Newsletter XIII 2024
March 24th to 30st
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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
30. March
Berlin Easter March: Thousands demonstrate against war and rearmament
The train led over Karl-Marx-Allee through parts of Berlin-Friedrichshain. Counter-demonstrators were seen on Rigaer Strasse – under the eyes of the police.
[...] Several thousand people marched through Berlin-Friedrichshain for the peace movement's traditional Easter march. They gathered at the Kosmos cinema on Karl-Marx-Allee opposite Weberwiese, took a walk through the area around Rigaer Straße and finally returned to the starting point. They demonstrated against a military solution to the Ukraine war and for a diplomatic solution in negotiations with Russia. According to the police, around 3500 participants gathered. It feels like there are significantly more. In any case, 6000 demonstrators were registered.
[...] banners can be seen. At the front of the demonstration, for example, there is a yellow banner calling in black letters for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is still imprisoned in England: “Free Press.” Someone has painted a poster with the words: “Friendship with Russia – Viva Palestine”. Other messages include “Peace in Russia” or “Genocide in Gaza.” Palestine flags can be seen...
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Commitment for Democracy and against Right-wing extremism
Support programs for democracy
This is how civil society is protected from enemies of the constitution
The AfD could soon come into government responsibility and make good on its threat to end democracy promotion programs. This can still be prevented.
Last fall, the Thuringian regional association of the AfD had one 5-point plan presented in the event of government participation. The MDR summarizes point three as follows: “No more money for democracy, diversity and commitment against right-wing extremism.” This refers to the state's own program »Think-Bunt«, which finances civil society projects with around 6,1 million euros per year. If this state program is canceled, those affected by right-wing extremist violence would hardly have any help and advice available in Thuringia. Many school projects, information events and other civil society initiatives for democratic and non-violent coexistence would no longer receive financial support. Many democratically committed organizations would therefore be on the brink of extinction.
These programs are the state's budget resources, which are negotiated in the state parliament and cabinet and then defined in terms of content by the responsible ministry. The scenario that a Ministry of Education led by the AfD simply cancels the program is therefore easily conceivable...
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The public omission in the Julian Assange case
“I couldn't get the moment I said goodbye to Assange at the end of the afternoon out of my mind. I shook his hand, wished him well and was about to leave; the doctors were already at the door. Then suddenly his grip on my hand tightened and he held me back. What he wanted to say was clearly difficult for him. 'I hate to say this...' he began. Then he hesitated for an eternal moment until the words finally escaped his lips: 'Please, save my life!'” (Nils Melzer on his first encounter with Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison)
Media omission
The main tasks of the media are, firstly, to conduct conscientious research and, secondly, to report these results objectively. In the Julian Assange case, both were omitted with serious consequences.
Julian Assange is the journalist and founder of the WikiLeaks platform, who was first publicly admired and then dropped, and who has shown us the ugly face of great nations through his work. And he still does. Not in the way he would have liked - via the Internet and other media - but in the way he is now treated. He couldn't be trained, so you had to tighten the noose around his neck. The USA, Great Britain, Sweden and finally Ecuador - each of these nations was pulling at its own end. And people watched and continue to watch it to this day. No globally loud intervention from politicians or the big media. Even some human rights organizations weren't always sure whether Julian's life was even worth protecting...
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Batteries | Power storage | Electric car
Electric vehicles with a 15-year guarantee: CATL presents a battery with a mileage of 1,5 million kilometers and no loss of capacity after 1.000 charging cycles
CATL has already supplied battery packs with a lifespan of 12 years to NIO. A battery with a service life of 15 years has now been developed for electric vehicles. In addition, the battery should not show any loss of capacity even after 1.000 charging cycles.
CATL, the world's leading producer of batteries for electric cars, has brought its research into battery longevity to series production. The company has introduced a battery for electric vehicles that should last 15 years and show no loss of capacity even after 1.000 charging cycles.
[...] The new batteries with a useful life of 15 years will initially be used in commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks, which are generally in use longer than cars. In fact, NIO and CATL not only want a 15-year guarantee on the batteries Electric car batteries, but also ensure that the batteries still have a remaining capacity of at least 85 percent after this time...
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Climate justice | Transformation | Revolution | reform
review
Climate justice means asking the question of power
The book “Building Blocks for Climate Justice” describes eight transformation paths to greater climate justice. Instead of technofixes, the authors focus on concrete and profound changes in economic and social conditions.
Climate justice is a beautiful word. So pretty that it can be found in such strange places as the Greens' last federal election program or the Union's parliamentary motions.
The book published in 2023 “Building blocks for climate justice – 8 measures for a future of solidarity” of Leipzig Conceptual work New Economy is proof that the trend of cosmetic exploitation of wonderfully progressive-sounding terms such as “climate justice” or “transformation” can be countered.
People from social movements, trade unions, science and other areas of society have brought together knowledge and experiences in a joint effort. The result is a book about climate justice and the path to get there – social-ecological transformation. The book becomes concrete on the first page by explaining climate justice with a small information box.
The concept of transformation also doesn't float spinelessly across the pages. It is used by the authors to distinguish it from “a purely reformist practice of change” and an “abrupt, violent revolutionary overthrow”. The aim of the transformation is to change the existing economic and social conditions.
In the existing system, conservatives find it easy to counter progressive projects with the neoliberal basics: loss of competitiveness, loss of industries, loss of jobs, and so on. The negative consequences of these points are actually difficult to dismiss. The authors are therefore concerned with "changing the circumstances under which making the right decisions is so difficult"...
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France | Runtime | Cracks | Lifespan | Flamanville
Energy policy
France's billion dollar nuclear hole
New construction of the European pressurized water reactor in Flamanville is delayed - and more expensive
The completion of the French nuclear power plant (nuclear power plant) Flamanville has been delayed again. It has been under construction since 2007 and completion has been postponed several times. The original plan was to put the nuclear power plant into operation in 2012. The construction costs were estimated at three billion euros in 2004, but by the end of 2002 they had already amounted to 13,2 billion euros. The French nuclear regulator announced earlier this week that it would initiate a final public hearing. According to information from the Reuters news agency, the developer and future operator EDF also stated that it wanted to investigate 43 cases of fraud that came to light in connection with the equipment of the 2023 reactor. These include, among other things, irregularities among suppliers. The extent to which these are relevant to safety issues at the facility was not mentioned.
[...] According to statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency, 165 of the 415 reactors still in operation worldwide are 40 years old or older. 38 have even been running for 50 years or longer. The reactors are usually designed for 40 years of operation. One of their aging problems is the steel of the reactor pressure vessels that contain the highly radioactive material. This becomes brittle over time due to the neutron bombardment of the chain reaction. So it becomes more susceptible to cracks and breaks. So, given all the Methuselah reactors, you have to ask yourself when the next major reactor disaster will occur.
29. March
Peace Movement | Easter March | double standards
Peace marches and war:
Peace movement in trouble
As long as the aggressor was called NATO or the USA, the peace movement was always clear about who was good and who was evil. Now a long-suppressed fundamental conflict has emerged again.
