Energy Transition Dialogue climate conference in Berlin. His agency presented a new report on Tuesday (March 19) that made it clear how far the world is lagging behind in expanding renewable energy. On average, almost 2030 gigawatts (GW) of extra capacity would have to be installed annually by 1100 - more than twice as much as was added in the record year of 2023 with 473 GW. Annual investments of 1550 billion US dollars (approx. 1058 billion euros) are required. According to preliminary Irena figures, the installed capacity worldwide was 3870 GW last year.
[...] In order to achieve the specified goals by 2030, La Camera calls for “full focus” on the implementation of projects that serve the goal. Anything that doesn't serve the goal must be given up - by which he explicitly means nuclear power. “I'm telling you, nuclear power is a joke. If you google how much installed capacity comes from nuclear power today, you will read: 371 gigawatts, installed over the past 70 years. We installed 30 percent more power with renewables in one year than we did with nuclear power in 70 years.”
[...] From Francesco La Camera's point of view, a similar effort is needed as after the Second World War, when Europe was rebuilt with the help of financial support from the USA. “This investment infrastructure has made Europe what it is today. We should now do something similar for the African continent and Southeast Asia,” said the Irena boss. Ultimately, everyone would benefit if green hydrogen could be produced in these countries under favorable conditions, which could then be sold to the Western world. “This creates a virtuous cycle of economic development that also creates a fairer world. After all, today we do not live in a just world.”
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United States | US foreign policy | militarism
Why the USA needs to fundamentally rethink its foreign policy
US Senator criticizes US foreign policy in general. A revolution is needed. What Sanders has to say about US militarism since 1945, Ukraine, Gaza and the future.
In the USA, pressure is increasing on the Biden government to change its foreign policy course in key crises. In the US Congress, for example, Republicans have so far refused to release the $61 billion package for Ukraine.
Revolution demanded in American foreign policy
At the same time, civil society groups, Arab communities and progressive young populations, who represent key constituencies in November's presidential election, are increasingly calling for Biden to support a Gaza ceasefire.
US Senator Bernie Sanders is now taking up this mood. He calls for a "revolution in American foreign policy" that replaces "greed, militarism and hypocrisy" with "solidarity, diplomacy and human rights"...
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UN Food Security Standards: What exactly is a famine?
UN aid agencies warn of famine in the Gaza Strip. It would be the largest in the world to date. When this occurs is precisely defined.
BERLIN taz | The United Nations has only declared famine twice this century: in Somalia in 2011 and in South Sudan in 2017. Both affected population groups that had been living in absolute misery for a long time: in southern Somalia in the context of extreme drought against the background of increasing militia conflicts and a lack of state structures; in South Sudan's Unity state in the context of three years of civil war and mass exodus. The circumstances were completely different than in Gaza today.
For international relief organizations, famine is a precisely defined term that should be used sparingly. An area is in famine when at least 20 percent of the population does not have access to even the 2.100 kilocalories per day necessary for survival.
[...] Level 5 on a scale of 1 to 5
On the IPC scale of 1 to 5, famine is level 5. The scale ranges from the first level “Minimal” through “Stressed” “Crisis” “Emergency” to “Disaster” for individual households; for entire areas, the five levels are “food security”, “hunger”, “acute hunger”, “humanitarian emergency” and “famine”.
[...] UN aid organizations are warning of an impending famine, even though many people are already suffering. This also applies to the current IPC study on Gaza.
The level 5 famine “catastrophe” is now affecting 677.000 people, 30 percent of the total population. The situation is particularly bad in the north of the area, where Israel's military operation has razed almost everything to the ground. According to the IPC report, 84 percent of the population there is already living in level 5 (disaster/famine) and 8 percent in level 4 (emergency situation). The data is based on household surveys up to March 10th...
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Colombia | Amnesty International | environmental activists
Colombia: Courageous environmentalists
Amnesty Human Rights Prize goes to Colombian fishermen's organization Fedepesan
Prices can protect through notoriety, but they are not security guarantees. One thing is certain: Yuly Velásquez and her colleagues from the Colombian environmental and human rights organization Fedepesan can use the 2024 Human Rights Prize awarded by Amnesty International as additional protection, because they have been threatened on a regular basis for years.