In the middle of the First World War, Stefan Zweig lamented “the almost devastating tragedy of pacifism, that it never seems contemporary, superfluous in peace, crazy in war, powerless in peace and helpless in war.” With his words in 1917, the Austrian writer remembered Bertha von Suttner, who, despite all the hostility, did not shy away from “demanding the seemingly unattainable.” But his statement has lost none of its relevance to this day.
After Russia's attack on Ukraine a good two years ago, thinking in purely military categories is also experiencing a renaissance in the Federal Republic. It is an incontrovertible fact that there is a need for massive rearmament. A social democratic defense minister wants to make Germany “warworthy” again. A Green economics minister meets with the heads of German defense companies to “exchange ideas about innovation and acceleration opportunities in the defense industry”.
And a liberal EU leading candidate promotes herself as “Grandma Courage” – which Bertolt Brecht would certainly have found quite fitting. Right now, a large peace movement as a warning voice wouldn't be the worst thing. But the Ukraine war did not give the Easter marches any significant boost. Instead, a long-suppressed fundamental conflict has emerged again...
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France | EDF | Uranium enrichment
"By 2030 in Western Europe"
France is considering building a special uranium enrichment plant
For years, abundantly used radioactive material has been brought from Europe to Russia to be enriched there again - and, according to critics, to be disposed of in Siberia. France is now considering building a special facility to become more independent from Russia.
To reduce dependence on Russia, the French government is considering building a plant to re-enrich uranium from spent fuel. “This possibility is being seriously examined,” said the Industry and Energy Ministry in Paris. French power company EDF confirmed that it is in discussions with several partners to build a uranium re-enrichment plant "by 2030 in Western Europe."
An important facility that can re-enrich uranium from used fuel for use in nuclear power plants is currently located in Seversk, Siberia. In 2018, EDF signed a contract worth 600 million euros with a branch of the Russian nuclear company Rosatom to re-enrich the uranium from used fuel elements in Seversk. This is a complex process that leaves behind large amounts of radioactive waste.
This contract will be respected, explained Jean-Michel Quilichini, director of the nuclear division at EDF. He told the newspaper “Le Monde” that he saw no reason to terminate a working contract. However, EDF is trying to “diversify geographical sources and suppliers”...
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Subsidies | Solar Panels | Resilience bonus
Second end for the solar industry:
The ideological gravediggers
Germany is investing huge amounts of money in the chip industry and the production of electric car batteries. Module production, on the other hand, is left empty-handed and withdraws.
In Freiberg, Saxony, some people are currently experiencing a sad déjà vu: after 2017, notices of dismissal for employees of the solar factory were sent here for the second time on Tuesday. It was the largest module production in Europe, but it was no longer “profitable”. The drama of the decline of the photovoltaic industry, especially in East Germany, less than 10 years ago is being repeated again, especially on a small scale.
The Swiss company Meyer Burger has just fired 400 employees in Freiberg, and something similar is threatened at Solarwatt in Dresden or at the Brandenburg glass factory in Tschernitz. The solar clear-cutting is absurd: the industry is booming and will continue to boom - 40 percent more capacity was installed last year alone. But most of the systems are manufactured in China with high subsidies and are thrown onto the market here at competitive prices.
Meyer Burger is not bankrupt either, but is relocating its module production to the USA because there are generous subsidies there. And in Germany? The ideological gravediggers rule...
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With this step, NATO could immediately end the dispute with Russia
The conflict between NATO and Russia has escalated in Ukraine. Neither party is the problem per se. There is a lack of a sustainable security system. A utopia.
No effort should be left unturned to end the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Ultimately, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure, nature and the extinction of hundreds of thousands of human lives, there is the danger of a third world war with the use of nuclear weapons.
This would also mean the downfall of everything that civilization has achieved so far. No one in their right mind could want a nuclear inferno.
NATO of Peace: Only one realization is necessary
If one is convinced that current and future global problems can only be solved through transnational understanding with the participation of a higher-level structure, it is not far to bridge the gaps and make the enemy states an offer from the most powerful transnational military power, NATO .
It's about, Rethinking security and to put aside military dogmas and security policy prejudices...
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Climate Protection Act | Supply Chain | Renaturalisation | European Green Deal
Environmental legislation
The sad backward role of the EU
Supply chain standards, renaturation or pesticide rules: many European environmental and climate laws have been stopped or weakened in recent months due to pressure from Parliament or EU governments.
European legislation is a complicated and, above all, lengthy matter. First, the EU Commission presents a draft law, which it can also be requested to do by the European Parliament or the member states.
A ping-pong then begins between Parliament and the Council of Ministers, who can demand changes in various steps, which then have to be presented to the other EU institution. This back and forth often takes several years.
And since the ministers in the Council come from the governments of the member states, it can happen that a shaky compromise shortly before the end falls victim to national or party political calculations.
This fate has recently befallen several important climate and environmental protection laws.
The latest example on the sad list is the Nature Restoration Act. The proposed law had two years of negotiations behind it, but was defeated by the ministers a few days ago.
[...] Last but not least, the regulation for deforestation-free supply chains, which was already in the dust, is now up for discussion again. Although it came into force in the middle of last year, it is still in a transitional period.
The law is intended to ensure that cocoa, coffee, palm oil and some other agricultural goods and products made from them are only offered in Europe if no forest has been cleared for them. More precisely: They must not come from areas that were deforested after 2021...
28. March
Workers at the Akkuyu nuclear power plant stop work in a wage dispute
Hundreds of workers have protested at the construction site of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant under construction in Turkey, demanding payment of overdue wages, Sol Haber reports. In addition to the late payments, workers are demanding improvements in working conditions and increased safety measures at the construction site due to the difficult working environment.
The demonstrators, all of whom work for the subcontractor Prometey Construction, stressed that they would negotiate with the authorities in accordance with their legitimate demands but would also continue their protests until they received their outstanding wages. When the gendarmerie arrived, the workers repeated that they would not start work until their wages were paid and demanded the resignation of the management...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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Corona | Federal Audit Office | Jens Spahn
Chaotic conditions in the ministry
Court of Auditors massively criticizes Jens Spahn's mask procurement
During the Corona crisis, Health Minister Spahn had billions of masks purchased. A large part of it has to be destroyed at great expense. The overall benefit was low, according to a report.
The Federal Audit Office sharply criticizes the procurement of masks in the Corona crisis under Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) and accuses his house of failing to process it. "The massive over-procurement of protective masks at the beginning of the corona pandemic by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) led to persistently high stocks and significant follow-up costs," says a report from the Federal Audit Office to the Bundestag's Budget Committee, which is available to SPIEGEL. “The benefit in combating the pandemic was small compared to this,” it continues.
The report makes it clear how huge the planning errors were during the crisis: of the 5,7 billion protective masks purchased, only 2 billion were distributed, 1,7 billion of them in Germany. It cannot be determined how many masks were actually used.
[...] The administration of the overprocured masks alone cost around 2023 million euros by the end of 460, and according to the Court of Auditors, a further 534 million will be incurred in the current year. In addition, there are, among other things, expenses for legal costs in lawsuits with suppliers, which amounted to 113 million euros last year alone...
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Prosecutor | Secret meeting | Correctiv
AfD advert falls flat: public prosecutor's office is not investigating Correctiv people
The Potsdam public prosecutor sees no evidence of illegal sound recordings by Correctiv. Another participant in the secret meeting fails in court in Hamburg.
Potsdam - The Potsdam public prosecutor's office will not investigate employees of the investigative portal Correctiv and other people accused in connection with reporting on a meeting of radical right-wingers. The public prosecutor's office announced on Thursday (March 28) that there was no initial suspicion of prosecutable crimes. Criminal complaints were filed against Correctiv and its employees for, among other things, violations of the confidentiality of the word, the most personal sphere of life and personal rights through image recordings.
[...] The Potsdam public prosecutor's office has now stated that there is no evidence that unauthorized audio recordings of the meeting were made. “If it was apparent from individual press reports that audio recordings could have been made secretly, this was not confirmed after examination.” The image recordings also did not violate the boundaries of the “highly personal sphere of life,” explained a spokesman for the authority. No images were found that were created in protected rooms in the sense of a “last personal retreat area”.
[...] Appeal from participants in the secret meeting fails at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court
So far, Correctiv only had to adapt one passage. The portal should no longer suggest that constitutional lawyer Ulrich Vosgerau suggested at the meeting that mass objections to election results could be organized using a “model letter”. The Hamburg Regional Court ruled in February that Vosgerau had stated that he did not support this “mass” approach. The lawyer attacked two more passages of the text and lost in court. The Hamburg Higher Regional Court confirmed the judgment on Wednesday (March 27). In an interview with the trade union magazine Journalistin, the editor-in-chief of Correctiv identified a “trend of using court proceedings as a PR tool to sow doubt in the public, regardless of the outcome of the proceedings”.
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France | EPR | Flamanville
Nuclear power: Schedule for the delayed start of operation of Flamanville 3 is shaky
The reactor in Flamanville, which had been delayed by twelve years, was actually supposed to be loaded with fuel now. This has now been delayed for weeks.
The new EPR reactor at the Flamanville nuclear power plant on the French Channel coast will not be loaded with fuel as planned this month. The French nuclear regulator ASN has scheduled a public consultation on its approval for the reactor's commissioning on Wednesday before making its final decision. This should run until April 17th, according to an ASN announcement.
Operator EDF previously assumed that loading would begin in the first quarter of 2024 and that Flamanville 3 could go online in the middle of this year. France's responsible industry minister, Roland Lescure, expressed caution on the French broadcaster Fance Info on the question of whether the current schedule can be adhered to. Putting a reactor into operation is not as easy as starting a Renault Clio or Peugeot 208...
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Climate change | Sea level | Earth rotation
Climate change is now also affecting timekeeping
The earth begins to rotate faster - and so leap seconds become negative. This should be the case for the first time in 2026. Melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland are now delaying this.
Rapidly melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland has pushed a timekeeping problem a few years further into the future. Actually, the first negative leap second in the history of modern time measurement would have been due in 2026. Because of the increasing ice melting in the polar regions, this will probably not happen until 2029, reports Duncan Carr Agnew from the University of California in San Diego. In a current publication in the journal “Nature” he analyzes it, how the difference between time and Earth's rotation changes over time. Accordingly, the Earth's rotation is currently beginning to accelerate after a long period of decline - but more slowly than the long-term trend would suggest. This may be because the Earth is being slowed down more by rising sea levels than expected.
The fact that there always have to be additional leap seconds is because the rotation of the earth is not constant...
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Peace Movement | Easter March | Warmonger
Fight for peace
“War is the worst climate killer”
About the power of the peace movement and German war capability. A conversation with Laura von Wimmersperg
The Easter marchers are getting older and older. Children, on the other hand, should be trained for war. How does the peace movement want to combat this?
Not just the children, the entire society should be made ready for war. We must oppose this demand of the War Minister everywhere and loudly, because it contradicts the Basic Law and the Two-Plus-Four Treaty of 1990. Enlightenment is the most important task of the peace movement, against the mainstream media - a battle of David against Goliath - but that's how it is As old-fashioned as it sounds, the word remains our most important weapon.
Reintroduce conscription, abolish the civil clause, endless rearmament: all signs point to war. How can a debate about peace be brought back into the public eye?
Good question. Only if people are aware of the danger that threatens us and if they recognize the causes for it. But this is very difficult given the current information policy. Yet polls show that the majority of society opposes war.
[...] TAURUS delivery instead of diplomacy. How do you feel about this?
I was horrified when I watched the debate in the Bundestag two weeks ago about the supply of these weapons, a weapon that could trigger World War III. I have to say in advance that I have nothing to do with the SPD. But after this debate I thought we had to support Chancellor Scholz so that he sticks to his “no” to the TAURUS delivery. And I have respect for the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich. I find it outrageous to call his cautious statement that it is time to think about negotiations “cowardly”! With the delivery of TAURUS the war will escalate. Kiesewetter and like-minded people know this as well as we do, but they provoke in an irresponsible manner. They were elected to keep us voters out of harm’s way – and they are doing the opposite. These warmongers belong in court.
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March 28, 1979 (INES 5 | NAMS 7,9) NPP Three Mile Island, USA
There were about 3,7 million TBq Radioactivity released. Equipment failure and operating errors led to a loss of coolant and a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. (Cost approx. US$1091 million)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Harrisburg/Three_Mile_Island_(USA)
Three Mile Island 2 meltdown
What happened on March 28, 1979 in reactor 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is an example of how easily nuclear accidents can occur due to a combination of small technical defects and human error, without the need for a natural disaster is...
The nuclear chain
[...] To this day, effective lobbying by the nuclear industry has prevented meaningful scientific analysis of the consequences for the environment and health.
[...] More than two million people lived within an 80 km radius at that time. On March 28, 1979, the worst civil nuclear energy disaster to date occurred there. An emergency valve opened to relieve pressure, accidentally releasing large amounts of coolant. This led to critical overheating of the reactor core and the infamous meltdown. The reactor's protective shell withstood the enormous pressure, but for a few days large amounts of radioactive particles escaped into the atmosphere and contaminated the environment in the form of radioactive fallout...
Wikipedia
Reactor accident_im_nuclear power plant_Three_Mile_Island
Reactor accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant
The reactor accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) in the USA on March 28, 1979 was a serious accident (INES level 5) in which a partial core meltdown occurred in reactor unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant About a third of the reactor core was fragmented or melted...
Venting to the environment
... by venting into the atmosphere. It is estimated that radioactive gas (in the form of krypton-85; 10,75 year half-life) with an activity of about 1,665 × 10 was released during the incident15 Bq...