Yuly Velásquez has been president of Fedepesan since 2019, in which fishermen from the Santander department have organized themselves. She herself grew up on the banks of the Magdalena River in a household of fishermen, but for safety reasons she no longer lives in the fishing village, but in the nearest town of Barrancabermeja, where she studied environmental engineering. She has been visited by the police protection unit in her district every day since the summer of 2022, after surviving three assassination attempts since January 2021...
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Why Moshe Zuckermann was labeled an anti-Semite by the federal government
Before an event with Moshe Zuckermann, the VHS Heilbronn asked the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany about a tip from the German-Jewish Society and, after receiving the answer, quit as the organizer because it was threatened that “correspondingly intense criticism was expected “must be. Zuckermann is “highly controversial” because of his position on Israel, once spoke at a BDS event and would claim that there is “fundamentally apartheid against non-Jews” in Israel. According to the IHRA definition adopted by Germany, this must be considered “anti-Semitic”.
Zuckermann: “I am the son of Holocaust survivors, my parents were Auschwitz survivors, and then I have to let some German officials tell me that I am an anti-Semite because I criticize the country in which I live and, as a citizen of this country, I am also one have a civil responsibility to criticize this country. For example, the 50-year-old occupation regime, which violates international law and is dehumanizing, is worthy of criticism. Every decent person has to become critical because a whole other people is being harassed. The mere fact that I dare to do this here as a responsible citizen is seen by the Germans as an indication that I must be an anti-Semite.”...
19. March
Climate change | drought | Flooding
“The climate system is blowing up in our face”
Heat records, drought, floods - global climate change is here. In an interview with ZDF, climate expert Levermann explains what he believes needs to be done now.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared a "red alert" due to the number of heat records broken last year. WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo particularly referred to the consequences of climate change on the oceans. Anders Levermann is a professor of climate system dynamics. In an interview with the ZDFheute journal, he classifies the new numbers and explains what he believes is necessary.
ZDF: What effect do numbers as dramatic as today have?
Different Levermann: "I've been doing this for 21 years, we've seen ups and downs in public attention. The fact is that climate change is being discussed incorrectly. It's not about harming the economy. It's not about doing without. It's about initiate structural change.
We must turn the economy around from fossil fuels to renewables.
Different Levermann
We have reached approximately 1,5 degrees of global warming. We have found enough oil, gas and coal in the ground to warm the planet by 15 degrees. These are dimensions that we must never reach. If we want to stabilize the planet's temperature at all, we have to achieve structural change. This is not a debate about renunciation, but rather a debate about structural change."...
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The former Würgassen nuclear power plant site becomes battery storage
One of the largest battery storage systems in Germany is to be built not far from the former Würgassen nuclear power plant. Its capacity is said to be 280 megawatt hours. It is scheduled to go into operation in 2026.
The city of Beverungen in the border triangle of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Lower Saxony and Hesse has awarded a plot of land for the 92 million euro pilot project “Würgassen Storage Park”, as Mayor Hubertus Grimm reported on Tuesday. The municipal energy service provider Westfalen Weser is planning the construction with an initial output of 120 megawatts (MW) and a capacity of 280 megawatt hours (MWh). According to Grimm, completion is planned for the second half of 2026. The new system is intended to increase the stability of the power supply.
Substation and cables already in place
Grimm and Westfalen Weser said the location is particularly suitable for battery storage as it offers a substation and corresponding lines through the former nuclear power plant. "With a future-oriented project that focuses on the energy transition, we are living up to our role as one of the four energy locations named in the NRW regional plan. I am therefore very pleased that one of the largest battery storage facilities in Germany will be built in Würgassen," said Grimm ...
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PFAS | Chemical industry | Poison of eternity | Chemours
Eternity Chemicals in Holland:
Contaminated for all eternity
For years, a chemical factory in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, has been damaging its surroundings with toxic substances. The protest against this could now be successful.
DORDRECHT taz | “The source of the pollution is here. That’s why we give them their dirt back,” shouts Kees van der Hel before emptying a bucket of contaminated soil in front of the factory gate. Then he pours tap water over it, also contaminated. This is how the protests that have been taking place in front of the main entrance to the Chemours chemical factory in Dordrecht, southeast of Rotterdam, have been going on week after week for several years. A particularly large number of protesters, members of parliament and media representatives came this Saturday. The program includes the bicentenary rally against Chemours.