27. March
right-wing extremists | Propaganda | European elections
"Voice of Europe" sanctioned
Authorities unmask pro-Russian propaganda platform
The Prague-based Internet portal "Voice of Europe" presents itself as a news site, but gives a lot of space to right-wing extremist politicians. They are said to have received a lot of money from Russia for their performances. Half a dozen intelligence services were involved in the unmasking.
In a large-scale influence operation by Russia before the European elections, hundreds of thousands of euros are said to have flowed to Moscow-friendly politicians in several EU countries. According to information from "Spiegel", the money was either handed over in cash at personal meetings in Prague or transferred via cryptocurrency.
The Czech government had made it public that it had uncovered a “Russian-financed influence network”. It placed the Prague-based Internet portal "Voice of Europe" as well as two business people close to the Russian president who are said to be behind the medium on its sanctions list. The network is said not only to have spread pro-Russian propaganda, but also to have provided "covert financial support to selected people among the candidates for the European Parliament elections"...
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Federal Constitutional Court | Basic Law
Amendment to the Basic Law
This is how Ampel and Union want to protect the Constitutional Court
Exclusive | Berlin · So now: To protect the Constitutional Court, central regulations should be included in the Basic Law. For example, the number of judges and their term of office. This is what a first bill provides for. The independence of the court and the binding nature of decisions should also be ensured.
First of all, the Union recently canceled the delicate and complicated talks with the traffic light about better protection of the Constitutional Court from extreme forces. Then the parliamentary group leadership around Friedrich Merz (CDU) thought again and returned to the negotiating table with Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). And now there is already a first draft draft as a working paper on how the Karlsruhe court could be better protected - by incorporating central elements into the Basic Law.
The coalition and opposition seem ready for this. The background is primarily the rise of extreme parties in Germany, especially the AfD. The draft available to our editorial team states that the new regulation should “help prevent efforts that want to question the independence of the constitutional judiciary”. The Federal Constitutional Court has now firmly established itself as a “guarantor of the free-democratic order and as an essential constitutional body for the state and society”...
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Castor transports | Jülich | Ahaus
Dispute in NRW:
Nuclear opponents unloaded
Environmentalists are resisting new Castor transports. But the state economics ministry no longer speaks to them.
BOCHUM taz | In the dispute over highly radioactive Castor transports, the tone between North Rhine-Westphalia's Green Vice Prime Minister Mona Neubaur and environmental organizations is becoming frosty. In a few months, the first castors with radioactive nuclear waste are to be moved from the former Jülich nuclear research center to the Ahaus interim storage facility.
Now representatives of Neubaur's state economics ministry, which is also responsible for nuclear supervision, are apparently no longer allowed to speak personally with anti-nuclear initiatives and the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND).
A scheduled “technical discussion” was canceled out of the minister’s office last Friday, completely unexpectedly – less than two hours before it began. Reason: The opponents of nuclear power have announced that they will inform the public after the conversation.
[...] Without taking into account the police operations to secure the Castor transports, the relocation to Ahaus could be cheaper on paper than building a new interim storage facility in Jülich - which should particularly please the cash-strapped FDP Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner. Insiders speculate that this is one of the reasons why Neubaur is sticking to the evacuation order for the Jülich camp: The Green Party does not want to risk a new coalition clash in Berlin...
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Turkey | Corruption | Contract killing | Alacadağ, Finike
OB candidate in Turkey:
Enlightenment as a driving force
Her parents paid with their lives for the fight against environmental destruction. This is one of the reasons why Emine Büyüknohutçu is now standing for election in Turkey.
[...] It is mid-February, today Emine Büyüknohutçu will announce her candidacy for mayor in a small circle. She wants to investigate the murder of her parents, well-known environmental activists, and fight against corruption. She will ask those invited for support. Just a few days ago she left her party TİP, the Turkish Workers' Party, and is now running as a non-party candidate. There are still around six weeks until the Turkish local elections on March 31, in which mayors, city and provincial councils will be elected across the country.
At 39 years old, Emine Büyüknohutçu is a young politician. The graphic designer, who was born and studied in Antalya, runs her own advertising agency. She has been politically active for seven years, almost exactly since her parents were murdered.
[...] Her father Ali Ulvi noticed early on that the quarry near their house was destroying the forests and orange orchards of local farmers. He sends photos of clean-shaven mountains to newspapers and appears on political talk shows. In 2015 he caused one of the 14 quarry facilities to stop operating. It turns out that the permit for the facility in question was drawn up without an environmental impact assessment - an indication of corruption. Before the ruling to stop operations becomes final, the owner of the plant, Ali Ulvi, sued Büyüknohutçu for 100.000 lira in compensation (around 25.000 euros at the time). The court agrees with Büyüknohutçu and he doesn't have to pay anything. About two months later, on May 9, 2017, the couple was found shot to death.
“I'm not running to win. I want to show what political corruption can lead to. It was corruption that killed my parents,” says Büyüknohutçu. Public money would flow into luxury company cars for politicians, for example...
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Power grid | Storage | Battery
The largest battery storage facility in the north is being built in Bollingstedt
In the village, batteries will store the daily consumption of 30.000 households. Around 5 hectares are available. The plant is scheduled to go into operation without funding in 2026.
Energy storage is cheaper than ever. Since the summer of 2023, prices have halved again, as the Chinese market leader CATL reports. This means that project developers all over Germany are now thinking in new dimensions. In 2017, the storage facility in Braderup (Nordfriesland district) was celebrated as one of the largest with 2 megawatt hours (MWh), but now it is 239 MWh in the Bollingstedt district of Gammelund (Schleswig-Flensburg district).
Relief for the power grid
The company Eco-Stor is also planning two additional large-scale storage facilities with 600 MWh in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. But in northern Germany, Bollingstedt-Gammelund would be by far the largest project currently planned, according to the Federal Network Agency's market master data register. There are further plans in Brokdorf (Steinburg district), where even 1.600 MWh have been announced in the long term.
[...] In Gammelund, batteries without the controversial metals cobalt and manganese are to be used. Instead, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is used, reports Urban. This technology is increasingly being used in cars and storage systems because it is cheaper and more and more powerful. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place in Bollingstedt-Gammelund on April 19th. The battery storage system is scheduled to go online in 2026.
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Energy supply | EnBW | billion profits
New boss presents annual figures
EnBW earns billions – profits massively increased in 2023
The energy company increased its profit by more than half in the 2023 financial year. The first appearance of the new CEO Georg Stamatelopoulos is eagerly awaited.
While high prices for electricity and gas burden customers, the energy company EnBW is making billions in profits: The supplier from Baden-Württemberg increased its earnings by more than half last year compared to 2022, as the Karlsruhe-based company announced on Wednesday morning. Accordingly, the adjusted earnings of Germany's third largest utility before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted Ebitda) are 6,4 billion euros. In the previous year the value was 3,97 billion euros.
The reasons for the good numbers
EnBW attributed the strong year-on-year increases primarily to the “Sustainable Generation Infrastructure” segment, which the new boss Georg Stamatelopoulos has previously been responsible for. EnBW announced that the result developed positively, particularly in thermal power generation – for example from coal and gas. Due to increased market prices and fluctuations, the amounts of electricity generated were sold at significantly better conditions compared to 2022. The fact that the previous year was marked by the energy crisis as a result of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine also plays a role...