As always, the “Health First Action Group” made the call. Van der Hel, 69, has been there from the start. It was founded by his neighbor in the nearby town of Sliedrecht. “1.200 meters as the crow flies from here, the wind often blows over from there, so we get the full blow of everything that Chemours emits,” says the activist. Since the US chemical company's factory, which produces Teflon, among other things, opened in 1962, its emissions and dumping have contaminated the surrounding soil, groundwater and surface water with PFAS. These ultra-robust carbon-fluorine compounds spread easily and only break down extremely slowly in the human body, which is why they are referred to as “forever chemicals”.
[...] In September, a Rotterdam civil court issued an interim ruling that Chemours was liable for the damage suffered by surrounding communities as a result of PFAS contamination. Amsterdam lawyer Bénédicte Ficq is also working on a criminal class action lawsuit by local residents.
[...] Meanwhile, the “Health First” initiative has contacted members of the EU Parliament. During a visit to Brussels, activists presented demands for a quick ban on PFAS. There should only be exceptions for important medical uses. The environmental authorities of the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have already submitted an application for a ban on PFAS to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in 2023.
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EU Foreign Affairs Representative Borrell: Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war in Gaza
Sound from EU gets sharper: “Largest open-air cemetery”. Experts see famine in Gaza as similar to that in Somalia and South Sudan. Is the USA pulling the ripcord?
Warnings that the humanitarian crisis would develop into a famine due to blocked supplies to the Gaza Strip have accompanied Israel's war since it began in October last year. Now, after 23 weeks of bombings through Tel Aviv and the Israeli army's invasion of the north, the prognosis appears to be coming true.
The manufactured disaster
"Famine is imminent in the northern districts and is expected to occur sometime between mid-March and May 2024," said the report by the global Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative released on Monday.
The group, founded in 2004 by UN agencies and international aid groups, has only twice classified humanitarian crises as famine: in Somalia in 2011 and in South Sudan in 2017...
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Renewables | Investments | Development Assistance
Despite the record
Why the world is still too slow in expanding renewable energies
In 2023, more solar and wind power plants were built than ever before. Nevertheless, the pace must be doubled, warns the International Renewable Energy Agency. The problem: The expansion is limited to a few regions of the world.
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), the goal agreed at last year's climate conference of tripling the capacity of renewable energy by 2030 can only be achieved with significant additional efforts. This emerges from a published report by the agency.
On average, almost 1100 gigawatts (GW) of extra capacity would have to be installed annually by then - more than twice as much as was added in the record year 2023 with 473 GW. Annual investments of 1550 billion US dollars (the equivalent of around 1430 billion euros) are required. According to preliminary Irena figures, the total installed capacity worldwide was most recently 3870 GW.
[...] Too little expansion in the Global South
According to the report, renewable energies grew primarily in China, the EU and the USA, which together accounted for 83 percent of global growth. Developing countries in particular, however, lagged behind. According to Irena, 120 of them accounted for only 15 percent of global investments in renewable energies, while sub-Saharan Africa accounted for less than 1,5 percent, even though the populations with the worst energy supply live there. At the same time, there were subsidies of 1,3 trillion US dollars worldwide for climate-damaging fossil energies...
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Hydrogen | energy storage | electrolysis
EWI paper
Underground buffer for hydrogen
Green hydrogen is becoming increasingly important - and with it the creation of storage capacities, according to an analysis for Germany's largest gas network operator. This requires the conversion of natural gas power plants and the construction of new salt caverns.
It was only during the energy crisis that followed Putin's attack on Ukraine that many people realized how important large energy storage systems are. At that time, the filling levels of the underground were reported almost daily Natural gas storage reported, of which there are almost 50 in this country.
These storage facilities – and others to be created – will also be important in a system that is increasingly based on renewable energies: but no longer for natural gas, but for hydrogen. Planning this now is important because of the long construction times. But there is still a lot of uncertainty here.
According to a current report, hydrogen storage devices are being used Analysis of the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne (EMI) will play a key role in the future in two ways. The paper was commissioned by Open Grid Europe, Germany's largest gas network operator.
One task of H2 storage will therefore be to balance out fluctuations between electricity generation and demand, for example during the so-called dark doldrums, in which little or no solar and wind power is produced. In this case, green electricity is essentially stored in the form of hydrogen via electrolysis and, if necessary, “reconverted” into electricity in gas power plants.
According to the EWI paper, the second function is to increase security of supply. The storage would then be a buffer in the event that energy imports temporarily fail. Because of the high future demand for hydrogen for industry as well as shipping and air traffic, the federal government plans to have a large part of it in the future from abroad is imported, including from North and West Africa as well as Australia...
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March 19, 1971 (INES 3 | NAMS 2) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
Sparks from an arc ignited radioactive waste in a basement, causing 4,8 TBq Radioactivity was released. (Cost approx. US$1330 million)
Slowly but surely, all the relevant information on disruptions in the nuclear industry from Wikipedia away!
Wikipedia de
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.
Wikipedia en
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...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
18. March
Criteria for production and import green hydrogen from Africa
Good wishes for green hydrogen
The Climate Alliance and the Wuppertal Institute presented criteria for the import of green hydrogen. The producing countries should also benefit.
BERLIN taz | The representatives of the local Namibian population have a few questions. In their letter they want to know, among other things, at the end of 2023: How many jobs will be created? Is the power supply getting better? The letter to the Namibian government gives a glimpse of the conflicts of interest in the next round of global trade.
This also involves climate-friendly hydrogen production. Industrialized countries like Germany will need it in the future to replace fossil energy. Countries like Namibia, Morocco or Chile could supply it. Starting from the port city of Lüderitz in Namibia, German companies are planning to set up a production infrastructure for so-called green hydrogen, which will be generated using electricity from solar and wind power plants.
As a basis for such projects, the Climate Alliance, an association of environmental and development organizations, and the Wuppertal Institute for the Environment, Climate and Energy presented a catalog of criteria on Monday. The federal government, the EU and, if possible, the G7 group of industrialized countries should take this into account, said Climate Alliance board member Christiane Averbeck. The publication took place shortly before the federal government wants to present its own strategy for hydrogen import...
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Playing with the risks in the fighting for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
There is a risk that nuclear weapons could be used, and the situation at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which is repeatedly shot at or attacked with drones, is at least as explosive.
In the background of the war in Ukraine is the not only theoretical possibility that nuclear weapons could be used and a nuclear war could occur. After all, the nuclear powers Russia and the USA, France and Great Britain are directly involved in the war, as are other NATO countries through “nuclear participation”, including Belarus. In addition, there is China in the conflict with the USA and North Korea on the side of Russia. This is highly explosive, but the danger is downplayed in the West, although in view of the impending military and political defeat of Ukraine there is now speculation about the use of ground troops and Taurus missiles or missiles and drones developed by Ukraine itself Moscow and the Kremlin or even one the nuclear weapons depots could reach.
The danger of civilian nuclear power crops up again and again; for the first time, two countries in which there are nuclear power plants are fighting each other. Russia has occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant with 6 reactors. The remaining nuclear power plants in Ukraine could be bombed, while Ukrainian drone and missile attacks could also damage Russian nuclear power plants, such as Kursk, Novovoronezh or Smolensk.
[...] At a meeting with Putin on March 6, Grossi called for “maximum military restraint.” After a second power connection failed for weeks, this external backup connection was restored, according to Grossi. However, the power supply remains precarious. This is pointed out in the report from March 15th - Update No. 216 since February 25.2.2022th, 12! – to shelling of the nuclear power plant and to artillery fire from the nuclear power plant site. On March XNUMX, there was an attack with a drone outside the site but near the diesel fuel depots for the generators. Grossi: “What once seemed unimaginable – military activities near a nuclear power plant – has become a daily reality. The situation is not improving and as long as this tragic war continues, the power plant will remain in danger.”
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Flood of lawsuits hinders the work of the Federal Constitutional Court
“Quantity instead of class”
AfD floods courts and ministries with lawsuits and inquiries
A veritable flood of lawsuits and inquiries from the AfD is burdening the Federal Constitutional Court and the federal ministries. In Karlsruhe, the judges can hardly keep up, and the ministries are also groaning under the inquiries. “For the AfD, mass rather than class seems to apply,” says the CDU.
The AfD is causing problems for the Federal Constitutional Court and the federal ministries with numerous lawsuits and inquiries. The AfD has now filed 22 lawsuits in Karlsruhe in which it believes its rights have been violated - nine of which were added in 2023 alone. This threatens to significantly burden the court's other work. In addition, inquiries from the AfD parliamentary group to the federal ministries have increased significantly and are causing problems there.