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World climate summit | Super election year | Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan: The dictator's climate summit
With the re-election of the dictatorial Azerbaijani president, the country's catastrophic climate policy continues. The host of this year's World Climate Summit is setting a bad example.
"Hosting a world climate conference is a great opportunity. The world will be watching Baku's every move." The two sentences from a comment by Christiana Figueres, the former head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, read almost like a warning.
The world climate conference COP 29 will take place at the end of the year in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. The uncontroversial title of Figueres' comment translates as: "Azerbaijan must be the anchor for 1,5 degrees." Given that at the end of January 2024 the global average temperature had already been 1,5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for a whole year, that is probably not too high.
[...] The president's well-oiled repressive apparatus
This was also evident in the presidential elections on February 7th. Ilham Aliyev quickly brought the elections forward by more than a year. During the election campaign, the opposing candidates were overwhelmed with compliments for the president. The actual opposition parties refused to send candidates into the race and, unsurprisingly, Aliyev won with 92 percent of the vote.
[...] The so-called COP Troika simultaneously assured that the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil would set a good example and adopt 1,5 degree compatible strategies.
EU is pushing forward gas production
While the fiery words are still in place, this promise is particularly surprising from Azerbaijan. Even with the greatest efforts, the 1,5 degree limit cannot be seen in the country's current climate commitments. By 2050, Azerbaijan aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels, and even this modest commitment is linked to financial and technological support from abroad.
[...] With the "historic victory" behind him, the president would probably have been assured of an election victory even without the well-oiled repressive apparatus. The completely inadequate climate policy is now likely to continue - without opposition, let alone serious political opponents in the country.
Azerbaijan received attention in the German media in 2017 when it became known that various financial payments from the petrostate had flowed to CDU and CSU politicians. The public prosecutor's office began investigations into bribery in several cases.
26. March
Gaza | Disaster | Drinking water | Food
Gaza: “The children are trapped in a cycle of suffering”
UNICEF spokesman James Elder has been in Gaza for a few days. Today he reported on his impressions on site.
“I want to talk about two important issues that people here in Gaza say are crucial to their survival. The safety of the people in Rafah and the delivery of relief supplies.
Rafah is unrecognizable because the streets are crowded and there are tents on street corners and sandy areas. People sleep on the streets, in public buildings and in any other available space. The global standards for humanitarian emergencies specify that a maximum of 20 people should share a toilet. In Rafah there is about one toilet for 850 people. There are four times as many showers, i.e. one shower for 3.600 people. This is a blatant disregard for basic human needs and human dignity.
The same standards state that every human needs 15 liters of water daily, and a bare minimum of three liters just to survive. When I was here in November, families and children in Gaza were relying on three liters or less of water per person per day. Today, on average, households surveyed have access to less than one liter of clean water per person per day...
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Assange | Press freedom | Espionage
London High Court calls for US guarantees
No extradition of Assange to the USA for the time being
The British High Court decided that Julian Assange may not be extradited to the USA for the time being. The success of his appeal depends on guarantees from the US government. The WikiLeaks founder faces up to 175 years in prison in the USA.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has received another reprieve in his application to appeal against the threat of extradition to the USA. The London High Court ruled on Tuesday that he should not be extradited immediately. Accordingly, the Australian's application for an appeal could still be granted. As the court stated, the appeal was rejected on six out of nine points. On three other points it depends on whether the US government and the British Home Secretary can provide appropriate guarantees. The judges set a deadline of three weeks for this.
A final decision is expected to be made based on a further hearing on May 20.
[...] The US government wants to put the Australian on trial on espionage charges. He faces up to 175 years in prison. The US government accuses him of stealing and publishing secret material from military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan with whistleblower Chelsea Manning, thereby endangering the lives of US informants. Assange's supporters, on the other hand, see him as a journalist who has been targeted by the Washington judiciary for exposing US war crimes...
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Climate change | Hydrogen | Greenwashing
The hydrogen bluff
The supposedly “fully hydrogen-capable” natural gas power plant in Leipzig is still missing components – and it has never been tested. The federal government is also releasing funding for nationwide hydrogen projects without a specific transition period. Energy economist Kemfert describes hydrogen promises from the energy industry as “greenwashing”.
Anyone who turns onto the site of the Leipzig Süd thermal power plant will pass a meter-high poster. It advertises the plant as “the first fully hydrogen-capable power plant.” In October 2023, Stadtwerke Leipzig opened the power plant under a bright blue sky. They pride themselves as pioneers in the energy transition, telling the German Press Agency that green hydrogen will be available “in the required quantities and at affordable prices” in 2025. By then, at the latest, the power plant will burn 30 percent hydrogen in addition to natural gas and usher in a new era. In the hustle and bustle between the bouncy castle and beer benches, a state secretary from the FDP-led research ministry celebrates the “Hydrogen Republic”.
Dozens of media outlets picked up on the jubilation, and CORRECTIV also reported in the daily newsletter. After all, hydrogen should be the future, or as Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck says: “Everyone is waiting for the hydrogen market”. The Green Party describes gas as a key technology for the energy transition and travels around the world to organize H2, i.e. hydrogen, for German power plants, for example in Algeria.
However, there is a small catch: In Leipzig, no tests have yet been carried out to determine whether the power plant can deliver the hydrogen output that was promised as safe. And contrary to what is claimed, it is not yet “hydrogen capable”. This specific case shows that the hydrogen republic is still a pipe dream. The gas is being treated as a future panacea - because the natural gas industry wants to continue doing business and municipalities want to achieve climate goals without having to save energy. However, no one knows whether and when hydrogen will be available, affordable and transportable. It's as if we were asphalting expressways today to change traffic and promising that they would one day become cycle paths...
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Warming | Ocean | Sea temperatures
Climate extremes in the oceans:
That's why sea temperatures are breaking all records
Since March 2023, sea temperatures have risen dramatically worldwide. Two unexpected effects that reinforce each other are probably responsible for the sudden warming.
It is currently the biggest mystery in climate research. Since March 2023, the world's oceans have been warmer than ever, and by an enormous margin. Sea temperatures exceeded the previous record by more than half a degree, an extreme value that surprised and shocked experts. In terms of atmosphere, 2023 was also the hottest year ever recorded - also by a wide margin. It is well known that climate change is gradually warming the earth, but the drastic increase in heat within a short period of time exceeds all expectations.
It is now becoming apparent that two important influencing factors of the Earth system are involved. On the one hand, less heat has been flowing from the sea surface into the depths of the ocean for several years. And on the other hand, the Earth has been absorbing an unexpected amount of solar energy since 2023. These two effects worked together and explain a significant part of the extraordinary warmth...
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1,5 degrees | Climate targets | CO2 budget
Updated climate calculation
Germany lives above budget for 1,5 degrees
Germany has recently exceeded its fair CO2 budget for the 1,5 degree limit, according to a reassessment by the Environmental Council. The scientists demand that politicians should act with an “excess budget” instead of a residual budget.