While it is being discussed whether the Constitutional Court needs to be more protected from extremists from the right and left given the AfD's strength in the polls, the AfD is ensuring in a completely legal way that state institutions have to deal more and more with their issues. The special feature of the Federal Constitutional Court is that it has to hear so-called organ lawsuits orally unless they are classified from the outset as inadmissible or unfounded. If one takes into account that the responsible Second Senate hears oral proceedings a maximum of ten times a year, the court would be fully occupied with the nine new AfD lawsuits in 2023 alone.
[...] The AfD and the AfD parliamentary group did not want to comment when asked. The basic tenet of the approach in Karlsruhe and in the Bundestag is that the AfD is the victim of a political system that is supposedly hostile to the AfD. AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel recently accused the media of a targeted campaign after there were reports that several dozen members of right-wing extremist organizations were allegedly employed by AfD members of the Bundestag. Weidel sees the party's classification as a suspected right-wing extremist case by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a subjective assessment.
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Energy transition | Natural gas | Gas grid
Consequence of the energy transition
Ministry of Economics expects gas network to shrink
The plan is clear: Germany wants to become climate neutral by 2045. This also means moving away from heating with natural gas. The change has consequences for the infrastructure.
Germany wants to largely move away from fossil fuels by 2045 - and that also has consequences for the current energy supply infrastructure. The Federal Ministry of Economics expects the existing gas distribution network to be downsized. “The phase-out of fossil natural gas must have been completed by then,” says the 23-page paper that the ministry published on its website. "Gas distribution networks for the current natural gas supply will then no longer be needed in their current form and scope."
According to the Climate Protection Act, Germany should become climate-neutral by 2045, meaning that it should not be able to emit more greenhouse gases or bind them again. Among other things, it must be clarified in good time how further expansion of natural gas supply can be avoided and "under what conditions existing gas network connections may be disconnected and dismantled," says the paper.
Gas distribution networks primarily serve to supply natural gas for heat generation in households, industrial companies and other companies as well as local power plants, the paper continues. "The extent to which these gas distribution networks will still be needed after 2045 will depend, among other things, on the extent to which they can and should be used to distribute hydrogen." This is possible through sometimes complex changes. “Accordingly, it can be assumed that the length of the gas distribution networks will decrease significantly from the current 500.000 km.”...
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AfD ban | unconstitutional | secured right-wing extremist
Examination of the AfD ban: If not now, then when?
The AfD is already being monitored as a whole party by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist case. The AfD sued against it, on March 12th and 13th the final one should take place Decision before the OVG Münster fall on appeal. Should. Although the party supposedly wants a decision and at least argues in court that this classification is incorrect, their tactics revealed something else: delaying the verdict. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution accused the party of deliberately delaying the verdict. She submitted a number of almost identical applications, several requests for bias to the judges, several requests to exclude the public - everything was rejected. But everything took hours. And so she was successful: the final verdict could not be made now Judgment was postponed.
[...] Because the AfD knows very well how the process will most likely end: the classification will also be confirmed again in court. That's why she argued so little about the content and instead used all sorts of tricks to delay things. What does that bring her then? Time. The party has long since been taken over by right-wing extremists. Alone 100 AfD employees are definitely right-wing extremists, the AfD MP who described himself (!) as “the friendly face of the NS”. elected to the board in NRW. “Moderates” have resigned in droves and are warning everyone about the anti-constitutional goals of the AfD...
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March 18, 2011 (INES 2) NPP Doel, BEL
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Doel_(Belgium) #Cracks and other breakdowns
On March 18, 2011, damage to a water pump was discovered and repaired in Doel-4, an incident rated as an INES level 2 incident...
In August 2014, Doel-4 was shut down due to sabotage. A steam turbine in the non-nuclear portion of the unit overheated and automatically shut down after one or more people leaked approximately 65.000 liters of turbine oil. The public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation.
In October 2014 it was discovered that a "jihadist known to the police had worked as a security technician in the high-security area of this nuclear power plant for around three years until November 2012." In December 2014, suspicions emerged that the incident in August 2014 could have been an act of terrorism. 30 employees, who were mainly employed by subcontractors and were working in the engine room at the time, have not been allowed to enter the company premises since the beginning of January 2015...
Wikipedia
Doel Nuclear Power Plant #Incidents
On March 18, 2011, damage to Unit 4's water pump was discovered...
Nuclear power accidents by country#Belgium
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
17. March
Right-wing extremist | Justice | well-fortified democracy
Right-wing extremists and the justice system:
"A punch in the face"
Despite protests from the city, right-wing extremists were allowed to hold an event in Schwerin's town hall, the judiciary decided. It undermines their credibility.
Right-wing extremist people do right-wing extremist things. But do these enemies of the state have to organize their events on state premises? In Schwerin, the Third Chamber of the Administrative Court recently ruled that the Junge Alternative (JA) could use the Demmlersaal in the town hall of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state capital for an event.
The right-wing extremist and publisher Götz Kubitschek was also allowed to appear last Saturday. The city administration and civil society tried unsuccessfully to prevent this. A well-fortified democracy does not seem to have been able to defend itself in this conflict...
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United States | Election campaign | Bloodbath
Warning of “bloodbath”: Donald Trump causes a stir with his statement
Once again, US presidential candidate Donald Trump used inflammatory vocabulary: Trump announced that there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost the election. What exactly was meant by that and how Joe Biden's team reacted immediately.
Vandalia. Former US President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a stir with statements about a “bloodbath” if he were defeated in the election. He made the remark as he announced at a campaign event how he would make it more difficult for Chinese cars to be sold in the US market.
Ban Chinese cars from the market
China is building several huge factories in Mexico and ultimately wants to sell the cars produced there in the USA, said the Republican on Saturday (local time) in Vandalia, Ohio. Trump warned China's leader Xi Jinping: "We're going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the border, and you won't be able to sell those cars if I'm elected." He then said: “If I am not elected there will be a bloodbath. (...) It will be a bloodbath for the country.”
[...] It was not Trump's only provocative remark about the upcoming US presidential election in November during the appearance in Ohio. “If this election is not won, I am not sure there will ever be another election in this country,” said the 77-year-old.
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growth | CO2 emissions | World population
These eight questions about the 2 degree climate target are waiting for answers
Is the climate dream of Paris over? Fossil fuels and more people fueled growth. Can that be changed?
By 1800, fewer than a billion people lived on planet Earth. Despite the Industrial Revolution, which was based primarily on the use of coal, it took more than a hundred years for the world's population to double to two billion. Rapid growth only began after the Second World War, when humanity began to exploit not only coal but also rapidly growing amounts of oil and natural gas: from 1960 to the turn of the millennium alone, the world population doubled from three to six billion - and it has been growing every year since then by a further 1,2 percent – to over eight billion people to date. However, this strong increase is not only due to the use of convenient fossil fuels, but also to technical, hygienic and medical advances.
Development of population, growth and CO2 emissions
To date, emissions of the climate-relevant gas CO2, which results from the combustion of non-renewable fossil energy, as well as global (inflation-adjusted) economic output have grown even faster than the population. The following graphic shows the course of these three key growth indicators over the period from 1960 to 2020...
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Energy supply | Electricity prices | Age of nuclear reactors
Why we really don't need nuclear energy
The ongoing discussion about nuclear power is just a diversionary tactic. The reality of energy production creates facts in favor of renewable energies.
On April 15, 2023, the last nuclear power plants in Germany were shut down. Previously, horror scenarios were spread: an explosion in electricity prices, a collapse in the power supply and an increase in brown coal-fired power generation, including greenhouse gas emissions, to unknown levels. Instead, electricity prices fell noticeably, no one had to sit in the dark, lignite power generation even fell to its lowest level since 2023 in 1965 and greenhouse gas emissions fell by a record ten percent.
[...] Since 2000, global electricity consumption has increased by almost 90 percent. In 2000, nuclear energy still covered 17 percent of global electricity needs. In 2022 it was only a meager nine percent. The trend continues to fall.
Many operating reactors are decrepit
And because electricity only accounts for a fraction of energy needs, nuclear energy only covers around two percent of the world's total energy supply. Just 32 countries operate nuclear power plants, 163 countries do not.
A good 50 reactors are currently under construction worldwide. However, over 200 reactors have been shut down so far. Many of the 400 or so reactors that are still running are old and will be taken off the grid in the foreseeable future. Global electricity generation from nuclear power plants will therefore hardly increase in the next few years...
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Radioactivity | Resistance | Nuclear facilities | Nuclear waste dump
Anti-nuclear activist on resistance:
“It was all about the whole thing together”
The BI Environmental Protection Lüchow-Dannenberg made Gorleben a synonym for the fight against nuclear power. Wolfgang Ehmke knows these 50 years of resistance.
wochentaz: The citizens' initiative for environmental protection Lüchow-Dannenberg, or “BI” for short, has been fighting against nuclear plants in Gorleben and elsewhere for 50 years. You have been there from the beginning...