The Environmental Council cannot be denied good timing. The week before last, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) announced that Germany would meet its climate target for 2030, mainly thanks to the fact that the traffic lights turned things around in climate protection.
What was particularly surprising about the positive climate projection for 2024 presented by Habeck was that Germany not only achieved its goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 2030 percent by 65, but also adhered to the CO2 budget set out for the period by the Climate Protection Act.
As every year, the Federal Government's Climate Expert Council is now examining whether this is plausible. Its report is expected in the summer.
Climate law is not enough for Germany to make a fair contribution
In the middle of all this, yesterday, Monday, the Advisory Council for Environmental Issues (SRU) spoke up and pointed out: The CO2 emissions that the climate law allows overall are significantly above the CO2 budget that Germany considers to be a "fair contribution" to the Paris The 1,5 degree target must be met...
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Wind turbines | offshore | shadow side
Should offshore wind farms grow in height?
Why larger wind turbines could be better than smaller ones
High up: In the offshore wind farms of the North Sea, modern large wind turbines could have somewhat less disruptive side effects than smaller systems, as computer models have shown. Accordingly, the wind turbines that are higher and further apart have less influence on the sea surface and neighboring wind farms. But how much does the taller design of the wind turbines really change the air and ocean currents?
As part of the energy transition, the European Union is massively expanding offshore wind farms in the North Sea. The wind turbines used to generate electricity are becoming ever higher and more powerful. Over the last 20 years, their output has increased from two megawatts to around 15 megawatts. Thanks to further advances in construction technology, this should even reach 20 megawatts per wind turbine in a few years.
There are currently wind turbines with a total output of 28 gigawatts (28.000 megawatts) in European waters. According to EU plans, there should be 2030 gigawatts by 60 and even 2050 gigawatts by 300.
The dark side of offshore wind farms
But more wind turbines also have undesirable side effects: Because the rotation of the rotors causes air to swirl, turbulence occurs behind a wind farm. In addition, the wind speed is lower there. For a wind farm that is located behind another, this means a lower electricity yield. The different systems can therefore slow each other down...
25. March
UN Security Council | Gaza | Ceasefire
USA abstains
UN Security Council calls for “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip
Almost six months after the start of the war, the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the war in the Gaza Strip for the first time. The committee calls for an “immediate ceasefire”. The veto power of the USA abstains and thus makes the decision possible.
The UN Security Council is calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip for the first time. In addition, the most powerful body in the United Nations is demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by the terrorist organization Hamas. The veto power of the USA, Israel's closest ally, abstained from the vote this time, thereby enabling the resolution to be adopted. The 14 remaining members of the committee voted in favor.
The decision, which is binding under international law, increases international pressure on the conflict parties Israel and Hamas. However, it is questionable whether or to what extent the resolution will have any influence on decisions made by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Hamas regarding the further course of the war. Efforts to get the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire have so far failed, mainly due to resistance from the USA.
According to the White House, the abstention in the UN Security Council does not represent a "change in policy." The US abstained from voting because, although it supported a ceasefire, the resolution did not contain any condemnation of Hamas, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby...
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Human right | Assange | Extradition
“He would fall into the hands of the very people who planned an assassination attempt on him.”
The decision is still pending as to whether Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States. If the appeal is rejected, his extradition can be carried out immediately. But could the European Convention on Human Rights help him? We ask Lisa Kretschmer from Reporters Without Borders, who is following the extradition process in London.
The case of Julian Assange has been pending at the Royal Court of Justice in the British capital for more than a month - an appeal against his extradition to the United States. The decision on this is still pending.
Update: The decision will be announced on Tuesday at 11.30:XNUMX a.m.
The US justice system is demanding the transfer of the 52-year-old Australian in order to put him on trial. Assange is said to have illegally published classified documents on war crimes and human rights abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq and numerous documents on CIA hacking tools on the Wikileaks platform. According to the US Espionage Act, he faces 175 years in prison, which would be decided by a secret court in the US state of Virginia...
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Military | Armament | Climate killer | CO2 footprint
War and rearmament fuel climate change
Military armament is a danger in several respects, warns Otmar Steinbicker
The well-founded fear of nuclear war motivated hundreds of thousands in the Federal Republic to take part in powerful peace demonstrations in the 1980s. The intense debate on security policy that this promoted also spread to the military. At the end of the Cold War, a consensus developed, at least in Europe, that not only could a major nuclear war not be survivable, but that a major, large-scale conventional war on the dimensions of a Second World War would also endanger European civilization. This realization on all sides led to the logical consequence of extensive, negotiated disarmament measures in order to prevent an outbreak of war.
Today the picture has changed. Government officials in NATO and Russia are counting on a long-lasting conventional war in Ukraine and at the same time hope that this war will not escalate into a major nuclear war that will destroy humanity, out of the interest of the survival of all those involved. It remains to be seen whether this expectation will be realized if the war in Ukraine is not ended but is further escalated through the delivery of more extensive weapons systems or even through the deployment of ground troops from NATO countries.
Today, however, there is another factor that is important for the living conditions of humanity as a whole, the importance of which was rarely seen in the debates of the 1980s: climate change...
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Municipal utilities | Supply contracts | Gas grid
German gas supply: municipal utilities under pressure, gas networks must be dismantled
Dismantling of the gas networks is necessary, costs are rising for consumers. Transformation requires adaptations and investments in sustainable energy sources.
After the end of locally produced city gas, German natural gas supply was entirely focused on flexible pipeline supplies, initially from the Netherlands and later from Russia and Norway. Only Norway remained after gas from Russia was no longer wanted and the gas field in Groningen was closed due to earthquakes caused by production.
Volatile elements in the gas supply
Within a very short time, a secure gas supply became a collection of highly volatile elements. It starts with the weather and doesn't end with pricing and availability on the global gas market. Thanks to the technical possibilities available there, the gas transported by ship can, like oil, change its destination port at short notice if another buyer offers more.
The gas supply companies, which were used to long-term gas supply contracts and which had increasingly been taken over by the municipalities as part of public services in the course of remunicipalization, were now faced with a problem.
Fearing that they would not have enough gas to supply their customers in a cold winter and that they would not be able to buy more quickly enough on the market when needed, they entered into supply contracts when prices were high at the start of the Ukrainian war...
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EU Parliament | Renaturalisation | Agricultural policy
Nature Restoration Law:
Brussels' empty promises
The law was practically passed and is yet again on the brink. One thing is certain: there is no alternative to renaturation on the way to the Green Deal.
Guys, it's about your food! If you and your grandchildren want to continue eating roast pork in the future, think again. You have until Monday afternoon, when the EU environment ministers will meet. It looks like they won't pass the Nature Restoration Act. Actually, that would be a mere formality. Belgium's Council President wants to postpone the vote, which could turn into a first-class funeral.