Wolfgang Ehmke: Stop! That is not completly correct. I didn't get fully involved until 1977.
But can you tell us something about the beginning?
The BI initially only existed as a loose association, not yet as a registered association. At the beginning of 1974, around 30 people came together because a nuclear power plant was to be built in our district, in Langendorf on the Elbe. At that time, a whole string of nuclear power plants was to be built along the Elbe, especially on the Lower Elbe. There was no mention of the other Elbe village, Gorleben, at that time.
[...] How did you come across the anti-nuclear movement and the BI?
I was at the first Brokdorf demonstration in the fall of 1976 by chance because my roommates at the time went there. That was a kind of initial spark. I couldn't believe how harsh the police were against the demonstrators. Then I started reading and researching the topic of nuclear power. Because I thought it was important to be able to answer questions when you went out on the street or at an information stand. I wanted people to know what they were talking about when they were against nuclear power.
[...] What's next for BI and your commitment?
We are currently returning to our core topics. Even if they are not in great demand in public at the moment. Because we know that the nuclear waste will remain stored above ground for 60, 80, 100 years because no final storage facility will be available any time soon. The next two or three generations will continue to ask themselves the question of how society deals with nuclear waste. We in Wendland with Gorleben are one of 16 interim storage locations. And we are also still affected by the search for a final storage facility for clay areas in the Wendland and are of course involved in that too. Firstly, about the remaining structures of the anti-nuclear movement, about the nuclear waste conference. We are closely monitoring what the Federal Society for Final Storage (BGE) is doing in order to reduce over 2027 percent of the country's area that has been identified as potentially suitable for the search for a final storage facility in the next few years by 50 to just a few location regions be ten. How do they do that? Is it scientific and legitimate? Or is there something like party political influence?
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Climate justice | consequential damages | Polluter pays principle
Priced-in risks, eco-dependent banks and 60 million people with access
Calendar week 11: The first insurance companies are reacting to climate risks - this logic needs to be directed from the damage to the causes, says Aysel Osmanoglu, board member of GLS Bank and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. She is critical of Germany's abstention from the EU supply chain law.
Climate Reporter°: Ms. Osmanoglu, the burdens and obligations of dealing with climate change must be distributed in such a way that as many people as possible can achieve the minimum requirements for a good, successful life now and in the future - that is the German Ethics Council's core answer to the question: what climate justice could look like.
What would your concept look like for a good and successful ecological life?
Aysel Osmanoglu: I would insist on the polluter pays principle. In the short term, too much private monetary profit can still be generated, while the negative effects such as environmental damage are passed on to society as a whole.
Therefore, my suggestion would be to take a closer look at the definition of the term. Profit as a purely business measure provides too few indications of the resilience and future viability of one's own company. Actually, all environmental and climate risks should be factored in here.
Politically, this works, for example, through a rising CO2 price, which banks and insurers would then have to take into account as a risk factor in credit and interest rate decisions. If we were to consistently pursue this form of “true” accounting, the result would be a real change in direction.
We are currently seeing the first insurers in the USA refusing to cover rain and fire damage. If we manage to focus this logic not only on the consequential damage but also on the causes, then financing a coal-fired power plant from a risk perspective becomes unnecessary - and all without ethics...
| Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Current news+
Electricity price | Blackout | fear mongers
Energy Association: Industry should stop complaining about Germany
The warnings from the industry can be heard very loudly. High energy prices would slowly but surely destroy Germany as a location. The energy association is now opposing this representation. There is talk of some “grotesque” demands.
What is the status of Germany as a business location? According to very loud voices from the industry, there has recently been talk of “alarming signals” again. Because of high energy prices, many companies are once again faced with the question of whether emigration is a solution. In short: the impending economic decline is sung here.
Marie-Luise Wolff, the president of the energy association BDEW and thus herself part of the German economy and the industrial association BDI, is now opposing this representation with clear words and visibly annoyed. “I increasingly have the impression that parts of German industry are talking about the location as worse than it is,” Wolff told the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Paywall).