That would be dramatic for the population in Europe. Not because the “Nature Restoration Law” was so great and effectively protected fertile soils, clean drinking water, biodiversity and a predictable climate in Europe. In repeated rounds of negotiations, the text of the law, which was good in itself, had been severely polished. But we are seeing a downward spiral. Out of fear of radical farmers, Europe's agricultural politicians are putting the protection of our livelihoods aside...
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Heavy rains
Many dead in floods in Brazil
First came the heat wave, then the storm: heavy rains led to floods and landslides in southeastern Brazil. At least 25 people died. The rescue work is still ongoing.
At least 25 people have died in severe storms in southeastern Brazil. The authorities in the state of Rio de Janeiro reported eight deaths on Saturday, and in neighboring Espírito Santo the local civil protection authority announced 17 deaths on Sunday.
Heavy rain on Saturday night led to flooding, flash floods and landslides. According to a civil defense spokesman, more than 5400 people were brought to safety in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazilian media reported. More than 250 people lost their homes...
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March 25, 1955 (INES 4 | NAMS 4,3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
This fire killed around 1000 people TBq Terabecquerel radioactivity released. (Cost approx. US$4400 million)
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.
Wikipedia
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...
24. March
Minister of transport invests tax money
Transport Minister wants to invest 150 million euros in German air taxi startup
According to media reports, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing wants to invest 150 million euros in the German air taxi startup Volocopter - despite the strict austerity program and all warnings. Taxpayers probably bear the risk.
The Ministry of Transport actually has to make do with five billion euros less due to the austerity program decided by the federal government at the end of 2023. The promotion of electric cars, for example, fell victim to the red pencil.
150 million euros to Volocopter
The plans of Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) are correspondingly surprising, according to which 150 million euros should flow into the development of air taxis, as Spiegel writes. Air taxis were also a favorite topic of Wissing's predecessor Andreas Scheuer (CSU).
It is therefore less surprising that the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Free State of Bavaria want to share the costs. However, the federal government should make advance payments - ultimately the taxpayers would be liable if there was a failure.
In any case, the risks are great. The money will exclusively benefit the Munich-based company Volocopter. Competitor Lilium, also from Bavaria, comes away empty-handed, as Spiegel says.
Auditors warn of great risk
In any case, the auditors from Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) warned Wissing and his ministry against the investment...
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Hydrogen | Funding | Steel production
Conversion to hydrogen use uncertain:
Green steel costs too much coal
Funding is coming for the climate-neutral conversion of the Bremen steelworks. But the company is hesitant to invest: green hydrogen is too expensive.
taz | BREMEN At least the financing is in place: Bremen announced on Tuesday that the state will make its contribution and raise a good 251 million euros so that the Bremen steelworks can be converted to be climate-neutral. The conversion of the Bremen plant is to be funded with a total of 840 million euros and will cost around twice as much. The path to get there was not easy: Even the opposition CDU party had to jump over its shadow and agree on new debts with the government factions so that the country could do its part to promote it.
This means that all government bodies – federal, state and EU Commission – have now delivered their funding commitments. Nevertheless, the future of the Bremen steelworks is still not secured. The Arcelor Mittal company itself has not yet decided whether climate-neutral “green” steel should be produced in Europe and on the Weser in the future.
[...] The Senator for Economic Affairs reveals that a so-called “flexi tool” is agreed upon in the contract with Arcelor Mittal: in the event of an “unfavorable price development,” the company could legally rely on natural gas instead of hydrogen until the end of the 1930s. Only when the price is roughly at the same level as the current natural gas price can one speak of hydrogen being used economically, according to the economics department. A concession to Poelvoorde's concerns about high costs...
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Israel | Gaza | airstrikes
War in the Middle East
Israel launches new military operation in Khan Yunis
As fighting continues at Shifa Hospital, Israeli troops have apparently sealed off two clinics in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Seven people die in an air strike in neighboring Rafah.
Israel's armed forces say they have launched a new military operation in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. The operation in the west of the city began with "a series of air strikes on around 40 terrorist targets." The aim of the operation was to "continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in the area," the military said in a statement.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Israeli troops have sealed off two hospitals in Khan Yunis. The aid organization said tanks had advanced into the area around the Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals. The clinic staff was exposed to heavy fire. A Palestinian Red Crescent employee was killed.
According to the Red Crescent, Israeli troops carried out extensive demolition work with bulldozers in the area around Al Amal Hospital...
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Climate Crisis | Dryness | drought
Consequences of the climate crisis:
After the dryness is before
Thanks to all the rain in autumn and winter, the drought in the soil is over. But is Germany prepared for a new period of drought?
HANOVER taz | After the end of five and a half years of extreme drought in Germany, researchers are calling for better preparation future periods of drought. “I see the danger of giving the impression that the drought is over for now and that we can turn to other problem areas,” warns climate scientist Andreas Marx from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig. “However, we must expect that a similar drought event will occur again in the future. And then we should be better prepared than we were in 2018,” he demands.
The hydrologist leads the Drought monitor at UFZ, which mainly showed deep red areas for five and a half years. It was far too dry in the country for so long - until above-average rainfall in 2023 and the autumn and winter months of 2023/24 made the parched soil wet again...
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Seven brown coal units will be permanently shut down
A number of coal-fired power plants were allowed to continue operating during the energy crisis in order to reduce natural gas consumption. It's now over for seven blocks.
At the end of March, seven more lignite power plant blocks in Germany will be finally shut down. The closure of all blocks had already been planned earlier. In order to save gas during the energy price crisis, the federal government took five blocks from the so-called supply reserve. Two further blocks were allowed to continue running beyond the originally planned shutdown date. At the end of this winter it will finally be over for them.
These are blocks of the energy companies RWE in the Rhenish region and Leag in Lusatia. To reactivate the systems, former employees also returned from retirement to their old jobs. Others postponed the start of their retirement. In total, the seven blocks have an output of around 3,1 gigawatts...
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Federal Constitutional Court | Merzthutjanix
Friedrich Merz also wants to better protect the Constitutional Court
Extreme parties could weaken the Federal Constitutional Court. The CDU recently rejected traffic light plans to protect it, but now Merz is open to it.
Friedrich Merz has asked Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) to make a proposal to protect the Federal Constitutional Court from extremists. “We are open to talking about anchoring a core of proven structures of the Federal Constitutional Court in the Basic Law,” the CDU leader told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
There is currently discussion about enshrining details about the election and term of office of constitutional judges not just in a law, but in the Basic Law. This could prevent judges from being removed from office relatively easily after a change of government.
[...] There is great agreement about this within the traffic light coalition, but the Union recently rejected the plans...
| Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Current news+
Nuclear lobby and IAEA want to spend climate money for MiC's nuclear plans
Protest at the first nuclear summit in Brussels against the IAEA's “nuclear fantasies”
Nuclear lobby wants to divert climate protection funds to the nuclear sector
On the occasion of the first nuclear summit of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) taking place in Brussels, more than 600 environmental, climate protection, peace and human rights organizations from over 50 countries signed a joint declaration. The signatories call on governments around the world not to waste valuable time and money in the fight against the climate crisis on the fantasies of the international nuclear lobby, but instead on the transition to a system based on 100 percent renewable energy in a “safe, affordable and climate-friendly energy for all”. In addition to the IPPNW, the signatories include Greenpeace, the Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND), the WWF and the Don't Nuke the Climate Alliance (DNTC).
The NGOs' statement is directed against the nuclear lobby and the IAEA, which are trying to direct public and private investments into the nuclear sector under the guise of climate protection. On the sidelines of the World Climate Conference, a coalition of 22 countries declared that they wanted to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050.
The IAEA nuclear summit now taking place in Brussels is directly related to this announcement by the group, which includes, among others, the nuclear weapons states France, Great Britain and the USA, as well as Poland and the Netherlands. According to its statutes, the Atomic Energy Authority itself is obliged to promote the spread of civil nuclear energy use.
IPPNW Chairwoman Angelika Claussen explains: “The claim that global nuclear capacities can be tripled within 26 years is not only completely unrealistic in terms of industrial policy, it is also dangerous. All efforts to preserve nuclear power come at the expense of climate protection. The construction of nuclear power plants is expensive, time-consuming and risky. If states invest time and money in this outdated niche technology, they miss the only realistic opportunity we have in the climate crisis: We need a consistent restructuring of our energy system based on 100 percent renewable energies.”
France's nuclear sector is in debt of almost 70 billion euros. Nuclear energy is the most expensive of all available energy sources and can only be achieved with government subsidies. According to Don't Nuke the Climate, in order to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050, between 26 and 28 nuclear power plants would have to be put into operation every year. However, the nuclear industry is not even able to maintain existing capacities. Nuclear power is an aberration both ecologically and economically. It is no coincidence that all states that nevertheless operate nuclear power plants possess nuclear weapons, seek to acquire them or are part of military alliances with nuclear weapon states.
“One aspect that is systematically ignored in the debate about the expansion of nuclear energy is the civil-military links within the nuclear sector. These interconnections are the real reason why countries afford technology that leaves future generations not only with a mountain of nuclear waste, but also with a huge mountain of debt. Civilian nuclear technology finances the construction and modernization of nuclear weapons. It provides the know-how and infrastructure needed to maintain and expand the nuclear military sector. Or to put it more simply: There are no nuclear weapons without nuclear power plants and vice versa,” explains Angelika Claußen.
This connection is also clearly visible in a statement from the French Ministry of Defense. In the future, two reactors at the Civaux nuclear power plant will produce not only electricity but also tritium for military purposes. Tritium is used as a fuel for nuclear weapons.
Dr. Ernest Moniz, Secretary of Energy and Nuclear Security under Barack Obama, attends the IAEA conference. He is one of the leading nuclear lobbyists. “The entire U.S. nuclear enterprise – weapons, boat propulsion, nonproliferation, enrichment, fuel production and negotiations with international partners – depends on a robust civilian nuclear industry,” Moniz said.
An international alliance of environmental, climate protection and peace activists confronts the organizers and the expected high-ranking political guests of the nuclear summit with a colorful protest action and rally with speakers from IPPNW, Greenpeace and Don't Nuke the Climate, among others . The action with an inflatable fairytale castle and mythical creatures takes place near the Atomium.
| Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Background knowledge
The map of the nuclear world
Imagine if it were all solar and wind power plants...
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The “Internal Search”
Climate protection | Nuclear lobby | MIC
December 1, 2023 - IAEA calls for more nuclear power at the world climate conference
August 29, 2023 - Sustainability has become less important with the triumph of the nuclear lobby
June 24, 2023 - Who fuels the war and profits from it
May 31, 2023 - Despite the risk of earthquakes, Japan extends the life of its nuclear reactors
February 24, 2023 - Toxic gases, forest fire, oil slick
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The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Finanzierung militärisch-industrieller Komplex
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analyze and criticize
Special assets of the Bundeswehr: Is a military-industrial complex emerging?
A special fund of 100 billion euros is intended to additionally increase the Bundeswehr's budget over the next five years. Taking into account the announced increase in military spending, Germany will most likely have the third largest military budget in the world - after the USA (778 billion US dollars in 2020) and China (252). With 91 billion US dollars, the Federal Republic would then be well ahead of the budgets of Great Britain (59,2), France (52,7) and Russia (61,7). But it is still unclear whether the third largest military budget automatically translates into the third strongest military potential on earth. Much depends on how effectively the new resources are used and whether Germany will permanently spend at least two percent of its gross domestic product on armaments. In any case, the window of opportunity for this seems to exist in terms of domestic and foreign policy.
Rapid arms deliveries are also expected by the Central Eastern European states as a matter of course. However, their greatest enemy is not political unwillingness, but a complex reality: In the post-1990 period, wars no longer took place as major conflicts between states, but as quasi-police interventions by superior alliances of states to secure the world order in local contexts - from Somalia to Kosovo. The western armies and thus also the Bundeswehr were aligned with this. The concept was intertwined with the paradigm of armies that were as “flexible” as possible. Specifically, the focus should be on armed forces capable of intervention and the large mass armies of the Cold War should be dispensed with. As a result, this meant outsourcing, the gradual abolition of conscription and the conversion of armaments to as few but multifunctional systems as possible, which are correspondingly vulnerable and expensive
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Wikipedia
Military-industrial complex
The term military-industrial complex (MIK) is used in socio-critical analyzes to describe the close cooperation and mutual relationships between politicians, representatives of the military and representatives of the armaments industry.
[...] Characteristics and characteristics
We speak of a military-industrial complex when phenomena of this kind occur in a society:
- strong lobbying work by representatives of the military industry,
- numerous personal contacts between representatives of the military, industry and politics,
- intensive exchange of personnel between the leading positions in the military, business and state administration, especially when representatives of the military or politics move to significantly better paid positions in this industry,
- intensive research in the area of innovative weapon systems, significantly supported by government contracts,
- targeted influence on democratic control bodies and public opinion through an exaggerated security ideology.
- Militarized foreign policy
For Alex Roland, the F-35 stealth fighter project reflects the current state of the military-industrial complex in the USA, which he personally would prefer to call the “Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex”. Although the threat posed by drones, cyber warfare and military robots to national security is significantly greater, more money has flowed and continues to flow into the most expensive arms project of all time than into these 3 areas combined...
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YouTube
Keywords: Military-industrial complex, Nuclear lobby
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic of atoms*
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Newsletter XII 2024 - March 17th to 23th
For work on 'THTR Rundbrief','reaktorpleite.de' and'Map of the nuclear world' we need up-to-date information, energetic, fresh colleagues and donations. If anyone can help, please send a message to: info@reaktorpleite.de
Donation appeal
- The THTR circular is published by the 'BI Environmental Protection Hamm' and is financed by donations.
- The THTR circular has meanwhile become a much-noticed information medium. However, there are ongoing costs due to the expansion of the website and the printing of additional information sheets.
- The THTR circular researches and reports in detail. In order for us to be able to do that, we depend on donations. We are happy about every donation!
Donation account: BI environmental protection Hamm
Purpose: THTR circular
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