In her opinion, many of her CEO and official colleagues are excellent at making demands without making any contribution themselves. It's easy to "blame politics for everything and complain about the supposedly poor general conditions." This happens especially with companies that want to migrate anyway.
Other strength
Wolff complains about a tendency among her colleagues in industry to “always emphasize the worst of all scenarios.” According to the head of the energy association, this can be observed again and again, especially in the area of electricity supply.
There is no threat of a blackout, as is being conjured up by voices from the business community. She considers calls for a capped electricity price for companies to be "grotesque" - also because electricity prices in this country are again "absolutely competitive in Europe and internationally", as the following graphic illustrates.
Infographic: Electricity prices for companies in Europe
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Background knowledge
The map of the nuclear world
We won't be able to get rid of this dirt any time soon.
so we should stop producing more and more of it...
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The “Internal Search”
Electricity price | Blackout | fear mongers
December 30, 2023 - One hundred percent renewables on winter day instead of blackout
April 25, 2023 - AfD, CDU and FDP continue to fight for nuclear power plants
January 30, 2023 - The nuclear lobby finances the popular initiative “Stop Blackout”
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The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Strompreisentwicklung
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Blackout Angst
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Financial tip
Electricity prices 2024
How much electricity costs you now and in the future
the essentials in brief
- Electricity for 2024 is significantly cheaper than in 2022. However, compared to the years before the Russian attack on Ukraine, electricity prices are higher.
- Electricity currently costs an average of around 31 cents per kilowatt hour in the new tariffs.
- The rising network fees will increase the price of electricity by several cents per kilowatt hour in 2024. As long as you have a price guarantee, your provider cannot pass on higher network fees to you.
- In the future, more electricity will be needed for electric cars and heat pumps. Wind turbines and photovoltaic systems can produce electricity very cheaply, but it is still uncertain how electricity prices will develop in the energy transition.
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BDEW Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry
BDEW electricity price analysis February 2024
The BDEW electricity price analysis shows the current development of electricity prices in Germany.
This shows the price development for household customers as well as the price level for industrial customers and describes the taxes, duties and levies included in detail. The prices shown represent the average of the available electricity tariffs for the respective period. The analysis also provides a wealth of additional information on current market developments.
Households: This is how the price of electricity has developed in Germany
The average electricity price for households fell by almost 2024 percent at the beginning of 8 compared to the annual average for 2023 and now amounts to an average of 42,22 ct/kWh (2023: 45,73 ct/kWh; base price included pro rata for a consumption of 3.500 kWh/a ).
Falling costs for taxes and levies
The share of taxes, duties and levies fell slightly by 2024 ct/kWh in 0,36 compared to the previous year and is now 12,02 ct/kWh (2023: 12,38 ct/kWh). Their share of the total price is currently 29 percent. The share of network fees is 27 percent, procurement and sales account for 44 percent.
Electricity price in industry
The average electricity price for small to medium-sized industrial companies for new contracts has continued to fall significantly and is 2024 cents/kWh at the beginning of 17,65. This corresponds to a decrease of 28 percent compared to the annual average for 2023 (2023: 24,46 ct/kWh).
In addition, the BDEW electricity price analysis shows current market developments, information on provider diversity and switching behavior. The BDEW electricity price analysis is regularly updated and published.
The BDEW also regularly produces one Gas price analysis
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Wikipedia
Electricity price
The electricity price is the fee for the supply of electrical energy. It consists of the prices for electricity generation, network use and - depending on the state - levies, levies and taxes. The price of electricity differs between electricity providers and the tariffs offered and can be influenced by a change in tariff and, in liberalized markets, by a change in electricity provider by the customer.
Level of electricity prices for private households
In 2020, Germany was one of the countries with the most expensive electricity for private consumers worldwide. The development of the electricity price for households with three people and an average electricity consumption of 3500 kWh/year is shown in the following table from 1998 according to information from the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW). The average electricity price for private households rose from 2000 to 2021 cents/kWh between 13,94, the time the electricity market liberalization took effect, and 31,89. This corresponds to an increase of approximately 228%, or an average of 6,1% per year.
The cost groups shown in the table are the production, transport and distribution costs followed by the various duties and taxes that make up the gross electricity price. The production, transport and distribution costs initially fell as a result of market liberalization in the years around the turn of the millennium, but rose again in the following years...
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YouTube
Keywords: Electricity price development, Blackout fear
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic of atoms*
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Newsletter XI 2024 - March 10th to 16th
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